Smart Grid

  • AI’s Obstacle: Why the Grid Can’t Keep Pace With the Data Center Boom

    Growth in artificial intelligence (AI) is outpacing the world’s ability to generate enough power to sustain it. As AI adoption accelerates worldwide, it’s colliding with a power system that wasn’t built for its level of demand. Vittorio Pierangeli, senior vice president PowerGen at Rolls-Royce Power Systems (Figure 1), explains why electricity, not chips or algorithms, […]

  • Resilience and Digital Transformation Spearhead the Energy Infrastructure Transition

    The transition to sustainable energy infrastructure has been experiencing steady progress in recent years across the globe, while simultaneously undergoing constant fluctuation. Actual progress is influenced by a wide variety of factors, such as the drivers behind participants’ motivations and the technologies enabling the transition, as well as the status of supply chains and geopolitical […]

  • Seatrium’s Floating, Remote-Controlled DER Platform Sends First Electrons to Singapore’s Grid

    Seatrium Limited, the Singapore-based offshore, marine, and energy engineering group formed in 2023 from the merger of Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Offshore & Marine, delivered its first electrons from its

  • Enabling Modern Grid Flexibility With Coordinated, Location-Specific Optimization

    Integrate high-load data centers and renewable energy without compromising grid reliability. Grid reliability hinges on the flexibility identified, managed, and optimized by operational technology (OT). The

  • Rediscovering Digital Twins for a New Power Era

    Modern power challenges—from renewables and microgrids to artificial intelligence factories—are driving renewed adoption of digital twins as flexible, high-fidelity environments for zero-risk

  • Your Customers Are Asking AI About You. Do You Know What It’s Saying?

    Why Generative Engine Optimization Is the Next Reputation Management Secret Weapon for Energy Brands Energy has become a kitchen-table issue. Bills are climbing. Data centers are being built at a breakneck pace, and new technologies are being launched faster than ever before, often facing NIMBY concerns. As customers and stakeholders look for answers, they may […]

  • AI Is Usually Cast as a Grid Burden. The Genesis Mission Is Betting It’s a Grid Tool.

    The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) computing is, for most utilities, a problem to be absorbed: gigawatts of new data-center demand arriving faster than transmission can be planned or built. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Genesis Mission does not dispute that framing. But buried in the national research portfolio it unveiled July 22 is […]

  • Quantum Computing Is Emerging as a Tool for Tomorrow’s Electrical Grids

    Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing have helped electrical utilities modernize how they model, forecast, and manage grid operations. These tools already play a central role in maintaining reliability, balancing supply and demand, and planning new infrastructure. But as electrical grids become more distributed, data-intensive, and renewable-heavy, some of the most complex decision-making problems are becoming […]

  • The New Large-Load Compact

    Why AI Data Centers Can No Longer Be Treated as Passive Customers For decades, even very large electric customers fit inside a familiar planning model. A factory, refinery, industrial campus, hospital complex, hospital system, or manufacturing facility requested service. The utility studied the load, identified required facilities, assigned costs, and folded the demand into its […]

  • Energizing AI: How Modular Substations Alleviate Data Center Power Bottlenecks

    Data center developers have mastered server density and cooling, but power interconnection remains stubbornly slow. Modular substations built in factories rather than fields are emerging as the most practical

  • Quantum Sensor Ambitions: A New Horizon for Utility Innovation

    Meeting the increasingly important but complex needs of the energy industry requires not only excellent design and engineering, but also advanced sensor capabilities that extend beyond the limits of current technology. A piece of the solution for enhanced technology will come from quantum sensors, which leverage quantum mechanics to deliver tools that will push past […]

  • Advanced Weather Forecasting: How Sub-Kilometer Models Are Reshaping Utility Risk and Wildfire Decisions

    As fire-weather risk expands beyond California, utilities are turning to sub-kilometer, asset-level forecasts to support public safety power shutoff decisions they can defend in front of regulators. When the National Weather Service (NWS) issued routine convective outlooks on the morning of May 27, 2025, public guidance for the Houston metro called for widespread 30 to […]

  • How the Power Sector Is Bracing for a More Violent Climate

    Utilities, federal agencies, and the national labs have finally assembled the tools to harden the grid against an increasingly hostile environment. The question is whether they can put them together fast enough. When a line of storms tore across the Northeast in late April 2025, racing from Ohio into central Pennsylvania, meteorologists recognized the signature […]

  • AI-Powered Grid Management: Reducing Renewable Electricity Curtailment

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the energy system: While the expansion of wind and solar power continues to progress across Europe, AI will ensure the efficient use of every generated kilowatt-hour. Intelligent algorithms that synchronize generation and consumption in real time will help stabilize grids, avoiding expensive curtailment. Software will become an important tool for […]

  • A Middleware Approach to AI-Ready Power Asset

    Sponsored by:
    Yokogawa Systems Group

    How industrial middleware unlocks the full value of operational data AI and why most AI programs fail without it   Power companies are being asked to deliver higher reliability while their operating environment becomes more dynamic. Conventional power generation: must run with greater flexibility, grid assets must absorb new load patterns, renewable portfolios must operate […]

