DISTRIBUTECH International 2022 returned to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas in May 2022 after a nearly two-year break due to COVID cancellations. The event featured networking and education opportunities for stakeholders within the energy sector and attendance was more than 12,000 from 67 countries and 1,700 from the utility sector.

There were twelve educational tracks focused on asset management, DERMS, energy storage, resiliency planning and prep, smart cites, distribution automation, and EVs, all supported by an expo floor with more than five hundred exhibitors.

“Resilience” was the theme for this year’s annual DistribuTECH conference, and suppliers were focused on helping utilities adapt to new challenges as spinning reserves decline and non-dispatchable renewables become a larger percentage of power generation.

Decarbonization is the primary goal of the energy transition. While transportation, industry, commercial buildings, and residential buildings are where carbon is emitted, the solution in most cases is electrification. Specifically, electrification that is based on non-carbon emitting power generation.

The conference clearly showed that suppliers to the transmission and distribution system were focused on providing solutions to the emerging challenges of maintaining a reliable and resilient electric grid.

While ABB spun off their PowerGrid division to Hitachi Energy in October 2021, ABB continues to provide DCS controls, Grid Batteries, Switchgear, Power conditioning, UPS systems, EV chargers and many other products and services.

AWS’ emphasis was on building, deploying, and managing websites, apps, and processes on the AWS' secure, reliable network platform, and how they are helping utilities manage the massive increase in new data.

Bentley presented their open utilities digital twin services, models for an integrated grid. They showed grid visualizations for design, planning, and operational decisions to illustrate a deeper understanding of digital grid components.

ETAP demonstrated modeling, analysis, optimization and operation software for generation, transmission, distribution, and microgrid systems. They showed how their ETAP ADMS unifies SCADA, Distribution Network Applications & OMS functionalities in a single modular solution.

GE has a small world theme with products, software, and services. GE demonstrated HV solutions, DER enabled ADMS, their new GIS technology (Geospatial Asset Management), automated Volt/Var control, AI-based vegetation & asset inspection programs, and complex topics like RTCA (Real Time Contingency Analysis).

Generac remains strong with generators but with acquisitions they are broadening their capability into microgrids and other areas. Recent purchases include Magnum products, makers of light towers and mobile generators, Pika inverters, Chilicon Power (inverters), Ecobee (building automation) and Off Grid Energy which offers a diverse range of energy storage solutions.

In addition to their booth demos, Hitachi Energy supported multiple presentations, such as Private LTE & 5G, Electric Utility Processes in the Light of New Asset Performance, Cybersecurity Risk Assessment and Defense in Depth, linking Digitalization and Sustainability, Fleet Vehicle-to-grid, Strengthen Utility Networks with Energy Storage, and Carbon Accounting. In their booth they gave impressive demos of their flagship Hitachi Vantara product with visualizations, MicroSCADA, Vol/VAr management, ADMS, and Digital Substations.

Minsait ACS demonstrated their SCADA platform that runs on Windows or on Linux. They showed products and services related to electricity delivery automation and control systems, energy efficiency, demand response, renewable energy integration, advanced metering, T&D system operation and reliability, communications, cybersecurity, water utility technologies and more.

Mitsubishi Electric showed a variety of products, services and solutions in their booth including Power-I® Substation Monitoring Platform, 72kV Dead Tank Vacuum Circuit Breaker, Volt/Var Control Solutions, Battery Energy Storage Solutions, Distributed Energy Resource Management Solutions, and Power System Consulting.

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Keywords: Energy Transition, Transmission and Distribution, Electric Grid, Renewable Power, Grid Asset Management, ARC Advisory Group.