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PG&E Secures $15B Loan for Energy Upgrades

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), a major utility serving Northern and Central California, has secured a conditional $15 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Loan Programs Office. This funding aims to enhance PG&E's hydropower generation, battery storage capabilities, and transmission infrastructure, marking a significant investment in the region's energy future.

Project Overview

The loan is designated for several key initiatives:

  • Hydropower Expansion: Refurbishing and upgrading existing hydroelectric facilities to increase...

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Funding Freeze Clouds Solar For All's Future

The "Solar For All" program, which was designed to bring affordable solar energy to low-income communities across the United States, is now facing significant challenges after a pause in funding imposed by the Trump administration. This program, which was part of the Biden administration’s...

T&D Trends

Utility News

BLM's Western Solar Plan

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has unveiled a pivotal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for its Western Solar Plan, a strategy designed to significantly boost solar energy development across the American West. This ambitious initiative aims to streamline solar project approvals and foster a...

Overhead T&D

RTU and HMI Redundancy in Electrical Substations

As the substation RTU takes on more applications, such as Human-Machine-Interface (HMI), alarm annunciation, math & logic and “relay communication processing”, its need for high availability increases. Anything that takes the RTU out of service – configuration change, firmware update, or component failure – means not only loss of SCADA but also loss of local visibility, loss of non-operational data and, in some applications, loss of local control. Redundancy can address the needs for higher availability. This paper reviews the latest designs for electrical substation RTU redundancy and details required new features, including:

• Current redundancy designs in substation automation
• Limitations of current implementations
• Suggested design philosophies for substation automation redundancy
• Review of desirable redundancy design features: Flexible SCADA interface, including intelligent buffering to prevent Event floods on switchover, selective reporting of Events and acceptance of controls by Standby, and multiple SCADA support
• Ability for the...

Overhead

Utility Mobility

Utility workers are often subjected to challenging working conditions for hours at a time, yet are responsible for many mission-critical tasks. These workers must communicate with the entire organization while also representing the customer-facing side of their company. Equipping workers with...

Underground

DOE Grants $2.2B for Transmission and Storage Projects

In a landmark move aimed at accelerating the U.S. transition to a more resilient and sustainable energy grid, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a groundbreaking investment of $2.2 billion in innovative transmission and energy storage projects across 18 states. This significant funding...

Infrastructure

Priority to Asset Management

Time to focus on planning contingencies and balancing risk BY DON ANGELL AND MARK RIVERS, Doble Engineering Company By definition for electric utilities, asset management refers to an established system used to monitor and maintain valuable commodities such as transformers and power lines....