Utility Development (United States)

inety percent of the time, sanitary sewer manhole rehabilitation is more cost effective than replacement.Below are key considerations that contractors should keep in mind when approaching manhole rehabilitation projects.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has captured into the mainstream, demonstrating capabilities that once belonged solely to the realm of human cognition. From defeating world champions in complex games to generating human-quality text and images, Generative AI has proven its potential to revolutionize countless industries. The electric power grid is no exception. Generative AI's ability to process vast amounts of data rapidly, assist decision support and identify patterns could significantly enhance power grid operations. For example, Generative AI could improve state estimation where measurements are not available or integrate renewable energy sources more efficiently with probabilistic forecasting. The key contributions of this whitepaper are outlined below: (1) Comprehensive overview of Generative AI's applications in power grid operations: It highlights the opportunities in areas such as forecasting, state estimation, and demonstrating the potential for enhancing efficiency, reliability, and resilience. (2) Expanding Generative AI's impact through synergies with emerging technologies: The paper introduce NREL developed eGridGPT and explores how AI orchestration, multi-agent systems, and Digital Twins can collaborate to optimize grid operations, addressing the complexities of a decarbonized and electrified future. (3) In-depth analysis of challenges in implementing Generative AI: This includes considerations like data availability and quality, model validation, certification, and ethical concerns, ensuring responsible AI deployment. (4) Emphasizing human-AI collaboration: The whitepaper underscores the importance of trustworthy, transparency, and explainability in AI systems to promote seamless interaction between human operators and AI, ultimately improving decision-making. (5) Exploring future research and development: It identifies critical areas for further advancement to fully realize Generative AI's potential in power grid operations. This whitepaper serves as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers looking to harness Generative AI for a more reliable, stable, and cost-effective power grid.

The protection of series compensated transmission lines has proven to be a difficult task due to the type of equipment utilized in this scheme. Series capacitors and their peripherals such as metal-oxide varistors (MOV) and spark gap pose a challenge to line protection by causing inconsistent impedance to line relays, voltage inversion, current inversion and sub-synchronous resonance. Further, weak system conditions could also cause protection issues. Traveling-wave based relays are expected to address such protection challenges faced by traditional phasor-based relays. Use of traveling wave relays supports more secure operation, faster detection of faults and more accurate fault location identification, which combined result in more reliable protection. In this paper the performance of a traveling-wave based relay for series compensated lines protection is tested in a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) environment and their advantage and limitations in detecting faults and identifying their location along the line will be evaluated and compared to the traditional protection capabilities of the current widely used relays for transmission line protection.

En el Laboratorio Biomimético conectamos el trabajo de investigación biomimética desarrollado con su enseñanza en las aulas, a través de uma metodología creativa y experimental de inmersión en la Naturaleza para aprender a transformar una inspiración biológica en una implementación técnica. Aprender a mirar la Naturaleza con curiosidad y desde la experimentación creativa para encontrar alternativas en los procesos de diseño. Tomar la Naturaleza como modelo nos hace repensar y replantear el futuro del diseño, mediante alternativas a los procesos tradicionales de producción.

The catastrophic impact of Hurricane Dorian in September 2019 was unprecedented for the island of Grand Bahama. Flooding in the western portion of the island damaged pine ecosystems, inundated the soil and groundwater with salt water, and disrupted potable water service throughout the island. More than two years post-Hurricane Dorian, the freshwater lenses that the island relies on for potable water are still inundated with salt water. This collaborative paper summarizes all efforts of researchers and practitioners to evaluate the freshwater lenses, as well as their associated ecosystems, that serve as the main source of drinking water for the island of Grand Bahama. Hydrogeologic and vegetation assessments were conducted on the two primary wellfields that provide 95% of the drinking water to the island, over the span of two and a half years from the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Dorian through present day. While salinity and total dissolved solid concentrations in groundwater have declined, present levels indicate that the full recovery of the freshwater lenses may take decades. Forest assessments indicate that in Wellfield 6, which was the primary source of potable water pre-Hurricane Dorian, the pine forests suffered significant damage with complete pine mortality and little regeneration of pine trees occurring, which could impact the underlying freshwater lens. Lessons learned from this event underscore the vulnerability of water resources in The Bahamas and the critical need for adaptation strategies to improve resilience to future extreme events and climate change.

<strong>Evaluation and experiences of full-scale ozonation followed by MBBR post-treatment at Kalundborg wastewater treatment plant. </strong> GoA3.2: Flexible use of existing infrastructure. Project report of the CWPharma project (Clear waters from pharmaceuticals) funded by EU’s Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme

This perspective from a Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society working group highlights regenerative medicine therapeutic opportunities for fighting COVID‐19. This article addresses why SARS‐CoV‐2 is so different from other viruses and how regenerative medicine is poised to deliver new therapeutic opportunities to battle COVID‐19. We describe animal models that depict the mechanism of action for COVID‐19 and that may help identify new treatments. Additionally, organoid platforms that can recapitulate some of the physiological properties of human organ systems, such as the lungs and the heart, are discussed as potential platforms that may prove useful in rapidly screening new drugs and identifying at‐risk patients. This article critically evaluates some of the promising regenerative medicine‐based therapies for treating COVID‐19 and presents some of the collective technologies and resources that the scientific community currently has available to confront this pandemic.