Sunday, 11 October 2026

HELLENiQ Renewables has completed the HELLENiQ ENERGY Group's first battery energy storage system at its industrial facilities in Thessaloniki, according to Naftemporiki.

The project carries an installed power capacity of 100 MW and a storage capacity of 200 MWh, Naftemporiki reported, placing it among the largest electricity storage facilities completed in Greece and southeastern Europe.

HELLENiQ ENERGY's investment in the project totalled approximately EUR 50 million, according to Naftemporiki.

The facility is expected to complete at least one full charge and discharge cycle per day, storing and delivering more than 200 MWh of electricity, Naftemporiki reported.

Govindarasu and his research group are calling for the development of AI-enabled security operations centers, known as SOCs, to help protect the grid.

The recommendation appears in a special issue built around a single theme: using AI security tools against AI attack tools.

Adam Hahn said the rapid adoption of AI will be essential if defenders of critical infrastructure are to keep pace with sophisticated cyberthreats.

Mauritania published a report on two fires that knocked out power across parts of Nouakchott in August, according to Rio Times Online.

The commission tied the two blazes to three new 33 kV cable links installed weeks earlier, according to Rio Times Online.

The report identified failings at the state utility, the energy ministry and the private contractor, Rio Times Online reported.

The commission could not pin down the exact fault that caused the fires, according to Rio Times Online.

The UN's Global Grids Accelerator arrives without a dollar of new money and acts as a broker rather than a new financing institution, according to ESI Africa. The test for Africa is whether it can get transmission lines to reach financial close, ESI Africa reported.

The Accelerator does not create a new financing institution, ESI Africa said.

Separately, Akon co-founded Akon Lighting Africa in 2014 to provide electricity to rural areas, according to a 2019 case study published in DECISION and cited by Hindustan Times. The initiative says it installed solar solutions in 14 African countries within a year, according to the same case study.

A US presidential order has handed the Department of Energy the power to halt transactions tied to equipment sourced from countries it treats as national security threats, according to Startup Fortune. The order rests on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act, and it reaches gear already running on the grid rather than only new purchases.

The department has 120 days from the signing to issue its rules, putting the deadline at December 24, Startup Fortune reported.

BloombergNEF counted more than 23 GW of large-scale US energy storage projects that have either closed financing or begun construction, the firm told Utility Dive. BloombergNEF said a meaningful share of that pipeline now faces delay or cancellation as developers wait for the department to name which suppliers are barred.

Lagos State plans to lift electricity supply to more than 3,000 MW by March 2027, up from below 1,000 MW now, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said, framing the goal as part of efforts to end blackouts and build a 24-hour power economy.

The state intends to mobilise an additional 2,000 MW through national grid resources, independent power projects, energy hubs, power barges, energy traders and embedded generation, according to the governor.

Sanwo-Olu said reaching the target would require coordinated improvements across the electricity value chain, including generation, transmission, distribution, gas supply and metering.

Southeast Asia is expected to add more than 100 TWh of electricity demand by 2030, according to a Bain & Company report, with growth driven by data centers, electric vehicles and industrial clusters.

The International Energy Agency recommends stronger national preparedness and deeper ASEAN-wide energy cooperation across multiple energy sectors to build collective resilience against future market disruptions.

A transmission line failure on Saturday partly cut eastern Cuba off the national grid, according to Rio Times Online.

State utility UNE forecast demand of 2,900 MW for Saturday's evening peak against available generation of 1,250 MW, a gap of 1,650 MW, with projected cuts reaching 1,680 MW at the worst point of the night, Rio Times Online reported.

Lázaro Guerra Hernández, director general of electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said more than 1,200 MW of capacity was ready but idle for lack of imported fuel.

Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel said the tightening of the energy blockade had left the country without a fuel ship docking at its ports for nine months. "The tightening of the energy blockade has extended beyond borders, and despite numerous efforts, it has been nine months since a fuel ship docked at our ports," he said. He said the situation had led to increased power outages that affected hospitals and the wider healthcare system, water supply, transportation, and food production and preservation.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveiled plans for Great British Grid at the Labour Party conference, framing it as a response to Britain's high energy costs and economic growth challenges, according to rocketnews.com.

