The Geneva Motor Show will feature more than 130 world premiere presentations as the auto industry tries for a few days at least to dispel some of the gloom clouding its future.
And it doesn't get any gloomier than this: passenger car registrations in Europe were down 27 percent in January from a year earlier. In an effort to woo back consumers, European car companies are asking governments to give them billions in soft, low-interest loans to help them build cleaner cars while sales slump during the economic downturn.
Greener technology is taking a prominent place at the show. General Motors Corp.'s European Adam Opel GmbH subsidiary will roll out the new Ampera, the European relative to the North American Volt, a plug-in hybrid with an onboard gas engine to create more electricity on board.
GM envisions getting a 600-mile range with the technology it calls an electric vehicle range extender.
"It is the future not only of the Opel brand but also Opel technology," GM Europe and Opel spokesman Frank Klaas said at the Opel stand. "It is a symbol of how GM can support the Opel brand in the future."
Volvo will unveil the C30, a car that can run with four different kinds of fuel, while the Swiss design firm Protoscar is presenting an electric concept car called Lampo, Italian for "electrical current."
The motor show itself is also dedicating an entire pavilion to greener autos, not just those with lower fuel consumption but newer technologies, from hybrids to battery-operated cars.
"I think it is particularly important for the car industry to show what they are able to do even in financial crisis," said Rolf Studer, general manager of the motor show. The show opens to the public from March 5 through March 16.
"They must show to their customers that they are still here, that they are doing research and that they are making presentations to the market at this very important show."
Geneva, coming after Detroit on the auto show calendar, remains attractive to many automakers, suppliers and design firms because it is held in neutral Switzerland, which does not have an automaker of its own to claim a homefield advantage.
Despite the tough times, Studer said he still has a waiting list to get space in the Palexpo Convention Center even if some exhibitors are cutting back.
Detroit-based General Motors, struggling to stave off bankruptcy back home in the United States, has nearly halved its floor space, from 6,000 square meters to 3,500 square meters. CEO Rick Wagoner was not scheduled to attend the event.
For GM, which will also present the Chevrolet Spark, the emphasis is not on the new models, but on strategy.
"The whole theme of the press conference is on the environment. We'll talk about the aspects that fit that bill. Certainly, the Opel Ampera is a key element," said Opel spokesman Stefan Weinmann.
Fiat will show the convertible version of the hot-selling and award-winning remodeling of the iconic 500 — one of the cars it plans to launch in the United States through its partnership with Chrysler.
The Turin-based automaker will also show a prototype of its Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA, a 3-door small car. As it happens, Alfa Romeo is another brand Fiat Group Autos wants to roll out in North America.
There also will be some luxury cars that automakers may have thought better of rolling out in recession-wracked Detroit. Aston Martin is expected to show its DBS Volante convertible and Bentley is coming out with the Continental Supersports, a high-performance two seater that can run on ethanol-based E85 biofuel. Rolls Royce also is said to be showing an experimental car.
Japan's Toyota presented its new Verso at an outside event ahead of the show. The 7-seater minivan, manufactured in Turkey, will compete directly with the Mazda5 and Opel Zafira.
✅ States, market operators push investment certainty and storage
The United Nation’s climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on Monday said radical emissions reduction across the world’s economies, including a phase-out of coal by 2050, was required to avoid the most devastating climate change impacts.
The Morrison government dismissed the findings. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg insisted this week that “coal is an important part of the energy mix”.
“If we were to take coal out of the system the lights would go out on the east coast of Australia overnight. It provides more than 60 per cent of our power," he said.
Ms Zibelman, whose organisation operates the nation’s largest gas and electricity markets, said if Australia was to make an orderly transition to low-emissions electricity generation, aligning with the sustainable electric planet vision, “then certainly we would keep the lights on”.
Ms Zibelman said coal assets should be maintained “as long as they are economically viable and we should have a plan to replace them with resources that are lowest cost”.
Those options comprised gas, renewables, pumped hydro and other energy storage, she told ABC radio, as New Zealand weighs electrification to replace fossil fuels.
Under the Paris treaty the government has pledged to lower emissions by 26 per cent by 2030, based on 2005 levels, even as national emissions rose 2% recently according to industry reports.
Labor would increase the goal to a 45 per cent cut - a policy Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last month would " shut down every coal-fired power station in the country and ... increase people’s power bill by about $1,400 on average for every single household”.
