When Commercial Demand Takes the Lead: Rethinking Grid Planning for a New Load Era
For decades, electric utilities have planned around a relatively predictable relationship between population growth, economic activity, weather and electricity consumption. Demand increased gradually, infrastructure investments followed long-term forecasts and utilities…
In Case You Missed It
The Grid Reliability Risk Hiding on High-Voltage Insulation
A high-voltage insulator can look unchanged for years while its operating environment steadily alters the conditions on its surface. Salt carried inland from a coast, industrial residue, road dust, moisture,…
Why DERs Are Necessary to Support the Power Grid
A famous aphorism goes like this: “Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, is one definition of insanity.” In the world of electricity transmission, there…
Grid Resilience Is About More Than Adding Capacity
How much more generation will the U.S. need to meet rising electricity demand? It’s an important question, but it isn’t the only one the power industry needs to answer. As…
Solar, Storage, and the Day the Grid Goes Dark
U.S. electricity customers averaged 11 hours of power interruptions in 2024, and major events accounted for 80% of that time, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In recent years,…
Keeping the Lights on When Power Demand Fluctuates
Data centers do what any industry would to continue operations during a power outage: Quickly pivot to their own emergency energy. As reported in several media outlets, a 10-minute grid…