Climate Change. Infrastructure Resilience. Distributed Energy Resources. Environmental Sustainability. Electric Vehicles.
Many buzzwords describe the profound changes affecting our environment, our infrastructure, and our facilities. But they all point to models of power generation, distribution, and consumption that are rapidly transforming to rise to unprecedented challenges. This document surveys the emerging energy landscape.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Facilities have traditionally relied on electricity that flowed unidirectionally from either a utility grid or an onsite generator, a strategy that focused solely on providing resilience. Technological developments and new demands to increase resilience, sustainability, and economic optimization are driving facilities towards a power architecture where electricity from onsite alternating current and direct current power sources flows bidirectionally between utility grids and end-users. New methods for optimizing the use of power sources and managing loads will be a hallmark of the New Energy Landscape. Combined, the integration of carbon-free power sources and optimization of operations provides a pathway for substantially increasing sustainability and resilience without sacrificing safety and reliability.
