Tres Amigas asks FERC for negotiated rates

By Restructuring Today


NFPA 70b Training - Electrical Maintenance

Our customized live online or in‑person group training can be delivered to your staff at your location.

  • Live Online
  • 12 hours Instructor-led
  • Group Training Available
Regular Price:
$599
Coupon Price:
$499
Reserve Your Seat Today
Tres Amigas filed an application for negotiated rates at FERC for a project to connect all three U.S. interconnections and thus allow the transfer of renewable energy between them.

The firm also filed an application asking FERC to continue its policy of not regulating the ERCOT grid in Texas even with the new project — that would allow renewable energy to flow into and out of the state.

"The need for new transmission to take America's renewable energy from its point of generation in remote areas to where it is needed is self evident," said Tres Amigas CEO Phil Harris. "By enabling the exchange of wind, solar and geothermal power between all three grids, the Tres Amigas SuperStation will help break our nation's transmission bottleneck."

Harris used to be the CEO of PJM. He is a native of New Mexico and the state offers the only place on the map where the three interconnections come together.

The SuperStation in Clovis, NM, is akin to a traffic rotary circle that would include three substations to convert the AC power from the transmitting interconnect to DC that would then flow to another substation and be converted back to AC power and synched to the receiving grid.

That conversion would be accomplished by voltage source converters and the power would be piped between them using underground superconductor cables. Buried transmission cables reportedly use up less space and have lower line loss.

The project will also feature batteries to store renewable energy and provide ancillary services.

Initially the project will be designed to handle about 5 gw of transfer capability — expandable to 30 gw.

The project is completely different from anything that came before it and thus its FERC-approved rates would have to be different, too. It doesn't have any captive customers and it is outside of any RTO with an Open Access Transmission Tariff it could function under.

The project would cost $1 billion to design and build and Tres Amigas needs a way to recoup that investment. The firm asked FERC for more pricing flexibility than it has given other merchant projects.

It wants to set up open season auctions for transmission rights over different blocks of time. The firm plans to make 80% available before commercial operation begins in 2014 with the other 20% saved for shorter-term transmission rights.

Tres Amigas plans to file an open access transmission tariff with FERC and it could sell transmission rights bilaterally with anchor customers.

The project isn't needed to balance the variability of intermittent resources on interconnections that already very large — but more to facilitate energy transactions between them, Tres Amigas CFO Russell Stidolph told us.

The firm received letters of intent from four utilities that want to build lines to the proposed hub, he added, but much of it hinges on the notion that if it's built, customers will come.

FERC filings listed PNM, Southwest Public Service, AEP and MidAmerican Energy joint venture Electric Transmission America and ITC Grid Development as the four utilities.

The project would lead to more efficient generation choices being made, causing the price differences between markets in ERCOT, WECC and the Eastern Interconnection to shrink, said the firm. Tres Amigas has talked to other firms about building lines to the hub so it can interconnect with markets in California, the Southwest Power Pool and others.

Tres Amigas has engaged ERCOT utilities that are building Competitive Renewable Energy Zone (CREZ) transmission lines in preliminary discussions to extend them to the site one mile from the Texas border. But the Texas utilities don't believe the PUC would ever approve linking up with the project without FERC foreswearing an application of its authority over the Texas grid.

The project wouldn't lead to any "commingling" of power between ERCOT and interstate grids due to the DC ties between the three substations, Tres Amigas FERC Counsel David Raskin told us. That term was used to give the old Federal Power Commission authority over Florida's grid in a Supreme Court case.

ERCOT has connections with the Eastern Interconnect and the Mexican grid that could result in commingling and FERC declined to use its authority in response to them.

Since FERC foreswore its authority over the connections with the eastern grid, Texas forced its utilities to unbundle, meaning the purely transmission entities wouldn't qualify as federal public utilities since they don't sell power. That could prevent Tres Amigas from applying that precedent, said Raskin.

The project is entirely different from anything else that has come up for FERC approval before, Raskin said, and the commission should continue ERCOT's exemption in this unique case. Nobody at FERC or in Texas wants to change the regulatory status quo, he added.

Related News

Hydropower Plants to Support Solar and Wind Energy

Solar-Wind-Water West Africa integrates hydropower with solar and wind to boost grid flexibility, clean electricity, and decarbonization, leveraging the West African Power Pool and climate data modeling reported in Nature Sustainability.

