Demand for electricity is up within the United States, and so is its worth. One strategy to enhance provide and decrease prices is to construct new power plants, however that may take years and break the bank. Talgat Kopzhanov is engaged on a quicker, extra reasonably priced answer: the generator alternative interconnection course of.
The approach hyperlinks renewable energy sources to the grid connections of shuttered or underutilized energy amenities and coal crops. The method makes use of the present interconnection rights and infrastructure when producing electrical energy, eliminating the years-long approval course of for establishing new U.S. energy amenities.
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 Middle River Power, based mostly in Chicago. The personal fairness–sponsored funding and asset administration group focuses on U.S. power generation belongings.
“Each energy plant has its personal interconnection rights,” he says, “however, amazingly, most should not absolutely using them.” Interconnection rights give a brand new energy supply—corresponding to photo voltaic vitality—permission to hook up with a high-voltage transmission system.
“We construct the brand new renewable vitality assets on prime of them,” Kopzhanov says. “It’s like colocating a brand new energy plant.”
He lately oversaw the set up of two generator-replacement interconnection tasks, one for a solar system in Minnesota and the opposite for a battery storage facility in California.
A quick-track strategy that cuts prices
Artificial intelligence data centers are driving up demand and raising electricity bills globally. Though tech firms and investors are willing to spend trillions of U.S. {dollars} establishing new energy amenities, it may take as much as seven years simply to safe the grid interconnection rights wanted to start out constructing a plant, Kopzhanov says. The prolonged course of entails system planning, allow requests, and regulatory approvals. Solely about 5 p.c of recent tasks are accepted every year, he says, partly due to grid reliability points.
The interconnection approach takes about half the time, he says, bringing cleaner vitality on-line quicker. By overcoming interconnection bottlenecks, corresponding to main transmission upgrades that delay renewable tasks, the method accelerates undertaking timelines and lowers bills.
Kopzhanov explains the approach in an on-demand academic webinar, Unlocking Surplus Interconnection Service. Colocating Renewable and Thermal Power Plants, hosted by the IEEE Power & Energy Society. The webinar is obtainable to the general public for a payment.
Kopzhanov has been concerned with a number of latest generator alternative interconnection installations. In Might the Sherco Solar undertaking 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 undertaking, developed with Center River, is a battery system put in in April at California’s Hanford Hybrid Energy Center, a natural gas reliability facility. It used present and incremental interconnection capability so as to add the storage system. The excess renewable vitality from the batteries might be used throughout peak instances to scale back the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions, in response to a Silicon Valley Clean Energy article concerning the set up.
“These tasks are uniquely positioned to be colocated with present energy crops,” Kopzhanov says. “However, on the identical time, they’re renewable and sustainable sources of energy—which can be serving to to decarbonize the surroundings and meet the emission-reduction objectives of the state.”
Influenced by Kazakhstan’s energy business
Born and raised in Taraz, Kazakhstan, Kopzhanov was surrounded by relations who labored within the energy business. It’s not stunning that he has pursued a profession within the area.
Till 1991, when the nation was nonetheless a Soviet republic, most Kazakhs had been required to assist construct the nation’s energy and transmission methods, he says. His mom and father are chemical engineers, and his grandfather was concerned within the energy business. They instructed him about how they designed the transformers and overhead power lines. From a younger age, he knew he wished to be an engineer too, he says.
At this time 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 University, 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 undertaking there. He additionally engineered and designed high-voltage switchgears, substations, and transformers.
“Each power plant has its personal interconnection rights however, amazingly, most should not absolutely using them.”
In 2015 he joined ExxonMobil in Houston, working as a undertaking supervisor. Throughout his six years there, he held managerial positions. Ultimately, he was promoted to asset advisor and was chargeable for evaluating the feasibility of investing in decarbonization and electrification tasks by figuring out their dangers and alternatives.
He determined he wished to be taught extra concerning the enterprise facets of operating an organization, so he left in 2021 to pursue an MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, 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 tasks and investments.
“Engineers aren’t usually 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 vital. For my part, that’s the way you’ll change into a fantastic technical knowledgeable. I positively suggest that engineers have some sort of understanding of the enterprise aspect.”
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 probably the greatest choices I’ve made,” he says.
A member of the IEEE Energy & Power Society, he says its publications, webinars, conferences, and networking occasions maintain him present on new developments.
“With the ability to observe what’s occurring within the business, particularly within the house the place you’re working, is one thing that has benefited me quite a bit,” he says.
An energetic IEEE volunteer, he’s the founding chair of the Energy & Power Society’s Chicago chapter, which has about 400 members. He’s on the chapter’s govt committee, and he helps set up conferences, replace the web site, and overview analysis papers.
“It’s these little issues which have a major impression,” he says. “Volunteering is a key piece of belonging to IEEE.”
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