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Power Grid International
Data Centers Are Booming In Texas. What Does That Mean For The Grid?By Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune
“Data centers are booming in Texas. What does that mean for the grid?” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
The rise of artificial intelligence, the digitization of the economy and everyday life’s growing computing needs have turbocharged the expansion of data centers, driving up a surge in electricity demand in Texas and across the country.
Texas’ main grid operator predicts power demand will nearly double by 2030, in part due to more requests to plug into the grid from large users like data centers, crypto mining facilities, hydrogen production plants and oil and gas companies.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced Stargate, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle that will invest up to $500 billion in AI-related infrastructure.
Texas will serve as ground zero, with 10 data centers by the venture already under construction in the state, 10 more on the way and the first project based in Abilene, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said. Each building will occupy half a million square feet.
The announcement reflected the hunger for data centers across industries and a yearslong push to increase data capacity. Ellison noted that the partnership had been in the works for years. He said the new data centers could offer services like maintaining electronic health care records and helping hospitals share medical knowledge.
“The demand for digital services continues to increase and continues to be necessary to build out our capabilities for the 21st century economy,” Dan Diorio, senior director of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group, said in an interview. “Texas is uniquely poised to benefit from that.”
That expansion — in addition to other large energy users and factors such as population growth and extreme weather — will stretch the grid over the next decade, raising questions about how Texas can meet the skyrocketing demand for power while ensuring affordability and reliability for everyday consumers.
Data centers — which house servers that provide computing power and the fans and cooling units needed to keep the equipment from overheating — are energy-intensive facilities that operate 24/7.
Large data centers can require 100 MW or more each, consuming the same amount of power per year as 350,000 to 400,000 electric cars, according to the International Energy Agency. Put another way, a larger facility can use as much electricity as a medium-sized power plant, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates.
Texas has seen a rapid increase in data capacity thanks to the state’s relatively cheap energy prices, the ease with which facilities can connect to the grid and its overall business-friendly tax and regulatory environment.
Companies generally employ around 50 to 150 or more employees in each data center, in addition to an array of building and maintenance contractors, according to the Data Center Coalition, which estimates that each job in a data center supported six jobs elsewhere in the economy.
The state had 279 data centers as of September, according to the Texas Comptroller. The Dallas-Fort Worth area has about 141 of those.
That translated to 591 MW of power leased by data centers in Dallas and Fort Worth last year — the second most in the country — and nearly 190 MW in Austin and San Antonio, according to a CBRE report.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s primary grid operator, estimates that 1 MW of electricity can power roughly 200 homes.
In Texas, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted that demand from large users — including but not limited to data centers — would grow by 60% this year, making up around 10% of the total forecast demand on the state’s main grid.
Large users requiring 5,496 MW of power have been approved by ERCOT to connect to the grid, according to a September report. The EIA expects that by the end of this year, ERCOT will have approved 9,500 MW in total large-user demand — a 73% increase.
That includes data centers and other large users like crypto mining facilities, which represent the biggest share of large users looking to connect to the grid, according to ERCOT.
Several other large-load projects — which would use up to 56,458 MW a year — were awaiting ERCOT consideration as of September.
Some large users, primarily crypto mining facilities, have committed to temporarily lowering their energy usage in periods of grid strain — an agreement that earned some crypto mining companies millions of dollars while many Texans’ saw their power bills surge.
Data centers, on the other hand, generally require an uninterrupted supply of power and typically do not participate in ERCOT’s high-demand response programs, according to a recent report from the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee.
Nationally, data centers are expected to consume between 11% and 12% of total U.S. power demand by 2030 — up from around 3% and 4% of demand today, according to an analysis by McKinsey.
How to meet soaring power demand is set to drive the discussion around the grid during this year’s legislative session.
Texas lawmakers have sought to boost the state’s supply of natural gas through the Texas Energy Fund, which will offer companies up to $10 billion in low-interest loans to build gas-fueled power plants. State regulators are currently vetting loan applications, but new plants will not be operational for years.
“Data centers are going to provide a very essential product for consumers that underpins the functions of our life,” Mark Bell, president of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, said. “As an industry, we are ready to step up to the challenges that we face with this type of large load.”
Bell added that the projected demand “provides forward signals in the market” that encourage companies to invest in new power generation.
ERCOT’s demand forecast, which reflected a sharp increase from previous years, also raised questions among lawmakers about whether large users needed more state oversight.
“I think we need to rise to the challenge of getting the needed generation onto the grid,” state Sen. Charles Schwertner, chair of the Business and Commerce Committee, told The Texas Tribune in June. “But there is eventually a prioritization that could be discussed, and obviously Texans — their families, their homes, their businesses — are the most important individuals, the most important clients for electricity.”
On social media, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in June that the Legislature needed to “take a close look” at data centers and crypto mining facilities. “We want data centers, but it can’t be the Wild Wild West of data centers and crypto miners crashing our grid and turning the lights off,” he wrote.
Patrick said in a Thursday statement to The Texas Tribune that he supported Stargate and believed Texas should be the “world leader in AI, data center and crypto. The key is to ensure they have the power they need without a major impact to our electrical grid. The industries understand that and they are working on solutions.”
