Power plant products | Grid orchestration software
GE has launched GridOS, said to be the world’s first end-to-end software portfolio designed specifically for grid orchestration. Engineered with energy transition in mind, this grid software portfolio is designed to help utilities move from operating the grid to orchestrating it.
GE is responding to what it believes is a more complex grid, caused by decarbonisation, electrification, and extreme weather events, that implies a different kind of grid management, orchestrating electricity in new ways from transmission to distribution to endpoint and back. By bringing together energy data, network modelling, and artificial intelligence/machine learning driven analytics
(AI/ML) as tools to power a suite of intelligent applications GridOS is ‘designed to enable secure and reliable grid orchestration while delivering the resiliency and flexibility needed by utilities worldwide’.
The GridOS orchestration platform includes:
● Zero Trust grid security model applied throughout the platform to help protect resources from inside and outside threats;
● Federated grid data fabric with a common transmission and distribution model to enable a grid digital twin;
● A suite of intelligent grid applications that bring AI into the grid control room for proactive and automated grid management; ● A hybrid cloud architecture to deploy and
scale applications where they are needed; GridOS supports GE’s current grid applications, including GIS for modelling, mapping, and design; AEMS for transmission and market management operations; ADMS for distribution network operations; and DERMs for forecasting and management. GridOS key partners include leading cloud provider AWS and global system integrators Accenture, PwC, and Infosys. Deployment of solutions at the speed and scale demanded by the current pace of change will require operators to think of energy transition as a ‘team sport’ says GE, enabling the building of an expert partner ecosystem to accelerate grid modernisation.
First spiral-welded wind turbine tower in operation
Keystone Tower Systems and GE Renewable Energy have announced what they believe is a major milestone in the development of tapered spiral welding, with the installation of the first commercial spiral-welded wind tower on a 2.8 MW GE turbine. The installation is the result of several years of collaboration between Keystone and GE to design and produce this kind of tower for GE wind turbines. The tower was manufactured at Keystone’s factory in Pampa, Texas. At full capacity the factory will be capable of producing approximately a 1GW equivalent of towers per year. This increase in domestic manufacturing capacity is coming online at a critical time with a significant expansion in need for
wind turbine components driven by the passage of the US Inflation Reduction Act. The spiral welding manufacturing process is designed to utilise coil steel, enabling a new segment of highly efficient domestic steel mills to supply into the wind industry. While this first
factory is in a fixed location, Keystone is also developing mobile factories capable of building taller towers directly at the wind site. Keystone is now ramping up production of this kind of tower. The first product is an 89m tall spiral welded tower for the GE 2.8-127 turbine, designed to be used interchangeably with GE’s conventional 89 m tower. The new tower has received a component certification from TÜV NORD for a 40-year lifetime. Keystone and GE have also collaborated on a tower design for the GE’s 3 MW turbine platform and have signed a multi-year supply agreement for spiral towers from Keystone’s Pampa factory.
Hitachi TXpert digitalisation solution for transformers
Hitachi Energy has launched the next-generation of its TXpert Hub, from its ecosystem range for transformer digitalisation. The TXpert Hub enables monitoring by aggregating, storing, and analysing the information received from the transformer’s digital sensors.
It has been conceived to simplify digitalisation for any transformer, with enhanced connectivity and cybersecurity. “Electricity will be the backbone of the entire energy system driven by the energy transition, making the power grid a complex system of systems. Digitalisation is the only way to manage that complexity to deliver the necessary visibility and agility to enable fast data-driven decision- making,” commented Bruno Melles, md of the Transformers Business at Hitachi Energy.
The next generation TXpert Hub, powered by CoreTec technology, is said to have been built from the ground up to ease transformer digitalisation, focusing on incorporating the operating experience from users of earlier versions of the system, the application of the latest technologies in communications and cyber security , and readiness for off-the-shelf retrofits.
TXpert is said to make the digitalisation of transformers easier, more effective, and secure. Whatever the type of transformer it may be – old, new, dry, or liquid-filled, transmission or distribution – the TXpert ecosystem would be applicable to it, says Hitachi.
The basic TXpert is Hitachi Energy’s open, scalable, manufacturer-agnostic ecosystem
40 | March 2023|
www.modernpowersystems.com
for the digitalisation of transformers, designed to drive data-driven intelligence and decision- making in the operations and maintenance of transformers. It is a complete suite of products, software, services, and solutions that work together and have the capability to integrate with new and existing digital equipment from other manufacturers.
It uses asset performance management software – On Cloud, Edge or Premise Software that uses the data for actionable insights. It is said to deliver actionable intelligence that increases capital and operational value by optimising operations, extending life-expectancy, enhancing environmental performance, and reducing risk and cost through predictive maintenance and smart asset management.
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