The federal government has scrapped its proposed National Energy Guarantee, which would have cut emissions in the electricity sector, but the reliability component of the plan may continue in some form.
The policy was being developed by the Energy Security Board. The group’s chairwoman Kerry Schott has expressed anger at its demise but on Thursday revealed the board was still working on the policy because “nobody told us to stop”.
Speaking at the Melbourne Institute's Outlook conference, she urged the government to revive the emissions reduction component of the plan to provide investment certainty, noting the IEA net-zero report on Canada shows electricity demand rises in decarbonisation.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor, an energy consultant before entering Parliament, on Thursday said the electricity sector would reduce emissions in line with the Paris deal without a mandated target.
Mr Taylor said only a “very brave state” would not support the policy’s reliability obligation.
The federal government has called a COAG energy council meeting for October 26 in Sydney to discuss electricity reliability.
It is understood Mr Taylor has not contacted Victoria, Queensland or the ACT since taking the portfolio, despite needing unanimous support from the states to progress the issue.
The Victorian government goes into caretaker mode on October 30 ahead of that state's election.
Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the federal government was “a rabble when it comes to energy policy, and we won’t be signing anything until after the election".
Speaking at the Melbourne Institute conference, prominent business leaders on Thursday bemoaned a lack of political leadership on energy policy and climate change, saying the only way forward appeared to be for companies to take action themselves, with some pointing to Canada's race to net-zero as a case study in the role of renewables.
Jayne Hrdlicka, chief executive of ASX-listed dairy and infant-formula company a2 Milk, said "we all have an obligation to do the very best job we can in managing our carbon footprint".
"We just need to get on doing what we can .. and then hope that policy will catch up. But we can’t wait," she said.
Ms Hrdlicka said the recent federal political turmoil had been frustrating "because if you invest in building relationships as most of us do in Canberra and then overnight they are all changed, you’re starting from scratch".
Raindrop Triboelectric Energy Harvesting converts falling water into electricity using Teflon (PTFE) on indium tin oxide and an aluminum electrode, forming a transient water bridge; a low frequency nanogenerator for renewable, static electricity harvesting.
Key Points
A method using PTFE, ITO, and an aluminum electrode to turn raindrop impacts into low frequency electrical power.
✅ PTFE on ITO boosts charge transfer efficiency.
✅ Water bridge links electrodes for rapid discharge.
✅ Low frequency output suits continuous energy harvesting.
Scientists at the City University of Hong Kong have used a Teflon-coated surface and a phenomenon called triboelectricity to generate a charge from raindrops. “Here we develop a device to harvest energy from impinging water droplets by using an architecture that comprises a polytetrafluoroethylene [Teflon] film on an indium tin oxide substrate plus an aluminium electrode,” they explain in their new paper in Nature as a step toward cheap, abundant electricity in the long term.
Triboelectricity itself is an old concept. The word means “friction electricity”—from the Greek tribo, to rub or wear down, which is why a diatribe tires you out—and dates back a long, long time. Static electricity is the most famous kind of triboelectric, and related work has shown electricity from the night sky can be harvested as well in niche setups. In most naturally occurring kinds, scientists have studied triboelectric in order to avoid its effects, like explosions inside of grain silos or hospital workers touching off pure oxygen. (Blowing sand causes an electric field, and NASA even worries about static when astronauts eventually land on Mars.)
One of the most studied forms of intentional and useful triboelectric is in systems such as ocean wave generators where the natural friction of waves meets nanogenerators of triboelectric energy. These even already use Teflon, which has natural conductivity that makes it ideal for this job. But triboelectricity is chaotic, and harnessing it generally involves a bunch of complicated, intersecting variables that can vary with the hourly weather. Promises of static electricity charging devices have often been, well, so much hot, sandy wind.
The scientists at City University of Hong Kong used triboelectric ideas to turn falling raindrops into energy. They say previous versions of the same idea were not very efficient, with materials that didn’t allow for high-fidelity transfer of electrical charge. (Many sources of renewable energy aren’t yet as efficient to turn into power, both because of developing technology and because their renewability means even less efficient use could be better than, for example, fossil fuels, and advances in renewable energy storage could help.)
“[A]chieving a high density of electrical power generation is challenging,” the team explains in its paper. “Traditional hydraulic power generation mainly uses electromagnetic generators that are heavy, bulky, and become inefficient with low water supply.” Diversifying how power is generated by water sources such as oceans and rivers is good for the existing infrastructure as well as new installations.
