JULY - 2023BUSINESSMANAGEMENTREVIEW.COM8By Eric Toff Bergman, Strategic Markets Sales Manager, SMA America INVERTER BASED RESOURCES IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING UTILITY ENERGY LANDSCAPEThe modern utility grid is transforming and evolving. New generation sources, like inverter-based resources (IBRs), can present complex challenges for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and grid and utility operators. IBRs and utilities require collaboration to ensure that, even in a dynamic and changing grid, utilities continue to deliver clean, reliable, cost-effective energy for years to come.AN EVOLVING US SOLAR GRIDThe modern US electricity grid started with a single power plant, the Pearl Street Station generating plant. Located in Manhattan, designed and developed by Thomas Edison, this coal-fired power plant began producing power in 1882 with an initial nameplate of 100kW. This was enough power to light approximately 1,200 lamps (Scientific American). Throughout the past 140 years, the electric grid continued to expand in size, scope, complexity, and generation mix. Today, the US electricity grid, also known as the Bulk Power System (BPS), is the largest and most reliable modern grid in the world. By the end of 2021, the US had 1,143,757 MW of total utility-scale electricity generating capacity and about 32,972 MW of small-scale (distributed) solar photovoltaic electricity generating capacity (EIA). Most of the capacity which has been added since 1882 is based on the same generation model as Pearl Street Station ­ a spinning synchronous generator fueled by a non-renewable resource. This is changing quickly, as the US continues to see more renewable energy-based generation added into the BPS.SOLAR LEADING THE CHARGEWhile solar makes up only 3 per cent of the overall energy generation capacity of our US grid today, it is the fastest growing generation type on the grid, in part because prices for solar projects have dropped nearly 70 per cent since 2014 (energy.gov). Today, solar energy plants are the most cost-effective energy to build, own, and operate from a levelized cost of energy perspective. Eric Toff Bergman
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