The Empower Resiliency program is now available to Xcel Energy’s commercial and industrial customers in Minnesota. Xcel will install, operate, maintain and have overall ownership of the assets, which can include battery storage, solar arrays, and back-up generators at a customer’s site.

Xcel Energy claims it offers 99.9% power reliability and reminds customers that it invests in power grid upgrades to protect against severe weather and minimize outages. However, the utility adds that it understands that some customers – including water treatment facilities, community centers, hospitals, continuous manufacturing facilities, and schools – require even more certainty as they rely on an uninterruptible supply of electricity. The Empower Resiliency program was created to meet their needs.

Microgrid Breakthroughs is an educational track at POWERGEN International, set for New Orleans, Louisiana on January 23-25, 2024. We’re looking for content for this track right now. Have you worked on microgrid programs, technologies or solutions? Our call for content is open and we are looking for inspiring and thought-provoking industry experts to join our speaker lineup. Submit your educational session idea today.

 “This program greatly reduces the upfront cost for customers who would benefit from resiliency assets,” said Emmett Romine, vice president, Customer Solutions and Innovation at Xcel.

 Xcel Energy will provide a turnkey resiliency solution and upfront capital, allowing customers to pay for the improvements over time. Customers work with Xcel Energy and its vendors to design, construct, and interconnect their system. The program allows customers to choose options that best meet their resiliency needs and sustainability goals, the utility said.

National Engineers Week, a weeklong celebration known as EWeek, is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers.

PHSC offers a plethora of degrees and programs, such as engineering technology, drafting and design, to prepare students for employment in engineering positions.

Last year, the PHSC Foundation received a $40,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation to provide scholarship assistance to 20 students pursuing engineering, design and drafting degrees. The scholarships are specifically intended to motivate and prepare students, especially those from underrepresented communities, to pursue and attain engineering careers.

“The engineering technology program develops PHSC students for skills in mechatronics, pneumatics and hydraulics, and automation as tomorrow’s manufacturer,” said Dr. Alysen S. Heil, Ed.D., Dean, Workforce Development and Career & Technical Education at PHSC. “By engaging PHSC students with the skills listed above, we are helping them become marketable for many of the emerging manufacturers in the Pasco and Hernando area. We are grateful for Duke Energy’s continued support of this valuable program.”

The grant leveraged matching funds for up to 30 more scholarships for first-generation students, as well as help for students to earn industry certifications. The funding also supported the Cybersecurity Hackathon, where more than 35 students participated in an ethical hacking competition while gaining experience in the field of cybersecurity, as well as the SkillsUSA program.

The recent grant adds to a long-standing history of support from Duke Energy and the Duke Energy Foundation. Since 2017, Duke Energy and its foundation have given more than $190,000 in scholarships and program support to PHSC.

“Duke Energy engineers, whether they work in chemical, civil, mechanical, electrical, environmental and many other disciplines, are crucial to our company’s success and vision of a cleaner energy future,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president. “We are proud to support PHSC in their work to engage students in engineering. Programs like these are helping students with different backgrounds and abilities gain the skills needed to attain engineering careers and become the next generation of critical thinkers, leaders and problem solvers.”

Volvo Penta has extended its power generation engine range with the introduction of its most powerful model – the D17. The fuel-efficient 17-liter Volvo Penta industrial genset engine will help support both the current demands of industrial customers as well as their future business needs, said the company. Looking ahead, the D17 – together with the rest of the power generation line-up – will evolve to enable customers to transition to significantly lower emissions utilizing alternative fuels.   

The D17 offers up to 5% less fuel consumption per kWh than its lower-displacement D16 sibling. This is largely the result of recent evolutions in combustion technology such as the modernization of the fuel-injection system with a common-rail design. A new feature – which will also be made available to D16 models – is the option of a viscous fan to further reduce fuel consumption and noise emissions. 

Volvo Penta used D16’s inline six-cylinder block as the starting point for the new design, ensuring the D17’s basic footprint would remain the same. The company’s engineers developed a larger bore engine which enabled the larger volume. This paved the way for around a 10% increase in maximum standby power over the TWD1645GE at 1800 rpm. 

“Combining this with its dual-stage turbochargers means the D17 can provide much higher power from a smaller envelope, comparing favorably with larger alternatives, while offering the additional benefit of far more economical operation,” says Kristian Vekas, Product Manager at Volvo Penta. “To find something with equivalent power density, you’d have to look beyond automotive-based designs – which will likely add further cost implications.” 

