Chattanooga Electrical Engineering News Blog
Topics Related to Electronics and Electrical Engineering
NBCNews.com – Energy, Spencer Kimball (CNBC)
“Renewable energy demand will triple over the next seven years as data center growth accelerates to facilitate the proliferation of artificial intelligence, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum said Wednesday.
NextEra added 3,000 megawatts of renewable and storage projects to its order backlog in the second quarter. Of those, 860 megawatts — or 28% — come from agreements with Google to power the tech company’s data centers.”
EnergyCentral.com (Daily Energy Insider)
“Entergy Texas said it had updated its application for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships program to secure funding for an infrastructure and electrical grid hardening project. Energy applied for $107.5 million in federal grants to improve the resiliency of Port Arthur, Texas’ power grid.
If approved, the funds would help the company improve the resiliency of the power grid in Port Arthur, which have historically been affected by extreme weather events.”
KnoxTNToday.com – Anne Brock (Our Town Outdoors)
“How is solar transforming utility and business decisions in the Tennessee Valley? What policies and trends will affect life here over future decades when it comes to clean energy choices? Industry leaders plan on gathering this fall to tackle the challenges and opportunities at the 2024 Tennessee Valley Solar + Storage Conference.
This conference will be located at the Westin Huntsville in Alabama, in the heart of Tennessee Valley Authority territory. It is organized and hosted by the Tennessee Solar Energy Industries Association (November 20 – 21).”
DailyEnergyInsider.com – Dave Kovaleski
“Duke Energy has enrolled more than 1,300 customers in North Carolina in a new pilot program that is designed to make a home solar plus battery system more affordable.
The PowerPair pilot initiative is a one-time incentive-based program that offers up to $9,000 in incentives for residential customers who install a new solar plus battery system. The total incentive is based on the approved capacity of the solar array and battery installed.
The PowerPair program, approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) in January and launched in May, was developed in collaboration with various stakeholder groups at the direction of the NCUC.”
EIA.gov (In-Brief Analysis) – Kimberly & Chris Peterson
During the month of July 2024, most power utilities across the country experienced summer peak power demands while dangerous warnings of weather heat advisories were announced. With the spike in warmer than average temperatures and record-breaking heat temperatures, power generation providers relied more on natural gas generation to meet electric power demands.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “Power plant operators generated 6.9 million mega watthours (MWh) of electricity from natural gas on a daily basis in the Lower 48 states on July 9, 2024, probably the most in history and certainly since at least January 1, 2019, when we began to collect hourly data about natural gas generation.”
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.”