The research team found that as simulated raindrops fell on their device, the way the water accumulated and spread created a link between their two electrodes, one Teflon-coated and the other aluminum. This watery de facto wire link closes the loop and allows accumulated energy to move through the system. Because it’s a mechanical setup, it’s not limited to salty seawater, and because the medium is already water, its potential isn’t affected by ambient humidity either.
Raindrop energy is very low frequency, which means this tech joins many other existing pushes to harvest continuously available, low frequency natural energy, including underwater 'kites' that exploit steady currents. To make an interface that increases “instantaneous power density by several orders of magnitude over equivalent devices,” as the researchers say they’ve done here, could represent a major step toward feasibility in triboelectric generation.
UK Peak Power Prices surged as low wind speeds forced National Grid to rely on gas-fired plants and coal generation, amid soaring wholesale gas prices and weak wind generation during the energy crisis.
Key Points
UK Peak Power Prices are electricity costs at peak hours, driven by wind output, gas reliance, and market dynamics.
✅ Spikes when wind generation drops and demand rises.
✅ Driven by gas-fired plants, coal backup, and wholesale gas prices.
✅ Moderate as wind output recovers and interconnectors supply.
Low wind speeds pushed peak hour power prices to the second highest level for at least three years on Monday, a move consistent with UK electricity prices hitting a 10-year high earlier this year, as Britain’s grid was forced to increase its reliance on gas-fired power plants and draw on coal generation.
Calm weather this year has exacerbated the energy price crisis in the UK, as gas-fired power stations have had to pick up the slack from wind farms. Energy demand has surged as countries open up from pandemic restrictions, which together with lower supplies from Russia to western Europe, has sent wholesale gas prices soaring.
Power prices in the UK for the peak evening period between 5pm and 6pm on Monday surpassed £2,000 per megawatt hour, only the second time they have exceeded that level in recent years.
This was still below the levels reached at the height of the gas price crisis in mid-September, when they hit £2,500/MWh, according to the energy consultancy Cornwall Insight, whose records date back to 2018.
Low wind speeds were the main driver behind Monday’s price spike, although expectations of a pick-up in wind generation on Tuesday, after recent record wind generation days, should push them back down to similar levels seen in recent weeks, analysts said.
Despite the expansion of renewables, such as wind and solar, over the past decade, with instances of wind leading the power mix in recent months, gas remains the single biggest source of electricity generation in Britain, typically accounting for nearly 40 per cent of output.
At lunchtime on Monday, gas-fired power plants were producing nearly 55 per cent of electricity, while coal accounted for 3 per cent, reflecting more power from wind than coal in 2016 milestones. Britain’s wind farms were contributing 1.67 gigawatts or just over 4 per cent, according to data from the Drax Electrics Insights website. Over the past 12 months, wind farms have produced 21 per cent of the UK’s electricity on average.
National Grid, which manages the UK’s electricity grid, has been forced on a number of occasions in recent months to ask coal plants to fire up to help offset the loss of wind generation, after issuing a National Grid short supply warning to the market. The government announced in June that it planned to bring forward the closure of the remaining coal stations to the end of September 2024.
Ministers also committed this year to making Britain’s electricity grid “net zero carbon” by 2035, and milestones such as when wind was the main source underline the transition, although some analysts have pointed out that would not signal the end of gas generation.
Since the start of the energy crisis in August, 20 energy suppliers have gone bust as they have struggled to secure the electricity and gas needed to supply customers at record wholesale prices, with further failures expected in coming weeks.
Phil Hewitt, director of the consultancy EnAppSys, said Monday’s high prices would further exacerbate pressures on those energy suppliers that do not have adequate hedging strategies. “This winter is a good time to be a generator,” he added.
Energy companies including Orsted of Denmark and SSE of the UK have reported some of the lowest wind speeds for at least two decades this year, even though record output during Storm Malik highlighted the system's volatility.
According to weather modelling group Vortex, the strength of the wind blowing across northern Europe has fallen by as much as 15 per cent on average in places this year, which some scientists suggest could be due to climate change.
Alberta Utility Rate Rider will add a modest fee to electricity bills and natural gas charges as the AUC recovers outstanding debt from the COVID-19 deferral program via AESO and the Balancing Pool.
