According to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association’s forthcoming grid resilience study, the demand for electricity to power American homes, businesses, transportation and more is expected to grow by 50% by 2050. Globally, electricity demand has grown at twice the pace of overall energy demand over the last decade. This shift towards electrification is accelerating as global demand for electric vehicles increases and new commercial technologies like improved heat pumps begin to replace legacy technologies in homes and businesses.
Accelerating adoption of electrified systems requires a robust and resilient electrical grid that can support increasing energy needs. Additionally, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, driving the need for systems to protect critical infrastructure. The U.S. electrical grid contains more than 9,000 generation sources connected by more than 600,000 miles of transmission lines. Large portions of this technology was installed in the 1960s and 1970s, and while it has been adapted over the years to incorporate automation and other modern technologies, the grid is largely dependent on older equipment.
The combination of aging equipment and increasing demand creates challenges. Physical threats like weather and vandalism, alongside increasing risk of cyberattacks, can disrupt critical grid operations. To secure grid operations, it is important for utilities and grid operators to find solutions that both protect against disruptions and mitigate their impact to energy consumers. Here are three key technologies to consider:
Lightning Protection
One of the biggest threats to electrical production and distribution infrastructure is lightning. Renewable energy installations like wind turbines are very vulnerable to strikes, as are the electrical substations that connect long distance transmission lines to local power grids.
For these kinds of applications, standard lightning rods and cables are not always sufficient. In substation applications, stringing cables above electrified equipment can create safety hazards if cables rust and fall. In wind energy applications, moving turbines and tall structures pose design challenges. Recently, nVent helped a customer design a customized protection system for an offshore wind energy installation.
Another option for grid operators to consider is active lightning protection. Active protection systems provide a zone of protection over a structure, within which air terminals attract lightning. The design of these systems is supported by proprietary design software and engineering support. The nVent ERICO Dynasphere air terminal provides a preferred point for lightning discharges which would otherwise strike and damage an unprotected structure. The primary function of an air terminal is to proactively capture and direct the lightning strike to a preferred point, so that the discharge current can be directed via a down conductor to the grounding system.
Grounding Systems
All electrical systems require proper surge protection and grounding. Current always flows through the path of the lowest impedance, and even the most well-designed electrical systems can be at risk from fault currents from lightning, equipment malfunctions, or surges from power sources.
To improve grid resilience, all equipment requires good grounding and bonding systems that consider soil conditions, seasonal pattern and other specific considerations that vary site to site. Based on these factors, different types of connections, such as mechanical, compression, or exothermic, may be required to ensure the grounding and bonding systems work effectively. nVent offers grounding and bonding solutions and expertise to support grid operators and utilities through a design process tailored to their site conditions.
Energy Storage
Even the most well-protected energy grids will suffer occasional outages. When this happens, energy storage can play a critical role in protecting essential services from disruption. Energy storage is also used in commercial and industrial applications to enhance reliability of energy availability and reduce costs by using stored power during times when grid power is particularly expensive or unavailable.
Additionally, battery energy storage is a critical technology for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and building a low carbon future. Renewable energy generation is fundamentally different from traditional fossil fuel energy generation; in renewable applications, energy cannot be produced on demand. Coal can be burned whenever power is needed while wind and solar energy rely on the wind blowing and the sun shining. Solar energy presents a particular problem in that it cannot be produced during the peak demand time for energy: at night.
This critical difference drives a need for battery energy storage because it decouples time of generation from time of use and allows energy to be delivered when consumers need it. Energy storage systems are critical to achieving energy independence by providing better utilization of renewable resources while improving grid reliability and price stability.
nVent offers a range of solutions to enhance performance, safety and reliability of energy storage systems. Our grounding, bonding, power connection and enclosures solutions help our energy storage customers form safe connections between battery racks, power converters and inverters, and protect those systems from potential disruptions. Our low-voltage power conductors and cooling solutions also add resiliency and increase design flexibility in energy storage systems, allowing engineers to reduce the footprint of energy storage installations.
