IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020 - 4

from the editor

John Paserba

a global perspective
integrating distributed energy resources

In This Issue
The overall theme of this issue is the
integration of distributed energy
resources (DERs). We have tackled
this topic in IEEE Power & Energy
Magazine through the years, and this
latest issue represents the next progression in this important area affecting our industry. We have five articles
that represent authors and DER topics
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2020.3016409
Date of current version: 16 October 2020

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AS I REFLECT ON THE YEAR 2020
for this final issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine, I am quickly reminded
of a lyric from a song by an American
rock band: "Lately, it occurs to me what
a long, strange trip it's been." As I write
this column, it occurs to me that we are
not yet at our final destination on this
long, strange trip called COVID-19. As
we started the year, COVID-19 was just
entering our lexicon. And now, at the
end of 2020, the ways we do business,
educate, travel, hold meetings and conferences, and interact with each other
have changed-all due to COVID-19.
We have not yet achieved an understanding of what the "new normal"
will be. Many jobs remain out of the
office and at home locations; numerous
universities continue with remote education; social distancing continues to be
an active practice in our communities,
factories, and field work spaces; utility
load profiles have changed; and many
global travel restrictions persist. Please
continue to make wise choices and be
safe as we migrate through this long,
strange trip during the COVID-19 era.

from around the globe discussing the
following topics:
✔✔ the challenges being addressed
as Australia integrates very high
levels of distributed photovoltaic
(PV) systems
✔✔ an autonomous energy grid concept for the control and operation of grids with high levels of
DERs of all types
✔✔ a detailed view from Japan of grid
operation challenges related to
high levels of DERs in the form of
distributed PV and wind energy
✔ ✔ the challenges of reaching a
100% renewable energy target
by 2040 in the Canary Islands
✔✔ system protection impacts resulting from the integration of
inverter-based DERs.
Along with these articles on DERs,
we have one more article to this issue:
✔✔ "Predictive-Maintenance Practices," by Richard Fioravanti, Kiran Kumar, Shinobu Nakata, Babu
Chalamala, and Yuliya Preger, addresses current safety practices in
battery energy storage system development, provides examples of
predictive maintenance approach-

es in other industries, notes the
key components of an effective
approach, and describes methodologies to identify leading fault
indicators.
The "In My View" column provides a
perspective on grid services from DERs.

History
We have explored a number of interesting aspects of electrical power associated with the Niagara Falls area
through the years in the pages of the
"History" column. In this issue, Robert D. Barnett presents a view of the
"loads" consumed by customers of the
early hydroelectric generation plants
near Niagara Falls. The article concentrates on early electrochemical factories and the distribution methods to
serve those loads.

Leader's Corner
In the "Leader's Corner" column, Vijay
Vittal, IEEE Power & Energy Society
(PES) vice president (VP) of Technical
Activities, shares his thoughts on PES
technical activities. As a VP on the
PES Governing Board, he also serves
as chair of the PES Technical Council,
november/december 2020
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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - November/December 2020
