News Highlights from the Electric Power Industry.
Honeywell to test new long-duration flow battery with Duke
Honeywell has developed a new flow battery technology capable of storing and discharging renewably-generated electricity for up to 12 hours, the company announced Tuesday.
The company will test the 400 kWh unit at Duke Energy’s Emerging Technology and Innovation Center in Mount Holly, North Carolina next year, with the deployment of a utility-scale, 60 mWh pilot project expected in 2023. Read more >>
Could energy efficiency and demand response solve Texas’ energy woes?
A new report released last week by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) outlines how better energy efficiency and a robust demand response program using distributed energy resources (DER) already on the grid could provide up to 11 GW of “flexible generation” to ERCOT, the Texas grid operator, when the grid is strained. >> Read more
DOE commits $20M to create green hydrogen from nuclear power with Palo Verde project
Cybercriminals threatened and took advantage of multiple industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) environments in the last several months. Attackers latched onto a sensitive piece of the technology stack on U.S. companies, highlighting how vulnerable industrial organizations are.
Almost two-thirds of advisories issued without patches for ICS/OT also had “no practical mitigation advice,” leaving organizations to fend for themselves, according to Dragos’ 2020 Cybersecurity Year in Review report. Companies will also ignore advisories for their lack of “environmental context” or usefulness, and 43% of advisories have errors in them. >> Read more
A new frontier for nuclear energy in the United States is under exploration, and Xcel Energy is at the forefront with a project to produce hydrogen, most likely at its Prairie Island plant near Red Wing, Minnesota.
“Our carbon-free nuclear fleet has been key to our energy system for decades,” said Pat Burke, vice president of Nuclear Strategy and Innovation. “This hydrogen project demonstrates our commitment to innovation and investing in new technologies. >> Read more
The U.S. electric power sector has been generating more electricity from coal-fired power plants this year as a result of significantly higher natural gas prices and relatively stable coal prices. This year, 2021, will yield the first year-over-year increase in coal generation in the United States since 2014. >> Read more
Idaho National Laboratory to research net-zero microgrids
Supported by funding from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the Idaho National Laboratory will research microgrid technologies that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide enhanced grid resiliency. >> Read more
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