 

Key Points

A strategy using hydropower to balance solar and wind, enabling reliable, low-carbon electricity across West Africa.

✅ Hydropower dispatch covers solar and wind shortfalls.

✅ Regional interconnection via West African Power Pool.

✅ Cuts CO2 versus gas while limiting new dam projects.

 

Hydropower plants can support solar and wind power, rather unpredictable by nature, in a climate-friendly manner. A new study in the scientific journal Nature Sustainability has now mapped the potential for such "solar-wind-water" strategies for West Africa: an important region where the power sector is still under development, amid IEA investment needs for universal access, and where generation capacity and power grids will be greatly expanded in the coming years. "Countries in West Africa therefore now have the opportunity to plan this expansion according to strategies that rely on modern, climate-friendly energy generation," says Sebastian Sterl, energy and climate scientist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KU Leuven and lead author of the study. "A completely different situation from Europe, where power supply has been dependent on polluting power plants for many decades - which many countries now want to rid themselves of."

Solar and wind power generation is increasing worldwide and becoming cheaper and cheaper. This helps to keep climate targets in sight, but also poses challenges. For instance, critics often argue that these energy sources are too unpredictable and variable to be part of a reliable electricity mix on a large scale, though combining multiple resources can enhance project performance.

"Indeed, our electricity systems will have to become much more flexible if we are to feed large amounts of solar and wind power into the grid. Flexibility is currently mostly provided by gas power plants. Unfortunately, these cause a lot of CO2 emissions," says Sebastian Sterl, energy and climate expert at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and KU Leuven. "But in many countries, hydropower plants can be a fossil fuel-free alternative to support solar and wind energy. After all, hydropower plants can be dispatched at times when insufficient solar and wind power is available."

The research team, composed of experts from VUB, KU Leuven, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and Climate Analytics, designed a new computer model for their study, running on detailed water, weather and climate data. They used this model to investigate how renewable power sources in West Africa could be exploited as effectively as possible for a reliable power supply, even without large-scale storage, in line with World Bank support for wind in developing countries. All this without losing sight of the environmental impact of large hydropower plants.

"This is far from trivial to calculate," says Prof. Wim Thiery, climate scientist at the VUB, who was also involved in the study. "Hydroelectric power stations in West Africa depend on the monsoon; in the dry season they run on their reserves. Both sun and wind, as well as power requirements, have their own typical hourly, daily and seasonal patterns. Solar, wind and hydropower all vary from year to year and may be impacted by climate change, including projections that wind resources shift southward in coming years. In addition, their potential is spatially very unevenly distributed."

West African Power Pool

The study demonstrates that it will be particularly important to create a "West African Power Pool", a regional interconnection of national power grids to serve as a path to universal electricity access across the region. Countries with a tropical climate, such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast, typically have a lot of potential for hydropower and quite high solar radiation, but hardly any wind. The drier and more desert-like countries, such as Senegal and Niger, hardly have any opportunities for hydropower, but receive more sunlight and more wind. The potential for reliable, clean power generation based on solar and wind power, supported by flexibly dispatched hydropower, increases by more than 30% when countries can share their potential regionally, the researchers discovered.

All measures taken together would allow roughly 60% of the current electricity demand in West Africa to be met with complementary renewable sources, despite concerns about slow greening of Africa's electricity, of which roughly half would be solar and wind power and the other half hydropower - without the need for large-scale battery or other storage plants. According to the study, within a few years, the cost of solar and wind power generation in West Africa is also expected to drop to such an extent that the proposed solar-wind-water strategies will provide cheaper electricity than gas-fired power plants, which currently still account for more than half of all electricity supply in West Africa.

Better ecological footprint

Hydropower plants can have a considerable negative impact on local ecology. In many developing countries, piles of controversial plans for new hydropower plants have been proposed. The study can help to make future investments in hydropower more sustainable. "By using existing and planned hydropower plants as optimally as possible to massively support solar and wind energy, one can at the same time make certain new dams superfluous," says Sterl. "This way two birds can be caught with one stone. Simultaneously, one avoids CO2 emissions from gas-fired power stations and the environmental impact of hydropower overexploitation."

