Generating Utility Industry News – Energy Central’s January 2024 Digest for the ‘Generation Network’

​Thank you for checking out the Generation Network digest. This piece compiles important articles that concern different elements of energy commerce, such as power plants, clean energy technologies, and more. The articles referred to in this piece are just a small smattering of the content posted on Energy Central, so make sure to check the rest of the site.

Get to Know Your Fellow Community Member

Spotlight: Steven Turner

What sets Energy Central apart from other online industry outlets is the true community-level feel. To highlight that aspect, this spot each month will feature a quick profile of one of your fellow Community Members for you to get to know and inspire you to reach out to them: leave a comment on their recent Energy Central content, follow their profile, and build a new connection in the industry!

Name and Title: Steven Turner, Senior Engineer at APS

Topics of Focus: Protection Systems, Reliability, Transmission

Recent Energy Central Contributions of Note:

Catastrophic Generation Event Analysis

Generator Winding Faults Events and Analysis

 Generator Restoration Following a Protection Operation

Top Content This Month

COP 28 reality – 2030 Coal retirement by Doug Houseman

Discover the urgent call to action for utility professionals as we delve into the staggering energy transition challenge: replacing 831 TWH of coal-fired energy and the resultant implications, obstacles, and the critical need for swift legislative mobilization. 

Preview: “In 2022 the US used 831 TWH of coal fired energy, with the highest month being in January (EAI) [88 TWH].  In 2023 the US will install 33 GWH of solar (NREL), those 33 GW will produce 47 TWH of electricity [ 3 TWH in January)”

Read the full article and leave a comment or question for the author here

What to do with a Proximate Analyses by Rod Hatt

Dive into the indispensable world of coal proximate analyses and unlock a wealth of insights for power plants, from fuel costs and sulfur emissions to ash loading and reactivity, as we explore how these fundamental coal tests serve as key performance indicators and drive critical calculations shaping the coal industry’s landscape worldwide.

 Preview: “‘Coal proximate analyses, including sulfur and CV, are the most common coal tests performed on coal shipments to power plants, all around the world.  Many significant coal related costs and performance indicators can be calculated from this simple coal test.”

Read the full article and leave a comment or question for the author here

Flexibility Roadmap for Power Systems COP28 – Lets do it together by Jamshed Saleem

This article unveils actionable policy recommendations for governments and the private sector, strategically navigating key enablers such as infrastructure, policy, supply chains, skills, finance, and international collaboration to accelerate the global transition to 11,000 GW of renewable energy capacity, doubling energy efficiency improvements, and fast-tracking a sustainable, 1.5 °C-compatible future.

 Preview: “Actionable policy recommendations for governments and the private sector are issued on how to increase global renewable energy capacity to at least 11,000 GW while also doubling annual average energy efficiency improvements.”

Read the full article and leave a comment or question for the author here

Recent Q&A in the Community

Q: How do you share with the public your utility’s percentage of solar generation to thermal generation?

Read submitted answers and or add your own!

Q: What are your plans for distributed power generation such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP). CHP could reduce CO2 dramatically while provideing the ablity to supply power for peak demand?

Read submitted answers and or add your own!

Upcoming Energy Central Events

Jan 15: Monthly Open-House Training on the Energy Central Community & Platform with Community Manager Matt Chester – January 2024

Jan 17-18: Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage Industry Meeting

Jan 23: POWERGEN International 2024

Jan 24: 4th EV Charging  Infrastructure Summit – North America, West

Jan 30: MD&A 2024 Turbine and Generator Inspection and Repair Technology Seminar

Feb 5: 2024 AESP Annual Conference

Feb 8: A Stepwise Journey Toward Digitalization and Grid Modernization [an Energy Central PowerSession]

Tapping into the Community

We want to make sure this Community is full interactive and properly reflects what you want to be seeing. So in this space each month we’ll leave a quick question seeking your feedback: this could be to gather your input on a new feature on Energy Central, to take the pulse of how the Community feels about a certain industry development, or even a fun ‘ice-breaker’ type of question. 

Each month, we’ll provide a review of the answers received in summary as well as the new question for the month. 

This month, we want to hear about the topics you’re most excited about heading into the new year. Using the poll feature below, we’ll collect their feedback on a certain question

Thank you for reading this digest. Feel free to comment on or share any article that you like. This site has many sections that cover just about every section of energy, so make sure to check any other areas that might interest you. Please check this section again next month, there will be another digest.

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