Leaders from Eaton, GE Vernova, NVIDIA Added
to High-Powered Speaker Lineup
OAKLAND,
Calif., Oct. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Artificial
intelligence for nuclear power generation, carbon-sequestering
biochar, long-duration energy storage, submetering and managed
charging for electric vehicles, real-time fault detection sensors,
a prescribed-burn machine, advanced drones for system inspections,
and new undergrounding systems are among the novel solutions and
technologies that will be on display November 13 during Pacific Gas and Electric
Company's (PG&E) 2024 Innovation Summit presented in
collaboration with DISTRIBUTECH® in San Jose.
"We are proud to work with leading companies advancing
energy-focused AI applications, and fire-tech and climate-tech
solutions to drive impact across our system with minimal impact to
customer bills," said Quinn
Nakayama, Senior Director, Grid Research Innovation and
Development, PG&E. "We see the potential for innovation to
address emerging challenges across our operations, and we recognize
the tremendous opportunity that innovation offers to transform our
energy system to deliver for our people, the planet and the
prosperity of California for
generations to come. Other utilities' challenges of tomorrow are
PG&E's realities of today, so I look forward to engaging at the
summit to share ideas, and–in the spirit of mutual aid and
support--I strongly encourage my utility peers across the country
to join us in-person on November 13
in San Jose."
Several industry leaders were recently added to the 2024
Innovation Summit's high-powered speaker lineup including:
- Sean Moser, Senior Vice President & Chief Product
Officer of GE Vernova's Grid Softwaret team and Igor Stamenkovic, Senior Vice President &
General Manager, Electrical Services and Systems Division, Eaton
will join Joe Bentley, Senior Vice
President, Electric Engineering, PG&E for a discussion on the
future of electric planning.
- Marc Spieler, Senior Managing
Director, Global Energy Industry, NVIDIA and Trey Lauderdale, Founder and CEO, Atomic Canyon
will join Maureen Zawalick, Vice
President, Business and Technical Services, PG&E for a
conversation on the role of AI in the nuclear industry.
For the full agenda and speaker lineup, and to register for
in-person or virtual attendance visit: Summary - 2024 PG&E
Innovation Summit presented by DISTRIBUTECH (cvent.com)
The immersive technology showcase for in-person summit attendees
will feature demonstrations by PG&E and peer utilities
Avangrid, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California
Edison. The showcase will include the following organizations and
technologies that PG&E and peer utilities are exploring and
deploying to enhance operations, improve customer service, and
address changing environmental conditions:
- Blue Grit Robotics is pioneering a first-of-its-kind
utility undergrounding system that dramatically reduces the cost,
complexity, and invasiveness of traditional methods. By harnessing
advanced robotics and AI, Blue Grit Robotics is transforming the
way utilities are installed underground, making the process safer,
more efficient, and minimally disruptive. PG&E identified Blue
Grit Robotics through its 2023 R&D Pitch Fest following the
inaugural Innovation Summit.
- BurnBot builds and operates systems that scale fuel
treatment to prevent destructive wildfires. Composed of a team of
firefighters, scientists, engineers, prescribed fire practitioners,
and forestry professionals, BurnBot is addressing wildfire
challenges and risks with its system of technologies that amplify
workforce capacity to conduct safe, efficient, and ecological fuels
treatment from mastication to prescribed fire. BurnBot recently
launched its next-generation controlled burn machine (RX2) that
delivers prescribed fire in a way that's clean and creates very
minimal smoke and is 10X faster than what can currently be done by
arming boots on the ground and amplifying them with tools and
technology, while reducing the risk of escape fire with a minimal
impact on the environment. PG&E hosted the first public test of
the RX2 in September 2024.
- Earth Foundries is a California based, certified woman-owned and
certified benefit corporation tackling California's catastrophic wildfire threat by
lowering the cost and carbon footprint of forest
remediation. Earth Foundries' innovative and sustainable
Slash Attack™ mobile pyrolysis service converts unmerchantable
forest material from forest health and hazardous fuels reduction
projects into carbon-sequestering biochar on-site and
at-scale. PG&E first tested a pyrolysis machine—also known
as a "Carbonizer"--in late 2022 and is working with Earth Foundries
to deploy one in Lake County
through the Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaborative, a partnership
with fire protection associations, safety organizations and
environmental sustainability groups to advance wildfire resilience
in Lake County.
- Form Energy is an American technology company developing
a breakthrough, multi-day energy storage system to enable the
electric grid to run on clean, reliable, and affordable energy,
every day of the year. Form Energy's first commercial product is an
iron-air battery capable of storing and dispatching energy for 100
hours at system costs competitive with traditional power plants.
Form was founded in 2017 with a unified mission: to reshape the
global electric system by creating a new class of low-cost,
multi-day energy storage systems. The company has already begun
trial production of its iron-air batteries from its factory in
West Virginia and is preparing to
deploy its first commercial projects throughout the U.S. in 2025
and beyond, including a system adjacent to a PG&E electric
substation in Northern
California.