Global relevance

The methods developed for the study are easily transferable to other regions, and the research has worldwide relevance, as shown by a US 80% study on high variable renewable shares. Sterl: "Nearly all regions with a lot of hydropower, or hydropower potential, could use it to compensate shortfalls in solar and wind power." Various European countries, with Norway at the front, have shown increased interest in recent years to deploy their hydropower to support solar and wind power in EU countries. Exporting Norwegian hydropower during times when other countries undergo solar and wind power shortfalls, the European energy transition can be advanced.

 

Related News

View more

94,000 lose electricity in LA area after fire at station

Los Angeles Power Station Fire prompts LADWP to shut a Northridge/Reseda substation, causing a San Fernando Valley outage amid a heatwave; high-voltage equipment and mineral oil burned as 94,000 customers lost power, elevator rescues reported.

 

Key Points

An LADWP substation fire in Northridge/Reseda caused a major outage; 94,000 customers affected as crews restore power.

✅ Fire started around 6:52 p.m.; fully extinguished by 9 p.m.

✅ High-voltage gear and mineral oil burned; no injuries reported.

✅ Outages hit Porter Ranch, Reseda, West Hills, Granada Hills.

 

About 94,000 customers were without electricity Saturday night after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power shut down a power station in the northeast San Fernando Valley that caught fire, the agency said.

The fire at the station in the Northridge/Reseda area of Los Angeles started about 6:52 p.m. and involved equipment that carries high-voltage electricity and distributes it at lower voltages to customers in the surrounding area, the department said, even as other utilities sometimes deploy wildfire safety shut-offs to reduce risk during dangerous conditions.

The department shut off power to the station as a precautionary move, and it is restoring power now that the fire has been put out, similar to restoration after intentional shut-offs in other parts of California. Initially, 140,000 customers were without power. That number had been cut to 94,000 by 11 p.m.

The power outage comes as much of California baked in heat that broke records, and rolling blackout warnings were issued as the grid strained. A record that stood 131 years in Los Angeles was snapped when the temperature spiked at 98 degrees downtown.

People reported losing power in Porter Ranch, Winnetka, West Hills, Canoga Park, Woodland Hills, Granada Hills, North Hills, Reseda and Chatsworth, KABC TV reported, highlighting electricity inequality across communities.

Shortly after the blaze broke out, firefighters found a huge container of mineral oil that is used to cool electrical equipment on fire, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey told the Los Angeles Times. The incident underscores infrastructure risks that in some regions have required a complete grid rebuild after severe storms.

Firefighters had the blaze under control by 8:30 p.m. and were able to put it out by 9 p.m., Humphrey said. "These were fierce flames, with smoke towering more than 300 feet into the sky," he told the newspaper.

No one was injured.

Firefighters rescued people who were stranded in elevators, Humphrey said.

 

Related News

View more

Berlin Geothermal Plant in El Salvador Set to Launch This Year

El Salvador Geothermal Expansion boosts renewable energy with a 7 MW Berlin binary ORC plant, upgrades at Ahuachapan, and pipeline projects, strengthening clean power capacity, grid reliability, and sustainable growth in Central America.

 

Key Points

A national push adding binary-cycle capacity at Berlin and Ahuachapan, boosting geothermal supply and advancing sites.

✅ 7 MW Berlin binary ORC plant entering service.

✅ Ahuachapan upgrade adds 2 MW, total geothermal 204 MW.

✅ Next: Chinameca, San Miguel, San Vicente, World Bank backed.

 

El Salvador is set to expand its renewable energy capacity with the inauguration of the 7-MW Berlin binary geothermal power plant, slated to go online later this year. This new addition marks a significant milestone in the country’s geothermal energy development, highlighting its commitment to sustainable energy solutions. The plant, which has already been installed and is currently undergoing testing, is expected to boost the nation’s geothermal capacity, contributing to its growing renewable energy portfolio.

The Role of Geothermal Energy in El Salvador’s Energy Mix

Geothermal energy plays a pivotal role in El Salvador's energy landscape. With the combined output from the Ahuachapan and Berlin geothermal plants, geothermal energy now accounts for about 21% of the country's net electricity supply. This makes geothermal the second-largest source of energy generation in El Salvador, underscoring its importance as a reliable and sustainable energy resource alongside emerging options like advanced nuclear microreactor technologies in the broader low-carbon mix.

