Category: Tech Talk

Digital Upgrade: Growing role of automation in enhancing renewable power operations

Digital Upgrade: Growing role of automation in enhancing renewable power operations

Jul 20, 2026 |

With renewable energy capacity expanding rapidly, power plants are increasingly using automation and digital tools to handle more complex operations and improve efficiency. Automation in the sector has progressed steadily, moving from basic mechanisation to advanced systems such as programmable logic controllers and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) platforms. At present, technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), drones, robotics and internet of things (IoT) are enabling real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance and better forecasting of power generation. Automated systems also allow operators to centrally monitor and remotely manage renewable assets across multiple locations, helping reduce downtime, lower losses and improve overall plant performance.

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Europe’s Energy Transformation: Data centres, grid stress and new opportunities

Europe’s Energy Transformation: Data centres, grid stress and new opportunities

Jul 13, 2026 |

Data centres are becoming a systemically important electricity demand due to their scale, geographic concentration and fast growth, requiring more active grid management rather than passive absorption. They create challenges because their rapid development often outpaces transmission and generation expansion, and their software-driven, power-electronic behaviour does not always align with existing connection and planning frameworks. This calls for improved demand forecasting, greater transparency on grid capacity, and more coordinated, harmonised connection requirements across Europe, alongside flexible connection arrangements to manage near-term constraints. At the same time, data centres also represent a significant opportunity: their built-in control systems and electrical infrastructure could enable them to provide grid services, support flexibility and contribute to decarbonisation.

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Grid-Forming Inverters: Enabling stability in renewable-dominated systems

Grid-Forming Inverters: Enabling stability in renewable-dominated systems

Jul 6, 2026 |

GRID-INDIA has proposed a set of measures to support the adoption of GFM technology in the Indian power system. It is recommended that new BESS installations above 50 MW, particularly in remote or weak-grid areas, incorporate GFM capability. A phased roll-out is suggested, beginning with large pilot projects using BESS-backed GFM inverters. These pilots would provide operational experience and help stakeholders make informed decisions for wider deployment. In parallel, aligning Indian standards with international testing and performance frameworks would help ease the transition. Effective implementation will also require close coordination between technology providers, renewable and storage developers, system operators and regulators.

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Renewables Impact: Assessing power system resilience in non-EU Mediterranean countries

Renewables Impact: Assessing power system resilience in non-EU Mediterranean countries

Jun 29, 2026 |

The transition towards higher shares of renewable energy across the assessed Mediterranean countries is expected to significantly increase system flexibility requirements between 2025 and 2030. As renewable deployment accelerates, ramping requirements and periods of negative residual load are expected to intensify, with Tunisia facing the most frequent occurrences, particularly in winter when demand is low and renewable output remains high.  While solar and wind follow relatively predictable daily patterns, electricity demand varies seasonally, with summer demand creating mismatches between supply and consumption. This increases the need for flexible resources such as energy storage, demand response and cross-border interconnectors to balance the system. 

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CAISO’s 2025-26 Transmission Plan: Outlines $7 billion investment to integrate new loads

CAISO’s 2025-26 Transmission Plan: Outlines $7 billion investment to integrate new loads

Jun 15, 2026 |

California’s electricity demand is projected to rise sharply driven by the rapid expansion of large data centres, industrial growth, as well as transport and building electrification. Meeting this demand will require installed capacity additions of over 74 GW and 107 GW, respectively. These additions are also critical to achieving the state energy goals established under the Senate Bill (SB) 100, which mandates a renewables share of 50 per cent by 2026, 60 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2045. In April 2026, CAISO released its draft 2025-26 Transmission Plan, recommending 38 transmission upgrades with an estimated total cost of $7 billion, phased in over lead times of up to 8-10 years and translating to approximately 0.5 cents per kWh over the life of the projects.

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State of US Solar Manufacturing Industry

State of US Solar Manufacturing Industry

Jun 8, 2026 |

Nearly 30 new utility-scale solar PV manufacturing facilities started production in 2025. There are more than 140 facilities in 30 states that produce primary components like modules, cells, ingots and wafers, trackers, racking systems, among others. In 2025, U.S. module manufacturers commissioned 15 GW of new capacity, with total annual capacity reaching 63 GW – sufficient to meet average demand from U.S. utility solar installations. This represents a rapid increase in manufacturing capacity of more than 1600% in a 5-year period. Total module capability is expected to increase to over 85 GW/year by the end of the decade. 

