Advanced Energy Perspectives

Although it’s been a while since the term “utility death spiral” has been trotted out in the media, there’s no doubt that utilities are under pressure to modernize and innovate their business models. This week we saw several significant moves from utilities that may move us toward to a 21st Century electricity system, from an Arizona utility looking to install residential solar panels — for free — to a report that embraces electric vehicles for future utility growth. Plus, a New York utility has filed a rate case that includes distribution automation, microgrids-as-a-service, and community solar.

Some hardcore technology in this week’s advanced energy news. Energy giant and AEE member General Electric is expanding its advanced energy product line to include fuel cells. Google is looking to shrink inverters. And utility San Diego Gas & Electric is getting ready to launch drones to check on transmission lines.

The electrical grid is an aging beast, cobbled together over the last century from disparate pieces to form the infrastructure on which all modern life depends. Sometimes it seems like we are teetering at the edge of disaster, a single storm or terrorist attack away from a devastating outage. Can resiliency save us?

This week Con Edison announced that it would invest heavily in efficiency, distributed generation, and energy storage to avoid building a new substation for Brooklyn and Queens, New York City’s fastest growing boroughs. New York State’s grid has been especially strained during heat waves and storms in the past few years, with demand in the city a particular challenge. Last summer the “heat dome” caused New York’s grid to operate at 99 percent of capacity, pushing the grid right to the edge of failure.

AEE member and industry giant General Electric scored a big win late last month as it purchased significant energy assets from Alstom, the French industrial conglomerate. We initially reported on the proposed $13.5 billion deal in May, noting that Siemens was also vying for an agreement with Alstom. The French government weighed in to slow down the deal, characterizing Alstom as a “national asset.”