- Gridware is transforming electrical grid management
with its advanced sensor technology and innovative smart-pole
platform. Focused on enhancing safety, resilience, and reliability,
Gridware's pole-mounted sensors (Gridscopes) monitor power
lines in real-time, detecting potential hazards like equipment
malfunctions and vegetation encroachment—even during outages.
Operators now have access to critical information on when, where,
and what faults occur in real time when they need it most. PG&E
has deployed 10,000 Gridscopes on 1,000 miles of circuits enabled
with Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings. To date, the Gridscopes
have prevented five ignitions and provided operationally useful
information during 167 events by identifying outage causes and
hazards in real-time to dispatch operators.
- IND Technology (IND.T) is an Australian and
New York-based company
specializing in AI-driven predictive analytics to optimize the
performance of industrial and energy assets. Their Early Fault
Detection (EFD) system represents a major leap forward in this
field, monitoring radio-frequency signals on powerlines 24/7 to
detect and locate a wide range of incipient faults before they
escalate into power outages or wildfires. Working with PG&E,
IND.T has successfully demonstrated how this predictive maintenance
technology can remotely identify and diagnose electrical asset
failures. The EFD system is particularly noteworthy for its
precision—it can pinpoint issues within 30 feet, leveraging the
combination of smart sensors, radio-frequency signals, and advanced
data analytics. This proactive approach not only boosts the
reliability of energy infrastructure but also helps utilities
optimize maintenance costs by preventing failures and reducing
downtime. EFD technology is now widely deployed across North America, serving as a critical tool for
utilities to enhance climate resilience and improve operational
efficiency.
- Itron, a global grid edge intelligence leader, is
innovating news ways for utilities and cities to manage energy and
water. The company will demonstrate one of its distributed
intelligence applications, running on Itron's Riva electric
endpoint, that manages electric vehicle (EV) charging loads in
real-time to allow consumers to safely operate Level 2 EV chargers
without needing to upgrade their electrical service or compromise
reliability within the local grid.
- RainIons has developed a game changing, low-cost
patented catalytic technology to remove CO2, NOX and other
pollutants at the source of hydrocarbon exhaust.
RainIons' coating technology can be applied and scaled from
small engines to large utilities, power generation, industrial
applications, low/no-energy Direct Air Capture technology and
further.
- Schneider Electric is a global leader in energy
management and automation, committed to providing innovative
solutions for a sustainable and efficient energy future. Its
advanced technologies empower utilities to optimize grid
operations, integrate renewable energy sources, and enhance grid
resilience. Through its Digital Grid solutions, Schneider Electric
aims to drive the transformation of power distribution, enabling a
smarter, greener, and more reliable energy ecosystem for
communities and businesses alike. PG&E is working with
Schneider Electric to enable a cloud-based Distributed Energy
Resource Management System (DERMS) to maximize the value
of electric vehicles, solar and batteries as flexible grid
resources.
- Skydio is the leading U.S. manufacturer of
autonomous drones, revolutionizing the way utility companies
inspect and maintain critical infrastructure. Powered by advanced
AI and machine learning, Skydio drone solutions provide a safer,
faster, and more efficient alternative to manual inspections,
delivering high-resolution data from hard-to-reach areas. With a
proven track record in transforming operations for major utilities,
Skydio's drone solutions enable predictive, condition-based
maintenance, helping companies like PG&E enhance safety, reduce
costs, and improve the reliability of their electrical grid.
PG&E has integrated Skydio's Dock technology at more than
a dozen electric substations to augment current inspection programs
and manual drone operations.
- Treeswift empowers utilities with AI-augmented
vegetation management that reduces risk and improves reliability
across transmission and distribution systems.
Treeswift's backpack and vehicle-mounted sensors seamlessly
integrate into existing patrols to gather imagery and LiDAR data.
Treeswift's AI translates this data into actionable analytics and
360° field context for encroachment, strike potential, and failure
risk via its software platform for vegetation management experts,
arborists, and tree crews. PG&E identified Treeswift
through its 2023 Pitch Fest.
- WeaveGrid is a leading EV Management System (EVMS)
provider whose software enables grid-integrated electric vehicle
charging. The company's software platform optimizes EV charging to
align with periods of high renewable energy availability and ensure
ongoing electric grid reliability and resiliency, while keeping
preferences and controls at a driver's fingertips.
WeaveGrid's approach supports broad participation in managed
charging programs and reduces the costs of serving EV loads through
distribution-integrated smart charging orchestration (DISCO).
WeaveGrid partners with utilities, charging providers, and
automakers to accelerate the transition to sustainable
transportation. PG&E and WeaveGrid have collaborated on managed
charging programs including evPulse and EV Charge
Manager.
Visit www.pge.com/innovation for information about
PG&E's Innovation Summit 2024 and to learn more about
PG&E's efforts to accelerate energy R&D.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a
subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG), is a combined
natural gas and electric utility serving more than sixteen million
people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information,
visit pge.com and pge.com/news
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SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Company