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Southeast Asia’s Grid Ambitions: Conference highlights of TransTech ASEAN 2026

Southeast Asia’s Grid Ambitions: Conference highlights of TransTech ASEAN 2026

May 18, 2026 |

Southeast Asia’s energy transition is gathering momentum, supported by rising investment, evolving policy frameworks, and closer regional integration. Countries are setting ambitious renewable energy targets, electricity demand is growing, and governments are increasingly recognising that power grids, not just generation, are the critical bottleneck to overcome. The region is expected to drive 25 per cent of global energy demand growth by 2035. As one of the fastest-growing electricity markets, it needs to balance industrial growth, rapid electrification and decarbonisation efforts. With nearly 200 GW of renewable energy potential, project development is accelerating to meet demand from transport electrification, data centres and net-zero goals.

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Spain’s Grid Expansion Plans: Focus on increasing grid flexibility and intelligence

Spain’s Grid Expansion Plans: Focus on increasing grid flexibility and intelligence

Apr 20, 2026 |

Spain’s energy transition is increasingly a transmission challenge. Without a significant acceleration in grid expansion and modernisation, renewable growth risks being constrained by congestion, system instability and rising curtailment of clean energy. This urgency is reflected in Spain’s evolving transmission strategy. It marks a shift from incremental reinforcement to systemic redesign, with the proposed EUR13.1 billion investment programme for 2025-30, positioning the grid as a central enabler of the country’s next phase of the energy transition.

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Intelligent Assets: AI applications transforming the renewable energy sector

Intelligent Assets: AI applications transforming the renewable energy sector

Apr 13, 2026 |

India’s renewable energy sector is undergoing a transformation. The reason AI is gaining traction in the renewables sector lies in the way renewable projects operate. Solar and wind projects are highly variable in their output as they rely on constantly changing environmental conditions. AI, supported by internet of things sensors, advanced analytics platforms and digital twins, provides the computational layer required to process these large volumes of operational data. From improving forecasting accuracy and optimising plant performance to enabling intelligent grid management and supporting project planning, AI applications are now emerging across the renewable value chain.

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The Interconnection Queue Continues to Be a Barrier to American Economic Competitiveness: Here’s how to improve it

The Interconnection Queue Continues to Be a Barrier to American Economic Competitiveness: Here’s how to improve it

Mar 23, 2026 |

America’s economic and national competitiveness depend on a grid that can keep pace with private investment and innovation. The interconnection backlog isn’t just a technical issue — it’s a barrier to growth, jobs, and reliable power. While the studies themselves are necessary, we cannot let them become burdensome red tape that artificially slows grid buildout. Rather, interconnection should be modernized into a smarter, faster process, drawing from best practices across the RTOs and standardizing them at the federal level.

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Interregional Balance: Med-TSO report studies cross-border links between EU and non-EU countries

Interregional Balance: Med-TSO report studies cross-border links between EU and non-EU countries

Mar 9, 2026 |

The importance of interconnections between the EU and its neighbours in the Mediterranean region is the focus of a comprehensive report recently released by Med-TSO. The report presents an in-depth analysis of cross-border electricity interconnections between EU and non-EU countries in the Mediterranean region, focusing on the cases of Italy–Montenegro, Türkiye– ENTSO-E (via Greece and Bulgaria), and Spain-Morocco. It highlights the technical, regulatory, and institutional frameworks that underpin these interconnections, examining how electricity is traded across borders, how transmission capacity is allocated, and how congestion is managed.

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Transmission Upgrade: Costa Rica undertakes grid expansion to accommodate renewables

Transmission Upgrade: Costa Rica undertakes grid expansion to accommodate renewables

Feb 23, 2026 |

Costa Rica’s electricity sector is undergoing a grid-centric transformation driven by the need for deeper renewable energy integration, enhancing grid stability against climate variability, and supporting rapid electrification of transport and industry. To expand and modernise the national grid to support integration of new generation and handle the new demand pressures, ICE has earmarked USD1 billion between 2025 and 2034 under its latest transmission plan, Plan de Expansion de la Transmision (PET) or Transmission Expansion Plan 2024-34.

