Check out what's happening in the high voltage industry. Here are some top headlines from this past week:
ABB Investing $60 Million in Technology for U.S. Market
ABB has unveiled its latest electrical innovations for the U.S. market and operational investments of more than $60 million. The investments for power distribution and protection, and residential circuit protection complete ABB’s portfolio, extending its broad range of installation products from Thomas & Betts, the business ABB acquired in 2012.
Source: T&D World
Scottsdale Property Owners to Pay $3 million to Bury Power Lines Near WestWorld
Plans to string high-voltage power lines near the entrance to Scottsdale’s WestWorld event center have changed after nearby property owners opted to tax themselves about $3 million to bury the Arizona Public Service Co. lines.
Source: The Arizona Republic
Utility Wind Rush Set to Strengthen as Low Prices Allow Resource to Spread Across Nation
Wind’s growth has been so rapid and its price has dropped so fast that a more important long term trend is often missed: It is quickly expanding its addressable marketplace. Deployed wind energy capacity grew almost 19% in 2016, to 5.53% of total U.S. generating capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Momentum for that wind construction came not just from utilities aiming to meet renewable energy mandates, but because power companies saw economic reasons to invest in wind.
Source: Utility Dive
DP&L to Retire 3,000 MW of Coal Generation in Ohio
Dayton Power & Light announced this week that the utility will close its J.M. Stuart and Killen coal-fired plants in southern Ohio, which combined generate 3,000 MW. The closures will take place by June 2018 when they will no longer be economically viable, Reuters reports.
Source: Utility Dive
Bechtel, GE Hitachi to Collaborate on Nuclear Decommissioning
Bechtel and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy announced the two companies will work together to assist Germany and Sweden decommission nuclear power plants. The two companies will provide a full range of decommissioning services, including pre-shutdown planning, licensing, project development and management, dismantling, demolition, waste handling, and site closeout.
Source: Power Engineering
Next Generation Utility: Optimizing Reliability During a Transition to a Modernized Grid
The utility landscape is changing rapidly and uncertainties abound as customer demands, technological improvements, and regulatory mandates continue to evolve. One certainty, however, is that the electrical grid will maintain its importance in the future, as utilities transform into distribution platform providers and shift from one-way to bi-directional power flow to accommodate distributed energy resources (DERs) and alternative business models.
Source: Utility Dive
Company Turns Piped Water into Electricity
To reach your tap, water flows through a network of pipes. One company is using the pressure in those pipes to create energy. Lucid Energy installs turbines inside gravity-fed water pipes. They provide energy without interrupting service.
Source: Yale Climate Connections