PG&E 2024 Innovation Summit to Showcase Novel Climate-Tech Solutions, Additional Speakers Confirmed
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(TM) 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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