Mainspring Energy’s Post

As Connecticut pushes towards greater electrification in response to climate change, questions arise about the state’s grid readiness. Despite some opinions suggesting the grid can't handle this shift, experts argue that proactive policy and infrastructure planning are essential to accommodate increased power demands from electric vehicles and other technologies. Key players stress the need for coordinated grid enhancements and investments to ensure a smooth transition. #seetheopportunityineverydifficulty #EnergyTransition #Infrastructure #ElectricVehicles #Connecticut https://lnkd.in/ekF-Kv8j

Grid operators and regulators across the US are warning that the premature closure of conventional electricity generation is degrading grid stability and creating risks of shortfalls. Already there have been blackouts in the past few years associated with this problem, and as large parts of the country have been experiencing hot weather, grid operators have been issuing alerts asking consumers to cut demand in order to prevent outages. Against this backdrop, the new Environmental Protection Agency is trying to introduce new rules that will force fossil fuel generation to close even faster absent unproven carbon capture or hydrogen technologies. As a group of American grid operators said in response: "hope is not an acceptable strategy". https://lnkd.in/e8Df47kd

The challenges of building new transmission to meet resurgent electricity consumption growth, as well as the change in location and nature of generation, isn't a uniquely Australian problem. Part of the Californian "solution" is better planning. In the Australian context that to me would not only be better planning but coordinated planning - one plan for the country not the ISP plus disparate State plan. https://lnkd.in/gjFbD5Xu

California's recent surge in power outages, affecting 51 million customers, underscores a critical energy challenge, costing the U.S. $150 billion annually. Amidst rising outages, Utah lawmakers are proactively securing energy reliability, notably eyeing a transition towards a mix of natural gas and hydrogen at the Delta power plant. This strategic move aims to align with cleaner energy mandates while maintaining energy stability, especially as the state navigates the complexities of transitioning from coal. The debate in Utah reflects a broader conversation on balancing energy reliability with sustainable practices, highlighting hydrogen as a key player in the future energy mix. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/etT-XGaC #ushydrogenalliance #hydrogen #cleanhydrogen #hydrogennow #hydrogeneconomy #hydrogenhubs #fuelcell #zeroemission #energy #cleanenergy #decarbonization #sustainability

The Victorian blackouts should be a reminder of the critical importance of maintaining reliability as we decarbonise energy. The blame game and misinformation that has ensued is a worrying reflection of how detached energy politics has become from the complex engineering that underpins this critical service. #blackout #energy https://lnkd.in/gVFi-JFW

Thanks Matthew Warren for the myth dispelling article and this trifecta of possible solutions to the reliability conundrum! “….exotic technologies like massed giant flywheels, practical solutions like a fleet of back-up gas turbines and expensive solutions like more storage.”

Spurred in part by federal climate funding, microgrids are on the rise. As of this month, intelligence firm Wood Mackenzie is tracking more than 4000 microgrid projects across the United States. In California, a state that has long been considered a leader in energy transition policy, an ongoing debate over a microgrid tariff — a standardized pricing structure for selling electricity back to the main grid — has brought policy to the forefront of the microgrid commercialization conversation. Recent weeks have seen not so much a flurry but a snowstorm of input on the California Public Utilities Commission's microgrid tariff proceedings, as stakeholders weigh the microgrid's grid resiliency benefits against broad-scale decarbonization. For more coverage on the new frontiers of climate technology, subscribe to our weekly newsletter! ➡ https://lnkd.in/guxh2nYs #microgrids #california #powergrid #energytransition #energy #tariffs #electricity #InflationReductionAct #LatitudeMedia #climatenews #climatetech #interconnection

🚨 Action Needed 🚨 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is establishing “National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors”, or NIETCs, to accelerate the expansion of electric transmission corridors across the country. This designation allows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue permits for transmission lines within these priority corridors if state authorities, like Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC), decide not to approve a transmission project or take more than a year to decide. One of DOE’s preliminary priority NIETC corridors is the Mid-Atlantic National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor, which is a web of electric transmission routes highly impactful to communities and natural, historic and agricultural resources in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The DOE does not indentify this corridor as connecting clean energy, instead these transmission lines would primarily connect coal power from as far away as Ohio to energy-hungry data centers in Northern Virginia. ⬇️ Learn more and take action today! ⬇️

Virginia’s 2024 legislative session wrapped up last month without any action to avert the energy crisis that is hurtling towards us. Crisis is not too strong a word to describe the unchecked proliferation of power-hungry data centers in Northern Virginia and around the state. Virginia utilities do not have the energy or transmission capacity to handle the enormous increases in energy consumption. Dominion Energy projects a doubling of CO2 and a new fossil fuel buildout. Drinking water sources are imperiled. The governor is unfazed. Legislators are going to study the matter. https://lnkd.in/d4Yeh-Kj

May 16, 2024 - By Dan Gearino - Inside Climate News, "Federal regulators made a big move to require regional planning for #interstate power lines, provoking an almost-certain court challenge. --- A new rule requires U.S. utilities and #gridoperators to work together on long-term planning for transmission lines—the large #powerlines that deliver electricity across regions. The rule is part of an order issued Monday from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that is trying to drag the nation’s power system into a new era in which the grid is prepared to handle an increase in electricity demand, in #energystorage and in the use of energy generated from #wind and #solar. So far, utilities dislike it, which consumer advocates and analysts say is both a sign that the rule is on target and a preview of a near future in which it will need to survive an inevitable challenge in court. The rule is an opportunity for transmission experts to get a moment in the sun. They are a geeky subgroup within the larger, and also geeky, community of energy policy wonks. To understand what the order does and why it matters, I spoke with Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. “The problem it’s trying to solve is insufficient investment in transmission,” he said. Transmission lines are the superhighways of the #grid, forming connections that allow power plants to deliver electricity across states and regions. The need for additional lines has run up against the challenges of getting utilities, grid operators and others to agree on which lines are needed, where they should go and how the costs should be allocated. Does the new rule solve the problem? “I think FERC was doing its best within the framework that it had created over the past two decades,” Peskoe said. He’s touching on one of the most common criticisms of the rule, which is that it’s a poor substitute for Congressional action. The rule is further limited by the constraints of a market in which most utilities have monopolies in their service territories and tend to resist policies that would increase the flow of inexpensive #electricity from other places. #FERC has to navigate the fact that some states have policies to develop renewable energy while others want to slow the shift away from fossil fuels. These clashing priorities make it difficult to design national policies. So what, exactly, does the rule do? A lot. The rule (https://lnkd.in/etpSQxMP) is more than 1,300 pages long. I could spend days describing its various provisions and the two-year process that preceded its release. But here are some of the main parts: ----#Utilities and other entities that operate #transmissionlines would need to participate in a #regionalplanning process at least every 5 years to consider the need for new lines, looking ahead with a time horizon of at least 20 years. ----The “regional” part means that this planning needs to involve discussions that go.." Continue reading