Some companies are building generation locally or on site to help lessen their impact on the grid and lock in their own power supply. Building their facilities near existing generation sites can also help alleviate grid congestion. Lawmakers this session will likely consider whether companies should be forced to do so, with the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee recommending that large loads be required to “offset their impact on the grid by adding on-site power systems or participating in programs to curtail electricity usage during peak demand periods.”
Judging whether data centers and other large projects might actually build in Texas after requesting ERCOT consideration remains difficult, experts testified to lawmakers last year, making ERCOT’s demand prediction less certain. Companies looking to build data centers may submit requests in multiple prospective locations.
In order to help firm up that forecast, the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee recommended that the state ensure regulators have enough information about how large users might operate, such as by asking companies to submit more detailed information about their proposed projects.
The Public Utility Commission approved a rule in November requiring crypto mining facilities connected to the ERCOT grid to register their power usage with regulators.
The projected growth in usage also means the grid will need more transmission lines, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas said in April.
“The forecasted pace of load growth could exceed the pace at which transmission capacity can be built to support it,” Vegas’ presentation said. “A new era of transmission system planning is necessary to manage the large amount of prospective load.”
Typically, the costs of building out transmission and distribution infrastructure are spread across a utility’s customers. But the major investments needed to support demand driven by large industrial users raised the question of who should foot the bill.
Lawmakers have signaled interest in limiting the costs passed onto small energy consumers “by ensuring that industries with significant electricity demands bear a fair portion of their actual costs.”
Diorio, of the Data Center Coalition, emphasized that the industry was “fully committed to paying our full cost of service.”
“We do not want residential customers subsidizing data centers,” he said. “We have a strong stake in helping Texas build out appropriately, and we’re leaning in to do that.”
Disclosure: Association of Electric Companies of Texas (AECT) has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/24/texas-data-center-boom-grid/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.powerplant
Jan 30, 2025
Power Grid International
Almost Half Of Us States Haven’T Done The Bare Minimum To Cut Utility Bills“This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.”
During his first week in office, President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, declared an energy emergency, renewed his vow to “drill, baby, drill,” and began dismantling American climate policy. That has left environmental advocates looking to states to lead the nation’s efforts to burn fewer fossil fuels — and a report released Wednesday shows there is much more they can do.
One of the most powerful tools at each state’s disposal is the ability to work with utilities to encourage energy efficiency. But, the report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, or ACEEE, details how only 26 states, along with the District of Columbia, have established a so-called “energy-efficiency resource standard,” or EERS. These targets, set by legislators or utility regulators, require utilities to implement programs — such as weatherization or rebates on appliances — that cut energy consumption by a certain amount each year.
“There is more work that needs to be done,” said Jasmine Mah, a senior research analyst at the Council and an author of the report. Since 2012, just three states have added such a standard, while New Hampshire, Ohio, and Iowa repealed theirs in favor of less ambitious or scaled-back programming. Arizona is also pursuing a rollback. Mah says the report is aimed at state policymakers and regulators, who could shift that tide.
“We hope that highlighting the positive impacts of having an EERS in place would encourage states to pass a policy,” she said. An earlier ACEEE report found that, as of 2017, states with an energy-efficiency resource standard saw four times the electricity savings as states without one. In 2023, states with such a plan accounted for about 59 percent of the U.S. population but 82 percent of the savings.
“States aren’t doing this just because of climate change,” said Barry Rabe, a political scientist at the University of Michigan who studies energy and climate politics. “There is an economic advantage.”
Fossil-fuel friendly Texas, Rabe noted, was the first to adopt an EERS in 1999. But efficiency can become less of a priority when energy supplies are abundant and costs are stable. “The decline in interest,” Rabe said, “has in some degree coincided with the massive increase in natural gas use in the U.S.”
Still, the Council also found that many states have gone beyond baseline policies and implemented what the report dubs “next-generation” initiatives that aim to lower greenhouse gas emissions, spur electrification, serve lower-income populations, and reduce consumers’ financial energy burdens. All but four of the 27 states (including D.C.) with an energy-efficiency resource standard have implemented at least one such effort, but only nine have adopted all of them, leaving plenty of room for growth.
“We found that low-income targets are the most common complementary goal related to efficiency standards,” said Mah. “[But] not many states had provisions for energy affordability.”
The report spotlights five states that have been particularly effective at employing these programs. Illinois has targeted using only clean energy by 2050. Massachusetts aims to install half a million heat pumps by 2030. Michigan mandates that utilities dedicate at least 25 to 35 of their energy-efficiency funding to programs serving low-income customers. Utilities in New York and Minnesota have capped the portion of a customer’s income that can go toward utility costs at 6 and 4 percent, respectively.
President Trump’s push to repeal the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, likely won’t impact state EERSs because they are generally funded through fees added to utility bills. “We see that as probably the best way to bring significant funds,” said Justin Brant, the utility program director at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.