As is the case with the entire Volvo Penta power generation range, the D17 is backed by an aftermarket ecosystem that includes extended coverage alongside the company’s extensive global network of dealers – to secure performance and uptime.  

Designed to power a variety of stand-by and prime-power generator sets, the dual-speed (1500/1800 rpm) D17 is suitable for a range of applications, most notably where sufficient back-up electrical power must be available at all times, said the company. The new unit also complies with the most-stringent ISO8528 G3 standard for load acceptance, a measure of how quickly it can meet power demand in response to a blackout.  

The D17’s low exhaust emissions ensure compliance with UNECE REG 96 Stage 2 (equivalent to EU Stage II mobile off-highway requirements) and it is certified for US EPA Tier2 Stationary Emergency, enabling it to be used for supplying a few hours of back-up power in these highly regulated regions.   

“Our customers were instrumental in inspiring the D17’s introduction,” adds Kristian. “In addition to wanting extra power to provide more electricity, they were keen for it to retain commonality with the D16 for seamless integration.” 

The keynote, which took place at Orange County Convention Center on February 21, is generally regarded as setting the tone for the conference and the four speakers hit all of the major themes facing the power industry today.

Jan Aspuru, Chief Operating Officer at Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) kicked off the keynote highlighting the innovative technology OUC is testing at the Gardenia Innovation Center, which was a stop on yesterday’s POWERGEN technical tour yesterday. OUC has a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 but has milestones of 50% emission reductions by 2030, and 75% emission reductions by 2040.

Aspuru spoke of the challenge of using renewable energy generation in Florida, which is dubbed the Sunshine State but should actually be called the “partly cloudy” state because 277 days a year are at least partly cloudy if not completely cloud covered. In addition, the lack of wind or large water basins means wind power and hydropower are not viable options for renewable energy generation.

Alex Glenn, CEO of Duke Energy Florida and Midwest took the stage following Aspuru and gave an inspirational speech about the challenge of net-zero. He explained that Duke expects to rely on zero emission load following resources (ZELFRs), which haven’t been commercialized yet but mentioned that hydrogen and nuclear power breakthroughs look like potential promising solutions.

“We, in this room, have to figure this out,” he told attendees.

“My ask of you today is three things,” he said, challenging attendees to think about the following: “‘How do I fit into this transformation?  How am I going to contribute and where am I going to start to change the world?’’

Changing the world

Celebrating the fact that his small modular reactor (SMR) design in now certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and officially active in the U.S. Federal Register (as of today), Dr. Jose Reyes, founder and CTO of NuScale Power was next on stage.

He explained how his SMRs works and how it cuts costs and time to build. The global power sector will need to add 16,000 GW of generation capacity by 2040 to meet electricity demand. His envisions SMRs as an excellent replacement for retiring coal-fired power plants.

“We have the ability to change the power that changes the world,” he said.

The keynote headliner was Andrew Winston, best-selling author and sustainability strategist. Winston’s newest book, Net Positive, explores mega trends and urges companies to consider how they will contribute to a changing world.

Touching on issues like how generational change, climate goals, sustainability and even something he called a “decency quotient” will change the focus of businesses, he asked leaders to consider how they can have a positive impact on the world.

“Is your world better off because your business is in it?” Building a net positive business requires companies to blow up their boundaries. And, he said, in doing so he posited that greater profits will follow.

While the conference and exposition officially begin on Tuesday, February 21, enthusiastic attendees from all over the globe flew in early to take in a tour of the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) Gardenia Innovation and Operations Center followed by a tour of the 740-MW Cane Island Power Park.

Grid-edge R&D

OUC’s facility is where the municipal utility tests pre-commercialized or newly commercialized technology and includes a floating solar array, a vehicle-to-grid bi-directional charger, a 50-kW DC fast charger (soon to be upgraded to 120 kW), several Level 2 EV chargers, a 10-kW/40-kWh vanadium redox flow battery and two underground 8-kW/32-kWh flywheels.

“We want to make sure we understand how they work, their operational characteristics and build new business cases around them before we put them in a position where they could be affecting our customers,” explained Rubin York, one of the three OUC engineers leading the tour.

In addition, OUC is testing a site controller that can operate the system in three main modes: PV smoothing, demand mitigation, which performs autonomous peak shaving, and contingency mode, which collects the assets into a microgrid.

“That is only possible thanks to these flywheels,” said York.

They go through a grid-forming bi-directional inverter which, in contingency mode, assess the frequency and voltage of the buildings and meters and disconnects the EV chargers, the PV inverter (per the IEEE standard), and any other load until the flywheels can output a good 60 hertz, 480-volt AC signal, said York. Once the flywheel generation is firm, OUC can slowly bring the loads back up and charge the EVs.

