Preparing for Continued Renewable Generation Growth

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T&D World, Hitachi & ABB – Renewable generation has matured rapidly from a technical novelty to a cornerstone in the evolving power industry.
Stakeholders including utility leaders, government/regulatory officials, and private sector developers are seeking solutions to allow the continued development of an extensive array of maturing renewable energy options. Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ energy experts believe that viable solutions will include effective long-term planning, strategic investment in key areas of the power industry and smart grid management on a broad scale.T&D World worked with Hitachi ABB Power Grids experts to create this interactive guide highlighting issues stakeholders must address to advance renewables. You’ll find an infographic laying out the complexities involved with advancing renewables to a Q&A with one of Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ industry experts, a new white paper addressing the challenges of modernizing the grid, a video gallery and links to valuable resources such as research and case studies that succinctly illustrate real-live examples and viable solutions.

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Green Mountain Power Deploys V2G Charger to Reduce Demand on Grid

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T&D World – Green Mountain Power (GMP) recently announced the successful deployment of what the company says is a first-of-its kind vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger to reduce energy use on the grid during peak demand. The GMP is the first utility to install and successfully integrate this new charger technology with the grid and one of its electric fleet vehicles to draw energy from the car to help lower demands on the grid when peaks in energy needs occur. This work shows how electric vehicles (EVs) and the clean energy they store can become a reliable source of power to reduce peak demands which will, in turn, save money and reduce carbon.

“This is an important first step in proving that V2G technology is possible. The GMP has long committed to using advancements in energy technology to increase clean energy storage capabilities so that we can deploy that power when it’s needed the most to reduce carbon and costs for all customers,” said Mari McClure, the GMP’s president and CEO.

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Companies Announce New Residential Virtual Power Plant for California

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(PowerMag) – A distributed energy power plant, designed to help bring more reliability to California’s power grid, is being developed by a company whose investors include Alphabet, the parent company of Google. The project when fully developed would be the world’s largest residential virtual power plant (VPP).

Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), a group that builds, owns, operates, and invests in advanced infrastructure projects and technology companies, on Dec. 7 released details of a $100 million deal as part of Resilia, the company’s new advanced power grid platform. The agreement includes an $80 million commitment to finance the 550-MW Resi-Station project, along with a $20 million investment in OhmConnect, a partner in the VPP.

Growth of VPP installations has accelerated, particularly in areas that have sustained rolling blackouts and power outages. A project in South Australia, with Tesla taking a lead role, was touted as the world’s largest VPP when development began in 2018.   

OhmConnect is a demand response and energy services technology company that works with residential electricity customers to predict, incentivize, and coordinate consumer energy savings. Resi-Station is expected to bring together thousands of electricity customers with in-home smart devices that can deliver targeted energy reductions supported by OhmConnect’s technology, according to SIP. The project’s investors also include the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, based in Toronto, Canada, which has long been a financial supporter of institutional infrastructure projects.

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The Value of 3D CAD Modeling in Power Substation Design

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3D CAD Modeling and 3D CAD Design enhances the design characteristics in many ways while providing several benefits. Design efficiencies are improved where traditional 2D drawing representations can be easily achieved from a completed 3D design versus manually drawing each 2D representation in CAD. Being able to view equipment, components, and systems in three dimensional space allows almost endless possibilities towards planning, implementation, construction, and manufacturing efforts, which is extremely important in the electric power industry. 3D CAD Design and Modeling is improving and aiding with power substation designs compared with 2D designs ….
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Will Future EVs Double the World’s Need for Electricity?

Electric-Vehicles

(The Truth About Cars) – While electric automobiles have numerous advantages over internal combustion vehicles, we’ve often wondered when their disadvantages would be offset to a point that would make sense to have them become the dominant mode of transportation. While there are multiple issues that have to be addressed, one of the largest involves finding a way to source the kind of energy needed for the world to recharge them on a regular basis.

An EV-dominated society likely means elevated energy prices and peak demand hours that could easily overtax national energy grids. Renewable energy sources may also prove insufficient in providing the kind of power necessary — potentially requiring countries to double down on plants reliant on coal, oil, and natural gas if nuclear facilities are not approved. Counter-productive takes like that are often downplayed, however, so industrial giants can continue proclaiming the technology as largely trouble-free.

But what happens when EV royalty starts making similar claims about our collective energy needs?

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, stated that the world’s electricity consumption would likely double as EVs become the norm.

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SCANA, Dominion agree to pay $25 million civil fine in massive nuclear fraud case

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The StateSCANA and its successor company, Dominion Energy, have reached an agreement to pay the federal Securities and Exchange Commission a $25 million civil fine in one of the state’s largest civil fraud cases, according to public court records filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Under the proposed settlement, neither SCANA, a now-defunct company, nor Dominion Energy, its successor company, admit any fault in the multi-billion dollar business failure of one of the state’s largest construction projects ever – the effort to build two nuclear power plants in Fairfield County.

However, under the proposal, neither corporation can publicly claim it is innocent of any wrong-doing alleged in the SEC’s 87-page civil complaint, filed last February in U.S. District Court in Columbia.

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