Critics of Arizona’s EERS, which was adopted in 2010, point to the $3 billion cost to customers. “Utilities should select the most cost-effective energy mix to provide reliable and affordable service, without being constrained by government-imposed mandates that make it more expensive for their customers,” said Arizona Corporation Commissioner Nick Myers in a statement last year. But the state’s largest electric utility found that, in 2023, EERS investments reaped about twice as much in returns as was spent.
“We’re saving money for all customers, even those who aren’t participating,” said Brant.
The IRA does provide nearly $9 billion for energy-efficiency and electrification programs, almost all of which is distributed via states and could be used on next-generation programs, like those serving low-income households. That money has already been awarded. But the Republican-controlled Congress could roll back federal tax credits for energy efficiency and electrification, which indirectly make it easier for states to achieve their energy-efficiency resource standard and next-generation goals.
Brant says he would add another policy to the Council’s “next-generation” wishlist for states: programs that encourage customers to spread out the timing of their daily energy use. Lower peak demand means power plants don’t need to be as large and that, he said, will be especially critical as renewable energy becomes an increasing part of the country’s electricity mix.
“Time shift is not something that this report looked at,” he said. “I think that’s another piece that needs to be prioritized.”
This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/energy/almost-half-of-us-states-havent-done-the-bare-minimum-to-cut-utility-bills/.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.orgpowerplant
Jan 30, 2025
Power Grid International
New Sensor Data Provides More Insight Into What May Have Caused California’S Eaton FireData from a software and sensor company is providing additional insight into what may have happened when the recent Eaton fire broke out in Southern California.
Whisker Labs, a company that deploys sensor technology meant to help predict and prevent wildfires and detect electrical faults, has released new data from the day the fires began, the New York Times reports. The company purports its data shows that two faults occurred on transmission lines near Altadena on January 7, just before the Eaton fire began in the same area.
The first fault was detected at 6:10 PM, and another one was detected three seconds later. The disruptions were felt states away in Oregon and Utah through thousands of sensors, according to Whisker Labs. Whisker Lab’s sensors are installed in homes and can help measure and detect power and arc faults along the grid.
“We looked at this one — it was like, Holy cow,” Bob Marshall, co-founder and chief executive of Whisker Labs, told the New York Times. “This is a transmission-scale event. Any time something happens on the grid and we see a fault at exactly the same time on many, many sensors, then it is a fault on the utility grid.”
Does Whisker Labs sound familiar? Read our feature on how the company’s smart sensors have detected “noisy power” outside of IEEE standards that could be costing ratepayers money.
Southern California Edison (SCE) on Monday reported a fault on a power line connected miles away from ones located near the origin of the Eaton Fire, the deadly blaze that ignited outside of Los Angeles on Jan. 7 and killed at least 17 people.
In its new filing, Edison reported that the fault occurred at 6:11 p.m. While those lines that experienced the fault do not traverse Eaton Canyon, they are connected to the system, which did experience a surge, the utility reported.
The timing of the faults seems to line up with security footage from a nearby gas station that was presented in a court hearing in a case filed by attorneys for a homeowner whose property was destroyed in the fire. The attorneys say the video shows arcing and electrical sparking on a transmission tower in Eaton Canyon just before the wind whipped the fire into a fast-moving and destructive blaze.
The attorneys alleged SCE’s equipment sparked the fire, pointing to a different video taken during the fire’s early minutes that shows large flames beneath electrical towers.
Attorneys for Altadena resident Evangeline Iglesias argued that, together, the fault and gas station video provides “evidence that SCE’s equipment in Eaton Canyon was the source of the initial ignition, and there is a near-certainty that physical evidence of the cause exists somewhere along the SCE transmission lines that run parallel to the line on the tower that erupted in flame.”
Video and photos taken by residents also captured flames beneath SCE’s electrical towers in the Eaton Canyon area in the early minutes of the fire. One resident said he heard a loud pop at the outset of the conflagration.
The Eaton Fire was one of two massive and deadly blazes that sparked on Jan. 7 amid hurricane-force winds that whipped across the parched Los Angeles region. At least 28 people have died and firefighters have continued battling the blazes for weeks. The Eaton Fire is now nearly contained, meaning firefighters almost have it totally surrounded, as the region gets its first rain in months.
Iglesias’ attorneys have accused the utility of destroying evidence. A judge last week ordered SCE to preserve evidence in the area, concerned that the utility is discarding equipment that may hold clues to the fire’s origin.
SCE’s attorneys say the company has preserved evidence in the area where the fire originated as its crews work to restore power to about 2,000 homes in Altadena that are still dark.
In an earlier filing to the CPUC, SCE reported two days after the fire started that it had not received any suggestions that its equipment was involved in the ignition.
“Preliminary analysis by SCE of electrical circuit information for the energized transmission lines going through the area for 12 hours prior to the reported start time of the fire shows no interruptions or electrical or operational anomalies until more than one hour after the reported start time of the fire,” the utility reported.
This article contains reporting from the Associated Press.powerplant
Jan 30, 2025
Power Grid International
Uconn Eversource Energy Center’S Dr. Diego Cerrai On Ai For Storm And Damage PredictionThe increasing frequency and intensity of storms pose significant challenges to electric utilities, emphasizing the need for technological solutions to optimize storm response. Could AI be part of the solution to those problems?
