The POWER Podcast

The Importance of a Resilient Power System. It’s hurricane season in the U.S., which runs from June 1 through the end of November, and there have already been three named storms. The most recent was Tropical Storm Christobal, which was the earliest third-named Atlantic storm on record when it formed on June 2. It made landfall in the U.S. along the northern Gulf Coast on June 7, with heavy rain, a storm surge of almost six feet, and a few tornadoes. “Irrespective of which part of the world you belong to, we are seeing the impact of severe weather across the globe,” Amol Sabnis, global lead for Transmission and Distribution with Accenture, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “One thing is clear—that the severe weather events are becoming a recurring global event.” Accenture recently released a report titled “From Reliability to Resilience: Confronting the Challenges of Extreme Weather,” which included insight gleaned from a survey of more than 200 C-suite and senior vice president-level executives at electric utilities spread across 28 countries. “We conducted this research to better understand the risks posed by increased frequency of extreme weather and how we can help our clients navigate these challenges by building a more resilient network,” Sabnis said. The findings from the study are eye-opening. Nearly nine out of 10 executives surveyed said extreme weather events had grown in frequency, severity, or duration over the past 10 years. Furthermore, more than nine out of 10 expect extreme weather events to increase over the next 10 years. Yet, less than a quarter of the executives felt well-prepared to manage the challenges of extreme weather events. “One of the things that we found in our research is that nearly every utility considers resilience as a matter of focus,” said Jason Teckenbrock, North American lead for Transmission and Distribution with Accenture, who was also a guest on podcast. “So, even if they’re not fully prepared, they know they need to focus on it.” Teckenbrock suggested that there are three steps utilities can take to improve resiliency. They can harden their networks, improve restoration effectiveness, and/or develop greater system flexibility. However, network hardening is costly, and improving restoration effectiveness takes time to implement and can require significant procedural changes. Therefore, the most cost-effective approach for enhancing resilience in many scenarios is developing greater system flexibility. Some ways flexibility can be improved include creating automated self-healing grids and incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to help route electricity in a more appropriate manner. AI can also be used to conduct vegetation management assessments and to identify other risks. “We’ve seen lots of utilities starting to work on this,” Teckenbrock said. “We believe that taking a metric-based approach is important here.”

Tips for Check Valve Selection and Installation. Check valves are installed in many piping systems. Their purpose is to allow flow in only one direction, which can be critical for plant safety and to protect equipment from damage. There are a few different check valve designs, including swing check valves and spring-loaded poppet-style check valves. Understanding which type is best for a given application and ensuring valves are properly installed is vital to success. Noah Miller, applications/engineered sales manager with Check-All Valve Manufacturing Co., and Brian Strait, business development and marketing manager with Check-All Valve, explained the differences between check valve designs, and offered installation and sizing tips as guests on The POWER Podcast. Check-All Valve is a West Des Moines, Iowa-based manufacturer of industrial spring-loaded poppet-style check valves. Miller explained that piston poppet check valves have two main advantages over swing check valves. The first concerns water hammer, which is hydraulic shock caused when water stops or changes direction suddenly. “Once that wave gets to the swing check, it'll push that clapper closed and actually slam it shut, which will promote that water hammering effect,” Miller said. However, the spring inside a piston poppet-style check valve helps minimize, and may even eliminate, water hammer, because it closes the valve before the pressure way arrives. “The secondary aspect or advantage of the piston poppet over a swing check is installation orientation,” Miller said. “A swing check is only supposed to be installed in a horizontal-flow position. Whereas, a spring-loaded piston check can be vertical-flow up, vertical-flow down, 45 degrees, 37 degrees, you can kind of pick and choose with that spring, because it allows it to still close in a static condition in the piping system.” Another consideration when installing check valves concerns the run of piping. Miller noted, “Ideally, you'd like to have a minimum of 10 pipe diameters of straight pipe on the upstream side of the check valve.” The reason is to ensure the flow through the valve is laminar in nature, that is, fluid particles following in smooth layers, with little or no mixing. Miller said that would maximize the effective valve life. Getting a valve sized correctly for the application is also important. The goal is for a check valve to always be either fully open or fully closed. “Pressure and flow together create pressure drop across the given check valve,” Miller said. “You can have enough of one, but not enough of the other.” Miller presented an example of a system with 300 psi of pressure, but only 0.005 gpm of flow. He said, “You’re not fully opening any check valve, it doesn't matter what style it is, because you’ve got enough pressure, but you don’t have enough flow, and that pressure and flow together create that pressure drop to fully open the valve.” Listen to The POWER Podcast to hear the complete interview.

