Next Upcoming Event
Resilience Webinar Series: Sustainable Energy Management of Data Centers: Cases from Germany
Virginia Tech
April 15, 2021, 10:00 - 11:30am ET
Coupling of greenhouse emissions reductions from data center operations to sustained economic growth represents a special opportunity for sustainable development in Northern Virginia. It also uniquely positions Northern Virginia as a potential global leader in this arena. For example, Amazon and Microsoft plan to make their operations climate neutral before 2030 through substantial investments and purchases of renewable energies and energy efficient technologies. Concurrently, multiple local governments of Northern Virginia are developing long-term climate mitigation and energy plans that could positively influence the progression of emissions reductions of data centers and economic growth. Navigating this complex technical and policy universe with local-level climate plans will provide a special constellation of challenges - and opportunities.
Across the Atlantic, metropolitan regions such as Frankfurt, Germany are deploying a range of creative technologies and programs to help make data centers and local climate plans more energy efficient and sustainable. For example, in regions such as Frankfurt, Germany (one of the largest hubs of data centers in Germany), it is common to observe clusters of data centers in multi-story designed buildings that also further energy efficiencies by integrating district energy systems to convey heat, or micro-grid integration and battery storage - all within the context of local-level climate and energy plans.
On Thursday, April 15, 2021, 10:00am - 11:30am (EDT) please join Virginia Tech, Baumann Consulting and the Northern Virginia Regional Commission for a webinar that will look into ways to strengthen applied research and technical cooperation on sustainable energy management of data centers and local climate planning between Northern Virginia and German metropolitan regions such as Frankfurt.
Mr. Oliver Baumann[1], President of Baumann Consulting, will share his past and current work on equivalent matters in Germany and Northern Virginia. Following this talk, Dr. Igor Cvetkovic[2], Research Scientist and Technical Director at Virginia Tech’s Center for Power Electronic Systems (CPES) will share the work of his center in this arena and the potential to strengthen applied research with counterparts in Germany.
Agenda
10:00 am (EDT) Welcome/Introduction
Ms. Philina Wittke, German Liaison at UTSA Global Initiatives
Dr. Dale Medearis, Senior Regional Planner, Northern Virginia Regional Commission
10:10 am (EDT) An Overview of Frankfurt/Hesse
Mr. Oliver Baumann, President, Baumann Consulting
10:35 am (EDT) Power Electronics for Data Centers – Energy Routers
Dr. Igor Cvetkovic, CPES, Virginia Tech
11:00 am (EDT) Questions and Answers
Facilitated by Dr. Dale Medearis and Ms. Wittke
11:30 am (EDT) Close
Next Upcoming Event
Behind the Scenes. 2G Energy Virtual Factory Tour.
2G Energy
April 15, 2021, 11 am ET
Walk the campus, virtually, with Andre, International Sales Manager, while he explains the inner workings of 2G. He will walk you through the 2G Energy Campus in Heek, Germany.
The tour will be live and any questions you have will be answered.
- Find out what the latest digital tools 2G offers are
- The world's first 100% hydrogen CHP system discussed
- Have a look at the broad CHP portfolio between 50 kW and 2 MW for a huge
variety of applications
- Walk virtually inside a containerized solution
- Visit the test benches and see how much efforts 2G puts an high-quality long-
lasting solutions
News
Lawmakers in 20 States Introduce 69 Microgrid Bills
Microgrid Knowledge
Apr 9, 2021
The legislation comes as state lawmakers are increasingly taking steps to support grid modernization, including exploring the role that microgrids and new energy management technologies can play in updating the grid, according to an April 7 report on trending energy topics from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
In part, grid modernization efforts focus on energy resilience, driven by extreme weather events like wildfires, hurricanes and tornados, NCSL analysts said in the report.
While some states last year enacted laws supporting backup generation, “policymakers are also increasingly considering the role that microgrids can play in enhancing resiliency during grid outages while also providing services during normal grid conditions,” NCSL analysts said.
In a trend that is continuing, last year seven states enacted laws creating “commercial property assessed clean energy” programs, known as C-PACE, according to the report. The C-PACE financing structure allows owners of commercial and industrial properties to obtain low-cost, long-term financing for energy efficiency, renewable energy and resiliency upgrades, which can include energy storage, the analysts said.
News
Marriage of CHP & Hydrogen: Sounds heavenly but expensive & uncertain
Power Engieering
Apr 9, 2021
News
The Great American Reset Is Underway and Will Change Everything
Energy Central
Apr 6, 2021
It is the Great American Reset, where things will be irreversibly changed. It is a seminal reset that will shape the decades to come, just as the New Deal and World War II shoved the clock forward.
The reset is being driven in part by Covid-19, but in larger part by technology and the digitization of America. Technology is at the gates, no, through the gates, and it is beginning to upend the old in the way that the steam engine in its day began innovations that would change life completely.
Driving this overhaul of human endeavor will be the digitization of everything from the kitchen broom to the electric utilities and the delivery of their vital product. Knitting them together will be communications from 5G to exclusive private networks.
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposals could speed and smooth the innovation revolution, facilitate the digital revolution, and make it fairer and more balanced. Biden’s plan will fix the legacy world of infrastructure: roads, bridges, canals, ports, airports, and railroads. It will beef up the movement of goods and services, supply chains and their security, even as those goods and services are changing profoundly.
But if Biden’s plan fails, the Great American Reset will still happen. It will just be less fair and more uneven -- as in not providing broadband quicky to all.
