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OVH Groupe : With a loan of 200 million euros, or over 200 million U.S. dollars, dedicated to its European investments, EIB supports the development…

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted OVHcloud, the European leader in cloud computing, dedicated funding for its investments in Europe. This EUR 200 million credit facility demonstrates the EIB's determination to actively support European digital players. This commitment is in line with the EU's priorities for strategic autonomy in the field of new technologies.

Complementary financial resources for a key sector

This first financing for a pure cloud player, for a maximum amount provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB), is intended to support the OVHcloud's Group's expansion in Europe, where it is positioning itself as the champion of an open, reversible, transparent and federated cloud ecosystem, all the while promoting the full and complete sovereignty of users over their data. In a booming market, OVHcloud intends to accelerate its international deployment with the opening of 15 new data centers by the end of 2024 in order to address new market and new geographies, and demonstrate its progress in terms of sustainable development. As such, 10 of these 15 new sites will open in Europe over the next 24 months.

This support actively contributes to the efforts undertaken by European public decision makers to strengthen Europe's strategic autonomy in its digital infrastructures, and particularly in the key activities of research and development and production, in a market that may exceed that of telecoms by 2027.

"Whether in software or hardware, innovation is at the heart of our company's DNA and guides each and every one of our actions in a sustainable, open and transparent approach," said Michel Paulin, CEO of OVHcloud. "This additional financial capacity provided by the EIB contributes to our Group's strategic roadmap and will enable us to promote a cloud that respects our European values faster, higher and stronger."

The cloud is the essential building block for the digitalization of all aspects of our economic and social lives," said EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. "By contributing to the financing of the most innovative players in Europe, the EIB is fully in line with European policy priorities: increasing our competitiveness and fostering our technological sovereignty. This EUR 200 million loan to the European leader in the sector is a significant demonstration of Europe's commitment to placing our digital expertise at the service of our strategic autonomy."

Infrastructures, technologies, talents and R&D

Over the last 12 months, OVHcloud has expanded its portfolio of IaaS and PaaS solutions, confirming its undisputed leadership in the market for a reliable and sustainable cloud. As the acceleration of its growth trajectory goes hand in hand with the implementation of new offers capable of meeting the most demanding technological challenges, the Group plans to take its technical capabilities even further in the areas of artificial intelligence, databases, security mechanisms and high-intensity calculations.

The new resources available within the framework of this financing will increase OVHcloud's capacities in the following domains:

Deploy the most sustainable cloud infrastructure on the market

As a leading pioneer serving a sustainable cloud, OVHcloud intends to leverage this additional funding to improve and innovate in cooling technologies, particularly adiabatic systems and new mechanisms in line with its industrial innovations.

Thanks to its fully integrated industrial model, the group intends to make the most of its 20+ years of expertise in the field of water-cooling systems to reduce its environmental impact.

Currently achieving the best ratios in the cloud industry in terms of energy efficiency (PUE between 1.1 and 1.3 compared to an industry average of 1.57) and water consumption (average WUE of 0.26 l/kWh compared to an industry average of 1.8), OVHcloud is ideally positioned to embrace strong commitments:

The EIB, whose shareholders are the 27 Member States of the European Union, is the EU's long-term financing institution. It finances high-quality investments that contribute to the achievement of the European Union's objectives, including innovation, to which it has earmarked more than three billion in 2021. Since 2019, the EIB has accelerated its transformation into a climate bank by committing to devote at least 50% of its financing to investments that contribute to the fight against climate change and the mitigation of its effects, starting in 2025. It has already largely achieved this objective in France, where it has devoted two thirds of its 9.2 billion in investments to projects in renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings and the development of sustainable mobility.

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OVH Groupe : With a loan of 200 million euros, or over 200 million U.S. dollars, dedicated to its European investments, EIB supports the development...

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Top 8 Ways to Fix Discord Connection Issues on Android and iPhone – Guiding Tech

Discord began as a simple chat app for gamers but quickly expanded with an impressive list of features and services. Although the service works well on all major platforms, it may occasionally experience connection issues, particularly on your phone.

Most of the time, you can fix such Discord connection issues by simply restarting the app. However, there are times when the problem is more serious. If you cannot use the Discord app on your Android or iPhone due to frequent connection issues, below are some fixes that will help.

Unlike most apps, Discord gives you access to several experimental features in its primary app. Since these features are experimental, Discord will likely run into issues when using them.

Discord labels such features with a Beta tag or a brief warning message. You should refrain from using such features if Discord frequently runs into connection issues on your Android or iPhone.

Discord connection problems can also occur if Discord fails to authenticate your account. This usually happens right after you change your password or enable two-factor authentication in Discord. If thats the case, signing out of the Discord app and signing back in should help resolve the issue.

Step 1: Open the Discord app on your phone and tap the profile icon in the bottom right corner.

Step 2: Scroll down to the Account section and tap on Log Out. Select Log Out again to confirm.

