Scott Higgins

Many U.S. electric utilities remain passive about investing in #PowerGrid upgrades — especially those related to #ClimateAction — without clarity on #RegulatoryChange. ⚖ Black & Veatch shares more thoughts from energy stakeholders surrounding rate uncertainty. ⬇

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The aging of hydropower assets, coupled with the retirement of staff, presents a significant challenge in predicting the operation and maintenance (O&M) needs of our nation's infrastructure. This challenge is further complicated by changing climate conditions, leading to unexpected fluctuations in water levels and ambient temperatures. Digital Twins for Hydropower Systems provides operators with a solution to foresee the wear and tear on essential components like turbines, governors, and other critical systems. Discover how hydropower digital twins are transforming asset management and tackling operator challenges: - Read more at: [MSNBC article](https://lnkd.in/gsGd7-34) - Explore the project details at: [PNNL Hydropower Digital Twins](https://lnkd.in/g_ytnWJ3) #Digitaltwins #hydropower #AssetManagement

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White House announces $7.3B clean energy financing for Dairyland Power, 15 other co-ops. The federal funding will support 10 GW in clean energy projects, lowering electricity costs for cooperative utilities in 23 states, the White House said. Dairyland Power Cooperative, Hoosier Energy and United Power are among 16 cooperative utilities that were selected for $7.3 billion in federal funding for clean energy projects. The cooperatives will leverage the funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America, or New ERA, program to spend about $29 billion on developing or buying over 10 GW of clean energy, related transmission and substation upgrades and distributed energy resource management software, the White House said Thursday. These investments will lower energy costs for rural Americans and help improve grid performance, resiliency and reliability for rural residents in 23 states, according to the White House. The $9.7 billion New Era program represents the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936, the USDA said. Under the program, cooperative utilities can receive a grant for up to 25% of their project cost, with total loans and grants limited to $970 million per cooperative. One of those cooperatives, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, plans to use the pending funding to support retiring 1,100 MW of coal-fired generation and buy 1,480 MW of solar, wind and battery storage across Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming, the USDA said. Meanwhile, Seminole Electric Cooperative plans to use its pending funding to build 700 MW of utility-scale solar and battery energy storage projects across rural parts of Florida. TNi Energy-BESS 1.20MW 10HR LDES, we've innovated a groundbreaking method that repurposes recycled lead-acid batteries, extending their life span to 25 years for C1 to C20 Energy Storage purposes. Previously, the industry lacked a safe and environmentally conscious alternative to lithium | sodium-ion batteries. However, our proprietary technique reveals that lead-acid batteries are not only SAFER but also 60-75% more cost-effective than their hazardous counterparts. Made in the USA #TNiEnergy,#10HRLDES,#ELDES,#C1toC20,#nebulositycloud, #BESS,#C3Energy,#Energy,#LDESSEnergy, #ZEROemmissions, #ZEROcarbon, #energytransistion, #LeadAcid Battery, #windpower, #solarpower, #VPP, #MicroGrid, #DERM, #HydroPower, #BitCoinMining 

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Great article by @LisaCohn It's exciting to see V2G technology getting the recognition it deserves. As the report highlights, if we see widespread adoption, electric vehicles capacity alone could meet peak demand by 2035. This is really outstanding!

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The #AIdatacenter boom is underway - how can utilities leverage #energyefficiency and #waterefficiency programs to manage grid impacts? These facilities inherently need an industrial new construction program approach, but given our reliance on a defined baseline to leverage ratepayer funds, do we have that in place? There are a few good resources available to identify data center design and efficiency strategies. TierPoint's infographic (below) lays out both capital and energy management strategies (see https://lnkd.in/gDim_jr9). Device42, A Freshworks Company has a good paper on energy efficiency concepts (https://lnkd.in/gpRa9jai). The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has joined a $40 million program to advance data center cooling technologies (see https://lnkd.in/g9PMfQAi). But the new construction baseline issue is a thorny one. Programs could set a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) baseline (and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) for water efficiency programs), but an INVIDIA blog argues that accelerated computing requires a new benchmark (see https://lnkd.in/gddD5zad). Per that article: "With today’s data centers achieving scores around 1.2 PUE, the metric “has run its course,” said Christian Belady, a data center engineer who had the original idea for PUE. “It improved data center efficiency when things were bad, but two decades later, they’re better, and we need to focus on other metrics more relevant to today’s problems.” So how will the energy efficiency and water efficiency industries tackle this? We don't have a lot of time - Oncor alone has received nearly 60 GW of service requests for new data center construction. If you're launching a program concept or engaging with data center designers, please post / share / promote!

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I see three critical issues converging in the #Energy industry to create a potential crisis ahead: A skills deficit, a technological gap, and an entrenched bureaucracy hindering innovation… https://lnkd.in/dhJwAjkr

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The CSIS article discusses how artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the energy sector by optimizing grid operations, integrating renewable energy sources, and supporting real-time energy management. AI offers solutions to improve efficiency, reduce transmission losses, and enhance the resilience of energy infrastructure, especially as renewable energy adoption grows. Effective partnerships and regulatory frameworks are needed to harness AI’s potential for a sustainable, secure energy future. 🔋#AI #EnergyTransformation #RenewableEnergy #Sustainability #GridOptimization #FutureEnergy https://lnkd.in/e-GrdUAx

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Distributed Capacity Procurement is like giving utilities a superpower: they can now strategically place distributed energy resources (DERs) where they’re needed to build a more reliable grid. This builds a future where everyone wins: communities get more reliable power, vendors get new market opportunities, and ratepayers see innovation and a cleaner grid. 👷‍♀️👨‍🔧 Plus, with utilities driving this change, we can unlock the true power of solar, batteries, and other DERs at a scale. Get the details: https://hubs.la/Q02TgxBw0

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If there was one dominant theme at the Texas Clean Energy Summit this week, it was data centers. Orennia's Keaton Horner highlighted the importance of understanding the impact of data centers on transmission in ERCOT. If you are trying to sort through the impacts data centers are having on generation and transmission, give us a shout.

