Microgrids Blanket Alaska - Prime US Testbed

08/22/22 • 25 min

Alaska is global leader in microgrid technology with one of highest concentrations of renewably powered microgrid projects in the world. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Peter Asmus who is Executive Director of Alaska Microgrid Group. The group offers access to expertise from the utility industry and research community to leverage decades of experience designing, building and operating microgrid projects across Alaska.

“What’s unique about Alaska is it’s number one in the U.S. for total microgrid capacity,” said Asmus.

Just about every Alaskan is served by a microgrid.

“At last count I saw something like 3,500 megawatts of installed capacity. Most of those systems are what I would call remote power systems where there is no grid and that’s what’s unusual about Alaska”.

Microgrids loom large over the future of an electric grid that will be integrating increasing amounts of renewable energy, providing ever greater levels of resilience, Asmus said. “I see microgrids becoming a bigger and bigger thing as climate change impacts accelerate and the power outage rate keeps going up. People are so dependent on electricity; they’re going to want some form of a microgrid resiliency.”

Peter Asmus is a leading global authority on microgrid markets and other emerging trends in sustainable and resilient energy systems. Author of four books, he has been writing about and analyzing emerging trends in energy policy, technology and applications since 1986. Most recently, he was Research Director with Guidehouse Insights where he started up the world’s first global data set on microgrids and developed a forecast methodology to estimate future growth. Additionally, he was editor of the Clean Power Journal, assistant editor of California Policy Choices, and has written for several energy trade publications, including Windpower Monthly and Electric Utility Week.

Asmus holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin.

“What’s unique about Alaska is it’s number one in the U.S. for total microgrid capacity,” said Asmus.

Just about every Alaskan is served by a microgrid.

Asmus holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin.

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Utilities Fully in on Carbon Fight

Three out of four Americans are served by utilities out to slash carbon emissions, according to Julia Hamm, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Smart Electric Power Alliance. In this episode of Grid Talk, Hamm sits down with host Marty Rosenberg to talk about how the power industry has changed over the last 19 years.

“73% of all U.S. electric customers are served by a utility that has a public target for a hundred percent carbon reduction, so I’d say that’s pretty significant,” said Hamm.

With utilities making clean energy a core part of their mission, they are driving significant changes to the industry.

“Utilities are now playing an active leadership role in helping to decarbonize not only their own business operations but also working proactively with customers, others in their supply chain and really across the whole economy in order to accelerate decarbonization.”

To match that profound change, utility regulators and policymakers need to better coordinate the rules governing the energy sector, she said.

“We need to see an increased level of coordination at the federal, state, and local levels far beyond what we have historically seen,” Hamm said.

For the past 20 Julia Hamm has been advising and collaborating with utilities, solution providers and government agencies on business models, grid modernization, and clean energy policies, strategies and programs. She oversees SEPA’s research, education, and collaboration activities for its 1,100 member companies.

Hamm is a graduate of Cornell University.

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Grid Italian Style - ENEL Defines the Future

Italy is at the forefront of major utilities worldwide realizing its vision of the future of electricity. The massive utility aims to be carbon neutral by 2040. In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with Antonio Cammisecra, who’s the head of the Enel Grids within the Enel Group in Italy.

Enel Grids operates a massive 1.5 million miles of predominately distribution lines.

“Without a doubt we are the most digitized distribution company in the world,” said Cammisecra. “We are the absolute leader in this field.”

It is all part of a sweeping, utility sector transformation.

“It took us 20 years to completely digitalize the Italian grid for which we are very well advanced. And we had several waves of digitalization so, now we are at the third generation of digital meter. We have achieved basically two things: the capability to open up a much more modern electricity market because the digitization of the metering itself is the beginning of a much more modern market so you can have hourly pricing for example.”

“We understood there was a new era approaching to the industry and you cannot, let’s say, survive or prosper or lead the industry without deep profound change in the way you wanted to stay in that industry, which, of course, conceives a different approach to innovation and to sustainability.”

Antonio Cammisecra became Head of the Enel Grids Business Line on October 1, 2020. Prior to that, he was the Sole Director of Enel Green Power and Director of the Africa, Asia, and Oceania region. He joined the International Division of Enel Group in 1999 and has served in multiple positions.

Cammisecra studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II, graduating with first class honors in 1996. He received an MBA from Milan’s Bocconi University in 2004.