Once again, we are getting ready for DISTRIBUTECH, one of the premier events for the transmission and distribution community in North America.
I’ve come to rely on this event as an opportunity to catch up with customers, partners, and other stakeholders to discuss the progress of the clean energy transition. More than 11,000 people will be gathering in Orlando, Florida, for several days of conversation, panel discussions, demos and more.
Generation, transmission, and distribution utilities are already leading the way in low carbon, efficient, and sustainable energy. To meet the challenge of climate change, the world’s energy networks are changing and adapting to the needs of today’s world and tomorrow’s future. These energy systems are rapidly evolving and levelling up in a way that has never been seen before. From fast and effective grid expansion, to improving the resilience of these systems in adverse weather, and even revolutionizing the way grid operations are performed, Hitachi Energy stands as a partner of utilities around the world.
We’re bringing together multiple Hitachi companies including our partners Global Logic and Hitachi Digital Services (HDS) to explore how digitalization is the pathway toward sustainability and a clean energy future for distribution utilities.
To illuminate this, we will be offering a unique experience in our booth this year, built around an immersive, augmented reality, interactive visualization of how to satisfy the key utility priorities of expansion and modernization, resiliency and reliability, and flexibility and value. Using this uniquely engaging technology, Hitachi Energy will showcase our end-to-end power solutions and digital tools to manage the complexity of the future energy system. We hope you take the time to come by and check it out.
Digitalization is key to managing increasing complexity
The energy system of the future will operate much differently, with a wide variety of increasingly variable power sources, particularly growing volumes of wind and solar.
Utilities need to be able to capture real-time data across transmission, distribution, energy storage, and other grid assets to make better decisions, reduce outages, and improve system reliability. There is also an ongoing need to expand communications further into the field to be able to monitor the health of this extended network, using tools like our Mission Critical Communications platforms.
Increasingly, utilities are also turning to software tools with predictive analytics to identify vulnerable equipment before it fails, calculate the risk from weather-related outages, and better direct their field service teams. Overall, these capabilities can help them to plan, build, operate, and maintain the energy system, while effectively integrating more renewable energy sources and enabling the electrification of transportation and other industries. Software solutions including our Lumada Asset Management Platform (APM) are ideally suited to addressing these challenges. Our digital solutions help customers connect and automate their physical and business processes.
Sustainable infrastructure (SF6-free)
A key challenge that has emerged as a major priority in recent years is the need to create eco-efficient power grids that actively contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A critical aspect of this shift is the move to phase out sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas. Hitachi Energy has made a great deal of progress over the past years with our EconiQ™ eco-efficient portfolio, which eliminates the use of SF6 gas in high-voltage switchgear, while maintaining exceptional reliability and performance.
This is critical because the global warming potential of SF6 is about 25,000 times higher than that of carbon dioxide and can remain in the atmosphere for around 3,200 years. Fortunately, we now have an eco-efficient alternative – a gas blend of fluoronitrile (C4-FN), CO2, and O2, which Hitachi Energy helped to pioneer, which is proving to be a desirable alternative for high-voltage switchgear applications.
We have seen strong momentum behind EconiQ, driven by a breakthrough in August 2022 with the introduction of the 420-kilovolt (kV) (63 kA) SF6-free circuit breaker. In June 2023, a customer in the USA received the world’s first eco-efficient 420 Dead Tank Breaker (DTB), and since then Hitachi Energy has successfully established supply relationships with numerous customers across North America, receiving orders for over 60 units of EconiQ 420 kV DTB.
Grid expansion and modernization
The clean energy transition is well underway and, as an industry, we are making significant progress. To mitigate the most serious impacts of climate change, however, it is essential that we move even more quickly.
The priorities are clear.
In addition to transitioning our energy supply away from fossil fuels, we also need to deliver sustainable electricity to key segments of our economy, notably transportation, the building sector, and fast-growing industry segments like data centers.
To meet electricity demand with renewable resources, we need to make the grid more flexible and responsive to enable greater visibility, predictability, and controllability. This means greater investment in transmission, more batteries and other energy storage solutions to manage the peaks and valleys of renewable generation, and sophisticated digital tools to address the complexity.
Hitachi Energy has everything our customers - including utilities, renewable energy developers, transportation companies and more - need to take control of their sustainable future. There is so much to talk about.
So, set up a meeting, or come and enjoy our hospitality in booth #2443 where we’ll have a convenient water refill station to keep you hydrated, and complementary coffee, cappuccino, latte, or espresso if you need a boost.
Also, please check out our @Distributech2024 page to learn about our presentations and panel participation at the event and other key updates. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you in Orlando!