Understanding the Dangers of Hydrogen Sulfide Gas. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas is produced as a result of the microbial breakdown of organic materials in the absence of oxygen. It can be found in tanks, vaults, voids, and other confined spaces at industrial facilities including power plants. Besides being flammable and corrosive, H2S is also colorless and toxic, even in relatively low concentrations, so it is extremely hazardous to workers. In fact, it is the second-most-common cause of workplace inhalation fatalities behind carbon monoxide. H2S is noticeable initially by its rotten egg smell, but the gas can deaden senses making it difficult for workers to detect without a gas monitor. Veriforce CEO Colby Lane and Chris Detillier, senior safety analyst with Veriforce, were guests on The POWER Podcast. Veriforce is a leading provider of software and services that enhance workforce and community safety. Among its offerings is a training course called H2S Clear, which provides students with life-saving information while meeting the compliance requirements of ANSI/ASSP standards. “It's extremely toxic. As little as 700 parts per million can cause someone to immediately collapse, and they can die from it,” Detillier said. “So, it is very important to have a good training program in place.” Lane explained that Veriforce’s training model essentially credentials and accredits instructors. Then, those instructors provide the training to actual workers. Detillier said he’s received a lot of positive feedback every time he’s taught a “train-the-trainer” class for H2S Clear. “We've had guys that have been in the industry for years—some of them who have previously been through H2S training—and after class would tell me how much that they learned from the class and appreciate the content that we have in there.”

Solar Power Is Cheap and Getting Cheaper. In many locations, solar power is already the lowest-cost renewable energy alternative available. Some of the advantage stems from advancements made in manufacturing processes and economies of scale that solar companies have captured. Operating costs also factor into the equation—solar’s operating costs are minimal while operating expenses for wind power are more substantial. Still, Brendan Duval, CEO of the Glenfarne Group, suggested the gap between wind and solar costs could widen. “The cost curve for solar has probably got some room to run. Wind is sort of, you know, plateauing out now,” he said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. The Glenfarne Group is a New York-based energy and infrastructure assets owner that develops, constructs, and operates projects across the investment-grade Americas, including in Chile, Panama, and Columbia. Duval said the Glenfarne Group has two distinct business units: a power unit, and a midstream oil and gas unit. Each of the business units are also separated into two different segments. The legs of the midstream unit are divided between a gas gathering business and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export development project in Texas. On the power side, there is a renewables arm and a backup power arm. “Backup power plants—we think—are really important in the energy transition process,” Duval said. “As more and more renewables come online, having [a] well-run, well-put-together backup power plant network in any country is really important. And we've got a long-term vision for that,” he said. But the Glenfarne Group isn’t just backing up renewable energy projects, it’s also investing in them. Duval said his team focuses on run-of-river hydro projects rather than dam hydro because they are generally smaller and face fewer hurdles during the development process. There is often political pressure surrounding dams, and navigating interactions with the local community, government agencies, agricultural entities, and environmental groups can be daunting. In run-of-river projects, the water is taken out of the river for a kilometer or two, and then it’s returned to the stream, so the disruption is much less extreme. “The run-of-river hydro is just [an] easier asset for us to manage within the community,” Duval said. Duval noted that run-of-river hydro development has really slowed down in Latin America for a number of reasons. For one, the best sites have already been taken. The permitting process has also become more difficult. And finally, power prices have decreased significantly. “When governments are now looking for renewable opportunities, they're looking for a lower price point. And they can achieve that lower price point with renewable sources by looking at solar and to some extent wind,” said Duval. “So, if you look at the dollars per megawatt invested, solar is the most cost-effective, then wind, and then run-of-river hydro. And the cutoff point now is really in that capital cost between wind and run-of-river hydro.”

