Smart Grid

  • Islands Are the Low-Hanging Fruit for Microgrids

    If you’re looking for the easiest place to deploy microgrid technology, look at islands. That was the general consensus of presenters at the 4th Military & Commercial Microgrids Summit in Washington, D.C., held June 17-19. In addition to a presentation about a microgrid being developed for Necker Island—owned by Sir Richard Branson, founder of the […]

  • The State of the Microgrid Market: Promise and Present Realities

    If, as Navigant Research suggests, the global microgrid market will exceed $40 billion annually by 2020, where is all the capacity going, and what’s fueling it (literally and figuratively)? Peter Asmus, a long-time researcher of smart grid technologies at Navigant, shared that market projection and others at the 4th Military & Commercial Microgrids Summit in […]

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  • NYISO Opens Smart Control Center

    The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) this April replaced its 44-year-old primary power control center with a state-of-the-art facility in Rensselaer County that is outfitted with digital monitoring

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  • DOE to Open $4B More in Loan Guarantees for Renewables, Energy Efficiency Projects

    The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to make an additional $4 billion in loan guarantees available to help commercialize U.S. renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gases. The DOE on Wednesday issued a draft loan guarantee solicitation under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (through Section […]

  • OIG: Grid Threats Should Have Stayed Classified

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should have classified and protected a sensitive grid-related document created by its staff, the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a memorandum on Wednesday.  Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) requested that the inspector general investigate sensitive information leaks suspected to have originated […]

  • Using Spent EV Batteries for Grid Storage

    One of the world’s first power storage systems employing used electric vehicle (EV) batteries began operating on Japan’s Yumeshima Island in Osaka this February. The 600 kW/400 kWh system developed by Tokyo-based Sumitomo Corp. consists of 16 EV batteries that were recovered and inspected by the Sumitomo and Nissan Motor Co. joint venture 4R Energy […]

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  • Federal Cybersecurity Framework Calls for Increased Vigilance

    The energy industry, already familiar with the latest iteration of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards, should take note: Meeting

  • Earth Dodged Grid-Destroying Solar Storm in 2012, Says Study

    A massive coronal mass ejection (CME)—commonly known as a solar storm—in July 2012 could have rivaled the worst recorded event from 1859 had it hit the Earth, according to a study published Mar. 18 in Nature Communications. Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and by Chinese scientists into a magnetic storm on July 23, […]

  • AES Uses Synchronous Condensers for Grid Balancing

    The future is looking bright for AES Huntington Beach Power Generating Station. Renderings of a proposed new look for the power plant—located steps from the beach on the Pacific Coast Highway—include

  • Let There Be (LED) Light

    You’ve no doubt heard that U.S. power plant emissions have been dropping overall and that one of the reasons has been decreased thermal generation resulting from essentially flat demand. As of Jan. 1 this

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