Date: January 8, 2025
Topic: Energy Storage: Boosting System Performance and Cutting Costs — But What About Operating Risk?
Speaker: Dr. Miguel Ortega Vazquez – EPRI
Dr. Vazquez earned his EE degree from Instituto Tecnológico de Morelia, M.Sc. Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, and Ph.D. The University of …
Seattle IEEE Power & Energy Society Meeting
Bellingham’s Spark Museum Tour
Saturday October 12, 2024
Topic: Spark Museum of Electrical Invention, Bellingham
Agenda
9:45 am – 10:00 Arrival – Don’t be late. Doors will be closed after 10am.
10:00 am – 10:45 am – MegaZapper Electrical Show
11:00 am – 12:00 pm …
2024 Grand Coulee Dam Tour: Built by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee Dam was the largest concrete structure in the world for decades. With the expansion of the third power station in 1974 made it the largest power plant in the world at the time. It still remains the largest power plant in the USA with a capacity of over 6 GW in three power stations.
The NWESS 2024 symposium has come to a close, and it was a resounding success! This two-day event brought together industry professionals from across the Pacific Northwest to tackle the region’s most pressing energy issues. With a theme of “Making a Resilient Northwest Grid,” the symposium featured a range of topics and presentations that sparked valuable discussions and knowledge sharing.
Historically, the timing, magnitude, and location of demand in electrical grids was easy to forecast, and the supply was highly controllable. With the growth in variable renewable energy, distributed energy resources, and electrification of buildings and transportation, this is no longer the case.
Seattle City Light is well along the pathway toward an electrified future, and despite having a 96% carbon free baseload we have a long way to go to meet our collective goals. As a utility provider we’re embracing the transition opportunities ahead, while recognizing our role has shifted from simply keeping the lights on to powering much more in our daily lives through partnerships, equity, grid modernization, and transportation and building electrification.
There is an evolution in how distributed energy resources (DERs) provide power and energy. In the last decade, DERs have become the most cost-effective source of new power in many markets. DER technologies are primed to take over a larger share of grid supply infrastructure.
Distribution grids are becoming complex and managing them with traditional approaches is increasingly untenable. On the one hand, the exponential adoption of DERs such as rooftop solar, home batteries and EVs is dramatically altering power consumption (and production) patterns.
Ambitious clean energy and climate change policies are driving the adoption of clean energy, the electrification of all sectors of the economy, and an increased emphasis on delivering benefits through the energy system for underserved communities.
Grid operation is becoming more complex and challenging due to the electrification of heating and transportation loads, deployment of intermittent renewable generation, and the occurrence of extreme weather events. Distributed energy resources (DERs) can offer considerable flexibility for grid operation but also presents a key challenge.