In addition to the Berlin plant, El Salvador has made significant improvements to its Ahuachapan geothermal power plant. Recent upgrades have increased its generation capacity by 2 MW, further enhancing the country’s geothermal energy output. Together, the Ahuachapan and Berlin plants bring the total installed geothermal capacity to 204 MW, positioning El Salvador as a regional leader in geothermal energy development.

The Berlin Binary Geothermal Plant: A Technological Milestone

The Berlin binary geothermal power plant is especially noteworthy for several reasons. It is the first geothermal power plant to be constructed in El Salvador since 2007, marking a significant step in the country's ongoing efforts to expand its renewable energy infrastructure while reinforcing attention to risk management in light of Hawaii geothermal safety concerns reported elsewhere. The plant utilizes a binary cycle geothermal system, which is known for its efficiency in extracting energy from lower temperature geothermal resources, making it an ideal solution for regions like Berlin, where geothermal resources are abundant but at lower temperatures.

The plant was built by Turboden, an Italian company specializing in organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology. The binary cycle system operates by transferring heat from the geothermal fluid to a secondary fluid, which then drives a turbine to generate electricity. This system allows for the efficient use of geothermal resources that might otherwise be too low in temperature for traditional geothermal plants, enabling pairing with thermal storage demonstration solutions to optimize output.

Future Geothermal Developments in El Salvador

El Salvador is not stopping with the Berlin geothermal plant. The country is actively working on other geothermal projects, including those in Chinameca, San Miguel, and San Vicente. These developments are expected to add 50 MW of additional capacity in their first phase, reflecting a broader shift as countries pursue hydrogen-ready power plants to reduce emissions, with a second phase, supported by the World Bank, planned to add another 100 MW.

The Chinameca, San Miguel, and San Vicente projects represent the next wave of geothermal development in El Salvador. When completed, these plants will significantly increase the country’s geothermal capacity, further diversifying its energy mix and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, and will require ongoing grid upgrades, a task complicated elsewhere by Germany grid expansion challenges highlighted in Europe.

International Support and Collaboration

El Salvador’s geothermal development efforts are supported by various international partners, including the World Bank, which has been instrumental in financing the expansion of geothermal projects, as utilities such as SaskPower geothermal plans in Canada explore comparable pathways. This collaboration highlights the global recognition of El Salvador’s potential in geothermal energy and its efforts to position itself as a hub for geothermal energy development in Central America.

Additionally, the country’s expertise in geothermal energy, especially in binary cycle technology, has attracted international attention. El Salvador’s progress in the geothermal sector could serve as a model for other countries in the region that are looking to harness their geothermal resources to reduce energy costs and promote sustainable energy development.

The upcoming launch of the Berlin binary geothermal power plant is a testament to El Salvador’s commitment to sustainable energy. As the country continues to expand its geothermal capacity, it is positioning itself as a leader in renewable energy in the region. The binary cycle technology employed at the Berlin plant not only enhances energy efficiency but also demonstrates El Salvador’s ability to adapt and innovate within the renewable energy sector.

With the continued development of projects in Chinameca, San Miguel, and San Vicente, and ongoing international collaboration, El Salvador’s geothermal energy sector is set to play a crucial role in the country’s energy future. As global demand for clean energy grows, exemplified by U.S. solar capacity additions this year, El Salvador’s investments in geothermal energy are helping to build a more sustainable, resilient, and energy-independent future.

 

Related News

View more

France's nuclear power stations to limit energy output due to high river temperatures

France Nuclear Heatwave Output Restrictions signal reduced reactor capacity along the Rhone River, as EDF curbs output to meet cooling-water rules, balance the grid, integrate solar peaks, and limit impacts on power prices.

 

Key Points

EDF limits reactor output during heat to protect rivers and keep the grid stable under cooling-water rules.

✅ Cuts likely at midday/weekends when solar peaks

✅ Bugey, Saint Alban maintain minimum grid output

✅ France net exporter; price impact expected small

 

The high temperature warning has come early this year but will affect fewer nuclear power plants, amid a broader France-Germany nuclear dispute over atomic power policy that shapes regional energy flows.

High temperatures could halve nuclear power production at plants along France's Rhone River this week, as European power hits records during extreme heat. 