York also showed off the Cloud Impact Mapping System (CIMS), an in-house developed system that was designed to predict the ramp rate of solar PV as clouds come over and depart the solar PV. Should the technology scale, it could prove to be useful to electric utilities in Florida that are relying on a large amount of solar PV generation because Florida generally experiences a large amount of clouds.

“The goal is to build an array of these all around our territory, build a central repository, and have them effectively ‘hand off’ cloud systems to one another,” said York.

The OUC Gardenia site is also host to a rooftop solar array with bifacial solar panels and a solar parking canopy, which covers the parking lots for the facility.

Exceptional availability

After a quick bus ride and lunch, attendees toured the 740-MW Cane Island Power Park, which was available more than 90% of the time in the 2021 and won an award for its exceptional availability.

Unit 3 of the park ran for eight months with no trips said Ken Rutter, COO of the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA), which owns the plant along with Kissimmee Utility Authority (KUA). He added that the unit ran through Hurricane Ian and supplied power to customers who were able to accept it.

The POWERGEN group was split into four smaller groups and taken all throughout the park, viewing each generating unit, one turbine (that was not currently operating), condensers, cooling towers, the control center, and more.  Rutter encouraged attendees to ask their tour guides anything at all – and they certainly took him up on that offer.

POWERGEN International 2024 takes place in New Orleans, January 23-25, 2024.

Pride Month commemorates the riots and protests that created awareness of deep-seated problems and energized people to take action to create substantial change. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning and allies (LGBTQ+) Pride Month is celebrated in June to honor the Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan which lasted six days in June 1969 as police clashed with LGBTQ protesters.

Below, please find some Pride Month announcements and as well as Pride Month events related to electric utilities and the energy industry.

PNM and AVANGRID said they donated $25,000 to nonprofits in honor of National Pride Month. Alianza of New Mexico, Casa Q, Equality New Mexico, Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico and Youth Shelters & Family Services each received $5,000 toward their services.

“PNM is proud to support our LGBTQ+ community while promoting diversity, equity and inclusion throughout our state,” said Pat Vincent-Collawn, Chairman and CEO for PNM.

Pacific Gas and Electric celebrates Pride Month with #LoveandPride. Brian M. Wong, vice president, deputy general counsel and corporate secretary for PG&E shared a story on the PGE Currents website about a time earlier in his career when he pushed his organization to consider its LGBTQ+ employees’ rights when it proposed a relocation. Wong said PG&E’s Pride Network Employee Resource Group is holding online events over the course of the month and the group will be marching in several Pride Parades throughout the state.  

Also in California, the Public Utilities Commission tweeted that it expanded its supplier diversity program to include utility procurement goals from LGBT businesses.

The Orlando Utilities Commission and NiSource also tweeted that they are proud to celebrate and stand with the LGBTQ+ community.

Out in Energy, a national umbrella network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI) professionals working across the US energy and climate sectors, and across all energy sources and technologies shared several events that are relevant to Pride Month, including:

• June 6 at 10 AM EST, DOE Secretary Granholm will host an outdoor event to celebrate the raising of the Progress Pride Flag in front of DOE’s Forrestal Hall in Washington, DC. Out in Energy members are welcome and invited to attend. The Secretary and other DOE leadership will deliver public remarks and host this occasion to demonstrate solidarity with LGBTQ+ individuals working in energy, climate, and environment. 
• June 8 at 4 PM EST, Out in Energy will be co-hosting a free virtual “Ask me Anything” panel discussion with New England Women in Energy & Environment [NEWIEE]. Register here: “Ask Me Anything” featuring Out in Energy – NEWIE
• June 9 from 6 – 8 PM EST, Out in Energy hosts a Pride Happy Hour at Pitchers in DC.
• June 10 at 7 PM EST, Out in Energy participates in the DC Front Runners annual Pride 5K! There is an Out in Energy running team, and all proceeds are distributed to local and national LGBTQ organizations such as Casa Ruby.
• June 29 at 12 PM EST, the Department of Energy will host a virtual event to cap off Pride Month, featuring a number of LGBTQ leaders working across the Department.

BTW, Out in Energy has T-shirts for sale through mid-June. Learn more here.

Is your utility or company celebrating Pride Month? Let Power-Grid.com know what you are doing and we will add it to this list.

