Chattanooga Electrical Engineering News Blog
Topics Related to Electronics and Electrical Engineering
The Chattanooga Electric Power Board (EPB) utility was ranked #1 in the southeastern U.S. by its customers among residential power providers according to “J.D. Power’s newly launched U.S. Utility Brand Appeal Index Study.”
High marks were given to EPB for “customer trust, company reputation, and marketing execution.” EPB was also ranked #2 across the nation as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) by “Consumer Reports” with high marks for “value, reliability, speed, and technical support.”
BroadbandBreakfast.com – Taormina Falsitta
“The announcement was made by the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Wireline Competition Bureau regarding new rules that are intended to assist Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) that need to attach their wires and other facilities to utility poles owned by various third parties.”
The new rules went into effect at the end of July 2024 in order to help “speed-up the broadband deployment.”
EnergyCentral.com (source CNBC)
In the U.S., with the increased connections to the power grid by cleaner, greener, carbon-free electric generation, and renewable resources, the FBI has issued a warning for the nations power system. “The federal government is becoming more concerned about vulnerabilities with new energy systems being a target for cyberattacks.”
Adversaries and hackers are looking at potential weaknesses in the power sector with “private and individual owners of renewable power systems.”
DailyEnergyInsider.com – Dave Kovaleski
NYISO releases their 20-year study (2023-2042) showing the power demands are “expected to increase by 50 percent to 90 percent,” according to the assessment. NYISO estimates that over 100 GW of new power generation is required to meet future demands. “The increase will be driven by electrification of housing and transportation sectors, as well as energy-intensive economic development projects.”
PowerMag.com (Sally Jacquemin):
“When DERs and other devices are logically grouped or aggregated, they can form a virtual power plant, or VPP, providing load flexibility for grids that are reaching capacity or economic value with energy market participation, like a traditional power plant.” VPP’s can help prevent current and future plans for adding on new generation plants and can be considered as a method for shrinking future “greenhouse gas emissions.
As power demand increases beyond current power plant capacities and clean energy goals are accelerated, power generation sources of the future will start to look different. In fact, some of these new components—rooftop solar, battery energy storage, electric vehicles and distributed energy resources (DERs)—can already be found in millions of homes.”
UtilityDive.com (Ethan Howland): On June 28, Chevron received an unfavorable ruling by the US Supreme Court, which “creates legal and regulatory uncertainty for regulated utilities.” This presents disorder within the energy industry due to “the lack of clarity on future EPA mandates.”
“Planning for generation needs will be more challenging for regulated utilities and other power companies, due to the uncertainty of not knowing which cost-effective generation mix to supply.” This will force power providers to add more costly green power to the mix.