36. Digital Revolution in Transmission (with Smart Wires) - oct20

Modernising and expanding the Transmission networks is one the least publicised but critical way to facilitate a faster introduction and smoother management of renewable energy. Grid operators have been portrayed as very conservative and risk adverse. Incentives structures are rarely there to promote innovation. But a digital solution has emerged recently, so disruptive and brilliant that it received the World Economic Forum award for “transmission innovation of the decade”. This revolution, 10 years in the making is about to unlock a better access to more renewables everywhere around the world. At the helm is Gregg Rotenberg, CEO of California-based SmartWires, that we have the privilege to interview on the show.Gregg dives into the technological innovation that modular power flow control solutions bring to the Grid, in term of cost, time to market and flexibility. We analyse why incumbents didn’t see this coming, how they face a Kodak moment in this 100bnUSD industry; we tour the world to understand how the UK, Germany and Australia and many others system operators are adopting SmartWires technologies to modernise their grids, transforming them from skeletons to brains.https://www.smartwires.com/