Girodano offers deeper insight into the topic as part of her keynote presentation during the upcoming DISTRIBUTECH/POWERGEN International events in Dallas, May 23-25. Giordano speaks at 1:00 pm on May 24.

We don’t have to look very hard to see headlines about companies changing their work-from-home policies. As workers got used to working from home offices over the past two years many found they enjoyed not going into an office every day.

Citing benefits like improved work-life balance, equal attention in video meetings, decreased carbon footprints because they drive less, it’s clear to many companies that instilling at least some work-from-home options will be necessary to retain good workers.

But what does that mean for the power and electric utility industry? Many of the jobs that are done by those who help power our lives must be done onsite or in the field. How can utilities respond to the demands of new workers who want a better work experience?

That’s the topic of the DISTRIBUTECH/POWERGEN International keynote. Giordano offered Power Grid International editor Jenn Runyon a sneak peak of her talk (below). Take a minute to watch and then join us later this month in Dallas to hear her in person.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Programs to re-train coal miners and reinvigorate West Virginia’s suffering workforce have been proposed before. Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said Friday many have been a disappointment because there were no jobs.

“All that ended up being was basically an extension of unemployment benefits because no jobs came because there’s no factories,” Manchin said. The senator said that’s changing with the announcement of a new electric battery plant coming to the state this year.

The energy startup SPARKZ is partnering with the United Mine Workers of America to recruit and train dislocated miners to be the factory’s first production workers.

“Now, we’re seeing the rubber hit the road,” Manchin said. “That makes a difference.”

Energy Secretary Jennifer Mulhern Granholm and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland joined Manchin and UMWA representatives at Marshall University’s Robert C. Byrd Institute to discuss workforce development opportunities.

Granholm announced a $5 million training initiative, the first in the nation to focus on battery workers. The funds will be split among five U.S. sites, and she hinted that West Virginia is likely to be a recipient.

“I think you’ll be well-positioned, I’ll just say that,” she said.

The energy secretary said the steps are necessary to ensure that the U.S. is “energy independent” and not relying on countries like China for the supplies.

“We should be building the full supply chain here,” she said.

UMWA International Secretary-Treasurer Brian Sanson said although workforce training has been offered to the state’s workers before, West Virginia hasn’t seen most of the benefits.

“In the past, we’ve spent a lot of money retraining workers to go out of state to do other jobs,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest problems.”

SPARKZ said its electric battery factory in West Virginia will employ at least 350 people.

SPARKZ Founder and CEO Sanjiv Malhotra said these batteries will be 100% cobalt-free, reducing the cost of U.S. lithium-ion battery production. The Democratic Republic of Congo has historically been the top producer of cobalt worldwide, with most mines controlled by Chinese companies.

Malhotra said the operation will be a boon to U.S. efforts to counter China’s dominance, and a major step for West Virginia as the state transitions from its roots in coal production to the “new energy economy,” he said.

SPARKZ, founded in 2019, is in the final stages of site selection, and will be announcing customer partnerships in the coming months. Its first markets will likely be in material-handling vehicles like forklifts, agricultural equipment and energy storage.

According to the research firm, major power outages impacted at least 350 million people — more than 4% of the global population — in 2021 as new power supply challenges have emerged on top of more traditional ones.

The report, Are We Entering an Age of Increasing Power Supply Disruptions? by the IHS Markit Global Power and Renewables service said that markets of all types are increasingly prone to major disruption.

Some of the largest power supply disruptions included regions that have had relatively reliable supply (rolling blackouts and power rationing in China; Winter Storm Uri power crisis in Texas), while others inflicted further stress on markets with existing problems (nationwide blackout in Pakistan; rolling blackouts in Sri Lanka).

New challenges like extreme weather and the energy transition are adding to the risk of disruption on top of longer-standing challenges such as lack of maintenance and chronic underinvestment in generation and grid assets in many markets around the world, the report said.

Climate-related extreme weather events noted in the report include:

• Climate change can increase the difficulty of load and supply forecasting, raising the risk of power shortages and impacting wholesale power prices. The calibration and performance of grid operator models can be impacted by conditions that the weather can alter, such as increased cooling or heating demand, operating voltages, frequency levels and transmission flows.
• Extreme weather events such as cold snaps and droughts can make power infrastructure previously not built for certain weather conditions much more susceptible to outages, making weatherizing equipment increasingly important.
• In hydro-heavy markets such as South China and Brazil, climate change can impact hydropower supply and strain the system. In Guangdong Province, for example, soaring power demand—driven by economic growth and hot weather—and lower-than-expected hydro imports due to the drought in neighboring southwest China resulted in inadequate capacity in 2021. Brazil also faced its worst drought in almost a century, increasing its exposure to surging global natural gas prices.