  • POWER Reveals 2026 Awards Finalists; Readers to Choose Plant of the Year

    POWER is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2026 POWER Awards, recognizing the projects, people, and organizations setting the pace for the global power industry. Winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony at Experience POWER in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, at 5 p.m. New this year: the Plant of the […]

  • 77 Miles, One Drone: Rewriting the Rules of Infrastructure Inspection

    Transmission corridors can be difficult to inspect, sometimes requiring helicopters and boots on the ground. A Daytona Beach, Florida, company is using drones to improve the process—at roughly a quarter of

  • Modernizing the Grid: Building with Domestic EAF Steel

    Sponsored by:
    Nucor

    The U.S. electrical grid is aging and under increasing strain from rising energy demand driven by technologies like data centers and electrification, making modernization urgent. Much of the current infrastructure is outdated, with many transmission lines nearing the end of their lifespan and relying on less durable materials like wood. Modernizing this infrastructure requires stronger, […]

  • Project Glasswing: What Power Companies and Grid Operators Need to Know

    On April 7, Anthropic announced Project Glasswing, a coalition of 12 major technology companies marshaling a new frontier artificial intelligence (AI) model to find and fix critical software vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them. While the announcement is framed around technology infrastructure broadly, the implications for the power sector are immediate and serious. Partner posts […]

  • The Genesis Mission: How AI Supercomputing Is About to Reshape American Science and Energy

    Dr. Dario Gil, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Under Secretary for Science, lays out a bold vision to double the productivity of U.S. research and development (R&D) within a decade—and explains why energy and artificial intelligence (AI) are two sides of the same coin. After 22 years at IBM, where he rose to senior vice […]

  • How Artificial Intelligence Can Accelerate Power Delivery to the U.S. Grid

    Power demand in the U.S. is rising faster than the grid was designed to accommodate, driven in large part by rapid growth in data centers. Large, concentrated data center loads are clustering in regions where

  • Powered Remotely: Microgrids Connect Rural Communities with Sustainable Energy Security

    Microgrids are bringing greater energy independence to rural and remote communities. ABB’s microgrids experts outline how today’s smart localized power generation and distribution systems lessen far-flung homes and businesses’ reliance on costly fossil fuels and fragile national grid infrastructures. Protecting Remote Communities from Energy Insecurity It’s easy for town and city dwellers to take the […]

  • How America’s Power Regions Chose Their Futures and How That Has Played Out

    On April 24, 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 888, requiring all public utilities owning or operating interstate transmission facilities to file open-access

  • Battery Storage Comes of Age: From Grid Accessory to Essential Infrastructure

    From plunging costs to policy upheaval, the global battery storage sector is transforming grid design—and facing unprecedented challenges. The energy storage industry stands at a pivotal crossroads. On one side, costs are plummeting so dramatically that utility-scale batteries can now deliver solar power around the clock at competitive prices. On the other, regulatory upheaval—particularly in […]

  • S&C Electric, SEL Collaborate on Interoperable Control Solution for Distribution Grid Modernization

    S&C Electric Company and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) have announced a collaboration that pairs S&C Electric’s IntelliRupter PulseCloser Fault Interrupter with the upcoming SEL-651RD Advanced Digital Control, giving utilities a new interoperable option for overhead distribution automation. The announcement, made Feb. 2 at an event in San Diego, California, addresses growing utility demand for modernization […]

  • Switched Source Expands Grid-Enhancing Technology Deployments by 60%

    Chicago-based Switched Source reported a 60% increase in deployments of its Phase-EQ grid-enhancing technology (Figure 1) over the past year, with units now operating across more than 10 utility service areas from Alaska to Florida. The company’s Phase-EQ device dynamically balances power between phases on distribution circuits, addressing load imbalances that limit how much capacity […]

  • Grid Edge DERMS: The Ultimate Enabler of the Decentralized Grid

    Electricity management is undergoing a fundamental shift. The traditional model of one-way power flows is giving way to a dynamic system shaped by distributed assets and active consumer participation. Renewables are proliferating, distributed energy resource (DER) adoption is accelerating and assets are emerging at the grid edge.

  • GE Vernova to Modernize a Key High-Voltage Power Transmission Link in India

    Contract from POWERGRID for Chandrapur 2 x 500-MW back-to-back high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) link Scope includes advanced HVDC controls and valves, delivered from GE Vernova’s facilities in India First HVDC refurbishment project awarded to GE Vernova in India GE Vernova Inc. announced that its Electrification Systems business has been awarded a contract by Power Grid Corp. […]

  • SmartestEnergy US Partners with GridBeyond to Optimize Three Energy Storage Resources in ERCOT Totalling 29.7 MW

    SmartestEnergy US, part of a global energy company helping businesses navigate the energy transition, has selected GridBeyond, a global smart energy company, as its technology partner to optimize battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market. The strategic partnership will leverage GridBeyond’s advanced price forecasting, bid optimization, and trading […]

  • BESS: Storing Potential for the UK’s Energy Future

    The UK’s battery storage capacity is set to triple by 2030 and could reach 50 GW by mid-century—a transformation that will reshape how the nation powers itself. This explosive growth isn’t just about