The body is planned as a government-owned entity that will work with private companies and network operators to increase competition, cut costs and speed up infrastructure development, rocketnews.com reported.

Great British Grid will have approximately GBP 4 billion in funds, set against anticipated investment of GBP 70 billion over the next five years, according to rocketnews.com.

The government also intends to give developers and businesses broader rights to build their own infrastructure connecting projects to Great Britain's grid, rocketnews.com reported.

India's renewable power curtailment stems primarily from delays in building transmission infrastructure rather than excess capacity, new and renewable energy secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangi told the Times of India.

India curtailed nearly 8,133 GWh of solar power in the first quarter of FY27, according to the Economic Times.

Sarangi rejected the view that the country was adding renewable capacity faster than the power system can absorb. He said renewable capacity is generally developed against identified demand, through power purchase agreements, contracts with commercial and industrial consumers, or distributed renewable energy schemes such as PM-KUSUM and PM Surya Ghar.

To address curtailment, Sarangi said the response should be to expedite and complete transmission lines and to deploy more battery energy storage.

Ecuador switched off power to its largest industrial users on Friday night, 9 October, to protect electricity supplies to homes, according to riotimesonline.com.

The country's Ministry of Environment and Energy attributed the industrial cuts to low water levels at its main hydroelectric plants and a jump in factory demand over the holiday, riotimesonline.com reported.

In a separate development, Goa's government raised electricity tariffs for industrial consumers, passing on higher power purchase costs, according to navhindtimes.in.

The revised industrial electricity charges took immediate effect and apply until January 2027, navhindtimes.in reported.

Four-hour battery storage is now cheaper than open-cycle gas turbines in all 43 markets where Wood Mackenzie modelled both technologies, according to the consultancy's latest global report on the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE).

Wood Mackenzie predicts the cost of electricity from batteries will keep declining while power from gas turbines grows more expensive in the coming decades.

Ahmed Jameel Abdullah, principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said gas turbine shortages and rising fuel volatility are driving up peaking costs, while expanding battery manufacturing keeps pushing storage costs down.

Duke Energy Florida had restored power to approximately 10,000 customers after Hurricane Isaias, leaving about 2,200 customers without power across North Florida.

CenterPoint deployed 105 line workers to support power restoration in Pensacola, Florida, after the storm, according to a statement supporting Florida Power & Light. The company also released about 150 contractor line workers and 100 vegetation management personnel to assist with the restoration effort.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) welcomed the RM15 billion investment to strengthen Malaysia's National Grid under Budget 2027, together with measures to protect domestic electricity consumers and improve energy security.

The RM15 billion in new grid spending forms part of TNB's RM43 billion investment plan running from 2025 to 2027, according to the utility.

TNB said the government's decision to extend electricity bill protection for households using up to 800 kilowatt hours a month will run until December 31, 2026. The measure is expected to benefit more than eight million households, representing up to 90% of domestic electricity consumers.

K-Electric, Karachi's power utility, warned on Friday that it may introduce electricity load management during evening and nighttime peak hours.

The utility attributed the potential cuts to a nationwide shortage of re-gasified liquefied natural gas, which it linked to international supply disruptions and delayed cargo deliveries.

K-Electric said load management would be an extreme, last-resort measure, and that daytime electricity supply would remain largely stable.

Lahore and surrounding districts endured six to eight hours of daily power outages in urban areas and eight to 16 hours in rural areas over the past week, according to techjuice.pk.

The outages stem from a supply shortfall. A Lesco officer, speaking to private news media, said forced load-shedding had become common because the company was not receiving enough electricity to meet demand, making uninterrupted supply difficult to maintain.

The cuts grew more frequent during evenings and nights, according to thecurrent.pk, as rooftop solar systems stopped generating and demand for grid electricity rose.

Residents reported prolonged load-shedding and frequent power tripping across the affected districts.