Sign back into your Discord account and see if the app runs into connection issues again.

Having your phone set to the wrong date or time may not seem like a big deal, but it can lead to many problems. Importantly, it can prevent apps from communicating with the server. One way to avoid such problems is to set your phone to the network-provided date and time.

Step 1: Open the Settings app and navigate to General Management.

Step 2: Tap on Date and time. Then, enable the toggle for Automatic date and time.

Step 1: Launch the Settings app on your iPhone and navigate to General.

Step 2: Tap on Date & Time. Toggle on the switch next to Set Automatically.

Are you using a VPN connection? If so, Discord is likely facing connection issues because of it. To rule out this possibility, temporarily disable your VPN and try using Discord again.

By default, your phone uses the DNS server your ISP (Internet Service Provider) provides. Problems with those servers can also lead to various connection errors. Fortunately, plenty of free public DNS servers provide better reliability and internet browsing speeds. You can switch to a custom DNS server to see if that helps.

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone and navigate to Connections.

Step 2: Tap on More connection settings and select Private DNS from the following menu.

Step 3: Select Private DNS provider hostname. Type dns.google in the text field and tap on Save.

The steps for changing the DNS server may differ depending on your current Android version. If the above steps dont work, refer to our dedicated guide on how to change the DNS server on Android.

Step 1: Open the Settings on your iPhone and navigate to Wi-Fi. Tap the info icon next to your Wi-Fi network.

Step 2: Scroll down to tap on Configure DNS and select Manual from the following screen.

Step 3: Tap on the minus icon to delete the prefilled entries under DNS servers.

Step 4: Tap Add Server and type 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in the text box. Then, tap on Save in the top-right corner.

Damaged or outdated cache data can degrade an apps performance and prevent it from functioning properly. Clearing the app cache is safe as it does not affect any important app data.

Use these steps to clear the Discord app cache on your Android or iPhone.

Step 1: In the Discord app, tap the profile icon in the bottom right corner.

Step 2: Scroll down to Dev Only section and tap the Clear Caches option.

Restart Discord after this and try to use it again.

You might be one of having issues with the Discord app. If the Discord server is undergoing problems, the app will run into connection issues, and theres nothing you can do about it. Discord maintains a server status page where you can view outage reports.

Check Discord Server Status

A yellow or red bar indicates that Discord is experiencing a partial or major outage. Wait for Discord to resolve the issue, and the app should work properly.

Lastly, youll need to update the Discord app to its latest version and see if it has resolved your issue. Head over to App Store or Google Play Store and update the app.

Discord for Android

Discord for iPhone

Another reason why Discord may crash or experience connection problems is if youve enrolled yourself in Discords app beta program. For a reliable experience, consider leaving the beta program from Play Store or the TestFlight app on your iPhone and switching to the stable version of the app.

Such connection problems with the Discord app arent just limited to mobile devices. Thankfully, its nothing you cant fix with the solutions mentioned above. Go through them and let us know which one works for you in the comments below.

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Top 8 Ways to Fix Discord Connection Issues on Android and iPhone - Guiding Tech

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Co-location

Tip of the Iceberg podcast UNFI, Square Roots executives on co-location – The Packer

Tip of the Iceberg podcast UNFI, Square Roots executives on co-location  The Packer

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Tip of the Iceberg podcast UNFI, Square Roots executives on co-location - The Packer

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Americas Data Center Colocation Market to be Worth USD 10.6 Billion by 2027. Industry Insights and Competitive Analysis 2027 – Arizton – PR Newswire

CHICAGO, Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --According to Arizton's latest research report, the data center colocation market in Americas is to grow at a CAGR of 5.34% during 2022-2027. Virginia is considered the data center capital of the world. It is the largest contributor to data center floor space in the Americas and added more than 3 million square feet in more than 15 data center facilities. Virginia is followed by Georgia and California. Colocation service provider Switch is the major contributor to the area, with around two million square feet, followed by Cologix and STACK Infrastructure.

The region has a presence of technical parks, special economic zones, and free trade zones that provide investment support or tax incentives in the development of data centers across the region. Some industrial parks include Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRI) and Elk Grove, Industrial Park. The Americas data center colocation market by area is expected to reach 8,495 thousand square feet by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.17%.

