Yet the electrification landscape is evolving rapidly. Upcoming projects, like the Edwards and Sanborn Young adult facility in California, are setting the tone for what’s to come. By 2040 renewables will become the dominant source of energy, overtaking hydrocarbon energy sources. This transition develops an intense demand for constant and strong grid networks. Recent major outages in Spain, Portugal, and at Heathrow Airport underscore the vulnerabilities of existing infrastructure, compelling businesses to reassess their approaches to energy management.
The Edwards and Sanborn facility is a great example of the expanding and exciting movement towards electrification. Change this is movement that is quickly building momentum in various sectors. As electrification occurs faster than expected, companies are seeing more load and greater strain on older assets come online. The need to address the growing backlog of infrastructure we have is just as compelling today, if not more so. As painful recent blackouts have shown, our aging systems are in fragility.
Recent Outages Expose Vulnerabilities
The recent blackout affecting Spain and Portugal, initiated by a dramatic drop in frequency, serves as a stark reminder of grid vulnerabilities. This outage affected the power supply to huge swathes of the state, forcing hundreds of businesses to remain without power for days. The incident highlights the critical need for more dynamic, intelligent, and digitized systems. These systems need to be able to react quickly and efficiently to changes in demand and supply.
Likewise, the recent major outage at Heathrow Airport exposed the fragility of legacy infrastructure. The airport’s aggravated substation, which was originally built back in the 1960s, only has two transformers. Unfortunately, it simply isn’t equipped to meet the challenges of today. This example shows the profound operational effects outdated systems can have, especially in critical facilities like international airports.
Power outages continue to be the number one cause of business downtime. The average cost of an incident for data centers exceeds $1 million, prompting companies to take outages more seriously amid volatile energy markets. The financial burdens of these disruptions are prompting businesses and municipalities to find solutions that promise a reliable source of power.
The Shift Towards Electrification
As electrification moves forward full steam ahead, many specialists expect electricity to be the biggest energy source by 2040. This transition presents significant problems for legacy infrastructure that, in many cases, will need to adjust to handle loads more than DOUBLE their current capacities. Companies in every sector are realizing that operational risk becomes magnified with a dependence upon legacy systems.
Investments in modernizing grid infrastructure are essential. Organizations that lack in-house expertise may benefit from partnering with trusted service providers who can offer battery technology, digital services, software solutions, and energy trading capabilities. Effective partnerships lower potential risks posed by battery energy storage systems (BESS). This helps businesses keep uptime and greatly reduce the cost of business disruption from power outages.
They should be incentivized to look beyond short-term profit margins and install advanced grid solutions that pay dividends down the road. In addition to improving reliability, these partnerships help deliver essential expertise and experience to serve an increasingly complicated energy market.
Strategies for Securing Grid Resilience
To address the challenges posed by increasing electrification and aging infrastructure, businesses must adopt proactive strategies for securing grid resilience. Investing in smart technologies and modern energy management systems can significantly improve the ability to respond to outages and other disruptions.
Market actors must put more focus on training up and developing in-house expertise to allow businesses to take more control over their energy needs. By expanding the workforce, organizations will be better equipped to make informed decisions about their overall strategies and infrastructure investments.
Moreover, building bridges with industry collaborators can lead to new paths for creative solutions. A deep bench of trusted partners can offer critical resources and a window into promising emerging technologies to boost both grid resilience and operational efficiency.