Key Points
A temporary surcharge on Alberta power and gas bills to recover unpaid COVID-19 deferral debt, administered by the AUC.
✅ Applies per kWh and per GJ based on consumption
✅ Recovers unpaid balances from 2020-21 bill deferrals
✅ Collected via AESO and the Balancing Pool under AUC oversight
The province says Alberta ratepayers should expect to see an extra fee on their utility bills in the coming months.
That fee is meant to recover the outstanding debt owed to gas and electricity providers resulting from last year's three-month utility deferral program offered to struggling Albertans during the pandemic.
The provincial government announced the utility deferral program in March 2020 then formalized it with legislation, alongside a consumer price cap on power bills that shaped later policy decisions.
The program allowed residential, farm and small commercial customers who used less than 250,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year — or consumed less than 2,500 gigajoules per year — to postpone their bills amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the province, 350,000 customers, or approximately 13 per cent of the natural gas and electricity consumer base, took advantage of the program.
Customers had a year to repay providers what they owed. That deadline ended June 18, 2021.
The Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), which regulates the utilities sector and natural gas and electricity markets and oversees a rate of last resort framework, said the vast majority of consumers have squared up.
But for those who didn't, provincial legislation dictates that Alberta ratepayers must cover any unpaid debt. The legislation exempts Medicine Hat utility customers for electricity and gas co-operative customers for gas.
"When the program was announced, it was very clear that it was a deferral program and that the monies would need to be paid back," said Geoff Scotton, a spokesperson with the Alberta Utilities Commission.
"Now we're in the situation where the providers, in good faith, who enabled those payment deferrals, need to be made whole. That's really the goal here."
Amount to be determined Margeaux Maron, a spokesperson for Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity Dale Nally, said based on early estimates, $13 to $16 million of $92 million in deferred payments remain outstanding.
As a result, the province expects the average Albertan will end up paying, unlike jurisdictions offering a lump-sum credit, a fraction of a dollar extra per monthly gas and electricity bill over a handful of months.
Scotton said at this point, there are too many unknown factors to know the exact size of the rate rider. However, he said he expects it to be modest.
Scotton said affected parties first have until the end of this week to notify the AUC exactly how much they are still owed.
Those parties include the Alberta Electric System Operator and the Balancing Pool, who essentially acted as bankers with respect to the distribution and transmission of the utilities to customers who deferred their payments.
Regulated service providers may also seek reimbursement on administrative and carrying costs, even as issues like a BC Hydro fund surplus spark debate elsewhere.
Then, Scotton said, once the outstanding amounts are known, the AUC will hold a public proceeding, similar to a Nova Scotia rate case, to determine the amount and the duration of the rate rider to be applied to each natural gas and electricity bill.
The amount will be based on consumption: per kilowatt hour for electricity and per gigajoule for natural gas.
That means larger businesses will end up paying more than the average Albertan.
Scotton said the AUC will expedite the hearing process and it expects to have a decision by the end of the summer.
Rate rider a 'surprise' Joel MacDonald with Energyrates.ca — an organization which compares energy rates across the country — said it's not the amount of the rate rider that bothers him, but the fact that the repayment process wasn't made clear at the onset of the program.
"It came to us as a bit of a surprise," MacDonald said.
He said what was sold as a deferral program seems more like an electricity rebate program, or an "ability to pay" program.
"As opposed to the retailers looking into collection methods, anything that wasn't paid is basically just being forced upon all Alberta consumers," MacDonald said.
The expectation set out in the deferral legislation and regulations state utility providers such as Enmax and Epcor are expected to use reasonable efforts to try to collect the unpaid balances. It must then detail those reasonable efforts to the AUC.
A spokesperson for Enmax said it first works with its customers to find manageable payment arrangements and connects them with support services if they are unable to pay.
Then, if payment can't be arranged, it said it will work with a collection agency, which may even result in disconnection of service.
The spokesperson said only after all efforts have failed would Enmax seek reimbursement through this program.
Use tax revenues? MacDonald also questioned why a government program isn't being paid for through general tax revenues.
He compared the utility deferral program to a mortgage subsidy program.
"Imagine that [Canada Mortgage And Housing Corporation] said, 'Hey, we had to give mortgage deferrals and some of these people never paid back their deferrals, so we're going to add an extra $300 to everyone's mortgage,'" he said.
"You'd expect that to come off of some sort of general taxation — not being assigned to other people's mortgages, right?"
