Distribution

Breaking Ground On ‘A Great Enabler’

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Natural gas generation will be used to guarantee grid stability in California as a group of companies break ground on a new power plant designed to complement renewable generation.

The CPV Sentinel 800 MW natural gas plant in Riverside Country, California, is funded by GE Energy Financial Services (GE), Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) and Diamond Generating Corporation (DGC). The $900 million project is being built by Gemma Power Systems California and is set to go into commercial operation by the summer of 2013. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 4, 2011 at 3:00 PM

A Solar Powered Luxury Boat

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Solar panels are getting hot…and increasingly being used to power unexpected things.

This hotel boat, named ‘Kevin,’ runs on solar power. It is owned by Dominique Renouf (background, manning the barge) who navigates it regularly through the Lot river near Castelmoron-sur-Lot, southwestern France. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 3, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Its Official: Heat Wave Drove Record Demand

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Power transmission systems in 25 states plus the District of Columbia saw record-high electricity demand during last week’s heat wave while demand in New England hit its second-highest level ever, regional transmission organizations said.

The record demand surge was reported by PJM Interconnection, serving 13 mid-Atlantic and southern states, and by MISO, which covers 12 Midwestern states plus the Canadian province of Manitoba. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 27, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Utility Nightmares Of Electric Cars

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The first thing commuters in the environmentally aware neighborhood of the future do when they get home is plug in their electric cars, and that’s the problem.

“That’s a looming utility nightmare,” says Jim Pauley, Schneider Electric’s new senior vice president for External Affairs and Government Relations. “Utility infrastructure was built for something completely different,” he said, and neighborhood concentrations pulling new EV loads at 6 p.m. on still-hot afternoons could be disastrous for local distribution grids. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 25, 2011 at 4:00 PM

Managing The Air Conditioned Nightmare

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As temperatures soar this summer and customers turn up air conditioning units, utilities are working to raise awareness about saving power through demand response programs and smart meters.

In this video, Duke Energy–which serves North and South Carolina as well as parts of the Midwest–uses cartoon imagery to illustrate how it is incorporating renewable to handle peak demands, how demand response (residential energy management systems) helps the utility quickly shed load, and how intelligent sensors and communication nodes on transmission lines help the grid be smarter and use energy more efficiently. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 22, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Emerging Giant: Kinder Morgan Reports

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Natural gas assets and terminal ownership drove growth at one of the US’ emerging energy infrastructure giants.

Years of organic growth and acquisitions have lifted the already-significant Kinder Morgan Energy Partners into an increasingly central position in the US energy economy, and the firm’s exposure to the fast-growing natural gas production and distribution sectors put it at the heart of plans to grow US consumption and exports of that fuel. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 21, 2011 at 11:00 AM

The Wood In The Doritos

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There is wood in those Doritos.

Amid rollicking volatility in natural gas markets several years ago and against the background of burgeoning corporate concern about its environmental footprint, food and drink giant PepsiCo, owner of Frito-Lay, began reviewing its options for alternative fuels that could help it achieve several goals at once. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 20, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Communicating Reliability: Phone Companies Get Distributed

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A growing number of communication firms are looking towards fuel cell technology as a reliable source of energy generation, providing potential backup in case of transmission interruptions.

AT&T has joined Google and Cox Enterprises as one of the communication companies that will utilize Bloom Energy’s fuel-cell technology to power their operations. AT&T plans to install Bloom Energy Servers, known as Bloom Boxes, at 11 sites in California providing the company with 7.5 MW of reliable onsite power and also reduce carbon emissions by approximately 50% compared to the grid. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 15, 2011 at 11:40 AM

US Solar Market Set For ‘Frantic Buying’

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Despite a slow start for the US solar photovoltaic (PV) market, the year will recover sharply to end with “frantic buying”, according to a leading analyst.

“2011 could very well be a US 1.7 [gigawatt] inventory for the US that flows into 2012,” Paula Mints, principal analyst at Navigant Consulting, said. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 14, 2011 at 11:45 AM

First Stop Brooklyn: Wind Energy Startup Makes An Unlikely Home

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Wind Analytics is everything an energy firm isn’t supposed to be.

The startup firm is new, small in scale, focused on leveraging distributed generation, funded by venture capital and headquartered in an icily cool part of New York City’s Brooklyn Borough. In an industry dominated by behemoth established players built on the hub-and-spoke model of centralized fossil fuel energy production distributed over vast physical footprints, Wind Analytics differences make it the anomaly that could just be the industry’s data-driven future. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 12, 2011 at 2:15 PM
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