https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

US power group touts microgrids ‘as the way forward’

29th March 2018

By: Simone Liedtke

Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

     

Font size: - +

Decentralisation, through the implementation of microgrids, could be the key to improving grid resilience, US-based electricity supplier Illinois Power Company and Tucson Electric Power Company CEO Charles Bayless told an audience in Johannesburg this week.

The design of microgrids, which generally refer to an energy system that is able to operate independently from the main grid, can be crafted to meet the needs of each individual community and society, he said.

Microgrids “are the way forward and will be one of the waves of change in future”, Bayless said at the Power and Electricity World conference.

Other “waves of change” include blockchain technology and digitisation, which would be key to ensuring that the industry “kept up with changes”.

Bayless cautioned that mixing new technologies, politics, economics and regulation could present some challenges for grid implementation, especially as a shift to carbon neutrality was sought.

“The big impediment to getting into a zero-carbon climate, to building the grid and bringing electricity to people, isn’t technical – it’s political and regulatory, which provide challenges of their own to grid implementation.”

Commenting on the future of fossil fuels in the energy mix, Bayless is adamant that these resources have to be phased out, pointing to the “quantum leaps” that have been taken to include renewable energy options within the global energy mix.

He also highlighted the importance of a holistic view on managing limited natural resources like energy, water, climate and population growth.

“We’re trying to achieve a low carbon economy, cleaner energy and universal access but there are multiple transition pathways in water, climate and population. A pathway for water, for example, may conflict with a pathway for energy,” Bayless noted.

Edited by Mariaan Webb
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

Latest News

Magazine video image
Magazine round up | 29 March 2024
29th March 2024

Showroom

SAIMC (Society for Automation, Instrumentation, Mechatronics and Control)
SAIMC (Society for Automation, Instrumentation, Mechatronics and Control)

Education: Consulting with member companies to obtain the optimal benefits from their B-BBEE spending, skills resources as well as B-BBEE points

VISIT SHOWROOM 
VEGA Controls SA (Pty) Ltd
VEGA Controls SA (Pty) Ltd

For over 60 years, VEGA has provided industry-leading products for the measurement of level, density, weight and pressure. As the inventor of the...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.257 0.312s - 158pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now