Demand for electrical energy is up within the United States, and so is its value. One approach to enhance provide and decrease prices is to construct new energy vegetation, however that may take years and break the bank. Talgat Kopzhanov is engaged on a sooner, extra inexpensive resolution: the generator alternative interconnection course of.
The approach hyperlinks renewable vitality sources to the grid connections of shuttered or underutilized energy services and coal vegetation. The method makes use of the present interconnection rights and infrastructure when producing electrical energy, eliminating the years-long approval course of for setting up new U.S. energy services.
Talgat Kopzhanov
Employer
Center River Energy, in Chicago
Job title
Asset supervisor
Member grade
Senior member
Alma maters
Purdue College in West Lafayette, Ind., and Indiana College in Bloomington
Kopzhanov, an IEEE senior member, is an asset supervisor for Center River Energy, primarily based in Chicago. The personal fairness–sponsored funding and asset administration group makes a speciality of U.S. energy era belongings.
“Each energy plant has its personal interconnection rights,” he says, “however, amazingly, most usually are not absolutely using them.” Interconnection rights give a brand new energy supply—equivalent to photo voltaic vitality—permission to hook up with a high-voltage transmission system.
“We construct the brand new renewable vitality assets on high of them,” Kopzhanov says. “It’s like colocating a brand new energy plant.”
He just lately oversaw the set up of two generator-replacement interconnection initiatives, one for a photo voltaic system in Minnesota and the opposite for a battery storage facility in California.
A quick-track strategy that cuts prices
Synthetic intelligence information facilities are driving up demand and elevating electrical energy payments globally. Though tech firms and traders are keen to spend trillions of U.S. {dollars} setting up new energy services, it will possibly take as much as seven years simply to safe the grid interconnection rights wanted to begin constructing a plant, Kopzhanov says. The prolonged course of includes system planning, allow requests, and regulatory approvals. Solely about 5 p.c of latest initiatives are authorised annually, he says, partially due to grid reliability points.
The interconnection approach takes about half the time, he says, bringing cleaner vitality on-line sooner. By overcoming interconnection bottlenecks, equivalent to main transmission upgrades that delay renewable initiatives, the method hurries up venture timelines and lowers bills.
Kopzhanov explains the approach in an on-demand academic webinar, Unlocking Surplus Interconnection Service. Colocating Renewable and Thermal Energy Crops, hosted by the IEEE Energy & Vitality Society. The webinar is out there to the general public for a charge.
Kopzhanov has been concerned with a number of current generator alternative interconnection installations. In Might the Sherco Photo voltaic venture in Sherburne County, Minn., changed a retiring coal plant with roughly 720 megawatts of solar-powered mills, making it the biggest solar-generating facility within the area. The primary 460 MW of capability is predicted to be operational quickly.
One other new venture, developed with Center River, is a battery system put in in April at California’s Hanford Hybrid Vitality Heart, a pure gasoline reliability facility. It used current and incremental interconnection capability so as to add the storage system. The excess renewable vitality from the batteries will likely be used throughout peak occasions to scale back the plant’s greenhouse gasoline emissions, in line with a Silicon Valley Clear Vitality article concerning the set up.
“These initiatives are uniquely positioned to be colocated with current energy vegetation,” Kopzhanov says. “However, on the identical time, they’re renewable and sustainable sources of energy—which can also be serving to to decarbonize the surroundings and meet the emission-reduction objectives of the state.”
Influenced by Kazakhstan’s energy trade
Born and raised in Taraz, Kazakhstan, Kopzhanov was surrounded by kinfolk who labored within the energy trade. It’s not shocking that he has pursued a profession within the discipline.
Till 1991, when the nation was nonetheless a Soviet republic, most Kazakhs had been required to assist construct the nation’s energy and transmission programs, he says. His mom and father are chemical engineers, and his grandfather was concerned within the energy trade. They advised him about how they designed the transformers and overhead energy traces. From a younger age, he knew he wished to be an engineer too, he says.
At present the Central Asian nation is a significant producer of oil, gasoline, and coal.
Kopzhanov left Kazakhstan in 2008 to pursue a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering at Purdue College, in West Lafayette, Ind.
After graduating in 2012, he was employed as {an electrical} design engineer by Fluor Corp. in Farnborough, England. He oversaw the event of a grasp plan for an influence venture there. He additionally engineered and designed high-voltage switchgears, substations, and transformers.
“Each energy plant has its personal interconnection rights however, amazingly, most usually are not absolutely using them.”
In 2015 he joined ExxonMobil in Houston, working as a venture supervisor. Throughout his six years there, he held managerial positions. Finally, he was promoted to asset advisor and was accountable for evaluating the feasibility of investing in decarbonization and electrification initiatives by figuring out their dangers and alternatives.
He determined he wished to be taught extra concerning the enterprise points of working an organization, so he left in 2021 to pursue an MBA at Indiana College’s Kelley Faculty of Enterprise, in Bloomington. Throughout his MBA program, he briefly labored as a guide for a lithium-ion manufacturing agency, providing recommendation on the viability of their proposed initiatives and investments.
“Engineers aren’t sometimes related to the enterprise world,” he says, “however having an understanding of what the wants are and tailoring your future objectives towards that’s extraordinarily necessary. For my part, that’s the way you’ll change into an important technical knowledgeable. I positively suggest that engineers have some type of understanding of the enterprise facet.”
He joined Center River shortly after graduating from Indiana along with his MBA in 2023.
The facility of membership
Kopzhanov was launched to IEEE by a colleague at ExxonMobil after he requested the member about an IEEE plaque displayed on his desk. The coworker defined the actions he was concerned in, in addition to the method for becoming a member of. Kopzhanov turned a member in 2019, left, after which rejoined in 2023.
“That was the most effective selections I’ve made,” he says.
A member of the IEEE Energy & Vitality Society, he says its publications, webinars, conferences, and networking occasions preserve him present on new developments.
“Having the ability to comply with what’s taking place within the trade, particularly within the area the place you’re working, is one thing that has benefited me rather a lot,” he says.
An energetic IEEE volunteer, he’s the founding chair of the Energy & Vitality Society’s Chicago chapter, which has about 400 members. He’s on the chapter’s government committee, and he helps arrange conferences, replace the web site, and assessment analysis papers.
“It’s these little issues which have a major influence,” he says. “Volunteering is a key piece of belonging to IEEE.”
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