Eos Energy Storage demonstrated its grid-scale battery system at Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) smart grid lab in San Ramon, Calif., with the support of a $2.1 million award from the California Energy Commission.
Diversifying Utility Regulation: State regulators voice opinions as mixed as the nation’s geography.
PG&E and Efficient Drivetrains Inc. (EDI) unveiled two fuel-efficient work trucks that have the potential to eliminate the need for planned outages, lessen the impact of unplanned ones and allow for the operation of a bucket and other auxiliary systems without engine idling. PG&E and EDI also unveiled a Class 5 PHEV bucket truck that they partnered on with Altec Industries, featuring a customized version of Altec’s Jobsite Energy Management System (JEMS).
GE Energy Consulting and the New York Power Authority agree to a license arrangement allowing NYPA to use GE’s MAPS software to perform high-fidelity nodal analysis; NRG acquires Roof Diagnostics Solar, a residential solar company; GE unveils 2.75-120 wind turbine; AEP awards Babcock & Wilcox a contract to provide steam generator services.
Protecting substations and transformers after the PG&E Metcalf attack.
DTE Energy Services (DTEES) finished its construction project to convert a shuttered coal-fired power plant at the Port of Stockton to operate on biomass fuel. The plant, known as Stockton Biomass, began commercial operations on Feb. 21. It is selling its renewable power to PG&E. The plant will use about 320,000 tons of woody biomass fuel annually to generate about 45 MW of power. The fuel primarily is derived from urban wood waste, tree trimmings and agricultural processes.
The competitive transmission genie is out of the bottle.
Canadian Solar’s subsidiary, CSI Holdco LLC sold two utility-scale solar power plants totaling 4.4 MW to PSEG subsidiary, PSEG Solar Source. The plants have a 20-year off taking agreement with PG&E. The solar installations, together now called the PSEG Shasta Solar Farm, is built at over 3,300 feet in elevation between Mount Lassen and Mount Shasta located in northern California. Construction started in July of 2013, with commercial operation expected in early 2014.
Appendix:
In this appendix to “Opening the Black Box,” (Fortnightly, January 2014), we briefly describe the basic components of the models for managing aging assets: how to represent the condition of such assets and the outcome of replacement, maintenance, and testing decisions.
The model structure is one of optimal control with dynamic state variables and uncertainty. Let