Released November 23, 2021 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Integrating renewable energy into the grid emerged as the top concern of nearly 500 stakeholders in the Electric Power industry, dislodging longstanding worries over aging infrastructure, according to the new Black & Veatch 2021-2022 Electric Report, released November 16.
Renewable power integration was named the top concern by 34% of survey respondents, followed by cybersecurity (28.2%) and aging infrastructure (25.9%). Six other concerns got about 20% of the vote as top concerns, according to the annual survey. The numbers don't add up to 100% because respondents could vote for their three top concerns.
Click on the image at right to see a scorecard of the top concerns of power-industry officials.
Previously, aging infrastructure has been the top concern of survey respondents for most of the last 15 years, noted Black & Veatch (Overland Park, Kansas).
"Governments and corporations are striving ambitiously to decarbonize, turning to renewable energy drawn from solar and wind, both on land and offshore," Mario Azar, president of the engineering firm's energy and process industries business, said in the report's executive summary. "This is forcing power providers around the world to thoughtfully plan and invest in ways to accommodate new green energy on the grid. The bottom line: As assets become increasingly distributed across utility networks and are owned and operated by third parties, grid management is becoming more localized, demanding rigorous attention."
"The ascendancy of new technologies - notably hydrogen, a rising star in tomorrow's energy mix - and wider use of battery storage are drawing more attention, prodding utilities to integrate them in a diversified, balanced energy portfolio," he continued.
More survey respondents this year said they expected to use solar power, the retirement of traditional fossil-fueled power plants and battery energy storage over the next 10 years as components of their plan to meet emissions-reduction or clean-energy goals, the report said. Natural gas and wind also were cited, but their year-over-year numbers didn't increase nearly as much as the other three.
Click on the image at right to see how survey respondents said they expected to meet emissions-reduction or clean-energy goals over the next decade.
The report also noted sharply higher year-over-year scores for the factors that are driving plans to invest in renewables, hydrogen and battery energy storage. Government incentives and policies, and increased pressure from governments, were named as the top factors driving the investment trend, both up significantly over last year. But by even greater margins, respondents said increased demands from commercial & industrial customers (named as a driver by 33.9% of respondents this year compared with 12.9% last year) and increased demand from residential customers (25.5% said that this year versus 6.5% last year), were causing them to boost investment in renewables, hydrogen and battery energy storage.
Click on the image at right to see a year-over-year comparison of respondents' listing of drivers behind planned investments in renewable energy investments in their region.
Giving rising concern over climate change voiced by their stakeholders, survey respondents said over the next five years, they expected increased investments in their region in energy storage (91%), solar power (84%), microgrids (70%) and onshore wind (64%). In a bit of an eye-opener, the percentage of respondents expecting to see increased investment in hydrogen more than doubled from last year's survey, to 56% from 26.4%, over the next five years.
Click on the image at right to expected year-over-year change in electric generation technologies in their region over the next five years.
The Black & Veatch report noted the effect that extreme weather had on the electricity business in 2021, from Winter Storm Uri throwing millions of Texans into the dark and cold in February to wildfires across Western North America in mid-year and a highly active Atlantic hurricane season led by Hurricane Ida in August.
Eight in 10 of those surveyed said their view about the importance of hardening electric system assets against severe weather is either much more important or somewhat more important than it was in earlier years.
Click on the image at right to see how respondents rated the importance of hardening their electric assets compared to prior years.
The report noted: "The year 2021 marked a watershed for U.S. climate disasters as the increasing frequency and impact of severe weather battered millions of people, communities and major infrastructure systems across the U.S."
It continued: "Each of these extreme weather events brought devastation and frustration while serving as catalysts for change. Climate- and storm-related disruptions to the grid are nothing new -- anything from a fallen tree to a wildfire can cause power loss -- but the recent barrage of events has clarified the urgent necessity of sweeping updates to the power grid. The problem is more acute because customers are increasingly sensitive to system failures, and service providers have managed their expectations poorly."
On November 15, President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress. That new law allocates about $65 billion for the clean energy transition, including grid upgrades and renewable energy projects. The electricity business is slated to receive an even greater sum for those measures in the president's separate $1.75 trillion "Build Back Better" social safety net plan currently being debated in Congress. The fate of that bill remains in question.
