Friday, 9 October 2026

South Africa plans to procure 4.6 GW of battery storage and 5 GW of gas-fired power plants, according to pv magazine.

The government is preparing the procurements to address curtailment and strengthen reliable electricity supply, pv magazine reported.

Battery storage will help mitigate increasing curtailment, pv magazine said. Gas-fired plants will provide dispatchable electricity when renewable output falls or demand rises.

Denmark's parliament approved an electricity-grid emergency plan on October 1, 2026, with the measure due to take effect on October 12, according to the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Utilities.

The plan ends the first-come, first-served principle for grid access. In its place, Energinet and grid companies gain greater scope to prioritize who receives access to limited capacity in the electricity grid, the Ministry said.

Connection requests will be divided into four categories under the agreement, with Category 1 holding the highest priority.

Hydro One Networks Inc. submitted its 2028-2032 Joint Rate Application to the Ontario Energy Board, setting out a proposed investment plan for its transmission and distribution systems.

The approximately $37 billion five-year plan, if approved, would address Ontario's growing electricity demand and strengthen the reliability and security of the electricity system, according to Hydro One.

The application covers Hydro One's transmission and distribution networks over the 2028 to 2032 period.

Kabra Extrusiontechnik Limited said its New Energy division, GEON, has executed and commissioned a 10 MW / 20 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis, according to the company announcement carried by Event Registry.

The EPC scope covered detailed engineering and design, procurement and supply of equipment, installation, and testing and commissioning, according to Trade Brains.

The commissioned system is designed to support energy management, grid stability and the integration of renewable energy, according to Trade Brains.

The UK government announced on September 29, 2026, plans to establish Great British Grid, a new publicly owned body within Great British Energy, according to Foot Anstey.

The body is intended to invest in UK electricity network infrastructure, accelerate grid connections and increase competition in the delivery of network projects, according to Foot Anstey.

The government says Great British Grid will work alongside, rather than replace, existing transmission owners and network operators, according to Foot Anstey.

Start-up costs will be covered by Great British Energy's existing budget, while the long-term budget will be decided in a future spending review, according to Osborne Clarke.

Research by Modat identified 8,547 internet-facing systems in European solar parks and wind farms that should not be reachable from the internet, including exposed admin interfaces and control panels.

The researchers mapped operating wind farms and solar parks in 40 countries across the EU, EFTA and EU candidate states, and found exposed systems in 35 of them, according to Modat.

Among wind assets, the research found 605 exposed systems across 23 countries.

Resonia Ltd. has acquired a 100% stake in Balsane Power Transmission Limited for an intra-state transmission project in Maharashtra.

The project spans approximately 210 km across the Dhule and Nashik districts. It will strengthen power transfer within the state and support integration of additional generation capacity into Maharashtra's transmission network.

The Balsane project adds 3 GW of power evacuation capacity and strengthens the transmission backbone between Dhule and Malegaon.

Telangana's peak power demand reached a record 19,892 MW, the highest level recorded in the state, according to EQ Magazine. The peak was logged on September 30.

Deputy Chief Minister and Energy Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said the state maintained uninterrupted power supply despite the sharp rise in demand.

China's export tax rebate for battery products is set to fall from 9% to 6% before being eliminated in January 2027, EUPD Research analyst Ali Arfa told ESS News. Arfa expects the change to push manufacturers to bring forward shipments, including significant volumes destined for Europe.

Arfa said China's dominance of the global battery supply chain is unlikely to change significantly over the next two years, according to ESS News.

The pull-forward in shipments could split the European storage market by segment, according to Arfa. Excess inventories and discounting could weigh on residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) system prices. Utility-scale projects remain comparatively insulated because systems are generally manufactured and shipped against confirmed orders.

A study by Chalmers University of Technology examines reconfigurable EV battery packs that can selectively bypass weaker cells, according to electrive.

The study says the potential is particularly significant for electric trucks and long-range electric cars with many cells connected in series.

The technology is not available in production vehicles, electrive reported, but it has been tested in research and industrial prototypes.

Bangladesh has approved a 442 MW grid-connected solar power plant with battery storage, according to ESS News, as the country moves to ease persistent electricity shortages and raise renewable generation.

The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will develop the project at a total cost of BDT 25 billion, ESS News reported, making it the country's largest solar power plant.

The facility will sit next to the 1.32 GW coal-fired Rampal Power Station in Bagerhat district, southwestern Bangladesh, according to ESS News.

The plant will include eight hours of battery storage, twice the duration set out in the initial plan, Junior Planning Minister Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki said. The longer duration allows a larger volume of solar electricity to be stored for use outside daylight hours.

The levelized cost of electricity for four-hour battery storage has fallen below that of open-cycle gas turbines in all 43 global markets that Wood Mackenzie modeled, according to ESS News.

Wood Mackenzie analyst Ahmed Jameel Abdullah said gas turbine shortages and fuel-price volatility are driving up peaking costs, while expanding battery manufacturing continues to push storage costs down.

North America stands out as an exception in long-term cost trajectories, shaped by domestic trade policies, supply-chain protections and electricity demand pressures, according to ESS News.

An investigating judge at Germany's Federal Court of Justice has ordered enforcement of the arrest warrant against the suspected perpetrator of a series of sabotage attacks on the country's power grid, according to marketscreener.com.

Authorities are investigating the case on suspicion of attempted and completed anti-constitutional sabotage, along with attempted and completed disruption of public utilities, marketscreener.com reported.

The suspect was already in pretrial detention, so enforcement of the warrant did not fundamentally change his detention status.

He appeared before the Federal Court of Justice because the Federal Prosecutor General's Office, Germany's highest prosecuting authority, had taken over the investigation into the incidents.

The Linux Foundation has launched OpenGrid, an initiative to build open-source infrastructure for power grid planning across regions, HPCwire reported.

OpenGrid does not replace existing software. It sits between tools, offering a shared data and interoperability layer so commercial and open-source grid-planning applications can exchange information and run alongside each other.

The first tool under the project, the OpenGrid Translator, is in development and slated for release in 2027, according to HPCwire. It is designed to carry data and models between widely used commercial platforms and open-source tools.

Breakthrough Energy GRIDS, Global Grid Catalyst, Connected Grid Initiative and Google.org are backing the launch.

A modeled single Western electricity market would produce the lowest annual total system cost at USD 17.44 billion, because one operator could dispatch the region's lowest-cost energy resources without internal market boundaries.

Compared with the best-managed two-market outcome, which carries low friction and costs USD 18.62 billion, a single market would deliver an additional USD 1.19 billion, or 6.8%, in annual savings.

Within a two-market Western footprint, shifting from high-friction to low-friction seams management would reduce annual system costs from USD 19.46 billion to USD 18.62 billion, a cut of USD 839.1 million, or 4.5%.

Sudden stratospheric warmings raise the chance of electricity demand reaching at least 20% above average in northern and central Europe by 1.5 to 3 times, according to a study led by the University of Exeter.

The research found that a breakdown of normal polar winds in winter increases the likelihood of extreme cold and a resulting surge in energy demand across Europe.

The effect varied by country. Scandinavian countries, which are largely well adapted to extreme cold, saw a smaller increase in energy use when temperatures fell, while France, with its highly electrified energy system, experienced a much steeper rise in demand, according to the study.