In response, Maron said due to the current fiscal challenges facing the government — and the expected minimal costs to consumers, and even as a consumer price cap on electricity remains in place — it was determined that a rate rider would be an appropriate mechanism to repay bad debt associated with the program.
Scotton said rate riders aren't unusual — they're used to fine-tune rates for a set period of time.
He said under normal circumstances, regulated service providers can apply to the AUC to impose a rate rider to recover unexpected costs. And in some instances, they can provide a credit.
But in this situation, he said the debt is aggregated and, in turn, being collected more broadly.
Boeing 787 More-Electric Architecture replaces pneumatics with bleedless pressurization, VFSG starter-generators, electric brakes, and heated wing anti-ice, leveraging APU, RAT, batteries, and airport ground power for efficient, redundant electrical power distribution.
Key Points
An integrated, bleedless electrical system powering start, pressurization, brakes, and anti-ice via VFSGs, APU and RAT.
✅ VFSGs start engines, then generate 235Vac variable-frequency power
✅ Bleedless pressurization, electric anti-ice improve fuel efficiency
✅ Electric brakes cut hydraulic weight and simplify maintenance
The 787 Dreamliner is different to most commercial aircraft flying the skies today. On the surface it may seem pretty similar to the likes of the 777 and A350, but get under the skin and it’s a whole different aircraft.
When Boeing designed the 787, in order to make it as fuel efficient as possible, it had to completely shake up the way some of the normal aircraft systems operated. Traditionally, systems such as the pressurization, engine start and wing anti-ice were powered by pneumatics. The wheel brakes were powered by the hydraulics. These essential systems required a lot of physical architecture and with that comes weight and maintenance. This got engineers thinking.
What if the brakes didn’t need the hydraulics? What if the engines could be started without the pneumatic system? What if the pressurisation system didn’t need bleed air from the engines? Imagine if all these systems could be powered electrically… so that’s what they did.
Power sources
The 787 uses a lot of electricity. Therefore, to keep up with the demand, it has a number of sources of power, much as grid operators track supply on the GB energy dashboard to balance loads. Depending on whether the aircraft is on the ground with its engines off or in the air with both engines running, different combinations of the power sources are used.
Engine starter/generators
The main source of power comes from four 235Vac variable frequency engine starter/generators (VFSGs). There are two of these in each engine. These function as electrically powered starter motors for the engine start, and once the engine is running, then act as engine driven generators.
The generators in the left engine are designated as L1 and L2, the two in the right engine are R1 and R2. They are connected to their respective engine gearbox to generate electrical power directly proportional to the engine speed. With the engines running, the generators provide electrical power to all the aircraft systems.
APU starter/generators
In the tail of most commercial aircraft sits a small engine, the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). While this does not provide any power for aircraft propulsion, it does provide electrics for when the engines are not running.
The APU of the 787 has the same generators as each of the engines — two 235Vac VFSGs, designated L and R. They act as starter motors to get the APU going and once running, then act as generators. The power generated is once again directly proportional to the APU speed.
The APU not only provides power to the aircraft on the ground when the engines are switched off, but it can also provide power in flight should there be a problem with one of the engine generators.
Battery power
The aircraft has one main battery and one APU battery. The latter is quite basic, providing power to start the APU and for some of the external aircraft lighting.
The main battery is there to power the aircraft up when everything has been switched off and also in cases of extreme electrical failure in flight, and in the grid context, alternatives such as gravity power storage are being explored for long-duration resilience. It provides power to start the APU, acts as a back-up for the brakes and also feeds the captain’s flight instruments until the Ram Air Turbine deploys.
Ram air turbine (RAT) generator
When you need this, you’re really not having a great day. The RAT is a small propeller which automatically drops out of the underside of the aircraft in the event of a double engine failure (or when all three hydraulics system pressures are low). It can also be deployed manually by pressing a switch in the flight deck.
Once deployed into the airflow, the RAT spins up and turns the RAT generator. This provides enough electrical power to operate the captain’s flight instruments and other essentials items for communication, navigation and flight controls.
External power
Using the APU on the ground for electrics is fine, but they do tend to be quite noisy. Not great for airports wishing to keep their noise footprint down. To enable aircraft to be powered without the APU, most big airports will have a ground power system drawing from national grids, including output from facilities such as Barakah Unit 1 as part of the mix. Large cables from the airport power supply connect 115Vac to the aircraft and allow pilots to shut down the APU. This not only keeps the noise down but also saves on the fuel which the APU would use.