Dr. Diego Cerrai, Associate Director for Storm Preparedness and Emergency Response at the University of Connecticut (UConn) Eversource Energy Center, will speak on this topic at DTECH (formerly known as DISTRIBUTECH) March 24-27, 2025 in Dallas, Texas.
Cerrai will participate in the session, AI for proactive storm response at Exelon and Oncor, taking place March 25, from 1 PM – 1:50 PM.
Accurate storm outage and damage prediction is crucial for mitigating the adverse impacts of power disruptions, enhancing grid resilience, and ensuring timely restoration of services. Emerging in-field and AI technology allows utilities to proactively allocate resources, optimize crew deployments, and communicate more effectively with customers and stakeholders. However, challenges remain, including data quality and availability, integration with existing systems, upstream process improvement, and change management.
Exelon has teamed up with UConn to develop an outage prediction model for its area. As part of the partnership, UConn is developing four machine learning-based models for rain/windstorms, tropical storms, snow/ice storms, and thunderstorms. Panelists from Exelon, Oncor, and UConn will discuss their use of AI to enhance the tools and procedures for managing storms within their utilities. They will also address the existing challenges in securing stakeholder acceptance and trust and implementing these solutions in an operational environment.
Dr. Diego Cerrai is an Assistant Professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut, and Associate Director for Storm Preparedness and Emergency Response at the UConn Eversource Energy Center. He is leading the UConn Outage Prediction Modeling (OPM) team, focusing on the prediction of weather-related power outages using machine learning and statistical models. He developed the current version of the OPM, in collaboration with Eversource Energy, Avangrid, Dominion Energy, and Exelon. He is also leading projects related to grid resilience assessment, renewable energy resources integration in the electric grid, wildfire ignition prediction and storm tree damage prediction, and energy justice.
Attending DISTRIBUTECH? Don’t miss these other great sessions!
This list will be updated as more sessions are previewed.powerplant
Jan 30, 2025
Power Grid International
Deepseek Says It Built Its Chatbot Cheap. What Does That Mean For Ai’S Energy Needs And The Climate?By JENNIFER McDERMOTT and MATT O’BRIEN Associated Press
Chinese artificial intelligence startup company DeepSeek stunned markets and AI experts with its claim that it built its immensely popular chatbot at a fraction of the cost of those made by American tech titans.
That immediately called into question the billions of dollars U.S. tech companies are spending on a massive expansion of energy-hungry data centers they say are needed to unlock the next wave of artificial intelligence.
Could this new AI mean the world needs significantly less electricity for the technology than everyone thinks? The answer has profound implications for the overheating climate. AI uses vast amounts of energy, much of which comes from burning fossil fuels, which causes climate change. Tech companies have said their electricity use is going up, when it was supposed to be ramping down, ruining their carefully-laid plans to address climate change.
“There has been a very gung ho, go ahead at all costs mentality in this space, pushing toward investment in fossil fuels,” said Eric Gimon, senior fellow at Energy Innovation. “This is an opportunity to tap the brakes.”
Making AI more efficient could be less taxing on the environment, experts say, even if its huge electricity needs are not going away.
DeepSeek’s claims of building its impressive chatbot on a budget drew curiosity that helped make its AI assistant the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple’s iPhone this week, ahead of U.S.-made chatbots ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
“All of a sudden we wake up Monday morning and we see a new player number one on the App Store, and all of a sudden it could be a potential gamechanger overnight,” said Jay Woods, chief global strategist at Freedom Capital Markets. “ It caused a bit of a panic. These were the hottest stocks in the world.”
DeepSeek’s app competes well with other leading AI models. It can compose software code, solve math problems and address other questions that take multiple steps of planning. It’s attracted attention for its ability to explain its reasoning in the process of answering questions.
Leading analysts have been poring through the startup’s public research papers about its new model, R1, and its precursors. Among the details that stood out was DeepSeek’s assertion that the cost to train the flagship v3 model behind its AI assistant was only $5.6 million, a stunningly low number compared to the multiple billions of dollars spent to build ChatGPT and other well-known systems. DeepSeek hasn’t responded to requests for comment.
The $5.6 million number only included actually training the chatbot, not the costs of earlier-stage research and experiments, the paper said. DeepSeek was also working under some constraints: U.S. export controls on the most powerful AI chips. It said it relied on a relatively low-performing AI chip from California chipmaker Nvidia that the U.S. hasn’t banned for sale in China.
Data centers consumed about 4.4% of all U.S. electricity in 2023 and that’s expected to increase to 6.7% to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
It’s been axiomatic that U.S. tech giants must spend much more on building out data centers and other infrastructure to train and run their AI systems. Meta Platforms, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, says it plans to spend up to $65 billion this year, including on a massive data center complex coming to Louisiana.
Microsoft said it plans to spend $80 billion this year. And Trump last week joined the CEOs of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank to announce a joint venture that hopes to invest up to $500 billion on data centers and the electricity generation needed for AI development, starting with a project already under construction in Texas.