Electric outages cost the U.S. economy about $70 billion per year, according to an estimate from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The newly signed infrastructure law allocates about $65 billion to accelerate the clean energy transition, including improving the reliability and resiliency of the nation's electric grid and investing in "next generation" technologies, such as advanced nuclear reactors, carbon capture and clean ("green") hydrogen. For more on that, see November 9, 2021, article - Power, Industrial Manufacturing Industries to See Billions of Dollars from $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Legislation.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
Renewable power integration was named the top concern by 34% of survey respondents, followed by cybersecurity (28.2%) and aging infrastructure (25.9%). Six other concerns got about 20% of the vote as top concerns, according to the annual survey. The numbers don't add up to 100% because respondents could vote for their three top concerns.
Previously, aging infrastructure has been the top concern of survey respondents for most of the last 15 years, noted Black & Veatch (Overland Park, Kansas).
"Governments and corporations are striving ambitiously to decarbonize, turning to renewable energy drawn from solar and wind, both on land and offshore," Mario Azar, president of the engineering firm's energy and process industries business, said in the report's executive summary. "This is forcing power providers around the world to thoughtfully plan and invest in ways to accommodate new green energy on the grid. The bottom line: As assets become increasingly distributed across utility networks and are owned and operated by third parties, grid management is becoming more localized, demanding rigorous attention."
"The ascendancy of new technologies - notably hydrogen, a rising star in tomorrow's energy mix - and wider use of battery storage are drawing more attention, prodding utilities to integrate them in a diversified, balanced energy portfolio," he continued.
More survey respondents this year said they expected to use solar power, the retirement of traditional fossil-fueled power plants and battery energy storage over the next 10 years as components of their plan to meet emissions-reduction or clean-energy goals, the report said. Natural gas and wind also were cited, but their year-over-year numbers didn't increase nearly as much as the other three.
The report also noted sharply higher year-over-year scores for the factors that are driving plans to invest in renewables, hydrogen and battery energy storage. Government incentives and policies, and increased pressure from governments, were named as the top factors driving the investment trend, both up significantly over last year. But by even greater margins, respondents said increased demands from commercial & industrial customers (named as a driver by 33.9% of respondents this year compared with 12.9% last year) and increased demand from residential customers (25.5% said that this year versus 6.5% last year), were causing them to boost investment in renewables, hydrogen and battery energy storage.
Giving rising concern over climate change voiced by their stakeholders, survey respondents said over the next five years, they expected increased investments in their region in energy storage (91%), solar power (84%), microgrids (70%) and onshore wind (64%). In a bit of an eye-opener, the percentage of respondents expecting to see increased investment in hydrogen more than doubled from last year's survey, to 56% from 26.4%, over the next five years.
The Black & Veatch report noted the effect that extreme weather had on the electricity business in 2021, from Winter Storm Uri throwing millions of Texans into the dark and cold in February to wildfires across Western North America in mid-year and a highly active Atlantic hurricane season led by Hurricane Ida in August.
Eight in 10 of those surveyed said their view about the importance of hardening electric system assets against severe weather is either much more important or somewhat more important than it was in earlier years.
The report noted: "The year 2021 marked a watershed for U.S. climate disasters as the increasing frequency and impact of severe weather battered millions of people, communities and major infrastructure systems across the U.S."
It continued: "Each of these extreme weather events brought devastation and frustration while serving as catalysts for change. Climate- and storm-related disruptions to the grid are nothing new -- anything from a fallen tree to a wildfire can cause power loss -- but the recent barrage of events has clarified the urgent necessity of sweeping updates to the power grid. The problem is more acute because customers are increasingly sensitive to system failures, and service providers have managed their expectations poorly."
On November 15, President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress. That new law allocates about $65 billion for the clean energy transition, including grid upgrades and renewable energy projects. The electricity business is slated to receive an even greater sum for those measures in the president's separate $1.75 trillion "Build Back Better" social safety net plan currently being debated in Congress. The fate of that bill remains in question.
Electric outages cost the U.S. economy about $70 billion per year, according to an estimate from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The newly signed infrastructure law allocates about $65 billion to accelerate the clean energy transition, including improving the reliability and resiliency of the nation's electric grid and investing in "next generation" technologies, such as advanced nuclear reactors, carbon capture and clean ("green") hydrogen. For more on that, see November 9, 2021, article - Power, Industrial Manufacturing Industries to See Billions of Dollars from $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Legislation.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn.
