A recent gathering of electric industry leaders in Washington, DC, hosted by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), underscored a critical truth: artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept but a present reality shaping the electric utility landscape. This includes everything from data center power needs to customer outreach efficiencies. As the issue of AI and its possibilities becomes more complex, electric utilities must cut through the competing applications and focus their AI investments on the most pressing challenges. To truly deliver on AI’s promise of enhanced reliability, efficiency and security, the industry can focus on three core areas: cybersecurity, climate-stressed grids due to extreme weather, and wildfire risk and customer load growth. These are the “Three C’s” that will determine the industry’s success in this new era of AI. AI as a Shield Against Growing Cyber Threats For electric utilities, cybersecurity is a foundational pillar of grid resilience, with threats surfacing from geopolitical adversaries to typical cybercrime found in other industries. As the grid becomes more interconnected, the attack surface expands exponentially. For electric utility security teams, AI is a force multiplier for adversaries and it must become a force multiplier for defense as well. It can help with everything from triaging vulnerabilities and prioritizing high-risk assets, to detecting sophisticated digital attacks on infrastructure. It can also enhance the physical security of critical infrastructure, using data to recognize and alert human operators to potential threats. The sheer volume of data involved in monitoring a modern utility grid is too great for humans alone to process effectively. By deploying AI as a vigilant and intelligent partner, electric utilities improve their anticipatory security posture, shrinking the time between threat detection and response and significantly reducing the potential for damage. Electric utilities that succeed start by identifying and protecting their highest-value assets

In the energy storage industry, we often see a race to pack more megawatt-hours into the same enclosure. The strategy of more battery capacity in fewer boxes seems like it would be efficient and less costly. But in practice, it’s a density trap. On paper, higher nameplate energy density makes promises of increased energy throughput and cost savings. But those metrics don’t always translate to operational value once systems are deployed in the field. Think of a battery storage system’s density like a car fuel tank. The size of the gas tank is important, but without an accurate gauge, you can’t be certain how many miles you can drive. You may never use the full capacity of the tank if you’re unsure when you will hit empty. The same is true of batteries. What matters isn’t simply how much energy you can store; it’s how much usable energy you know you have and can confidently, consistently deliver when it counts. That’s why usable energy is more critical than just energy density to generate revenue and support the grid. Higher density doesn’t guarantee a competitive advantage Asset owners often assume that higher energy density cells translate to fewer battery enclosures, smaller sites, and lower capital costs. In reality, that’s often not the case. Some ultra-dense units are too heavy or complex to transport easily, adding shipping and on-site integration challenges before the first kilowatt-hour is even dispatched. Combining multiple lower-weight, smaller units with those high density cells can complicate installation and raise integration costs. And once the system is online, performance doesn’t always match expectations. If batteries can’t reliably discharge at full-rated power, asset owners may need to oversize their installations just to meet contractual or expected energy commitments, erasing any cost or site density advantage. In other words, density is

In an era of rapid technological advancement and increasing reliance on renewable energy, battery energy storage systems (BESS) are emerging as pivotal players in enhancing grid reliability. They bridge the gap between energy supply and demand while addressing the intermittency challenges inherent in solar and wind power. By harnessing innovations such as long-duration storage solutions and advanced chemistries, emerging battery technologies are redefining energy management and paving the way for a more sustainable future. All about that BESS A battery energy storage system is an advanced technology designed to store and dispatch energy on demand. It functions much like a large rechargeable battery, capable of capturing excess energy generated during low-demand periods and releasing it when demand peaks.These systems currently play a critical role in balancing the grid by compensating for the variable nature of renewable energy sources like solar and wind, which do not produce a consistent power output. In practical terms, BESS can be deployed at various scales, from small residential setups to large utility-scale installations. They provide several valuable services to the grid, including peak shaving, load shifting, frequency regulation and backup power during outages. Despite their numerous benefits, these systems face certain inefficiencies that the industry is actively working to overcome. One major challenge is the limited storage duration for current solutions. Most existing systems commonly offer two to four hours of storage capacity, with renewable developers often pushing for six- to ten-hour systems. However, the high capital expenditure makes it difficult to justify the use case for ten-hour duration. This limits the ability of these systems to fully compensate for prolonged periods of low renewable generation or unexpected surges in demand. Additionally, the rapid growth of renewable energy sources causes transmission infrastructure to struggle to keep pace. This leads to congestion in areas with high