When there’s an innovative technology that’s useful to the general population and it’s affordable, people will use it, said Vic Shao, founder of DC Grid, which delivers off-grid, direct current power to data centers and electric vehicle charging stations.
That means data centers will still be built, though they may be able to operate more efficiently, said Travis Miller, an energy and utilities strategist at Morningstar Securities Research.
“We think that the growth in electricity demand will end up at the lower end of most of the ranges out there,” he said.
If DeepSeek’s claims hold true, some routine AI queries might not need a data center and could be shifted to phones, said Rahul Sandil, vice president and general manager for global marketing and communications at MediaTek, a semiconductor company. That would ease the computing need and give more time to scale up renewable energy sources for data centers.
Bloom Energy is one of the AI-related stocks that took a hit Monday. KR Sridhar, founder and CEO, said it’s imperative that the U.S. leads in AI because it can power data centers with clean energy, unlike other countries that still primarily rely on coal.
“We can continue to make it better and we will continue to make it better,” he said.
Rick Villars, an analyst for market research group IDC, said the DeepSeek news could influence how AI researchers advance their models, but they’ll still need plenty of data centers and electricity.
“We think this actually could boost and accelerate the time frame for when AI becomes much more embedded into our lives, in the work sense, the living sense and in health care,” Villars said. “So we still think the capacity is required.”powerplant
Jan 29, 2025
Power Grid International
Eversource Goes Underground: Utility Breaks Ground On First-Of-Its-Kind Substation, Part Of $1.5B Transmission ProjectEversource has broken ground on the Greater Cambridge Energy Program (GCEP), a $1.5 billion transmission initiative meant to address increased electric demand in the region by adding new transmission lines and constructing an underground substation, a first for the utility. It is slated to be the largest underground electrical substation in the United States once it is completed.
The GCEP project will enable the interconnection of more new clean energy resources, necessary to support a strained grid amidst a nationwide increase in electrification across sectors. as customers adopt technologies like EVs and heat pumps.
Designed to place a “significant amount” of needed infrastructure underground, the GCEP’s planned substation will be a whopping 35,000 square feet, located 105 feet underground. The first underground substation in the U.S. was built by Anaheim Public Utilities in 2006.
As energy demand continues to increase in Cambridge and surrounding areas, Eversource argues the output from GCEP’s underground substation will enable “far-reaching” electrification of heating systems in the city, providing capacity to address 100% of residential heating electrification as well as the ability to displace 50% of the commercial sector’s gas demand through electrification.
As part of GCEP, Eversource will also construct eight new 115 kV underground transmission lines spanning 8.3 miles through portions of Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston. Additional work includes upgrades to five substations, or “clean energy hubs,” in Cambridge, Somerville, and Allston/Brighton, and the construction of 48 new distribution lines.
Eversource anticipates to begin putting GCEP into service in 2029 with the energization of the substation and the first transmission line. As construction proceeds, the energy company expects that the remaining transmission lines will be put into service through 2031. Throughout the project, approximately 500 full-time jobs will be supported.
“The GCEP is a true example of public and private partnership created to solve a critical community challenge. BXP is incredibly proud and fortunate to partner with Eversource, the CRA, and the City of Cambridge to provide a below-grade space for the substation which will power the future of Cambridge,” said Bryan Koop, Executive Vice President for BXP’s Boston region.
Eversource originally received tentative approval from a Massachusetts siting board to build the underground substation last June.powerplant
Jan 29, 2025
Power Grid International
National Grid’S Bridget Powers Beggs On ‘Right-Sizing’ Distribution Systems And The Economic, Societal Value Of DermsDecarbonization goals are leading a transition towards higher penetrations of renewables and electrified loads, and while the technical merits of distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) have received significant attention in recent years, the economic and societal values of DERMS-enabled applications are still being discerned.
Bridget Powers Beggs, an engineer for National Grid’s Integrated Planning and Solutions team, will speak on both of these issues facing utilities at DTECH (formerly known as DISTRIBUTECH) March 24-27, 2025 in Dallas, Texas.
Powers Beggs will participate in two sessions sessions:
“These are both important topics for utilities, as meeting the challenges of both electrification and decarbonization will require unprecedented investment in both traditional infrastructure and flexibility solutions,” Powers Beggs said. “Decision frameworks and benefit-cost models for how to evaluate these investments on a level playing field is therefore critical to ensure affordability for our customers in both the near and long-term.”
This session will present methodologies for assessing the value streams enabled by DERMS to support utility investment decisions and cost-recovery filings. DERMS applications considered include supporting flexible interconnection agreements, non-wires alternatives, and DER grid services. Utility representatives from Xcel, PG&E, and National Grid will discuss real-world case studies that illustrate these concepts in practice.
Session participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to evaluate the benefits of DERMS and apply these insights to optimize grid management and investment strategies.
A robust electric distribution system that is “right-sized” with modern capabilities is needed to achieve increasing customer expectations in a safe, reliable, and affordable manner. As the distribution system rapidly evolves, novel planning, design, and operating processes are also needed to proactively identify and justify the needs and designs of the future.