Technology for Managing Distributed Energy Resources. With the growth of distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar, wind turbines, battery energy storage systems, electric vehicles, and demand response technology, distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS) are becoming increasingly important for utilities. Brad Williams, vice president of Industry Strategy with Oracle Utilities was a guest on The POWER Podcast. He touched on a number of topics, including how DERMS are helping power companies, how electric vehicles are challenging the industry, and how utilities are dealing with the proliferation of edge devices and data. Williams said managing the variety of resources that exist will be a key to meeting renewable energy standards in the future. “Being able to manage these resources—whether they’re distributed energy resources or electric vehicle charging equipment—being able to manage those and forecast—predict—what their operation will be is going to be critical for utilities to be able to fully embrace these renewables standards, because by nature renewable energy is intermittent, which means utilities will have to do more to manage the demand side.”

What Does It Take to Develop Utility-Scale Solar Projects? Constructing a utility-scale solar project requires more than simply buying PV panels and mounting them in a field. It can take years to find the right location, conduct feasibility studies, obtain permits, and align the proverbial stars. A couple of experts, who have managed multiple projects through the process, were guests on The POWER Podcast. Carl Jackson and Charles Silio, two of the three partners who founded Glidepath Ventures, a company focused on solar project development in PJM and other fast-growing solar markets in North America, provided a high-level overview of the development process and explained what drew them to the PJM market. “There’s an old saying in solar that every project that actually gets built dies a thousand deaths, and that’s probably accurate,” Jackson said. “A lot of that has to do with all the things that you deal with at the beginning stages of development.” Jackson earned his stripes by leading project origination and business development for Cypress Creek Renewables, where he worked on solar energy projects in a variety of states. Some of that experience helped inform the partners’ decision to focus on the PJM market, and Pennsylvania in particular. “One of the reasons we picked Pennsylvania was it’s very close to a lot of load in the competitive PJM market. There are multiple opportunities for corporate or municipal offtake, and a lot of companies, municipalities, and universities—even within the state of Pennsylvania—that have sustainability goals, who are actively looking for renewable power. In addition, it being PJM, you can sell via contract for differences to corporates or other buyers anywhere within PJM. And failing that, if you really want to run a plant merchant, there’s a fairly liquid market for power and for other ancillary services and capacity,” Silio said. Most people probably don’t think of Pennsylvania as a solar power hotbed, but in some ways that works to Glidepath Ventures’ advantage. There is less competition from other developers, and land is reasonably priced. However, most landowners aren’t particularly well-versed in the benefits that solar power projects can offer. “You may get some inbound calls from a landowner because their neighbors or friends in that community have had success with a project, but a lot of the areas that we’re targeting, we’re one of the first phones calls that they’re receiving or the first phone call that they’re receiving,” Jackson said. “Most of the time, we’re proactively reaching out to landowners, educating them exactly on what solar is, what the actual economic impact could be for them, and then getting them onboard.” But there is a fair amount of work done behind the scenes before a landowner is contacted. “We canvas areas to make sure that we have what we anticipate as at least a reasonable opportunity from an electrical perspective to interconnect the type of projects that we actually want to interconnect there. Then, we reach out to landowners,” said Jackson. “We ultimately get a lease option or some sort of lease agreement with those landowners, and then begin the process of entering into PJM, getting an interconnection feasibility study completed, and then working our way through all the studies through PJM, as well as starting the process of getting the requisite entitlements needed to deliver that project.” Jackson said those steps can take anywhere from 18 to 24 months for projects connecting at 69 kV or higher. For projects connecting at the distribution level (less than 69 kV), the timeline for getting the interconnection agreement from the utility and PJM can be shortened to about 12 months or so. Then, it can take another six months to a year to satisfy all the state and local regulatory requirements before the project is ready to begin construction.