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Pumped Storage Projects: Technology Trends and Top Global Markets

Pumped Storage Projects: Technology Trends and Top Global Markets

Feb 2, 2026 |

PSP remains the world’s dominant grid‑scale storage  technology, with global installed capacity reaching ~189 GW in 2024, according to the IHA’s 2025 World  Hydropower Outlook. In 2024 alone, about 8.4 GW of new PSP capacity was  added globally. The global PSP development pipeline now exceeds 600 GW,  with more than 105 GW under construction, of which over 90 GW is in China. IHA estimates that existing PSP plants can store up to ~9,000 GWh of  electricity, providing critical inertia, frequency regulation, and long‑duration  storage for high‑renewables grids.

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How VPPs can help US win the AI race

How VPPs can help US win the AI race

Dec 8, 2025 |

Data centers and other large loads cannot wait years for traditional generation and infrastructure upgrades. Virtual power plants offer a faster, cheaper, and more flexible alternative. The commercial models proposed in this paper can unlock large load-driven VPPs at scale by more efficiently allocating risk among utilities, VPP developers, and large customers — aligning incentives and unlocking new pathways for rapid deployment. In turn, this could benefit us all — strengthening reliability, lowering costs, and powering the next wave of US economic growth.

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Modular approach with RE+BESS for supporting data center growth

Modular approach with RE+BESS for supporting data center growth

Nov 7, 2025 |

Data center development may come in all levels of power consumption. However, because developers rarely build, install, and commission data centers in a single phase, projects of all sizes need a power supply that can grow and expand with them. When covering the incremental energy demand from a new data center, a large new single firm resource is an unwieldy indivisible capital investment. A modular approach with renewables plus batteries reduces risk and provides better economics.

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Alberta’s Power Transformation: Plans to invest CAD 7.12 billion in grid modernisation

Alberta’s Power Transformation: Plans to invest CAD 7.12 billion in grid modernisation

Sep 1, 2025 |

Alberta Electric System Operator faces two key challenges that could fundamentally reshape Alberta’s electrical landscape. The province’s swift transition to renewables has created unprecedented technical complexities that could threaten grid stability. As Alberta’s generation fleet increasingly relies on wind and solar power, the power system’s frequency response, system strength, and operational flexibility have diminished. To address these issues, the AESO has outlined comprehensive solutions in its recently released 2025 Reliability Requirements Roadmap.

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Are European Grids Ready for AI Boom?

Are European Grids Ready for AI Boom?

Aug 11, 2025 |

Trends in data centre investment in Europe make it clear that grid capacity has become a prized resource and a pull factor for major investors. If Europe is to have a place in the global AI race, grid planners need to step up their game. The rapid development of AI can provide a much needed boost for European economies. But it will not happen unless the energy infrastructure is prepared to accommodate the necessary data centre expansion. Forward-looking and anticipatory grid planning is a key solution.

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European Ancillary Services Markets: Critical role of FCR and other cross-border balancing platforms

European Ancillary Services Markets: Critical role of FCR and other cross-border balancing platforms

Aug 4, 2025 |

The European electricity system is undergoing a profound transformation driven by the twin imperatives of decarbonisation and energy security. With a strong shift from fossil-based generation to renewable resources, the resulting variability in electricity supply poses significant challenges to real time grid balancing and system reliability. To address these challenges, Europe has launched an ambitious reform of its ancillary services framework, built on a suite of harmonised, cross-border balancing platforms.

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How Advanced Transmission Technologies Can Revamp the Aging US Power Grid

How Advanced Transmission Technologies Can Revamp the Aging US Power Grid

Jul 28, 2025 |

The North American power grid is often referred to as “the world’s largest machine.” 70% of the grid is over 50 years old, and it’s being tested in unprecedented ways. The American Society of Power Engineers gave the U.S. grid a grade of C- in its 2021 report card. Energy demand is growing for the first time in decades, spurred by resurgent manufacturing, rapacious data center growth and nascent electrification of industries once built on fossil fuels, such as the shift from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles. The U.S. power grid needs help. Advanced transmission technologies are an important part of the solution.

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Solar 2.0: Shift to newer PV technologies gains momentum

Solar 2.0: Shift to newer PV technologies gains momentum

Jun 23, 2025 |

The global energy transition depends on the rapid scaling up of solar power. However, this scale-up cannot rely solely on polycrystalline and mono PERC photovoltaic (PV) modules, which have efficiency in the range of 19-21 per cent. Their limitations, such as lack of bi faciality, faster degradation and underperformance in high-temperature and low-light conditions, further underscore the need to transition towards more advanced PV technologies.

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