Output restrictions are expected at two nuclear plants in eastern France due to high temperature forecasts, nuclear operator EDF said, which may limit energy output during heatwaves. It comes several days ahead of a similar warning that was made last year but will affect fewer plants.

The hot weather is likely to halve the available power supply from the 3.6 GW Bugey plant from 13 July and the 2.6 GW Saint Alban plant from 16 July, the operator said.

However, production will be at least 1.8 GW at Bugey and 1.3 GW at Saint Alban to meet grid requirements, and may change according to grid needs, the operator said.

Kpler analyst Emeric de Vigan said the restrictions were likely to have little effect on output in practice. Cuts are likely only at the weekend or midday when solar output was at its peak so the impact on power prices would be slim.

During recent lockdowns, power demand held firm in Europe, offering context for current price dynamics.

He said the situation would need monitoring in the coming weeks, however, noting it was unusually early in the summer for such restrictions to be imposed.

Water temperatures at the Bugey plant already eclipsed the initial threshold for restrictions on 9 July, underscoring France's outage risks under heat-driven constraints. They are currently forecast to peak next week and then drop again, Refinitiv data showed.

"France is currently net exporting large amounts of power – single nuclear units' supply restrictions will not have the same effect as last year," Refinitiv analyst Nathalie Gerl said.

The Garonne River in southern France has the highest potential for critical levels of warming, but its Golfech plant is currently offline for maintenance until mid-August, the data showed, highlighting how Europe is losing nuclear power during critical periods.

"(The restrictions were) to be expected and it will probably occur more often," Greenpeace campaigner Roger Spautz said.

"The authorities must stick to existing regulations for water discharges. Otherwise, the ecosystems will be even more affected," he added.

 

Related News

View more

Announces Completion of $16 Million Project to Install Smart Energy-Saving Streetlights in Syracuse

Smart Street Lighting NY delivers Syracuse-wide LED retrofits with smart controls, Wi-Fi, and sensors, saving $3.3 million annually and cutting nearly 8,500 tons of greenhouse gases, improving energy efficiency, safety, and maintenance.

 

Key Points

A NYPA-backed program replacing streetlights with LED and controls to cut costs and emissions across New York by 2025.

✅ Syracuse replaced 17,500 fixtures with LED and smart controls.

✅ Saves $3.3M yearly; cuts 8,500 tons CO2e; improves safety.

✅ NYPA financing and maintenance support enable Smart City sensors.

 

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the completed installation of energy-efficient LED streetlights throughout the City of Syracuse as part of the Governor's Smart Street Lighting NY program. Syracuse, through a partnership with the New York Power Authority, replaced all of its streetlights with the most comprehensive set of innovative Smart City technologies in the state, saving the city $3.3 million annually and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 8,500 tons a year--the equivalent of taking more than 1,660 cars off the road. New York has now replaced more than 100,000 of its streetlights with LED fixtures, reflecting broader state renewable ambitions across the country, a significant milestone in the Governor's goal to replace at least 500,000 streetlights with LED technology by 2025 under Smart Street Lighting NY.

Today's announcement directly supports the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the most aggressive climate change law in the nation, through the increased use of energy efficiency, exemplified by Seattle City Light's program that helps customers reduce bills, to annually reduce electricity demand by three percent--equivalent to 1.8 million New York households--by 2025.

"As we move further into the 21st century, it's critical we make the investments necessary for building smarter, more sustainable communities and that's exactly what we are doing in Syracuse," Governor Cuomo said. "Not only is the Smart Street Lighting NY program reducing the city's carbon footprint, but millions of taxpayer dollars will be saved thanks to a reduction in utility costs. Climate change is not going away and it is these types of smart, forward-thinking programs which will help communities build towards the future."

The more than $16 million cutting-edge initiative, implemented by NYPA, includes the replacement of approximately 17,500 streetlights throughout the city with SMART, LED fixtures, improving lighting quality and neighborhood safety while saving energy and maintenance costs. The city's streetlights are now outfitted with SMART controls that provide programmed dimming ability, energy metering, fault monitoring, and additional tools for emergency services through on-demand lighting levels.

"The completion of the replacement of LED streetlights in Syracuse is part of our overall efforts to upgrade more than 100,000 streetlights across the state," Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said. "The new lights will save the city $3.3 million annually, helping to reduce cost for energy and maintenance and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These new light fixtures will also help to improve safety and provide additional tools for emergency services. The conversion of streetlights statewide to high-tech LED fixtures will help local governments and taxpayers save money, while increasing efficiency and safety as we work to build back better and stronger for the future."

