Spotlight on new tech
For some time the energy industry has focused on the challenge of how to manage the intermittency of renewables.
As more clean energy generation comes onto the grid ” particularly wind and solar ” this issue remains a priority. However, what is discussed less is the everyday resilience of these technologies.
New generation solutions bring new engineering maintenance challenges, and operators have found that outages, equipment failures and surges in demand can cost millions a day in lost revenue.
In off-grid locations this can be even more problematic, because it makes the difference between the lights literally being on or off.
The good news is that advances in data analytics are helping to curb these problems and can significantly optimize the overall levelized cost of energy over the operational life of wind and solar assets.
In our cover story, Pritil Gunjan of Navigant Research highlights the increasingly vital role that monitoring and control systems are playing in the renewables space.
She states that the global revenue for renewables monitoring and control is expected to rise from $4.47bn last year to $12.8bn in 2028 and also examines how companies in the sector can unlock further growth opportunities.
How new technologies are reducing the risk of expensive operational losses is also the angle of our look at thermal imaging in the power sector. It focuses on how thermal imaging systems employ advanced sensing and measurement control methods plus digital communications to anticipate, detect and respond rapidly to problems.
Finally, one of the hottest topics in the energy sector right now is hydrogen. In their article, Frank Wouters and Paul Ebert explore the within-reach possibilities of the ‘green gas’ and also spotlight some of the hurdles that are yet to be overcome.
Kelvin Ross Editor,
Power Engineering International