In this panel, Dominion Energy, National Grid, Southern California Edison (SCE), and EPRI will share their approaches to handling mass electrification and renewable growth, including the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each solution. Dominion Energy will discuss the benefits and challenges associated with its 34.5 kV distribution system, and National Grid will speak on capacity solutions for legacy 4 kV systems.
In addition, SCE and EPRI will present key findings from the recent grid architecture project. In this project, EPRI conducted an in-depth review of unique grid architectures and designs globally to uncover the best practices and methods established by various regions. It highlighted, on a global scale, the innovative and forward-thinking methods being adopted for future grid developments as well as case studies for grid transformations at various levels of transmission and distribution.
Powers Beggs is currently an area engineer on National Grid’s New York Distribution Planning and Asset Management team. In their time at National Grid they have worked on the Integrated Planning and Solutions, Future of Electric, and Grid Modernization Solutions teams on a variety of projects, including leading regulatory filings, developing benefit cost analyses for grid modernization and Distribution System Operator (DSO) investments, and updating planning criteria, practices and processes for electrification.
Attending DISTRIBUTECH? Don’t miss these other great sessions!
This list will be updated as more sessions are previewed.powerplant
Jan 29, 2025
Power Grid International
White House Rescinds Memo Freezing Government SpendingWell, that was quick.
Less than two days after the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memorandum directing all government agencies to pause activities related to their federal financial assistance programs to ensure they don’t conflict with President Trump’s “anti-woke” agenda, the OMB has rescinded it.
In a follow-up memo sent out today that is shorter than this article already is, the White House says:
“OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel.”
The directive threatened trillions of dollars in loans, grants, and other financial assistance and was likely unconstitutional, according to experts. The imperiled federal funding had been already allocated by Congress to support everything from funding for disaster aid, healthcare research, and educational programs to massive infrastructure projects like transmission lines, battery manufacturing facilities, and emerging technologies.
Minutes before the funding freeze was set to take effect at 5:00 PM ET yesterday, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the order, prompted by a lawsuit brought on by nonprofit groups that receive federal funds. The administrative stay was supposed to last until Monday afternoon.
“Without this funding, Plaintiff States will be unable to provide certain essential benefits for residents, pay public employees, satisfy obligations, and carry on the important business of government,” 22 state attorneys general, all Democrats, argued in the lawsuit.
“It seems like the federal government currently doesn’t actually know the full scope of the programs that are going to be subject to the pause,” theorized District Judge AliKhan.
Less than 24 hours after issuing M-25-13 and instigating widespread confusion across federal agencies, the White House attempted to clarify the policy, saying programs that provide direct benefits to Americans like Social Security, Medicare, and food assistance would be excluded from the freeze. Still, it isn’t clear exactly what policies or agendas President Trump is trying to cut out of budgets, although some of the text of M-25-13 lends a clue.
“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the rescinded memo reads in part.
Last week, President Trump also issued a series of executive orders undercutting clean energy initiatives that halted wind development and leasing, cut off the disbursement of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding to green projects, and signaled America’s intent to pull out of the Paris Agreement (again). Trump declared the United States was amidst an “energy emergency,” and greenlit drilling in previously protected areas while openly embracing the burning of more fossil fuels to feed ambitious data center projects.
Originally published in Renewable Energy World.powerplant
Jan 29, 2025
Power Grid International
Southwest Electric Utility Adopts Automated Customer Usage Data PlatformAn electric utility in the Southwest U.S. is taking a high-tech approach to customer data.
El Paso Electric (EPE) is using an integrated data access solution from Oracle and UtilityAPI that is intended to meet the Green Button Download My Data (DMD) and Connect My Data (CMD) certification requirements. The offering enables residential customers to opt in to automate the transfer of their utility energy usage data to authorized third-party vendors. By sharing their usage, customers can gain information and tools meant to help them save energy and lower their bill. The solution also allows large commercial customers with multiple utility accounts and meters to self-authorize access to all their accounts in one file via an application programming interface (API).
The Green Button initiative is an industry-led effort that responds to a 2012 White House call-to-action to provide utility customers with “easy and secure access” to their energy usage. For many electric utilities, providing access to data and insights is essential but can also be resource-intensive. With more states mandating these kind of initiatives, utilities are looking for solutions to remain compliant.
EPE is a regional energy provider engaged in generation, transmission, and distribution. It serves approximately 460,000 customers in a 10,000-square-mile area of the Rio Grande Valley in West Texas and Southern New Mexico. EPE works with Oracle to provide web tools and outbound customer alerts through the Opower Customer Engagement platform, which receives residential and commercial customer information datasets, including advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) interval usage data.
Instead of creating a new integration with every single vendor interacting with its customers, EPE leverages an existing integration with Oracle to share that data via API. UtilityAPI then provides the authorization management processes for third parties and end consumers.
