The energy sector, which until recently has been very conservative, is now facing increased disruption from increasing penetration of modern variable renewable energy sources. Maintaining the frequency remains a critical metric, but use of existing regulating standards and security mechanisms in place have been deemed ineffective and outdated. The energy sector has historically been immune to […]
The need for higher reliability, more compactness and insensitivity to environmental factors are the key drivers for the evolution of SF6 gas insulated switchgear (GIS). The higher the voltage the more applicable is the use of GIS switchgear. With today’s ever-increasing land and civil cost for substations, the ability to accommodate more and more feeders […]
Coal-fired power stations will continue to form a major portion of the power generation mix in the immediate future. Much research has been done on reducing CO2 emissions from these sources by CO2 capture, but very little on emission from smaller sources. An approach which captures CO2 directly from the atmosphere, remotely from the generating […]
The days of mega-sized coal-fired projects are over, at least for this country. The use of coal as a fuel for power generation will nonetheless continue for many years in the future, with the difference that small-scale (clean) coal-fired plant (SSCFP) is seen to be the technology of choice. Future plant could be of a […]
More than 1,4-billion people worldwide do not have access to electricity; and 600-million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. The average electrification rate of the region is 31%, with disparities between urban and rural areas. Various solutions are being implemented and monitored for their efficiency. Among the solutions for increasing universal access to electricity are off […]
Modern electrical installations supply power to a wide variety of non-linear loads, where the current drawn does not have a linear relationship with the voltage supplied. This results in distortions in the current and voltage waveforms. The degree of distortion in these waveforms tends to increase according to the number of non-linear loads in a […]
In the heart of one of the more constrained segments of New York City utility Consolidated Edison’s service territory, Demand Energy and L+M Development Partners have developed a microgrid to provide load relief on days when the grid is stressed by air conditioning demand. Marcus Garvey Village is a low- and middle-income apartment complex located […]
Distribution systems are earthed to create a reference point for the system voltage, to facilitate the detection and discriminative isolation of faults involving contact to earth, and to limit over-voltages under transient conditions. A neutral earthing system is a system in which the neutral is connected to earth, either solidly, or through a resistance or […]
More than half of the electricity generation capacity added to the US grid in 2016 and 2017 came from renewable resources, largely driven by the precipitous price decline of wind and solar projects. While this scale of renewable generation has translated into millions of tons of avoided carbon emissions, this increase in supply also has […]
IEC 61850, as the globally recognised and implemented standard for substation communications, requires thorough familiarity with testing technologies and their application. Edition 2 of the standard in particular offers varied and detailed possibilities in this area. The introduction of the concepts for routine testing is currently the subject of much discussion and demands the use […]
