Month: June 2024

By Jen McGivney, illumination Contributor

For more than a century, energy flowed in one direction; wires went up, electricity went out, customers were served. That’s changing, quickly. Now, multiple sources of renewable energy – like solar and battery storage – direct power back into the grid, creating multi-way power flows.

Distributed energy is transforming the work of energy utilities. These flexible energy generation and storage technologies provide energy when customers need it most. And they support the two-way power flow needed to expand cleaner energy options, while enabling grid improvements that enhance reliability for customers.

“The folks who work in the energy industry today have seen more change in the last few decades than the industry’s seen in the last 150 years,” said Jason Handley, general manager of Duke Energy’s Distributed Energy Group. “We’re evolving as a utility and as a country as we have more renewable energy on our grid.”

Before a utility can achieve the renewable dream, however, it must overcome a logistical nightmare. If the wrong kind of project connects to the grid, it could compromise the reliability of the entire grid. This creates a tough balance: How can a utility move at the speed of innovation while maintaining the pace of reliability?

Duke Energy aimed to answer that question in 2018 when it formed the Distributed Generation (DG) team. Led by Director of Interconnection Neil Bhagat, the DG team devises strategies and processes to connect renewable energy projects to the grid.

“We built this from the ground up,” Bhagat said. “It was exciting, having a start-up environment backed by a company like Duke Energy, while putting together a team that is passionate about the energy transition.”

Assembling a ‘sophisticated puzzle’

Interconnection is the complex process of connecting new electricity generators – like wind, solar and energy storage – to the electric grid.

To help maintain the safety, reliability and power quality of the electric power system, all utility-connected distributed energy projects must undergo a series of impact studies before they can be built. This process establishes what new transmission equipment or upgrades may be needed before a project can safely and reliably connect to the system.

As projects wait to be considered, they go into what’s known as an interconnection queue. Initially, several Duke Energy planning engineers handled these tasks along with their usual work. But as North Carolina and dozens of other U.S. states began passing distributed energy incentives, the number of projects in the queue grew dramatically.

So, the company brought together an in-house team of innovative engineers – the DG team – to improve the interconnection process and help connect more clean energy to the grid.

Expanding renewables is critically important as Duke Energy looks to retire its remaining coal-fired facilities, while also preparing to meet an extraordinary increase in demand for electricity. To maintain reliability for customers, the company has proposed significant investments in cleaner generation, including thousands of megawatts of zero-carbon solar and a lot more battery energy storage, devices that enable renewable energy to be stored, then released when demand for electricity is high.

“As the company executes its clean energy transition, it is assembling a sophisticated puzzle,” said Katherine Neebe, Duke Energy’s chief sustainability officer. “Each piece – energy generation and storage, grid modernization, supporting communities and working with various stakeholders, multiskilling employees and reducing carbon emissions – is essential. It’s about finding the perfect fit for each piece to create a final picture that reveals a landscape of sustainable and interconnected solutions.”

Meeting a growing demand for renewable energy

Today, the DG team is comprised of distributed energy resource thought leaders, as well as recent graduates with fresh ideas. All team members share two important traits: comfort with uncertainty and creativity with solutions. They continuously elevate their skills to solve challenges that didn’t exist a few years ago — and that keep changing as renewable technology evolves.

“The type of work we do is not, ‘Come in, open a book, and follow the same 10 to 12 steps every day. Repeat, repeat, repeat,’” said Trent Miller, the team’s lead engineer. “Here, we come in to see what today’s challenge is. What’s new to learn today? We’re changing from one week to the next.”

Duke Energy’s microgrid in Hot Springs, N.C., is one of the first major projects they studied. Comprised of a 4.4-megawatt (MW) battery storage facility and a 2-MW (AC) solar facility, the advanced microgrid can power the entire town of Hot Springs during an outage, improving reliability for customers.

New answer for an old problem

When the DG team formed, its first challenge was a daunting one. Duke Energy, like other utilities around the country, faced a queue of hundreds of renewable projects, all awaiting a lengthy review process.

This encouraged Duke Energy to reform the interconnection process. Distributed Generation went from studying projects individually to studying them in “clusters,” a process that significantly reduced interconnection queue wait times.

“That doesn’t mean they all came to fruition, or that they connected to the grid, but we found a way to move them through the queue,” Bhagat said. “Projects can drop out of the interconnection process for several reasons – for example, the upgrade costs could be much higher than they had expected.”

The team also found new ways to use modeling software to predict how potential projects may impact the grid. This became an efficient way to foresee potential disturbances and to make necessary adjustments to projects.

“This is a much more reliable and repeatable process,” Handley said, “and it provides certainty – not only for Duke Energy, but for our third-party customers who want to connect to the grid.”

‘A utility of the future’

With these new processes in place, the DG team looks to embrace the next advancements and emerging technologies that will help Duke Energy reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“Every day is a new day with different challenges. Now our focus is on energy storage and microgrids,” said Kevin Chen, team manager. “The feeling that our team has helped the company, as well as the industry, reach a new place makes me proud of my team members.”

“We’re turning into a utility of the future,” Miller added, “and we’ve gotten to be right there when it happened.”