The 787 has three external power inputs — two at the front and one at the rear. The forward system is used to power systems required for ground operations such as lighting, cargo door operation and some cabin systems. If only one forward power source is connected, only very limited functions will be available.
The aft external power is only used when the ground power is required for engine start.
Circuit breakers
Most flight decks you visit will have the back wall covered in circuit breakers — CBs. If there is a problem with a system, the circuit breaker may “pop” to preserve the aircraft electrical system. If a particular system is not working, part of the engineers procedure may require them to pull and “collar” a CB — placing a small ring around the CB to stop it from being pushed back in. However, on the 787 there are no physical circuit breakers. You’ve guessed it, they’re electric.
Within the Multi Function Display screen is the Circuit Breaker Indication and Control (CBIC). From here, engineers and pilots are able to access all the “CBs” which would normally be on the back wall of the flight deck. If an operational procedure requires it, engineers are able to electrically pull and collar a CB giving the same result as a conventional CB.
Not only does this mean that the there are no physical CBs which may need replacing, it also creates space behind the flight deck which can be utilised for the galley area and cabin.
A normal flight
While it’s useful to have all these systems, they are never all used at the same time, and, as the power sector’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies showed, resilience planning matters across operations. Depending on the stage of the flight, different power sources will be used, sometimes in conjunction with others, to supply the required power.
On the ground
When we arrive at the aircraft, more often than not the aircraft is plugged into the external power with the APU off. Electricity is the blood of the 787 and it doesn’t like to be without a good supply constantly pumping through its system, and, as seen in NYC electric rhythms during COVID-19, demand patterns can shift quickly. Ground staff will connect two forward external power sources, as this enables us to operate the maximum number of systems as we prepare the aircraft for departure.
Whilst connected to the external source, there is not enough power to run the air conditioning system. As a result, whilst the APU is off, air conditioning is provided by Preconditioned Air (PCA) units on the ground. These connect to the aircraft by a pipe and pump cool air into the cabin to keep the temperature at a comfortable level.
APU start
As we near departure time, we need to start making some changes to the configuration of the electrical system. Before we can push back , the external power needs to be disconnected — the airports don’t take too kindly to us taking their cables with us — and since that supply ultimately comes from the grid, projects like the Bruce Power upgrade increase available capacity during peaks, but we need to generate our own power before we start the engines so to do this, we use the APU.
The APU, like any engine, takes a little time to start up, around 90 seconds or so. If you remember from before, the external power only supplies 115Vac whereas the two VFSGs in the APU each provide 235Vac. As a result, as soon as the APU is running, it automatically takes over the running of the electrical systems. The ground staff are then clear to disconnect the ground power.
If you read my article on how the 787 is pressurised, you’ll know that it’s powered by the electrical system. As soon as the APU is supplying the electricity, there is enough power to run the aircraft air conditioning. The PCA can then be removed.
Engine start
Once all doors and hatches are closed, external cables and pipes have been removed and the APU is running, we’re ready to push back from the gate and start our engines. Both engines are normally started at the same time, unless the outside air temperature is below 5°C.
On other aircraft types, the engines require high pressure air from the APU to turn the starter in the engine. This requires a lot of power from the APU and is also quite noisy. On the 787, the engine start is entirely electrical.
Power is drawn from the APU and feeds the VFSGs in the engines. If you remember from earlier, these fist act as starter motors. The starter motor starts the turn the turbines in the middle of the engine. These in turn start to turn the forward stages of the engine. Once there is enough airflow through the engine, and the fuel is igniting, there is enough energy to continue running itself.
After start
Once the engine is running, the VFSGs stop acting as starter motors and revert to acting as generators. As these generators are the preferred power source, they automatically take over the running of the electrical systems from the APU, which can then be switched off. The aircraft is now in the desired configuration for flight, with the 4 VFSGs in both engines providing all the power the aircraft needs.
As the aircraft moves away towards the runway, another electrically powered system is used — the brakes. On other aircraft types, the brakes are powered by the hydraulics system. This requires extra pipe work and the associated weight that goes with that. Hydraulically powered brake units can also be time consuming to replace.
By having electric brakes, the 787 is able to reduce the weight of the hydraulics system and it also makes it easier to change brake units. “Plug in and play” brakes are far quicker to change, keeping maintenance costs down and reducing flight delays.