A Polish court declined to extradite to Germany a Ukrainian national suspected of helping sabotage the Nord Stream gas link, saying the destruction of the pipeline was justified by Russia’s attack on Ukraine.  The man, identified as Volodymyr Zhuravlov, is wanted under a European arrest warrant issued by a German court and has been in Polish police custody since Sept. 30. Germany’s foreign minister signaled the government in Berlin wouldn’t challenge the court ruling.  The former Ukrainian diving instructor is suspected of being part of a group that used explosives to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022, months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The pipelines carried Russian gas to Germany and were controlled by Moscow’s Gazprom PJSC. Judge Dariusz Lubowski said the sabotage was carried out during wartime, meaning it shouldn’t be treated as a terrorist act, regardless of whether Ukrainian authorities ordered it. Furthermore, it occurred in international waters, limiting the German court’s jurisdiction. “Blowing up critical infrastructure during a war – during a just, defensive war – is not sabotage but denotes a military action,” Lubowski said. “These actions were not illegal. On the contrary, they were justified, rational and just.” The judge ordered Zhuravlov released from custody. The decision can be appealed within three days, he said. The case is politically charged given Warsaw’s staunch support for Ukraine and prior criticism of German dependence on Russian energy. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said this month that it’s “not in the interest of the country, but also not in the interest of plain decency and justice” to charge or extradite the suspect. “It’s not the problem of Europe, Ukraine, Lithuania or Poland that Nord Stream 2 was blown up, but the fact that it was built,” Tusk said during a

National Grid PLC has opened a public comment window for early plans for the 6.9-gigawatt Cross Border Connection project between England and Scotland, part of a broader project to enable more renewables into Britain’s grid. “The project includes a new overhead electricity line and a new substation in the Carlisle area”, the distribution and transmission operator said in a statement on its website. “The proposed line would run from the England-Scotland border near Kershopefoot to the new substation, with two possible sites under consideration, one to the north of the city near Harker, and one to the south. “The need for the Cross Border Connection was identified by the National Energy System Operator, because more grid capacity is urgently needed between England and Scotland to transport cleaner electricity from sources like onshore and offshore wind. Electricity demand is set to grow by 50 percent over the next decade, including in Cumbria, and this project will help deliver home-grown power to homes, business and public services across the region and beyond”. National Grid is proposing two route options. “Option A would end at a new substation north of Carlisle, near the existing Harker substation”, it said. This route would have a new overhead line stretching about 28 kilometers (17.4 miles). “Option B would end at a new substation south of Carlisle, with a longer route of approximately 47 km”, the company said. “This route would cross Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site just north of the River Eden, where the wall survives as underground remains”. In both routes, “the landscape already includes existing power lines, roads and other modern infrastructure”, it added. “National Grid is committed to minimizing impact on heritage sites and will work closely with experts and local communities throughout the consultation”. The consultation runs until December 10. The campaign includes

Iberdrola SA distributed nearly 189,000 gigawatt hours (gWh) between January and September across its global portfolio, up 6.1 percent from the first nine months of 2024, the Spanish renewables-focused utility reported recently. The United Kingdom and Spain drove the increase. Iberdrola’s electricity distribution in the UK rose 42.9 percent in the nine-month period to nearly 32,000 gWh. Spain increased 2.8 to nearly 69,000 gWh, according to a fact sheet published on the company’s website. Iberdrola’s power distribution in Brazil and the United States in the period both fell 0.8 percent to nearly 60,000 gWh and nearly 29,000 gWh respectively. In the U.S., natural gas distribution climbed up 7.8 percent to nearly 47,000 gWh. “This good balance in [power] distribution, as a result of the increase in demand and electrification, has been accompanied by an increase in production, which stood at 96,047 gWh worldwide between January and September, with significant growth in Iberdrola Energia Internacional (+15 percent), Spain (+5 percent) and Brazil (+3 percent)”, Iberdrola said in a separate statement. “In the isolated third quarter, the recovery of the United Kingdom is also noteworthy, a country in which production grew by nine percent between July and September. “By technology, the greater contribution of offshore wind (+33 percent) has been significant, through the Group’s projects in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the United States; and solar (+41 percent), especially by plants in Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and other European Union countries such as Portugal and Italy”. Iberdrola’s installed renewable energy generation capacity rose to 45.26 GW as of September 2025 compared to 43.99 GW in September 2024, according to the fact sheet. Renewables comprised 78.8 percent of Iberdrola’s power production capacity as of September 2025. Onshore wind capacity rose to 20.76 GW. Offshore wind rose to 2.44 GW. Hydro fell to 12.86 GW; mini-hydro remained at