All posts tagged: grid

The power line that could reshape New York’s grid is hitting snags

The power line that could reshape New York’s grid is hitting snags

Published by skeptic

Some experts say this isn’t unusual for a new infrastructure project. Other power lines have seen similar startup challenges, and the equipment hasn’t really been fully tested until it’s in operation, Normand Mousseau, a physics professor at Université de Montréal, told the Gazette. Officials traced the issue to a damaged section of cable on the US side of the border, and the company that manufactured the line sent experts to investigate the cause, according to reporting from RTO Insider, a trade publication.  The damaged portion of the cable has been removed and replaced, says Lynn St-Laurent, a spokesperson for Hydro-Québec. “It is currently estimated that the remaining work, including necessary post-repair testing, will be completed by the weekend.” Similar woes have afflicted the New England Clean Energy Connect line, which opened in January, stretching 145 miles from Quebec to Maine. That project has also seen outages, and very little additional energy has flowed into the Northeast. The good news for New York is that the grid wasn’t relying on CHPE yet. “Our planning studies did …

‘Risking blackouts’? How Great Britain’s grid operator was dragged into a political row | Energy industry

‘Risking blackouts’? How Great Britain’s grid operator was dragged into a political row | Energy industry

Published by Jenni Sidey

In a control room in Wokingham, Berkshire, staff work around the clock, minute by minute, to align Great Britain’s fluctuating power supplies with its ever-changing demand. However, as households struggle to adapt to soaring summer temperatures, staff at the government-owned National Energy System Operator (Neso), tasked with keeping the lights on, have faced the kind of challenge usually reserved for the country’s coldest winter nights in recent weeks. The high pressure “heat dome” that descended on Europe in late June caused wind turbines to slow, gas power plants to falter, and the French nuclear plants exporting electricity to Britain to power down. Meanwhile, electricity demand for air conditioning and refrigeration units jumped as Britons attempted to stay cool. The task of keeping the grid’s electricity supplies stable during the June and July heatwaves was set against the backdrop of a political row, and a culture war over Britain’s ambitious clean energy targets and the cost of reaching net zero. Earlier this month the shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, told parliament that whistleblowers from within Neso …

I swapped my app grid for a T9 keypad and my Android is faster than ever

I swapped my app grid for a T9 keypad and my Android is faster than ever

Published by skeptic

I am game when it comes to customizing my Android phone. I love trying out new launchers and other productivity tools that are otherwise not available by default on my Samsung Galaxy phone. In the past, I gave a launcher a shot that helped me save some battery, and I also got my hands on an open-source app thatlets you search your entire Android phone from one bar. However, most launchers don’t fix the problem of clutter, and you end up staring at a wall of icons; it’s just differently styled. This time around, I replaced my launcher with a T9 keypad and changed the way I locate and open apps on my phone. Related I Finally Found an Android Launcher Worth Switching To Stock feels outdated next to this launcher. Key Launcher brings back Nokia brick keypad Turning your old flip phone’s trick into a home screen Credit: Isaac Smith/Unsplash If you have ever seen a phone with a keypad, you would know the struggle we used to face when texting. We had to type …

CATL’s 30-year sodium-ion battery takes over grid storage

CATL’s 30-year sodium-ion battery takes over grid storage

Published by skeptic

Source: CATL CATL has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dutch energy company Alfen to deploy 5 GWh of its Tener Sodium energy storage systems across Europe, one of the largest sodium-ion commitments the region has seen. The batteries are rated for 15,000 cycles and a 25-to-30-year service life — the pitch that sodium-ion’s longevity, not its energy density, is what wins grid storage. Sodium-ion moves from lab to the European grid The world’s largest battery maker announced the partnership on Wednesday. Deployments are scheduled to begin in 2027, using the Tener Sodium platform CATL launched in Munich on June 22. Alfen isn’t a new name in European storage. The company has been building battery energy storage systems since 2011 and has more than 1 GWh installed across the continent, including some of the Netherlands’ largest projects. It has bought lithium-ion cells from CATL since 2023. Advertisement – scroll for more content Now it’s adding sodium to the mix. “Sodium-ion is the next step in how we think about energy storage — more diversified, resilient, …

Cuba’s power grid collapses again, triggering third blackout in 10 days | Donald Trump News

Cuba’s power grid collapses again, triggering third blackout in 10 days | Donald Trump News

Published by Sam Flores

Millions lost power as Cuba’s fifth nationwide blackout of 2026 hit amid a US-imposed oil blockade. Published On 14 Jul 202614 Jul 2026 Cuba’s national power grid has collapsed, plunging the island into its third nationwide blackout in less than 10 days and leaving approximately 10 million people without electricity. The outage began around 11am local time (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday, when the country’s entire power grid went offline, according to the state-run electricity company, UNE. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “There has been a total disconnection of the electrical system,” Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said on social media. The latest blackout comes as Cuba faces its worst economic crisis in decades, worsened by an oil blockade imposed by the United States that has deepened fuel shortages and pushed the island’s ageing power system to the brink. US President Donald Trump imposed the blockade in January after the United States removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power. Venezuela had long been Cuba’s main supplier of subsidised oil, and under US …

