Empowering the Grid with CTC Global’s Strategic Vision for a Sustainable Energy Future – [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Expert Interview]

Read on as Dave underscores the pivotal role of advanced conductor technologies in ensuring grid reliability and stability amid the increasing integration of renewable energy sources, as well as the importance of collaboration with industry stakeholders and cautioned against adopting bleeding-edge technologies without due consideration for practical implementation.

Additionally, Dave’s previous Power Perspectives Interviews can be found here:

Matt Chester: Congratulations on receiving a strategic investment from Endeavour Capital and Greenbelt Capital Partners. How do you foresee this investment impacting CTC Global’s operations and expansion plans in the coming years?

Dave Bryant:  First of all, ‘perfect timing.’ The need to improve the efficiency, capacity, reliability, and resilience of the world’s electric power grid has never been more urgent. While there is still some hesitation to widely deploy ‘new’ technologies – especially in the U.S. where many utilities are hoping new policies will provide them with fair ROI’s for their investments in Advanced Conductors and other Grid Enhancing Technologies – the ACCC® Conductor’s 20+ year successful track record, with more than 100,000 miles of ACCC in service gives the company a solid foundation from which to deliver more product to meet rapidly growing demand. Endeavour and Greenbelt share CTC’s vision of growth.

MC: For pursuing CTC’s focus on modernizing aging utility grid infrastructure and reducing greenhouse gas emissions globally, how will the new strategic investment and partnership enhance CTC’s efforts in achieving these goals?

DB: Endeavour and Greenbelt have substantial experience in the energy sector and are committed to helping our customers achieve their sustainability goals. CTC continues to work with trade associations such as WIRES, Grid Forward, ACORE, GridWise Alliance, NASEO, IEEE, Cigre, and several others to help policy makers and utilities understand the benefits of deploying modern technologies to solve modern problems.

CTC is also fortunate that its ACCC Conductor has been independently certified to reduce line losses by roughly 30% compared with conventional steel reinforced conductors. This attribute has been accepted by many international development banks which have funded hundreds of millions of dollars building new high-capacity, energy-efficient transmission lines using ACCC Conductors while also upgrading existing transmission lines using the same technical advantages.

MC: The investment comes at a time when the global energy grid is undergoing significant transformations, with increasing emphasis on renewable energy integration and energy resiliency. How does CTC plan to align its strategic priorities with these industry trends?

DB: As the leader in the Advanced Conductor sector, CTC Global continues to share its expertise and products with utilities and industrial customers facing these and other significant challenges. While we continue to help our customers link new sources of generation, new data centers, and accommodate other load demands, our product’s improved efficiency is helping improve the economic viability of renewable generation assets, reduce fuel consumption and associated GHG emissions from fossil fired thermal plants, and free-up generation capacity otherwise wasted. The product’s advantages greatly outweigh its cost which is helping hundreds of utilities meet their goals.

MC: With the increasing demand for advanced conductor technologies in the energy sector, how does CTC plan to leverage this investment to accelerate the adoption of its products on a global scale?

DB: CTC currently has core production facilities in the United States, Paraguay, Indonesia, and China, and we’re slated to open our newest facility in Pune, India, this spring. In addition to growing our capacity to support our 35+ authorized ACCC® Conductor manufacturing partners, we are also continuing to raise the technical performance bar.

As you may know, we are seeing an influx of new players who, much like our customers, recognize the suitability of our technology for this application. Our intentions are to offer our vast experience to ensure our customers’ projects’ success and keep us well ahead of our competitors.

MC: With the increasing integration of renewable energy sources into the grid, what role do you see advanced conductor technologies playing in ensuring grid reliability and stability?

DB: We have seen dozens of our customers utilize ACCC Conductor to efficiently link new conventional and renewable generation assets to the grid and demand centers. We are also seeing them use our technology to increase the capacity and reliability of the existing grid via reconductoring. This has proven to be a quick and economical solution that saves utilities and ratepayers huge amounts of money with minimal environmental impact and project delays.

MC: Collaboration between industry stakeholders is crucial for driving innovation and addressing common challenges. How does CTC Global collaborate with utilities, regulators, and other industry partners to advance the adoption of advanced conductor technologies?

DB: In addition to working very closely with our about 300 utility customers, CTC Global is also very active with trade associations such as EPRI, WIRES, Grid Forward, Gridwise Alliance, CurrENT Europe, and many others.

We are also proud of our engineering team who leverages our ISO/IEC 17025 certified lab to undertake ongoing R&D efforts and allow customers to witness factory acceptance testing. One of our more recent developments, the ACCC InfoCore® System, allows utilities to confirm and document successful installations. We worked very closely with a number of utilities to commercialize this advancement – with more to come.

MC: As the utility landscape continues to evolve, what advice would you give to utility professionals looking to stay ahead of the curve and leverage cutting-edge technologies to enhance their operations?

DB: There is a difference between cutting-edge and bleeding edge. With more than 1,250 projects completed in 66 countries, we have learned a lot and use our knowledge to help our customers conserve band-aids. With that said, using old technology to solve modern problems may not be the best play. And I’m happy to answer any questions from Energy Central community members in the comments of this article when it gets published!

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Thanks to Dave Bryant for joining me for this interview and for providing a wealth of insights and expertise to the Energy Central Community. You can trust that Dave will be available for you to reach out and connect, ask questions, and more as an Energy Central member, so be sure to make him feel welcome when you see her across the platform.

The other expert interviews that we’ve completed in this series can be read here, and if you are interested in becoming an expert, you can reach out to me or you can apply here.