In-flight
Another system which is powered electrically on the 787 is the anti-ice system. As aircraft fly though clouds in cold temperatures, ice can build up along the leading edge of the wing. As this reduces the efficiency of the the wing, we need to get rid of this.
Other aircraft types use hot air from the engines to melt it. On the 787, we have electrically powered pads along the leading edge which heat up to melt the ice.
Not only does this keep more power in the engines, but it also reduces the drag created as the hot air leaves the structure of the wing. A double win for fuel savings.
Once on the ground at the destination, it’s time to start thinking about the electrical configuration again. As we make our way to the gate, we start the APU in preparation for the engine shut down. However, because the engine generators have a high priority than the APU generators, the APU does not automatically take over. Instead, an indication on the EICAS shows APU RUNNING, to inform us that the APU is ready to take the electrical load.
Shutdown
With the park brake set, it’s time to shut the engines down. A final check that the APU is indeed running is made before moving the engine control switches to shut off. Plunging the cabin into darkness isn’t a smooth move. As the engines are shut down, the APU automatically takes over the power supply for the aircraft. Once the ground staff have connected the external power, we then have the option to also shut down the APU.
However, before doing this, we consider the cabin environment. If there is no PCA available and it’s hot outside, without the APU the cabin temperature will rise pretty quickly. In situations like this we’ll wait until all the passengers are off the aircraft until we shut down the APU.
Once on external power, the full flight cycle is complete. The aircraft can now be cleaned and catered, ready for the next crew to take over.
Bottom line
Electricity is a fundamental part of operating the 787. Even when there are no passengers on board, some power is required to keep the systems running, ready for the arrival of the next crew. As we prepare the aircraft for departure and start the engines, various methods of powering the aircraft are used.
The aircraft has six electrical generators, of which only four are used in normal flights. Should one fail, there are back-ups available. Should these back-ups fail, there are back-ups for the back-ups in the form of the battery. Should this back-up fail, there is yet another layer of contingency in the form of the RAT. A highly unlikely event.
The 787 was built around improving efficiency and lowering carbon emissions whilst ensuring unrivalled levels safety, and, in the wider energy landscape, perspectives like nuclear beyond electricity highlight complementary paths to decarbonization — a mission it’s able to achieve on hundreds of flights every single day.
Texas Power Grid Crisis strains ERCOT as extreme cold, ice storms, and heavy snow trigger rolling blackouts, load shedding, and boil-water notices, leaving millions without electricity while frozen turbines and low gas pressure hinder generation.
Key Points
A statewide emergency of outages and boil-water notices as ERCOT battles extreme cold and load shedding.
✅ Millions without power; ERCOT orders load shedding
✅ Boil-water notices in Austin, Houston, Fort Worth
✅ Frozen equipment, low gas pressure, extreme cold disrupt supply
Nearly 3 million homes and businesses in Texas remain without power, some for a third consecutive day, as severe winter weather continues to pummel the state, forcing some localities to issue boil-water notices and urge residents to reduce their electricity usage.
Heavy snowfall, ice storms and bitter temperatures continue to put an enormous strain on the state's power grid. This as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages roughly 75% of the Texas power grid, announced Wednesday morning that some 600,000 households had power restored overnight.
That still left another 2.7 million customers having to endure extreme cold with no indication of when the thaw would break in their homes.
"We know millions of people are suffering," ERCOT's president and CEO, Bill Magness, said in a statement Wednesday. "We have no other priority than getting them electricity. No other priority."
ERCOT also said Wednesday that it was urging local utilities to shed some 14,000 megawatts of load, which translates to roughly 2.8 million customers, to prepare for a sudden increase in demand.
"The ability to restore more power is contingent on more generation coming back online," said Dan Woodfin, the senior director of ERCOT's system operations, and utility supply-chain constraints can further complicate repair timelines for some utilities.
He said that about 185 generating units were offline, stemming from a range of factors including frozen wind turbines, low gas pressure and frozen instrumentation.
But many Texans feel abandoned by the council and power companies and they are lashing out at the local face of utilities.
The City of Austin's community-owned electric utility, Austin Energy, issued a tweet saying crews that are working to restore power are facing harassment.
"Our crews have been working 24/7 and in these elements," Austin Energy announced. "Some of our crews are reporting incidents of harassment, threatening them and even throwing things at them."
