In recent years, the cost to bury high-voltage power lines has decreased dramatically. The American Transmission Company reports that installation costs for underground transmission lines (over 100 kilovolts) are now only 2.5 to 10 times the cost of an equivalent overhead line. Consequently, the number of underground transmission line projects has exploded in recent years and the number of underground high-voltage power lines operating in the United States have dramatically increased.
To date, overhead...
Managing change with positive thinking to make the most of investments BY JOHN MCDONALD, IEEE Senior Member, GE Energy Management - Digital Energy The process of writing requirements for Smart Grid-related technology purchases may appear simple and straightforward. It is not. As the technology...
Exploring communications for real-time network visibility BY DONALD POLLOCK, Ambient Corporation In August 2013, a report entitled “Economic Benefits of Increasing Electric Grid Resilience to Weather Outages” prepared by the White House Council of Economic Advisors and the U.S. Department of...
Currently, modern electric utilities are facing an avalanche of new data. Each new system deployed presents a tremendous amount of information that can provide great value to the utility. Unfortunately, the tools available to work with this information are often rudimentary and create difficulties...
Often when project developers talk about the cost of a new power plant, wind farm, or solar installation, they’re referring to the capital cost of building a facility. Certainly those development costs have dropped over time—especially for wind and solar. But developers overlook the...
A coalition of large energy consumers and ratepayer advocates has filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging the agency to prohibit transmission owners from independently planning "local" transmission projects exceeding 100 kilovolts (kV). The coalition argues...
In a significant move that underscores the growing demand for reliable and sustainable energy to power the expanding digital infrastructure, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an interconnection agreement between Talen Energy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Exelon. This...
The evolving demands of modern power grids necessitate the adoption of advanced technologies that can provide enhanced efficiency, reliability, and flexibility. Smart transformers are at the forefront of this technological revolution, offering a range of capabilities that significantly improve the...
The electric power industry is increasingly having to evaluate the growing penetration of distributed energy resources (DER). New sets of challenges exist for planning and operating the grid, especially with the distribution systems in which these new resources must be integrated. Now electric...
Increasing the hosting capacity of distributed generation in power distribution systems is identified as key low-carbon solution to help meet the aggressive greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the energy sector. The deployment of distributed generation technologies is creating a paradigm...
NEURAL GRID TAKES SMART GRID INTO THE CLOUD The Neural Grid represents more than Smart Grid v2.0—much more. Today, the smart grid implies the legacy mechanical power transmission and distribution (T&D) networks enhanced by pockets of automation, connectivity, and centralized IT systems. The...