Through access to AMI interval data, customers can receive energy quotes from a solar contractor with their actual usage and rate plan instead of manually sending files to the contractor or having the contractor use a “best guess.” The companies argue that this improves satisfaction and reduces the likelihood of customer complaints about their new bill with solar or other third-party vendor services. As the number of touchpoints is logged with third parties, utilities can gain insights into the types of vendors interacting with their customers. Utilities can then adjust services and programs as the vendor landscape changes.
“Our ongoing collaboration with Oracle has helped us put our customer data to work, improve essential customer services, and identify invaluable new opportunities,” said Grisel Ramirez, supervisor of advanced metering at EPE. “Oracle and UtilityAPI allow us to extend and enhance experiences for our customers outside of the core utility managed applications with the vendors working with our customers. They help us meet our compliance requirements faster and at a significantly lower cost than other potential solutions so we can continue investing dollars and time into providing safe, reliable, and responsible affordable energy.”
“There is a growing need for data transfer between utilities and third parties throughout the energy transition, and that creates complexities,” said Matt O’Keefe, group vice president for Oracle Energy and Water. “Securing and managing data in utilities and adjacent industries is in Oracle’s DNA. Our platform makes it easy for utilities and helps reduce complexity and risk by providing a single, secure endpoint for hundreds of customer insights and attributes and streamlined authentication by extending single sign-on to other applications.”powerplant
Jan 29, 2025
Power Grid International
A $4B Settlement For Hawaii Wildfire Victims Is In Legal Limbo As An Unusual Trial StartsBy JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) — When Hawaii Gov. Josh Green announced a $4 billion settlement about a year after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century devastated Lahaina in 2023, he touted the speed of the deal to “avoid protracted and painful lawsuits.”
Five months later, however, an unusual trial starting Wednesday will delve into difficult questions about survivors’ losses as a judge decides how to divide the settlement. Some victims will take the witness stand, while others have submitted pre-recorded testimony, describing pain made all the more fresh by the recent destruction in Los Angeles.
The trial won’t determine fault. Defendants blamed for the blaze including the state, power utility Hawaiian Electric and large landowners have already agreed to the settlement amount.
At issue is how much money various groups of plaintiffs might receive, including some who filed individual lawsuits after losing their family members, homes or businesses, and other victims covered by class-action lawsuits, including tourists who simply had to cancel trips to Maui following the inferno.
Lawyers for the two groups failed to come to an agreement, leaving it up to Judge Peter Cahill to determine how the $4 billion should be shared.
“A class action is everybody suffering the same loss,” said Damon Valverde, whose Lahaina sunglasses company burned. “And I suffered quite a bit more than others, and others suffered quite a bit more than me.”
Valverde isn’t expected to testify; the focus should be on victims who lost family members, he said.
Those include Kevin Baclig, whose wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law were among the 102 people known to have died.
Baclig said in a declaration that if called to testify he would describe how for three agonizing days he searched for them — from hotel to hotel, shelter to shelter. “I clung to the fragile hope that maybe they had made it off the island, that they were safe,” he said.
A month and a half went by and the grim reality set in. He went to the Philippines to gather DNA samples from his wife’s close relatives there. The samples matched remains found in the fire. He eventually carried urns holding their remains back to the Philippines.
“The loss has left me in profound, unrelenting pain,” he said. “There are no words to describe the emptiness I feel or the weight I carry every day.”
The class action includes some people who lost homes and businesses, but also tourists whose trips were delayed or canceled. Only a nominal portion of the settlement should go toward that group, said Jacob Lowenthal, one of the attorneys representing victims — like Baclig — who have filed their own lawsuits, known as the “individual plaintiffs.”
“The categories of losses that the class is claiming are just grossly insignificant compared to our losses,” Lowenthal said.
Attorneys representing the class didn’t respond to messages from The Associated Press. In their trial brief, they challenged the idea that everyone who has a claim worth suing over has already done so. Many people have held off hiring attorneys, the brief said, because of the fire’s disruption to life, “distrust in heavy attorney advertising, and a desire to see how the process plays out first.”
Further complicating the matter are questions before the state Supreme Court, which is considering whether insurers can separately sue the defendants for reimbursement for the $2 billion-plus they have paid out as a result of the fire, or whether their share must come from the $4 billion settlement.
If the court says insurers can sue separately, that will likely torpedo the entire deal. Preventing insurers from going after the defendants is a key settlement term, and allowing them to do so would drain the money available for fire victims and lead to prolonged litigation, lawyers for the individual plaintiffs say.powerplant
Jan 29, 2025Power Grid International
Eversource Energy’S John Nachilly On Leveraging Esim Tech For Scada ResiliencyUtility SCADA solutions are critical to keeping the grid operating at its maximum availability, but they rely on communications systems that connect the head end to sensors, reclosures, and other distribution elements to enable a reconfiguration of the distribution grid.
Many utilities rely on cellular communications (public and private) to enable the required connectivity. Here’s the challenge: cellular networks were never designed to maximize availability and only considered resiliency as secondary to mobility.
John Nachilly, Manager of Operational Network Strategy & Architecture at Eversource Energy, will speak about multi-carrier SIM technology evolution to support SCADA and utility field area network functionality at DTECH (fka DISTRIBUTECH) March 24-27, 2025 in Dallas, Texas.
