grid

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.

April 2020 was the first month in history that renewables generated more electricity than coal on every day of the month. That’s based on new data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and compiled by the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

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Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today on EGEB, the Chinese company Longi Solar had its record-breaking 60-cell bifacial shingling module certified by the China General Certification Center. Representatives of the European solar industry want the EU to end import duties on Chinese panels. China’s energy regulator want wind farms to get a better access to the electrical grid to curb power waste.

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Electrical grid complexity has increased immensely. Recently, weather damage and intermittent renewable energy production have increased the dynamics that must be managed in a large power grid. In order to address that, the Dutch company Alfen is currently field testing their new ‘cellular smart grid’ solution in Lelystad, the Netherlands.

They have developed a combination of energy storage and finely tuned algorithms to help make electrical grids more resilient and to reduce their downtime.

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The US Department of Energy (DOE) is readying the power grids for solar power to meet 100%, and greater, of local electricity demand as solar peaks mid-day. The DOE is funding a series of projects whose broad goal is to make the power grid more able to be monitored and managed while dealing with less predictable and controllable forms of electricity generation.

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SolarCity, the largest residential solar installer in the US, employs a grid engineering team to integrate its systems and evaluate the impact on the grid. The company decided this week to publish the team’s findings in a white paper titled: “A Pathway to the Distributed Grid”.
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The deal is to supply “Powerpacks”, the commercial and utility scale version of Tesla’s Powerwall, to Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS). The startup, which offers technology-agnostic services to deploy energy storage systems, said the deal was the first battery supply agreement and more will come.

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