About the Event

If you missed any of Darcy's innovative grid technologies research coverage in 2023 (e.g., asset management, digitalization)… you missed a lot! What industry trends dominated the news in 2023? Which technology Innovators emerged with impactful and innovative solutions? How did energy operators deploy technology to address their largest problems? What problems did your peers ask Darcy about? This Event will provide the answer to all of these questions (and more!). In this recap of 2023, we will cover:

• Key Trends in 2023: We will summarize which topics had the most traction and momentum in 2023, based on Darcy's unique viewpoint in the market. This includes conversations with our 10,000+ energy industry members, in-depth interviews with hundreds of technology startups, custom requests from our members, and the numerous Darcy Live Events that we put on throughout the year.
• Top 10 Innovators: We will provide a curated list of the 10 technology Innovators that we have selected to highlight during our "Best of 2023" Event. This list considers which Innovators are seeing interest on Darcy Connect, based on your clicks, follows, messages, and interactions, combined with Darcy's view on impact and novelty.
• 2024 Sneak Preview: We will provide a sneak preview of Darcy's Asset Management & Digitization Research coverage in 2024, including an overview of which trends/topics we expect to be impactful for our members. Don't miss it!

Key Themes in 2023

Growing resilience technology portfolio - utility investment in resilience is far from new, but a growing cohort of emerging technology providers offer more tools than ever available to help utilities enhance resilience of their infrastructure, from environmental analytics platforms to sophisticated, community-scale microgrids. The portfolio of solutions is growing, and climate-related impacts are becoming more severe, so leading utilities are hard at work to pilot and scale these solutions for the benefit of their grids and the communities they serve.

Scaling & enhancing distribution grid mod - for the first time in recent history, utilities have spent more CapEx on distribution grids than on generation plants and transmission grids. While distribution grid investment has typically focused on asset replacements and, more recently, grid hardening, it's expected that the trend will pivot toward greater investment in "grid mod" upgrades, as foundational technologies like ADMS are put in-place and distributed energy resources (like rooftop solar and EV) proliferate.

Expanding transmission grid - with both supply-side and demand-side energy transitions well underway, the electric backbone on which these transitions rely has fallen behind. Industry analysts cite the "three Ps" -- planning, permitting and price -- as the notable obstacles for the transmission grid buildout that will be necessary as renewable plants replace thermal ones, long duration energy storage slowly matures, and widescale electrification steadily moves on. While entities like FERC and the DOE work to facilitate new transmission development, many utilities have committed to making the best of their existing infrastructure, and at the same time, participating in pilots to prove-out less mature solutions with significant potential.

About the Speakers

• Resilience technologies: Charles Viemeister, Project Manager in the Climate Risk and Resilience group at Consolidated Edison (NY City). Charles will speak about ConEd's translation of climate science into climate-based investment planning, including the enabling technologies used to address climate vulnerabilities.

• Distribution grid modernization: Ashraful Haque, PhD, Senion Engineer in the Voltage Optimization group at Commonwealth Edison (Chicago). Ashraf will speak about ComEd's VO implementation and lessons learned from scaling VO from pilot to widescale deployment.

• Transmission grid expansion: Amanda Martin (Sr. Business Solution Engineer) and Christopher Callaghan (Lead Business Solutions Engineer) of the Applied Innovation team within PJM Interconnection (regional transmission organization for the Midatlanic/Midwestern US). Amanda and Chris will speak about PJM's position in reviewing applications for emerging transmission technologies, through the lens of a tech-neutral RTO.