grid

Electrek spoke with former FERC commissioner and PG&E chair Nora Mead Brownell about how the US can quickly and efficiently upgrade its grid in order to get rapidly incoming wind and solar projects online faster. Here’s what she said.

SunZia, a massive wind power and transmission line project in the US Southwest, is now ready to start construction.

Construction has started on a power line between California and Arizona that’s going to have the capacity to carry 3.2 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy.

EV batteries alone could support the grid in the short term as the world transitions to renewables, according to new research published yesterday.

Copper Labs just launched a neighborhood-level detector that wirelessly unlocks data from utility meters at scale, without the need for retrofits. Consumers will be able to access that data in near real time so they can tailor their electricity use as they charge their EVs and increasingly electrify their homes in order to save money.

Hitachi Energy just launched wireless Spark Prevention Unit indicators that help prevent wildfires by enabling remote monitoring.

France and Ireland signed contracts on Friday to advance the Celtic Interconnector, a subsea electricity link to allow the exchange of electricity between the two EU countries. It will be the first interconnector between continental Europe and Ireland. 

On October 14, Maksim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power generator, updated Economichna Pravda on the status of Ukraine’s electrical grid in the face of Russian strikes against the country’s power installations. He also talked about what the company’s future plans are for implementing renewables, despite the Russian attacks. DTEK shared that interview today with Electrek, and we have edited the English translation sent to us below for length and clarity.

LineVision, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, provides “electric utilities with the real-time monitoring and analytics needed to accelerate the net zero grid.” Here’s how this company is playing a crucial role in helping to upgrade the US and international grids to ensure that the electrification revolution is a success.

Global sustainable energy giant Hitachi Energy today announced that it will spend more than $37 million to expand and upgrade its power transformer factory in South Boston, Virginia. This is in response to soaring demand for power transformers from utility companies that are scrambling to accommodate the renewable energy boom after the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act in August.

The G7, made up of the world’s largest economies, today agreed to “predominantly decarbonized electricity sectors by 2035.” The G7 also agreed to end government financing for international coal-fired power generation and speed up the phase-out of unabated coal plants by 2035.

Norway-based eSmart Systems, which provides AI-powered solutions for the inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure, will work with Topeka, Kansas-headquartered Evergy, an electric company that serves more than 1.6 million customers in Kansas and Missouri, to digitize Evergy’s power transmission system. 

Electrek‘s Michelle Lewis spoke with head of Enel North America Enrico Viale about why clean energy is better and cheaper than fossil fuels, and why modernizing the grid and battery storage are vital for EV charging and renewables implementation.

The Department of Energy (DOE) yesterday launched the Better Grid Initiative to develop new and upgraded high-capacity electric transmission lines, which is great news for electric vehicles, charging infrastructure rollout, and clean energy in the US.

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

• Vattenfall says it will recycle all of its wind turbine blades by 2030.
• The US Department of Energy spends $61 million on 10 grid-interactive efficient buildings pilot projects.
• UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

• GM endorses the EPA’s stricter emissions rule, and 22 states say it’s not enough.
• The US energy secretary details how the country can achieve a more resilient power system.
• Sri Lanka will stop building coal plants, aims to be net zero by 2050.
• UnderstandSolar is a free service that links you to top-rated solar installers in your region for personalized solar estimates. Tesla now offers price matching, so it’s important to shop for the best quotes. Click here to learn more and get your quotes. — *ad.

When most Americans think of the infrastructure projects the Biden administration is proposing in the American Jobs Plan, they think of concrete, steel, and labor. But what if the biggest predictor of the success of the infrastructure plan is not in the materials but in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)?

Electrek spoke with Monte Zweben, CEO of Splice Machine, a database company that helps utilities and industrial companies implement data, about how AI/ML technologies could determine whether the American Jobs Plan succeeds as the US transitions to clean energy.

California’s Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today launched the Community Microgrid Enablement Program. The program will help communities identify, design, and build permanent, multi-customer microgrids that serve critical facilities and vulnerable customer groups.

Electrek‘s Michelle Lewis asked Anthony Allard, EVP, head of North America, Hitachi ABB Power Grids, how the US can make its power grids more resilient and better support clean energy, and what Hitachi ABB is doing to support large-scale electric vehicle deployment.

During last week’s power crisis in Texas, prices surged to the market price cap of $9,000 per megawatt-hour for several days, resulting in some huge bills for a lot of homeowners. (To put that in perspective, the state’s seasonal average is $50 per megawatt-hour.) The entire US, not just Texas, has a lot of infrastructure work to do in order to avoid more power crises like this. But in the meantime, how can consumers protect themselves from exorbitant surprise power bills when extreme weather increasingly occurs?

Energy storage tech solutions company Fluence, a Siemens and AES company based in Arlington, Virginia, today announced that it has acquired San Francisco-based Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS), a provider of AI-powered software for utility-scale storage and generation assets.

Fluence’s acquisition will maximize the value of energy storage and renewables and accelerate grid decarbonization.