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Canadian Premiers Confront Escalating Climate Change Disasters

Canadian premiers are facing unprecedented challenges as climate change-related disasters become increasingly frequent and severe. Recent extreme weather events have forced leaders across the country to confront the urgent need for enhanced climate resilience and coordinated disaster response strategies.

The intensifying impact of climate change is evident in the recent surge of natural disasters, from devastating wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia to severe flooding in Nova Scotia and other regions. These events have caused...

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Utility News

Texas CEO Calls for Redesign of the Grid

As Texas continues to experience rapid population growth and surging electricity demand, there is increasing pressure on the state's electrical grid to meet the needs of its residents. According to Texas energy leader, Dan Woodfin, the state's grid needs a fundamental redesign to address the...
Utility News

New England’s 100-Hour Battery Boosts Offshore Wind

New England is setting ambitious goals to enhance its offshore wind energy capacity with the introduction of a groundbreaking 100-hour battery storage system. This innovative approach is part of a broader strategy to address the intermittency of renewable energy sources and ensure a reliable and...
Climate Change News

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

New York's Path to 8.5 GW of Grid Flexibility by 2040

New York State's transition to a clean, zero-emissions energy grid could include up to 8.5 gigawatts (GW) of grid flexibility by 2040, according to a new report from the Brattle Group. This projection, while contingent on achieving ambitious decarbonization goals, illustrates how the state could...

Electrical Substations

Vacuum Interrupter Testing for Circuit Breakers

How to predict field life using vacuum interrupters

BY FINLEY LEDBETTER, Group CBS

Utilities have widely replaced older air-magnetic and oil interrupters for circuit breakers rated at one kilovolt (kV) or higher with vacuum interrupters (VI) due to higher interrupt capability. Vacuum interrupters also last up to 10 times the expected lifetime than newer sulfur hexafluoride (SF-6) gas interrupters. Unfortunately, the downside to building a protective device with a long service life is that utility planners, technicians, and maintenance professionals believe it will last forever.

However, that misconception, plus the difficulty in field testing VIs, has placed a large portion of the U.S. industrial and utility distribution switchgear at risk of failure. Luckily, several traditional “pass/fail” testing methods and one new “predictive” field-testing method exist for verifying the isolation capability of VI-protected circuit breakers and motor controls. These three testing methods are covered in detail in this...

Electrical Substations Articles

Substation Technologies

SUBSTATION AUTOMATION AND INTEGRATION PROGRAMS

Newton-Evans Research Company, Inc. of Ellicott City, MD is preparing to publish market research findings from Volume 1 of a four-volume study, “The World Market for Substation Automation and Integration Programs in Electric Utilities: 2017-2020.” Volume 1 of this Substation Automation and...
Breakers & Relays

Partial Discharge & Circuit Breaker Asset Management

Detecting and avoiding preventable failures BY JAY GARNETT, Doble Engineering Company While metal clad switchgear can be very reliable, sometimes operating for over 50 years, throughout the aging process, this group of electrical disconnect switches, fuses and circuit breakers can experience...