Officials pleaded with the public to remain calm. "I know people are extremely frustrated. But please, I bet of you, do not approach AE crews."
Parts of Austin are under a boil water notice, which Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros attempted to explain during a press briefing Wednesday afternoon.
"There was a large main break in that area, maybe multiple ones. We're seeing main breaks and pipes bursting by the tens of thousands. Our entire system is under stress," Meszaros said.
At least two dozen people have died this week from weather-related incidents, according to The Associated Press.
The National Weather Service reports that more than 100 million Americans are being affected by extreme winter weather from the south central U.S. to the East Coast, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, and analysts warn of blackout risks nationwide during extreme heat as well.
The National Weather Service adds that cold temperatures over the nation's heartland will begin to "moderate in the coming days" but that many parts will remain 20 to 35 degrees below normal in the Great Plains, Mississippi Valley and lower Great Lakes region.
"Potential is increasing for significant icing across portions of the Mid-Atlantic, which will be very impactful, especially for those hardest hit from the previous ice storm," the National Weather Service tweeted Wednesday.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott railed against ERCOT, and Elon Musk criticized the agency as unreliable, saying the utility "has been anything but reliable over the past 48 hours."
"This is unacceptable," Abbott added, as residents were facing rotating intentional power outages. The governor issued an executive order that will add reforms for how the power grid is managed, including grid reliability improvements under discussion, as an emergency legislative item for the state legislature to review.
The rolling power outages forced Fort Worth to extend a boil-water notice for roughly 212,000 residents. Officials said the outages affected the city's systems that both treat water and move it to customers.
Fort Worth officials said nine other localities that purchase water from the city are also affected, including Haslet, Keller, Lake Worth and Northlake.
Officials in Houston also issued a boil-water notice for the city's residents Wednesday.
"Do not drink the water without boiling it first," Houston Public Works said from its official Twitter account. "Bring all water to a boil for at least two minutes. Let it cool before using."
In Harris County, which includes Houston, Judge Lina Hidalgo warned residents about extended power outages.
"Let me give it to you straight, based on the visibility I have: Whether you have power or not right now, there is a possibility of power outages even beyond the length of this weather," Hidalgo said, according to Houston Public Media.
The NPR member station adds that county officials have also reported more than 300 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning since Monday as residents going without electricity search desperately for alternative sources of warmth.
"In no uncertain terms, this is a public health disaster and a public health emergency," Samuel Prater, an emergency physician at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, said at a news briefing Tuesday.
Prater warned residents that over the last 24 hours, emergency officials "have seen a striking increase in the number of cases related to improper heating sources," including indoor use of generators, charcoal grills, campfire stoves and other devices that are being used to warm homes. The result, he added, is carbon monoxide poisoning of entire families.
"If you think you or a loved one has become ill from carbon monoxide poisoning, first thing you need to do is get outside to fresh air," Prater said.
A woman and an 8-year-old girl are among those who have reportedly died from carbon monoxide poisoning after a vehicle was left running inside a garage in an attempt to generate heat, according to Houston's ABC affiliate.
As Texas endures further weather-related issues, including road and highway closures, there's a renewed focus on how the Texas power grid has failed, and why the grid is facing another crisis amid this prolonged cold.
The Texas electrical grid is "facing conditions that it was not designed for," said Emily Grubert, a professor at Georgia Tech whose expertise includes electric networks.
"These are really extreme conditions for the Texas grid. It's very cold. It's cold across the entire state, and it's cold for a long time. This does not happen very often," she said in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition.
"Demand really spiked both in the electricity and the natural gas systems at the same time as a lot of the generators were not able to operate because of those cold conditions, and not being prepared for it is really what's going on," Grubert said. "But a lot of grids are susceptible to really, really major failures when they are this far outside of design conditions."
Abbott told Fox News on Tuesday that with weather-related shutdowns in wind and solar energy, which account for more than 10% of the state's grid, renewable energy is partly to blame for the Texas power crisis, even as he later touted the grid's readiness heading into the fall.
"It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary for the state of Texas as well as other states to make sure that we'll be able to heat our homes in the wintertime and cool our homes in the summertime," Abbott said.
But Grubert said that "coal, gas and nuclear actually shut down because of the extreme cold due to things like instruments freezing, et cetera. So I think the overall point here is all of the fuels were really, really struggling."
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