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Last month, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) released its 2024 Summer Reliability Assessment (SRA) report. Not only the electric utilities, but also water and wastewater utilities are highly encouraged to review this report to improve their power resiliency and planning efforts. The report finds that a large part of North America faces elevated risk of energy shortfalls; while other areas shows reduced risk due to supply additions, in particular 25 GW of new solar capacity added since last year. All regional grids are predicted to have adequate supply for their normal peak load and conditions. However, rising demand, high temperature and extreme weather, generator retirements, drought, low wind generation and unplanned outages pose an elevated risk in some areas including, portions of Texas, California, New England and Midwest. For Texas grid, the report points out the high risk of emergency conditions in the summer evening hours when solar generation begins to ramp down. Grid operation conditions straining the transmission system will contribute to the high risk of emergency conditions as well. For example, a potential need to limit power transfer from South Texas into the San Antonio region which can occur when demand is high and wind and solar generations is low. Review the key findings and full report below.

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The acceleration of clean energy projects on the electric grid has created long backlogs of solar, wind and battery projects in utilities’ interconnection permit queues. Learn how to flexibly connect new renewable sites to speed up interconnection queues!

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Resharing this great conversation I had on our All Things DER podcast with Allison Bates Wannop. I truly believe that effective communication between all industry stakeholders is critical to gathering the data, building the models, running the analytics, and ultimately, gaining insights that lead to a more modern, sustainable grid for all. https://lnkd.in/e8fSKPGT

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The implementation of PJM’s annual capacity market made sense historically when summer had the highest demand and supply needs were the greatest. However, changes in energy resources, and reliability concerns in summer and winter (think Winter Storm Elliott in 2022) means resource adequacy matters in both seasons. Check out our thoughts below -

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MISO is proposing changes to demand response programs ... Following the Federal Energy Regulation Commission’s (FERC) acceptance of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) reliability based demand curve,  MISO is proposing significant reforms to demand response programs, focusing on registration, testing, and compensation changes. Starting in the summer of 2025, MISO plans to eliminate emergency demand response and batch load demand response as part of load-modifying resource reforms. These changes, aimed at increasing reliability, could lead to lower demand response program participation and higher capacity prices.  Elimination of Emergency Demand Response (EDR) Program MISO is eliminating the Emergency Demand Response program as part of this LMR reform package. Initially, MISO said LMR reforms, once filed at FERC and if FERC accepts them, will be effective in the 2028/29 planning year. However, MISO has decided to fast-track the elimination of EDR programs in this upcoming 2025/26 planning year, causing some concerns among stakeholders. According to IMM, 883 MW were registered in 2023 as EDRs, and only 552 MWs are cross-registered as LMRs. While most changes will take effect in the 2028/29 planning year, MISO intends to file these proposals with FERC in early 2025. Notably, energy storage resources are not included in this reform package. TNi Energy-BESS 10HR LDES, we've innovated a proprietary technology repurposing recycled lead-acid batteries, extending their life span to 25 years for C1 to C20 Energy Storage purposes. Previously, the industry lacked a safe and environmentally conscious alternative to lithium | sodium-ion batteries. However, our proprietary technique reveals that lead-acid batteries are not only SAFER but also 60-75% more cost-effective than their hazardous counterparts. Made in the USA. LCOS = .42 kW/h #TNiEnergy,#LDES,#C1toC20,#nebulositycloud,#LDESS.Energy #CHP, #PFAS, #BESS,#C3Energy, #ZEROemmissions, #ZEROcarbon, #energytransistion, #LeadAcidBattery, #windpower, #solarpower, #VPP, #MicroGrid, #DERM, #HydroPower, #BitCoinMining, #AIDataCenter, #EmpowerITTechEnergy,

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Had an insightful conversation with members of the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) last week! We discussed ways to leverage AVEVA Predictive Analytics technology to improve equipment reliability and gain new insights and value. We also discussed how they use the technology to capture and operationalize Subject Matter Expert (SME) tribal knowledge that can be used by less experienced personnel. Thank you, SCPPA Team, for the opportunity to learn and exchange ideas! #SCPPA #predictiveanalytics #equipmentreliability #SMEknowledge #publicpower

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To receive federal GRIP grants from the DOE, utilities must follow strict rules and create new processes. Utilities need to make sure they have proper policies in place to meet these requirements. Adapting internal systems, training staff, and using new tools are crucial to stay compliant and successful. By using solutions like Adlib’s document automation, utilities can streamline reporting, track progress accurately, and manage compliance documentation efficiently, ensuring successful project execution. https://lnkd.in/gdd2PpBh #DOE #GRIP #grants #compliance #utilities #documentautomation

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