Grids & Integration

A random malware variant affected about 800 remote monitoring devices at ground-mounted PV plants in Japan in May 2024. Tokyo-based cybersecurity firm Girasol Energy has told pv magazine what happened and how PV asset owners can protect themselves against such incidents.

Newly-implemented rules governing Ukraine’s energy market introduce solar-plus-storage systems as a separate auction category, ease regulatory barriers governing standalone storage projects and establish processes for renewable energy facilities located in Ukraine’s occupied territories.

Austrian researchers conducted a techno-economic analysis of agrivoltaic systems and found that 5%–16% of the country’s cropland would be required to meet its solar electricity targets.

An international research team developed CyberSentry, a software framework using advanced deep learning and optimization techniques to enhance cybersecurity in SCADA systems for power plants and critical infrastructure. It combines feature selection, hybrid anomaly detection, and dynamic parameter tuning to detect diverse cyberattacks with 99.5% accuracy while minimizing false alarms.

Toshiba has unveiled a PV management platform within its Spinex for Energy portfolio that enables real-time monitoring and O&M of multiple solar plants.
The system uses AI to track plant performance, detect faults, calculate capacity and PR metrics, automate reporting, and support troubleshooting.

Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer FKIE institute developed PowerRange, a virtual simulation platform that helps power grid operators safely test cybersecurity measures and respond to realistic cyberattacks. The platform supports both traditional and renewable grids, offering immersive training across IT, OT, and control systems while highlighting the importance of coordination, communication, and practical defense strategies.

The electricity grid is a real bottleneck for energy in the United States, and it’s not only utilities and grid operators who are struggling. Grid congestion also puts pressure on renewable energy project owners and is as much a business problem as it is a technical one, writes Alon Mashkovich, CEO of energy management business software supplier enSights.

Malaysia’s rising power demand, driven by industrial growth and data centers, is exposing grid and capacity constraints, prompting policies like Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS) to enable corporate renewable procurement while maintaining system cost recovery. A key factor is the System Access Charge (SAC), whose uncertain future trajectory affects long-term solar PPAs and investment decisions, making scenario-based modelling crucial for assessing project bankability.

Researchers reviewed 110 studies on cold thermal energy storage in liquid-air energy storage, finding that cold storage performance has a far greater impact on system efficiency than previously assumed. While phase change materials offer high theoretical efficiency gains, simpler packed-bed sensible heat systems are currently the most mature and cost-effective option, with further experimental validation needed to bridge the gap to large-scale deployment.

Researchers from South Korea improved solar panel dust detection by using SMOTE and stable diffusion (SD) augmentation, with SD boosting detection accuracy from 76.5% to 98.9% while preserving spatial realism.