In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue speaks to Jeff Earl, Director of Business Development at Sapphire Technologies, about the latest innovative turboexpander technology and the promise it holds for the decarbonisation journey.

Unpacking the latest trends, Earl talks about turboexpanders, a specific kind of power generating equipment that converts pressure energy into electricity through an inlet and outlet. Unlike combustion turbines, this technology has no ignition, which means there are no CO2, NOx or SOx emissions.

Earl explains that this power generation equipment is not only carbon friendly, but that the levelized cost of electricity generated is also competitive contributing to a strong business case.

This episode is brought to you by Sapphire Technologies; which develops, manufactures, and sells energy recovery systems for hydrogen and natural gas industrial applications.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, we hear from industry experts at Nokia, Dominique Verhulst, Global Head of Utilities, and Hansen Chan, IP Networks Product Marketing, about how IEC 61850 is revolutionizing the utility industry.

Many utilities are integrating utility-scale and residential distributed energy resources (DERs) into their electric grids at an unprecedented pace.

Meanwhile, the time-division multiplexing (TDM) technology they use for communications in intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) such as relays and remote terminal units (RTUs) approaching end-of-life. In response to these changes, more and more utilities are turning to IEC 61850 to introduce automation and digitalisation to their electric grids.

This episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast is brought to you by Nokia, a multinational B2B technology innovation leader in networking, powered by the research and innovation of Nokia Bell Labs, providing leading end-to-end grid communications and analytics solutions to meet the unique mission-critical needs of power and water utilities and renewable energy.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Pamela Largue had a candid conversation with Javier Cavada, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Power EMEA, about why speed and scale must be the focus points of our decarbonisation mission. 

Cavada spoke to the progress being made in achieving greener power generation, making it clear that all, rather than a select few technologies will help us achieve our energy transition goals. He emphasised that renewable energy is disrupting our energy system, but that this disruption can be managed by making incremental changes, changes that must be driven by unified action. Without unity, stressed Cavada, we can not meet our net zero goals. 

“The amount of change is to be massive… change of the patterns of behaviour of the society, and to do that we need to change politics… this is something individual countries, cities, companies can not do by themselves…"

Listen to the full episode to learn more about Javier Cavada's view on how to shift from a hydrocarbon-heavy energy system while maximising existing assets, and how the war in Ukraine has emphasised energy sovereignty and impacted decarbonisation. Also, Cavada shares his book recommendations, which may surprise you.  

Javier Cavada will be speaking at Enlit Europe taking place in Paris, 28-30 Nov, where he will be discussing Europe’s gas and hydrogen strategies to achieve energy transition. 

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, Yusuf Latief speaks to Bernard Salha, CTO of EDF Group, to unpack nuclear’s role in the energy mix, grid optimisation and the importance of digitalisation and AI to secure the future of the sector.

While all eyes are on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, nuclear’s role in the energy mix is evolving quickly.

And even though there seems little doubt about the role of nuclear power as a source of clean power and flexible capacity, the evolving and increasingly complex energy system means digitalisation will become critical to ensuring nuclear capacity is maximised.

“We have to take into account that this global system is going to be more complex, more decentralised with several actors, and that the stability is going to need to have all these actors, all these different players working together. In that respect, digital systems for grid management are absolutely necessary.”

Listen to this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast to hear from Salha about the role of nuclear power, its integration with the power grid, as well as the new technologies making decentralised systems a reality.

Don't miss out on a special discount for our Energy Transitions Podcast listeners: To receive your 25% discount on an Enlit Europe Summit delegate pass, visit www.enlit-europe.com/registerpod and enter the podcast discount code provided in this episode on the payment page. We look forward to seeing you in Paris.

In this episode of the Energy Transitions Podcast, we hear from Leon Laing, Manager: Planning and Customer Services at the Drakenstein Municipality in the Western Cape, South Africa on how the SF6-free transition is revolutionising how they manage and operate their power distribution system.

While South Africa is not yet regulating the shift to SF6 free switchgear, Laing is pre-empting this inevitable step and ensuring his municipal district is not only ahead of the curve, but setting the standard for sustainability.

Leon is responsible for the municipality’s electric planning and design where forward-thinking for assets of this cost and nature is critical. This forward-thinking has led to the Drakenstein Municipality being the first in Africa to install and operate Schneider Electric’s RM AirSeT switchgear with pure air technology and digital connectivity.

Read more:
First African SF6-free switchgear installed in South Africa

This episode is brought to you by Schneider Electric, a French multinational company specialising in digital automation and energy management. It addresses homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure, and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automation, software, and services.