PLM, ERP, EAM, Digital Twin: What Do They All Mean? The power industry and technology worlds are filled with acronyms. It’s often hard to know what they all mean. Mark Reisig, director of Product Marketing at Aras, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. He explained how digital technology is being utilized to bring products to market and track assets throughout their lifecycle. The process often starts in a product lifecycle management (PLM) system. Reisig said when a product is created for the first time, things like the engineering bill of materials (BOM) and computer-aided design (CAD) drawings can be linked to the component in a PLM system. In all, he said there are about 20 key attributes documented in the system. They typically revolve around the form, fit, and function of the product, including its description, revision, unit of measure, part number, and more. The PLM information feeds into an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. ERP is a transactional system. It coordinates how everything is put together. It tracks what is made and what is bought—including financial data—and allows the product to be manufactured and assembled. ERP systems often include 150 to 175 different attributes. When complete, the ERP provides an as-shipped BOM. At that point, an enterprise asset management (EAM) system becomes important. It is used to track and manage the physical asset through its lifecycle. This basically covers construction, commissioning, operations, and maintenance, all the way to decommissioning and replacement. As an enterprise tool, it goes beyond a single plant to include all the assets an owner manages. The idea is to track all the changes to all the physical assets, which is what Reisig called an “as-maintained” or “as-running” BOM. The EAM system also facilitates planning and execution of the work required to keep everything running. “The real value of the three systems that I just mentioned is that you can connect across them in a digital thread,” Reisig said. “The person looking into the enterprise asset management, when they click on a digital twin, if they want to go back and see what the actual requirement was, they can actually do so. So, the real value is when you can cut across all of these pillar systems—EAM, ERP, and PLM.” What is a digital twin? Reisig said most vendors position digital twins as models. The models are typically created during the engineering phase, which means they are a representation of what was designed. However, they don’t always reflect what was actually made during the manufacturing or construction process. “Right there, you’ve got a problem, and that’s because many things happen to products when they go through production,” Reisig said. “We believe the digital twin is first available after it’s been manufactured, and even after it’s shipped, during the as-built stage.” By creating the digital twin in the as-built phase, much more detailed and accurate information can be captured. In this way, physical part BOMs and related simulation data can be linked to the digital twin. Things like CAD drawings, service bulletins, work order history, electronics wiring schematics, and more, can be connected using a digital thread back to where that information is stored. “Our definition is: the digital twin is the individual configuration of that physical product or a system of assets, and that creates the context you need to create value across the lifecycle,” Reisig said.

Are Traditional Power Companies Being Disintermediated? How will the electric grid change as the world transitions to a power system with more renewable energy resources? Some experts foresee a shift from today’s grid-type architecture to a system of systems—from the current centralized design to a distributed energy scheme. While it’s hard to know exactly what the future holds, it’s commonly believed that change is inevitable. Shuli Goodman, executive director of LF Energy, was a recent guest on The POWER Podcast. LF Energy is an open-source initiative, overseen and hosted at The Linux Foundation. On the podcast, Goodman said power companies need to think of themselves more like network operators rather than as conventional utilities; otherwise, they may become irrelevant within 10 or 15 years. “I think that any utility on the planet—particularly playing at the distribution level or an investor-owned utility—if they are not thinking of themselves as a network operator, they’re going to be disintermediated. And in the U.S., I think they’re going to be disintermediated by the Google’s, Amazon’s, and Apple’s for sure, because those companies are going to own their customers,” she said. Goodman said two main factors are driving the change: decarbonization and electric mobility. “We have to get to 100% decarbonization in 20 years. But I think that we have to be able to show tremendous progress in 10 years,” Goodman said. “I think that the easier part of the equation is onboarding the generation assets at scale from a utility-scale perspective. I think the more complicated problems that we’re trying to solve for—and will need to solve for—are what happens behind the meter.” Goodman suggested consensus among European Commission members is helping Europe move quickly toward a clean energy future. In the U.S., however, she said the government is sending mixed signals. “Recently, [the Department of Energy] said that they were making a $64 million investment in coal,” said Goodman. “That kind of confusion in the marketplace from a signaling perspective is going to be extremely damaging to the economy of the United States. I have no doubt about it that we are going to suffer tremendously from that.” Goodman said the economics are clear. “Right now, renewable energy is on par with any other kind of traditional energy or it is now becoming cheaper,” she said. “What’s going to happen is a level of innovation that’s going to occur in Europe in which actually the cost of energy is going to get less, and less, and less, and less.” The reason that’s important is because energy equates to productivity or production. “There’s a very tight integration between economics or economies and energy,” Goodman said.