Nachilly will participate in the session Leveraging eSIM technology to improve SCADA resiliency on March 25 from 4 PM to 4:50 PM.
One way to address the low availability (~99.9%) of cellular is to leverage the emerging GSMA eSIM standards which enable access to multiple public and private networks. By adding fallback connectivity to a primary cellular network, utilities can enhance overall communications availability as network outage events are often independent random processes. The added redundancy to one or more fallback networks has the potential to improve network availability by an order of magnitude.
eSIM (embedded SIM) technology allows end users to change the network they are connected to without swapping a physical SIM card. While they are available for mobile phones, they are also often used in Internet of Things (IoT) applications, smart meters, GPS tracking devices, CCTV cameras, and more.
For Nachilly, the most critical issue utilities face today is “the ability to develop secure communication technologies to achieve grid modernization goals.”
John Nachilly is responsible for defining the network strategy for Eversource Energy. John brings over 40 years of experience leading projects for Eversource including Telecommunications, Enterprise Network Design, Desktop & Infrastructure, Cloud Services Optimization, Field Automation, and Smart Grid Initiatives. John’s current projects include defining a multi-carrier wireless strategy for Field Area Networks and designing and implementing the mesh and backhaul network for Advanced Metering Infrastructure.
Attending DISTRIBUTECH? Don’t miss these other great sessions!
This list will be updated as more sessions are previewed.powerplant
Jan 28, 2025Power Grid International
California Utility Reports Fault On Power Line Miles Away From Origin Of Deadly Eaton FireBy JASON DEAREN Associated Press
GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) — Southern California Edison on Monday reported a fault on a power line connected miles away from ones located near the origin of the Eaton Fire, the deadly blaze that ignited outside of Los Angeles on Jan. 7 and killed at least 17 people.
Edison says that there is still no evidence that its equipment caused the blaze, which has destroyed more than 9,000 structures in and around the community of Altadena. The official investigation into the fire’s cause has not been completed.
The utility’s new filing with the California Public Utilities Commission comes on the same day as a court hearing in a case filed by attorneys for a homeowner whose property was destroyed in the fire. The attorneys allege the utility’s equipment sparked the fire, pointing to video taken during the fire’s early minutes that shows large flames beneath electrical towers.
The attorneys have now introduced new video they say shows arcing and electrical sparking on a transmission tower in Eaton Canyon just before the wind whipped the fire into a fast-moving and destructive blaze. They say the video came from security footage of a gas station.
The Eaton Fire was one of two massive and deadly blazes that sparked on Jan. 7 amid hurricane-force winds that whipped across the parched Los Angeles region. At least 28 people have died and firefighters have continued battling the blazes for weeks. The Eaton Fire is now nearly contained, meaning firefighters almost have it surrounded, as the region gets its first rain in months.
In its new filing, Edison reported that the fault occurred at 6:11 p.m. While those lines that experienced the fault do not traverse Eaton Canyon, they are connected to the system, which did experience a surge, the utility reported.
“Preliminary analysis shows that, because SCE’s transmission system is networked, the fault on this geographically distant line caused a momentary and expected increase in current on SCE’s transmission system, including on the four energized lines (in the fire area),” SCE’s filing said. “The current increase remained within the design limits and operating criteria for these circuits and, as intended, did not trigger system protection on these lines.”
Attorneys for Altadena resident Evangeline Iglesias argued that, together, the fault and gas station video provide “evidence that SCE’s equipment in Eaton Canyon was the source of the initial ignition, and there is a near-certainty that physical evidence of the cause exists somewhere along the SCE transmission lines that run parallel to the line on the tower that erupted in flame.”
Video and photos taken by residents also captured flames beneath Edison’s electrical towers in the Eaton Canyon area in the early minutes of the fire. One resident said he heard a loud pop at the outset of the conflagration.
Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokesperson for Southern California Edison, said the company received the footage of the gas station video from The New York Times on Saturday night and contacted authorities to ensure they had the video as well. She said it was premature for them to comment on the footage as experts investigated what caused the blaze.
“As of today, January 26, no one knows what caused the Eaton Fire,” Dunleavy said in an email Sunday. “Our investigation is ongoing, and we will continue our longstanding commitment to transparency.”
Iglesias’ attorneys have accused the utility of destroying evidence. A judge last week ordered Edison to preserve evidence in the area, concerned that the utility is discarding equipment that may hold clues to the fire’s origin.
SCE’s attorneys say the company has preserved evidence in the area where the fire originated as its crews work to restore power to about 2,000 homes in Altadena that are still dark.
In an earlier filing to the CPUC, Edison reported two days after the fire started that it had not received any suggestions that its equipment was involved in the ignition.
“Preliminary analysis by SCE of electrical circuit information for the energized transmission lines going through the area for 12 hours prior to the reported start time of the fire shows no interruptions or electrical or operational anomalies until more than one hour after the reported start time of the fire,” the utility reported.
This assertion was repeated in the utility’s Monday filing.powerplant
Jan 28, 2025