The IHS report also pointed to what it referred to as the unsynchronized pace of the energy transition across the value chain. In particular:

• Fuel Supply and Power Generation: With the 2021 global energy crunch, tight natural gas and coal supply in the face of surging post-COVID-19 demand resulted in skyrocketing power prices in Europe and rolling blackouts in China. In the past, these high prices would naturally lead to more supply in gas and coal, but energy transition pressure has broken that market linkage as investors shun new investment in fossil fuel production. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic had created supply chain bottlenecks, exacerbating the situation and intensifying volatilities. Indeed, many wholesale power markets experienced major power price jumps in 2021, while intra-year volatilities increased significantly.
• Power Generation and Transmission: In addition to fuel supply and power generation, an unsynchronized pace of transition also exists in power generation and transmission and distribution infrastructure. This is increasingly the case with wind and solar resources typically located farther away from load centers. This in turn can lead to grid bottlenecks and supply curtailments, which can heighten the risk of power disruptions.
• Increased Reliance on Intermittent Sources: The increasing share of wind and solar generation comes with increased exposure to weather patterns and new forms of variability. Today, dispatchable thermal generation is typically used to balance the variability of renewables. But as power systems decarbonize, new flexible and carbon-free firm technologies — some of which are not commercially available yet — will be needed. Power networks will also need to evolve to facilitate the integration of larger volumes of distributed generation

In addition, lack of maintenance and chronic underinvestment in generation and grid assets in many markets around the world continues to be one of the main challenges causing power supply shortages, said Rama Zaharia, association director, Global Power and Renewables at IHS Markit. Add to that greater frequency of extreme weather events and the unsynchronized pace of energy transition and it increases the potential for a “new age of more-frequent power supply disruption.” 

Readers will recall Winter Storm Uri, in which millions of Texans lost power during a cold snap in February 2021 due to a combination of disastrous events including freezing gas pipelines and gas-fired generation, lack of wind power, and sub-zero temps that forced Texans to turn up the heat in their homes. Grid operator ERCOT was forced to shut off power to millions of homes to keep the grid from going into a catastrophic failure and unfortunately, many people died as a result.

Read More: Investigation into Texas freeze highlights natural gas failures, frequency of cold weather events

One answer to the problem facing ERCOT could be increasing the amount of generation capacity on the grid and requiring more weatherization to existing plants serving Texas. A set of new gas-fired power plants with an 11-GW capacity have been proposed by Starwood Energy at a cost of $8B.

While stakeholders await new rules and regulations expected to be released this week by the public utilities commission (PUC), ACEEE wants the commission to be aware of just how much could be gained by a combination of energy efficiency upgrades and the use of DER for demand response.

ACEEE modeled the potential impact of Texas’s electric utilities expanding their programs (and creating new programs) that incentivize homeowners to upgrade from electric furnaces to efficient heat pumps when existing systems need to be replaced, improve attic insulation and duct sealing, switch to smart thermostats, and install heat pump water heaters. ACEEE also considered three potential demand response programs, in which electric customers are provided an incentive to allow their utility to shift when their central air conditioners, water heaters, and electric vehicle chargers are used away from times of the highest stress on the power system.

The 7 programs, deployed aggressively under Public Utility Commission direction over 5 years (beginning in 2023), could offset about 7,650 MW of summer peak load and 11,400 MW of winter peak load, ACEEE found. This approximately equals the electricity that would be generated under 2 separate private proposals this year to build 10 or 11 new gas power plants that would be used at peak times.

Allison Silverstein, Secretary for ACEEE said in a press briefing that she considers the problem a matter personal responsibility. “In my household, if I overspend then people would demand I cut my expenses,” she explained, adding, “I expect that by extension that means reducing your demand instead of finding me more supply…It’s like me saying ‘give me more income.’”

Further, the cost of the energy efficiency upgrades coupled with demand response programs totals $4.9B, 39% less than the new gas-fired power plant proposals. And with energy efficiency upgrades, there are double benefits. Homeowners benefit from better insulated homes and businesses leading to lower energy costs overall and ERCOT benefits from reduced demand on the grid.

The report, Energy Efficiency and Demand Response: Tools to Address Texas’ Reliability Challenges, is available for download here.

Asset management, grid modernization, and resiliency planning and prep are all educational tracks at DISTRIBUTECH International, set for Dallas, Texas, January 26-28, 2022 and registration is now open! Learn more and register to attend today!