Technology has an imperative, and there is so much technology coming to market that the market will embrace it, nonetheless.
Think driverless cars, but also think telemedicine, carbon capture and utilization, aerial taxis, drone deliveries, and 3D-printed body parts. Add new materials like graphene and nanomanufacturing, and an awesome future awaits.
We have seen just the tip of digitization and have been reminded of how pervasive it is by the current chip shortage, which is slowing automobile production lines and thousands of manufactures. But you might say, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” The future belongs to chips and sensors: small soldiers in mighty armies.
Accompanying digitization is electrification. Our cars, trucks, trains and even aircraft and ships are headed that way. Better storage is the one frontier that must be conquered before the army of change pours through the breach in a great reshaping of everything.
Central to the future -- to the smart city, the smart railroad, the smart highway, and the smart airport -- is the electric supply.
The whole reset future of digitization and sensor-facilitated mobility depends on electricity -- and not just availability of electricity going forward, but also resilience of supply. It also needs to be carbon-free and have low environmental impact.
An overhaul of the electric industry’s infrastructure, increasing its resilience, is an imperative underpinning the reset.
The Texas blackouts were a brutal wake-up call. Job one is look into hardening the entire electric supply system from informational technology to operational technology, from storm resistance to solar flare resistance (see Carrington Event), from catastrophic physical failure to failure induced by hostile players.
The electric grid needs survivability, but so do the data flows which will dominate the virtual utility of the future. It also needs a failsafe ability to isolate trouble in nanoseconds and, essentially, break itself into less vulnerable, defensive mini grids.
Securing the grid is akin to national security. Indeed, it is national security.
News
U.S gas consumption expected to fall 0.4% in 2021
Compressor Magazine
Apr 6, 2021
The EIA said it expected the share of electric power generated from natural gas in the U.S. will average 36% in 2021 and 35% in 2022, down from 39% in 2020.
Despite the expected decline in demand for gas from power producers, the agency said that the use of gas among residential and commercial consumers in 2021 will increase by 1.1 Bcf/d and 1.4 Bcf/d respectively. The increase in demand outside of the power sector is caused by expanding economic activity and colder temperatures.
Looking farther ahead, the agency said it expected U.S. gas consumption to average 82.1 Bcf/d in 2022.
Natural gas inventories in the U.S. ended March 2021 at nearly 1.8 Tcf, down 2% from the five-year average from 2016 through 2020. The U.S. market saw more inventories withdrawn from storage than average because of cold temperatures in February and low natural gas production.
Injections of gas into storage are expected to outpace the five-year average this season because of rising gas production and lower gas consumption for power generation. The agency predicted that gas inventories will end the 2021 injection season, usually around the end of October, at more than 3.7 Tcf, on par with the five-year average.
The EIA also forecast that dry gas production will average 91.4 Bcf/d in 2021, about the same as the 2020 average. It predicted that dry gas production will fall to a low of 90.8 Bcf/d in May before steadily increasing for the rest of the ye
News
Biden $2 trillion infrastructure proposal includes billions in spending on transmission, clean energy
Utility Dive
Apr 1, 2021
Combined Heat & Power eCatalog of Recognized Package CHP Systems
Packaged CHP Systems:
Rigorous Recognition Process
The Packaged Combined Heat and Power Catalog (eCatalog) is a voluntary public/private partnership designed to increase deployment of CHP in commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings and manufacturing plants. The core of the eCatalog are CHP Packagers who commit to provide pre-engineered and tested Packaged CHP systems that meet or exceed DOE performance requirements and CHP Solution Providers who commit to provide responsible installation, commissioning, maintenance and service of recognized Packaged CHP systems and also provide a single point of project responsibility.
Customer Engagement Partners: Incentivizing CHP in Your Area
Maximize Your CHP Investment When You Install Recognized Systems
An essential element in market success of energy efficient technologies, such as CHP, is a robust customer engagement partner to educate end-users and provide assistance through the project development process. States, localities and utilities that are implementing programs and policies to increase the use of CHP in support of key economic, security, efficiency and environmental goals can integrate the eCatalog into their efforts by linking recognized CHP packages offered by Solution Providers or Packagers in their region to their programs. The eCatalog provides a unique platform for convening recognized CHP equipment and suppliers with state, local and utility market outreach, customer acquisition and incentive programs.
eCATALOG PACKAGED CHP SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
Packaged CHP System standardized1 electrical and thermal performance data presented for comparison in the eCatalog have been reviewed and recognized as accurate based on engineering data and available performance test data submitted by the Packagers. Emissions data presented in the eCatalog are based on either third-party emissions test results when available, or prime mover manufacture’s emissions certification data, both using standard EPA test methodologies or equivalent. When evaluating CHP performance for a particular project, it is important to use final performance data from the Packager or Solution Provider that reflects specific site conditions such as actual fuel characteristics, ambient temperatures and altitude, and thermal load temperatures or pressures. As an example, hot water thermal capacity ratings in the eCatalog are based on a standard hot water supply temperature of 180 F, with packager specified return temperatures for each system. Actual hot water available from a packaged CHP system for a project will depend on the specific temperature requirements of the hot water supply and return at the site, and may vary from data presented in the eCatalog.
“Even a small blip on the power grid can disrupt our production equipment and cause six to eight hours of lost production time. With the CHP systems, if there is a power blip we go into island mode and don't experience any disruption.”
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