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Originally published on June 17th, 2024 on LinkedIn

We are thrilled Sysco’s Spectrum U.S. LGBTQ+ and Allies Colleague Resource Group (CRG) has been honored as the 2024 Employee Resource Group of the Year. This award was presented at the Pride in Business Luncheon, hosted by the @Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, on Friday, June 7.

Congratulations to our Spectrum CRG members for setting the bar high and making a significant difference within our company and the broader LGBTQ+ community. Your commitment to fostering a culture of inclusion in the workplace and making a meaningful impact in our community is truly inspiring.

About Sysco

Sysco is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Its family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries. With more than 74,000 colleagues, the company operates 334 distribution facilities worldwide and serves approximately 725,000 customer locations. For fiscal year 2023 that ended July 1, 2023, the company generated sales of more than $76 billion. Information about our Sustainability program, including Sysco’s 2022 Sustainability Report and 2022 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report, can be found at www.sysco.com.

For more information, visit www.sysco.com or connect with Sysco on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SyscoFoods. For important news and information regarding Sysco, visit the Investor Relations section of the company’s Internet home page at investors.sysco.com, which Sysco plans to use as a primary channel for publishing key information to its investors, some of which may contain material and previously non-public information. In addition, investors should continue to review our news releases and filings with the SEC. It is possible that the information we disclose through any of these channels of distribution could be deemed to be material information.

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New Eaton solar projects in the U.S., China and France among a fleet of renewable deployments helping the company reduce its carbon footprint Eaton’s Chief Sustainability Officer Harold Jones to deliver keynote focused on successful steps to decarbonization at Reuters Global Energy Transition 2024 

CLEVELAND, June 26, 2024 /3BL/ – Intelligent power management company Eaton is adding multiple clean energy projects to its global operations, accelerating progress on the company’s goals to reduce carbon emissions by 50% and achieve carbon neutral operations by 2030. New solar deployments will help power innovation and manufacturing, substantially reducing Eaton’s carbon footprint and energy costs. 

“Now is the time to act boldly on sustainability. At Eaton, we’re tackling the energy transition from all angles and working with our customers to do the same,” said Harold Jones, chief sustainability officer and executive vice president, Eaton Business System, Eaton. “Our latest clean energy projects will help us accelerate our decarbonization goals while improving operational efficiency and costs. This is just the beginning and there will be many more renewable projects to come.” 

Eaton’s latest clean energy investments are part of the company’s broad initiative targeting a 50% reduction in carbon emissions across its operations by 2030. Harold Jones will deliver a keynote address focused on how the company is accelerating progress on the energy transition and decarbonization across its operations and for customers during the Reuters Energy Transition 2024 event in New York City on June 27.

Eaton’s latest clean energy projects will add to the company’s onsite renewable energy deployments powering its operations, already reducing emissions more than 20,000 metric tons annually, and include:    

Clean energy microgrid project in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico that will add solar and storage to reduce carbon footprint and boost energy resilience powering manufacturing Solar PV installation in China is helping sustainably power Eaton operations in Jining was completed in 2024Solar carports at various sites in France to adhere to upcoming regulatory mandates

Eaton has deployed multiple solar projects across its global operations since 2009, helping power innovation, manufacturing and industry education. This includes Eaton’s first-of-its-kind clean energy project in Arecibo, Puerto Rico completed earlier this year.  

Eaton has taken an Everything is a Grid approach to the energy transition that enables flexible energy systems and reflects that there is no one-size fits all strategy to decarbonization. Learn more about how Eaton is simplifying a safe energy transition.

Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to protecting the environment and improving the quality of life for people everywhere. We make products for the data center, utility, industrial, commercial, machine building, residential, aerospace and mobility markets. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we’re accelerating the planet’s transition to renewable energy sources, helping to solve the world’s most urgent power management challenges, and building a more sustainable society for people today and generations to come. 

Eaton was founded in 1911 and has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than a century. We reported revenues of $23.2 billion in 2023 and serve customers in more than 160 countries. For more information, visit www.eaton.com. Follow us on LinkedIn.

Contact:

Kristin Somers 
+1.919.345.3714
Kristincsomers@eaton.com 

Regina Parundik 
Cobblestone Communications
+1.412.559.1614
Regina@cobblecreative.com 

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At Sealed Air Corporation in Asia Pacific, we are excited to celebrate the beginning of a collaboration with the Shanghai ZhongGu Charity Youth Development Center in China to support their inspiring mission. This partnership is a testament to Sealed Air’s commitment to ‘create a better world than we find it’. By donating computers, IT devices, and packaging solutions, we aim to foster a circular economy and support our local community. Together, we will be making a tangible impact towards a brighter future.

About SEE
Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE: SEE), is a leading global provider of packaging solutions that integrate sustainable, high-performance materials, automation, equipment and services. SEE designs, manufactures and delivers packaging solutions that preserve food, protect goods and automate packaging processes. We deliver our packaging solutions to an array of end markets including fresh proteins, foods, fluids and liquids, medical and life science, e-commerce retail, logistics and omnichannel fulfillment operations, and industrials. Our globally recognized solution brands include CRYOVAC ® food packaging, LIQUIBOX ® liquids systems, SEALED AIR ® protective packaging, AUTOBAG ® brand automated packaging systems, and BUBBLE WRAP ® brand packaging. In 2023, SEE generated $5.5 billion in sales and has approximately 17,000 employees who serve customers in 115 countries/territories.

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