NYPA provided Syracuse with a $500,000 Smart Cities grant for the project. The city utilized the additional funding to support special features on the streetlights that demonstrate the latest in Smart City technologies, focused on digital connectivity, environmental monitoring and public safety. These features are expected to be fully implemented in early 2021.

Connectivity: The city is planning to deploy exterior Wi-Fi at community centers and public spaces, including in neighborhoods in need of expanded digital network services.

Environmental Monitoring: Ice and snow detection systems that assist city officials in pinpointing streets covered in ice or snow and require attention to prevent accidents and improve safety. The sensors provide data that can tell the city where salt trucks and plows are most needed instead of directing trucks to drive pre-determined routes. Flood reporting and monitoring systems will also be installed.

Public Safety and Property Protection: Illegal dumping and vandalism detection sensors will be installed at strategic locations to help mitigate these disturbances. Vacant house monitoring will also be deployed by the city. The system can monitor for potential fires, detect motion and provide temperature and humidity readings of vacant homes. Trash bin sensors will be installed at various locations throughout the city that will detect when a trash bin is full and alert local officials for pick-up.

NYPA President and CEO Gil C. Quiniones said, "Syracuse is truly a pioneer in its exploration of using SMART technologies to improve public services and the Power Authority was thrilled to partner with the city on this innovative initiative. Helping our customers bring their streetlights into the future further advances NYPA's reputation as a first-mover in the energy-sector."

New York State Public Service Commission Chair John B. Rhodes said, "Governor Cuomo signed legislation making it easier for municipalities to purchase and upgrade their street lighting systems. With smart projects like these, cities such as Syracuse can install state-of-the-art, energy efficient lights and take control over their energy use, lower costs to taxpayers and protect the environment."

Mayor Ben Walsh said, "Governor Cuomo and the New York Power Authority have helped power Syracuse to the front of the pack of cities in the U.S., leveraging SMART LED lighting to save money and make life better for our residents. Because of our progress, even in the midst of a global pandemic, the Syracuse Surge, our strategy for inclusive growth in the New Economy, continues to move forward. Syracuse and all of New York State are well positioned to lead the nation and the world because of NYPA's support and the Governor's leadership."

To date, NYPA has installed more than 50,000 LED streetlights statewide, with more than 115,000 lighting replacements currently implemented. Some of the cities and towns that have already converted to LED lights, in collaboration with NYPA, include Albany, Rochester, and White Plains. In addition, the Public Service Commission, whose ongoing retail energy markets review informs consumer protections, in conjunction with investor-owned utilities around the state, has facilitated the installation of more than 50,000 additional LED lights.

The NYPA Board of Trustees, in support of the Smart Street Lighting NY program, authorized at its September meeting the expenditure of $150 million over the next five years to secure the services of Candela Systems in Hawthorne, D&M Contracting in Elmsford and E-J Electric T&D in Wallingford, Connecticut, while in other regions, city officials take a clean energy message to Georgia Power and the PSC to spur utility action. All three firms will work on behalf of NYPA to continue to implement LED lighting replacements throughout New York State to meet the Governor's goal of 500,000 LED streetlights installed by 2025.

Smart Street Lighting NY: Energy Efficient and Economically Advantageous

NYPA is working with cities, towns, villages and counties throughout New York to fully manage and implement a customer's transition to LED streetlight technology. NYPA provides upfront financing for the project, and during emergencies, New York's utility disconnection moratorium helps protect customers while payments to NYPA are made in the years following from the cost-savings created by the reduced energy use of the LED streetlights, which are 50 to 65 percent more efficient than alternative street lighting options.

Through this statewide street lighting program, NYPA's government customers are provided a wide-array of lighting options to help meet their individual needs, including specifications on the lights to incorporate SMART technology, which can be used for dozens of other functions, such as cameras and other safety features, weather sensors, Wi-Fi and energy meters.

To further advance the Governor's effort to replace existing New York street lighting, in 2019, NYPA launched a new maintenance service to provide routine and on-call maintenance services for LED street lighting fixtures installed by NYPA throughout the state, and during the COVID-19 response, New York and New Jersey suspended utility shut-offs to protect customers and maintain essential services. The new service is available to municipalities that have engaged NYPA to implement a LED street lighting conversion and have elected to install an asset management controls system on their street lighting system, reducing the number of failures and repairs needed after installation is complete.

