flexibility

Across the U.S., new AI-driven data centers are causing a significant increase in power demand. Carbon Direct projects that data center capacity in the U.S. will grow from roughly 25 GW in 2024 to 120 GW in 2030, a nearly five-fold increase that could make data centers a double-digit percentage of national electricity demand. In […]

The past few years have brought decades worth of change to electric utilities. An increasing fraction of supply is coming from intermittent sources like solar and wind. Energy storage technology has become economically viable and has seen widespread deployment. And the industry as a whole is grappling with what seems like insatiable new demand from […]

Modern reciprocating engines are enabling reliable power generation while balancing renewable energy growth. Their rapid-response capabilities and multi-fuel flexibility are crucial to grid stability

Researchers from Duke University have said that integrating more flexibility into U.S. power grids could help provide the energy needed to power future load growth, particularly the electricity needed to support artificial intelligence and data centers. The group in a Feb. 19 webinar discussed their findings, which are contained in their recent report titled “Rethinking […]

Using voltage data down to the consumer level is essential for grid optimisation and operational flexibility in the new era of intermittent generation and fast-changing user demand. Power grids were designed

The seven European countries that make up the Pentalateral Energy Forum—Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland—will strive for the decarbonization of their interconnected electricity system by 2035. The countries, which form the Pentalateral Energy Forum—a 2005-convened voluntary framework for regional energy cooperation—in a joint statement on Dec. 18 formally concluded, “timely decarbonization […]

Despite a dismal outlook for coal, countries with substantial coal fleets are intensifying efforts to develop new technologies and operational capabilities to improve coal power’s environmental impact

Fifty-eight projects spearheaded by major U.S. power stakeholders will receive up to $3.5 billion in federal funding to improve grid flexibility and boost power system resiliency against extreme weather and climate change, the Biden administration announced on Oct. 18. The projects mark the  Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first competitive selections under the Grid Resilience and […]

Electrification is often presented as an optimal way to reduce carbon emissions, but it’s simply not practical to rely on electricity alone. No single energy source can solve the long-term environmental challenges the world faces. Why isn’t all electrification the answer? The infrastructure required to keep up with the electrification movement would take decades to […]

In order to meet decarbonization goals and limit the impacts of climate change, national power systems need to reach 100% renewable power generation without delay. Renewables like solar and wind will be needed in vast amounts, alongside flexible technology solutions, such as engine power plants and energy storage, to balance the intermittency of these power […]