Lawyers to investigate claims of GB power grid cover-up over blackout risk | Energy industry

Lawyers to investigate claims of GB power grid cover-up over blackout risk | Energy industry

Published by Jenni Sidey

Great Britain’s grid operator has brought in independent investigators to look into accusations that its staff were involved in a cover-up over the power system being at a greater risk of blackouts during the heatwave. The government-owned energy system operator will face the scrutiny of an external legal firm after a whistleblower claimed that control room staff were warned against leaving a paper trail relating to efforts to stabilise the power system during record high temperatures in late June. The accusations, which were raised in parliament last week by the Conservative shadow minister Claire Coutinho, include claims that senior bosses at the National Energy System Operator (Neso) were “risking blackouts to protect Neso’s reputation”. “These whistleblowers are coming to me because they are worried that the grid is becoming increasingly unmanageable and they do not have faith that their concerns are being taken seriously internally,” Coutinho said. Industry data shows that power grid frequency fell below operational limits as the high-pressure heat dome curbed renewable energy generation and triggered unplanned outages at gas plants, while …

Great Britain’s grid operator issues another warning over power supplies in heatwave | Extreme heat

Great Britain’s grid operator issues another warning over power supplies in heatwave | Extreme heat

Published by Jenni Sidey

Great Britain’s energy system operator has warned that “extreme temperatures” could hit power supplies on Thursday night, as the UK entered its third heatwave of the year. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) issued a notice overnight asking for extra supplies from power generators to cope with the added demand from households turning on fans and air conditioners to cope with the high temperatures. It comes only weeks after Neso issued pleas for extra electricity during last month’s heatwave, when the UK recorded a provisional high of 37.7C at Lingwood in Norfolk on Friday 27 June, smashing the previous June record of 35.6C, set in 1976. Parts of southern England are likely to hit highs of 34C on Thursday, and while temperatures are expected to stay below June’s record-breaking levels, the hot weather is due to last much longer, dragging out over 10 days. In a statement, Neso said it was “giving participants the opportunity to make any additional generation or flexibility available during the forecast period. “Our forecasts indicate tight electricity margins during tomorrow …

Salt batteries are about to shake up EVs and grid storage

Salt batteries are about to shake up EVs and grid storage

Published by skeptic

CATL’s sodium-ion battery on display at a trade show VCG/VCG via Getty Images On 5 February, a black sedan was speeding down an icy track in northern China at 95 kilometres per hour when its tyre burst, releasing a puff of white into the -32°C air. The car coasted to a stop without spinning into the snow. This was meant to demonstrate that even the harshest conditions were no barrier to the auto-maker Changan’s new line of electric vehicles, which includes the first mass-produced EV with a sodium-ion battery. Changan’s Nevo AO6 model is expected to hit the market later this year with a new, more powerful generation of sodium-ion batteries made by energy storage giant CATL. While most rechargeable batteries are made from lithium, a critical mineral, this kind of battery is made from salt, a much more abundant – and therefore cheaper – material. If sodium-ion batteries can perform almost as well at a lower price, they could challenge lithium’s dominance. And that could pave the way for other kinds of batteries, so …

Heat was melting down the grid – until EVs came to the rescue

Heat was melting down the grid – until EVs came to the rescue

Published by skeptic

As last week’s relentless heat wave strained power grids, critics feared that the record number of electric vehicles on the push them over the edge. Instead, the opposite happened: EVs helped utilities keep the lights on and the AC running by feeding the electricity stored in their batteries back into the grid. School may be out for summer, but the electric school buses shuttling kids around are still hard at work, shoring up America’s electric grid just as a crippling heat dome threatened to push it to its limits. The World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Electric School Bus Initiative reports that a number of fully deployed vehicle-to-grid (V2G) projects involving some 230 electric school buses are now able to supply 8 MWh of power back to the grid at any given time – enough electricity to power about 1,600 typical US homes for up to four hours and significantly shave peak load demand for the utilities they serve. “It’s very early days,” says Steve ​Letendre, senior advisor to the Vehicle Grid Integration Council trade association, “(but) school …

Heat Dome Threatens America’s 250th Birthday As Power Grid Crisis Continues

Heat Dome Threatens America’s 250th Birthday As Power Grid Crisis Continues

Published by Jenni Sidey

A massive heat dome continues to threaten the eastern half of the US, with the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast at the epicenter of the sweltering conditions. The summer heat is already disrupting July 4 celebrations and World Cup matches, while pushing the nation’s largest power grid toward crisis mode later this afternoon for the third consecutive day. The annual Independence Day Parade in Washington, DC, set for later today was canceled “due to extreme heat,” organizers said in an overnight memo.  Cooling demand will surge again later today, just as PJM faces a record load. The grid that serves 67 million people across 13 states has held up so far because of the Trump administration’s emergency orders requiring fossil-fuel power plants to run at full capacity. This comes as disastrous climate socialist policies have neutered parts of the grid that collided with a data center boom. A soul-crushing “Heat Dome” will build across the Eastern United States 🇺🇸into Independence Day weekend🎆70 million population at least 100°F Maximum heat wave [Thurs or Fri]🌡️ New York City: 102°FWashington DC: 104°FBoston: …