To learn more about the Smart Street Lighting NY program, visit the program webpage on NYPA's website.

 

New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

Governor Cuomo's nation-leading climate plan is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State builds back better as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the CLCPA, New York is on a path to reach its mandated goals of economy wide carbon neutrality and achieving a zero-carbon emissions electricity sector by 2040, similar to Ontario's clean electricity regulations that advance decarbonization, faster than any other state. It builds on New York's unprecedented ramp-up of clean energy including a $3.9 billion investment in 67 large-scale renewable projects across the state, the creation of more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector, a commitment to develop over 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035, and 1,800 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011. New York's Climate Action Council is working on a scoping plan to build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, while ensuring that at least 40 percent of the benefits of clean energy investments benefit disadvantaged communities, and advancing progress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 TBtus.

 

Related News

View more

Electrifying: New cement makes concrete generate electricity

Cement-Based Conductive Composite transforms concrete into power by energy harvesting via triboelectric nanogenerator action, carbon fibers, and built-in capacitors, enabling net-zero buildings and self-sensing structural health monitoring from footsteps, wind, rain, and waves.

 

Key Points

A carbon fiber cement that harvests and stores energy as electricity, enabling net-zero, self-sensing concrete.

✅ Uses carbon fibers to create a conductive concrete matrix

✅ Acts as a triboelectric nanogenerator and capacitor

✅ Enables net-zero, self-sensing structural health monitoring

 

Engineers from South Korea have invented a cement-based composite that can be used in concrete to make structures that generate and store electricity through exposure to external mechanical energy sources like footsteps, wind, rain and waves, and even self-powering roads concepts.

By turning structures into power sources, the cement will crack the problem of the built environment consuming 40% of the world’s energy, complementing vehicle-to-building energy strategies across the sector, they believe.

Building users need not worry about getting electrocuted. Tests showed that a 1% volume of conductive carbon fibres in a cement mixture was enough to give the cement the desired electrical properties without compromising structural performance, complementing grid-scale vanadium flow batteries in the broader storage landscape, and the current generated was far lower than the maximum allowable level for the human body.

Researchers in mechanical and civil engineering from from Incheon National University, Kyung Hee University and Korea University developed a cement-based conductive composite (CBC) with carbon fibres that can also act as a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), a type of mechanical energy harvester.

They designed a lab-scale structure and a CBC-based capacitor using the developed material to test its energy harvesting and storage capabilities, similar in ambition to gravity storage approaches being scaled.

“We wanted to develop a structural energy material that could be used to build net-zero energy structures that use and produce their own electricity,” said Seung-Jung Lee, a professor in Incheon National University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, noting parallels with low-income housing microgrids in urban settings.

“Since cement is an indispensable construction material, we decided to use it with conductive fillers as the core conductive element for our CBC-TENG system,” he added.

The results of their research were published this month in the journal Nano Energy.

Apart from energy storage and harvesting, the material could also be used to design self-sensing systems that monitor the structural health and predict the remaining service life of concrete structures without any external power, which is valuable in industrial settings where hydrogen-powered port equipment is being deployed.

“Our ultimate goal was to develop materials that made the lives of people better and did not need any extra energy to save the planet. And we expect that the findings from this study can be used to expand the applicability of CBC as an all-in-one energy material for net-zero energy structures,” said Prof. Lee, pointing to emerging circular battery recycling pathways for net-zero supply chains.

Publicising the research, Incheon National University quipped: “Seems like a jolting start to a brighter and greener tomorrow!”

 

Related News

View more

Sign Up for Electricity Forum’s Newsletter

Stay informed with our FREE Newsletter — get the latest news, breakthrough technologies, and expert insights, delivered straight to your inbox.

Electricity Today T&D Magazine Subscribe for FREE

Stay informed with the latest T&D policies and technologies.
  • Timely insights from industry experts
  • Practical solutions T&D engineers
  • Free access to every issue

Download the 2025 Electrical Training Catalog

Explore 50+ live, expert-led electrical training courses –

  • Interactive
  • Flexible
  • CEU-cerified