Show Preview - Distributed Energy Conference
The 2021 edition of the Distributed Energy Conference, hosted by POWER magazine, will take place Oct. 18–21 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. This year’s event is co-located with the Experience POWER conference, and the inaugural HydrogeNext event, providing attendees the best experience yet in terms of networking with other power industry professionals. The Distributed Energy Conference provides information to help you and your business navigate the explosive growth of distributed power generation, enabling conversations with the right companies to position your group to achieve profit, growth, and economic sustainability. The event, now in its fourth year, is known for its informative case studies featuring distributed generation projects, including microgrids (Figure 1), commercial and industrial installations, backup power systems, energy storage, renewable energy, and more.
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1. The Bronzeville Community Microgrid project in Chicago, Illinois, developed by Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), is among the microgrid installations that will be featured at this year’s Distributed Energy Conference. Courtesy: ComEd |
This year’s event features a keynote address from Julia Hamm, president and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance, along with a second keynote by Hanna Grene, Director, Energy & Sustainability Americas at Microsoft. “We are thrilled to have keynote presentations from two dynamic individuals,” said Darrell Proctor, senior associate editor for POWER magazine and the conference’s content director. “Those two are among the highlights of another insightful and informative program for the Distributed Energy Conference, an event that consistently provides attendees with the tools they need to design and implement their own distributed power generation projects. Utilities, commercial and industrial enterprises, and even those in the residential space are contributing to the growth of decentralized power, which continues to take a greater role in global generation of electricity.”
POWER is committed to providing a safe environment for this year’s in-person event, as it brings the distributed energy community back together. Here’s a look at some of the companies, along with their products and services, participating in this year’s event.
Lowering Costs, Providing Power Security and Reliability
Distributed energy power generation systems can lower costs, improve energy security and reliability, lower overall carbon emissions, and provide emergency backup or peak demand power. Ameresco is a leader in distributed energy technologies, working with commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial operations across a variety of fuel types, including biomass, landfill gas, solar, wind, and hydroelectricity. The company designs and develops solar and wind projects, along with combined heat and power and co-gen plants, and also geothermal and renewable natural gas-powered facilities. Its technologies can be paired with microgrid and battery storage technologies to promote resiliency and sustainability. Ameresco, Framingham, Massachusetts
ameresco.com
Making Energy a Sustainable Business Practice
The changing energy landscape includes an increased commitment by many companies to integrate sustainable technologies into their business practices. Commercial, industrial, and manufacturing companies want to honor those commitments, but many face challenges from aging infrastructure and a constant need for operational efficiency improvements. Black & Veatch helps organizations find solutions that achieve their environmental, social, and governance goals when it comes to powering their operations. The company provides development and design support to help organizations build a distributed energy infrastructure. Black & Veatch, Overland Park, Kansas
bv.com
Providing Mission-Critical Power
Many mission-critical projects require distributed generation, and mtu systems is a leader in providing power for these important applications. The company develops advanced solutions, including microgrids, that integrate renewable energy resources and help manage customers’ energy needs. The company’s products include diesel- and natural gas-powered generator sets, dynamic uninterruptible power supply (UPS) solutions, and energy storage systems. The mtu EnergyPack improves the reliability and profitably of a microgrid; it’s a scalable, all-in-one solution that stores electricity from any distributed power systems, including gensets, solar panels, and wind turbines. mtu systems , Friedrichshafen, Germany
mtu-solutions.com
Empowering the Virtual Power Plant
The virtual power plant (VPP) is very real, in use in many areas as a way to support the traditional power grid. Enbala, a Generac company, offers technology designed to support VPPs, and its technology goes far beyond load control, demand response (DR), and auto DR. It raises the bar to a whole new level, with features like closed-loop real-time optimization of distributed energy resources and bi-directional wholesale transactions to add and subtract power at precisely the right time and place that it’s needed—or not needed. Enbala offers a real-time energy-balancing platform that is transforming energy system operations through a revolutionary, highly flexible approach for creating controllable and dispatchable energy resources. Enbala, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
enbala.com
Using AI to Make Data Work for You
The digitization of the power sector has brought forth massive amounts of data from distributed energy generation. Making sense of that data, and enabling it to provide actionable insights, is Veritone’s focus, as the company accelerates the world’s transition to more sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy with patented predictive artificial intelligence (AI) to model, optimize, and control smart grids in real time. Distributed renewable generation, such as rooftop solar, has transformed the grid, and Veritone’s technology works to solve the challenges of distributed renewables, using AI to process data in real time to effectively address the intermittency of these resources. With Veritone aiWARE, you can uncover insights from massive amounts of data across many cognitive capabilities at scale, making your business smarter and more efficient. Veritone, Denver, Colorado