Why Do People Choose Careers in Engineering? Do you want to solve important problems, contribute to society, and help people? Well, then, you may want to become an engineer. At least that’s why some successful engineers have said they entered and persist in the occupation, according to a recent study published by DiscoverE, an engineering outreach organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. The research was conducted by DiscoverE in partnership with the Concord Evaluation Group. It specifically sought to answer the question: What are the common factors that motivate girls to pursue—and then persist—in engineering education and careers? Thea Sahr, director of Communications and Programs with DiscoverE, discussed some of the findings as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “We’re finding that the women who are staying in engineering have a really strong support network, whether that’s family or friends or they have role models, that network is super important,” said Sahr. “They can draw on past obstacles. They have the cultural and social capital to get through the tough times—that resiliency, that grit that we hear is so important for all of us—and a sense of belonging. The women who feel a sense of belonging, either in their university or at their place of employment, have a better chance of staying.” So, do men have other reasons for getting into the engineering field? Not really. Sahr said DiscoverE has done additional surveys asking people what attracted them to the profession, and across the board, women and men said solving critical problems was the main reason they liked engineering. But many kids don’t get the opportunity to really understand what an engineer does. That’s why DiscoverE’s work is so important. The group helps get the word out in schools and through other events throughout the year. In fact, DiscoverE is the backbone organization behind Engineers Week, which was established in 1951. The week begins this year on Feb. 16 with the theme “Engineers: Pioneers of Progress.” Learn more about it at DiscoverE.org. Sahr suggested the outreach is vital. She said DiscoverE has conducted surveys of 11- and 12-year-old kids, and it found that 92% of those surveyed were thinking about their future careers, even at that early age. “It’s not just when Grandma asks at Thanksgiving, they’re thinking about this pretty seriously,” Sahr said. Another DiscoverE-sponsored program begins on March 11 and runs on Wednesdays through April 8. Called “Global Marathon,” it will be a five-part series with stories from inspiring women in the engineering and technology fields. It’s a free web-based event designed to provide actionable career advice and connect women around the globe.

How Utilities Can Manage Supplier Risk. Power companies are turning to external suppliers and contractors now more than ever. Utilities are getting help with tasks ranging from the relatively simple, such as vegetation management and the handling of customer calls, to the complex, including turbine repair and large infrastructure projects. Although the benefits of utilizing contractors are often obvious, the dangers, which include cyber, reputational, financial, legal, and regulatory risks, may not be as easy to assess. Two Boston Consulting Group (BCG) experts, Mike Lewis and João Maciel, were recent guests on The POWER Podcast. Both men are managing directors and partners with BCG based in Houston, Texas. Lewis leads the firm’s Houston office, while Maciel specializes in green energy, energy efficiency, and the environment. The pair helped author a paper on supplier risk management best practices and shared some tips during an interview for the podcast. Maciel noted that outsourcing amplifies three main risks that utilities are typically already exposed to in their businesses. Those are operational risk, reputational risk, and cyber risk. For example, if a contractor fails to follow suitable health and safety practices, then a utility could be operationally affected by the consequences. Additionally, power companies may be held accountable by the community or media when a contractor makes a mistake, which places the utility’s reputation at risk. Lastly, even though a utility may have excellent internal protocols designed to protect digital plant systems, when suppliers are given access to perform work, the utility’s risk increases. Suppliers also bring new risk exposure, such as fourth-party risk, which arises when a supplier uses subcontractors. Another added risk is contractual risk, which may limit a utility’s ability to monitor a contractor’s work. Concentration risk is also a potential problem. If a utility becomes too dependent on a supplier, it could lose bargaining power and internal expertise, which could lead to the last risk Maciel discussed: financial risk. That threat can be realized when a supplier falls into financial distress. If a power company can’t quickly replace the supplier, the utility’s operations could be adversely affected, which could have financial implications. On the podcast, Maciel presents a method to manage the risks. “One of the principles of the approach is that the complexity and the hard work and the really detailed design happens in a center of excellence in the corporate center,” Lewis explained. “It is very tailored to the needs and very, very user-friendly for people at the front lines.” Lewis said a lot of the setup and screening is done as vendors go through the procurement and contracting process, well before a job is scheduled to take place. “When things are the most complex, when the timing is tight, when deadlines are short, when a lot of people are onsite, that’s when a lot of the potential incidents could happen,” Lewis said. That’s why it’s important for utilities to manage risks appropriately in advance.