August is often seen as the end of something, whether it’s winter in the southern hemisphere or summer in the north. It’s the return to school for some and the last call for a vacation to others.
August, author Sue Monk Kidd wrote, is the “griddle where days just lay there and sizzle.” Hot, hot, hot.
The Clarion Energy series is trying to keep the griddle going this coming month with several key and informative industry webcast presentations. From T&D to on-site power and distributed energy, the webcasts take the temperature of the state of power transmission and generation at its most advanced stages.
Coming up August 17 will be a POWERGRID International session highlighting “When Traditional Overhead Construction Is Not an Option.” This hour-long webcast beginning at 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 17 features Brian Trager, Director of Technology and International, Marmon Utility-Hendrix Aerial Cable Systems.
He will highlight ways to overcome many overhead circuit challenges faced by electric utilities today. These include limited right of way, multiple circuits, substation exits, weather extremes, and vegetation management, among others.
A certificate of attendance is available for continuing education credit. Click here to find out more and register for the free session.
The August POWERGEN+ series also resumes late in the month with a focus on Decentralization and the New Energy Mix. Sessions on FERC Order 2222 regarding the market value of distributed energy, new microgrid projects, power reliability for data centers, trends in renewable energy build-out, behind-the-meter innovations, and clean energy alternatives including solar and wind and beyond.
POWERGEN+ August kicks off at 11:30 EDT Wednesday, Aug. 25 with a sponsored session on “The Why, How, and What of Decentralization and the new Energy Mix.” The 45-minute session will expand on the vast knowledge of several experts from Stanley Consultants, including microgrid practice lead Ernie Leaf, power generation practice lead Mathew Roling and Chris DePodesta, business development manager.
They will offer several case studies associated with trends created through the build-out of renewable energy, the challenges, and uncertainties coming to the industry both carbon-free and thermal. These roadblocks include weather events and cyber ransomware attacks, plus the financial and logistical. The Why, How and What will be well-rounded and cover a lot of ground.
Immediately following Stanley Consultants will be the editorial opener of POWERGEN+ on “The Electric Industry’s Challenges to FERC Order 2222” beginning 12:30 p.m. EDT on Aug. 25. Daniel Brooks, vice president of integrated grid and energy systems at the Electric Power Research Institute, will be joined by leaders from FirstEnergy and system operator experts to discuss the opportunities and challenges of adding distributed energy resource aggregation to the mix.
At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 25, engineering, procurement, and construction giant Black & Veatch will lead a session on “Microgrids and Distributed Energy,” focusing on in-depth looks and lessons learned at some of the major on-site projects the EPC firm has overseen and completed. The speakers will be Rob Wilhite, senior vice president and managing for Global Distributed Energy at Black & Veatch, and Abbey Roy, managing director for new ventures at utility leader Southern Co.
CPower Energy Management starts off the 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 26 sponsored schedule of POWERGEN+ with a paramount question about the Clean Energy Future: How will you respond? Navigating to the intersection of the four Ds—decarbonization, decentralization, digitization, and distributed energy—will be key for utilities and other businesses in the near and long term.
Mathew Sachs, CPower’s senior vice president of strategy, will provide a framework for how businesses can create value by tapping behind-the-meter innovations while also achieving sustainability goals. He will be joined by fellow panelists Vic Shao, AMPLY Power’s CEO/Co-founder, and Duncan Campbell, vice president and a founding part of Scale Microgrids. CPower and Scale have worked together on several projects, including a hybrid solar-storage-gas gen-set microgrid powering Fifth Season’s indoor farming operation in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, some of the largest consumers for both on-site power and distributed energy resources are data centers. Dan Barbersek, director of power generation for Waukesha-Pearce Industries and a POWERGEN contributor, will detail fuel reliability issues and successes for diesel gen-sets both in data center use and for C&I facilities industry-wide. He will be joined by Zach Dean, Rolls Royce Solutions Americas, who will talk about their projects supporting generation at data centers and other mission-critical sites. “Data Centers and 100 Percent Reliability” will run from 12:30-1:15 p.m. EDT Aug. 26.
The POWERGEN+ August finale maintains the sizzle one last time with “The Wide World of Renewable Energy” beginning 3:30 p.m. EDT on Aug. 26. Jay Dauenhauer, host of the Energy Cast podcast and also a POWERGEN regular contributor, will moderate a panel looking at the entire scope of renewable energy resources, from renewable natural gas, biomass, solar, wind, and more. Representatives from divisions of Dominion and Duke Energy also will be participating.
All of these POWERGEN+ and POWERGRID webcasts are free and available on-demand beyond the live sessions.