Data Center Colocation Market in Americas Report Scope

Report Attributes

Details

Market Size (2027)

USD 10.6 Billion

Market Size (2021)

USD 7.75 Billion

CAGR (2021-2027)

5.34%

Market Size - Area (2027)

8 Million Sq. Ft

Market Size Power Capacity (2027)

1,317.5 MW

Base Year

2021

Forecast Year

2022-2027

Market Segmentation

Colocation Service, Infrastructure, Electrical Infrastructure, Mechanical Infrastructure, Cooling Systems, Cooling Technique, General Construction, Tier Standard, and Region

Geographic Analysis

North America and Latin America

Countries Covered

US, Canada, Latin America, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Columbia, and Other Latin American Countries

Market Dynamics

Tax incentives, increase in colocation investment, renewable energy drives data center growth, adoption of IoT & big data and smart city developments, and rising deployment of submarine and inland cables

Competitive Landscape

The business overview, service offerings, and key news

CompaniesProfiled in the Report

Prominent Colocation Investors: CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Equinix, GTD Per, HostDime, IPXON Networks, Lumen Technologies, NTT Global Data Centers, OData, QTS Reality Trust, Scala Data Centers, Switch, and Vantage Data Centers

Other Prominent Vendors: 365 Data Centers, Aligned, American Tower, Ava Telecom, CloudHQ, Cologix, Compass Datacenters, COPT Data Center Solutions, CoreSite, Cyxtera Technologies, DartPoints, DC BLOX, EdgeCore Internet Real Estate, EdgePresence, Element Critical, eStruxture Data Centers, fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty (1547), Flexential, GIGA Data Centers, InterNexa, Iron Mountain, Millicom, Prime Data Centers, Quntico Data Center, Sabey Data Centers, Skybox Datacenters, STACK Infrastructure, Stream Data Centers, T5 Data Centers, Telmex, Urbacon Data Centre Solutions, and Vapor IO

NewEntrants: AUBix, Cirrus Data Services, DSTOR, Eastlink, EdgeX Data Centers, Enovum Data Centers, Gatineau Data Hub, Intermarket Properties, Novva, PointOne, QScale, Quantum Loophole, and Yondr

Page number

401

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In the Americas, investments in submarine cables have increased considerably over the years, with the government and enterprises continuously strengthening fiber infrastructure for better connectivity with other countries. Several telecommunication providers and hyperscale data center operators invest in cables to improve network connectivity within the country. The adoption of cloud, big data, and IoT technologies has strengthened the need for strong fixed broadband connectivity in the last five years. Along with submarine cables, the market is also witnessing a growth in data storage and connectivity demand due to the growing inland connectivity options.

The North American data center market leads growth in the overall industry, with early availability and adoption of innovative technology and investments from colocation service providers, hyperscale operators, enterprises, and government agencies. Investments in North America are driven by the availability of land, governmental support, data protection laws, and tax incentives by the state governments. In North America, the U.S. dominates the Americas data center colocation market, followed by Canada, with increased investments from colocation providers, hyperscale data center operators, enterprises, and government agencies in data center facilities, adopting redundant power backup infrastructure. Northern Virginia, Georgia, California, Texas, Arizona, Ontario, Montreal, Toronto, and Richmond are favorable destinations for investors in North America.

In Latin America, countries like Brazil are witnessing the rapid adoption of renewable energy, which leads to the growth of the facilities; in Mexico and other Latin American countries, the demand for centers was driven by the growth of the gaming industry and the special economic zones.

The rapid investment in 5G technology and its deployment will increase the number of connected devices, leading to the generation of a substantial amount of data, further increasing investments in edge data centers across regions for low latency and ease of accessibility to data device-to-device communications. American Countries have deployed 5G network services, and some are on a 5G trial basis. AT&T, T-Mobile, CenturyLink, TELUS, Rogers Communications, Bell, SaskTel, Nokia, SubTel, Alvis, Claro, Antel, Entel, and Ericsson are some of the companies which are involved in the deployment of the 5G network services across the region.

In the Americas, countries such as the U.S., Canada, Chile, and Uruguay have commercially deployed 5G network services. Additionally, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, and other Latin American countries are in the stage of 5G planning, trials, and yet-to-deploy commercial services during the forecast period.

Prominent Colocation Investors

Other Prominent Vendors

NewEntrants

Learn more about the additionaltrends impacting the future of the market and the positive and negative consequences on the businesses,Download the free Sample Report.

Market Segmentation

Colocation Service

Infrastructure

Electrical Infrastructure

Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

Cooling Technique

General Construction

Tier Standard

Region

Check Out Some of the Top Selling Related Reports:

Europe Data Center Colocation Market - The Europe data center colocation market is estimated to reach USD 11.75 billion by 2027 from USD 8.20 billion in 2021. The key factors driving the Europe data center colocation market are the growing adoption of artificial intelligence, growing adoption of district heating systems, growing adoption of district heating systems, increase in sustainable initiatives, growing innovative technologies, and rising adoption of advanced IT infrastructure.

APAC Data Center Colocation Market - The APAC data center colocation market size by investment was valued at USD 12.06 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 18.23 billion by 2027. With the construction of additional data centers, local colocation providers in each country also increase their presence, thus boosting the market growth.

Latin America Data Center Colocation Market - The Latin America data center colocation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 6% from 2022 to 2027 and is expected to cross USD 1 billion in 2027 from USD 850 million in 2021.The Latin America data center colocation market is witnessing significant growth in procuring lithium-ion UPS systems. Most edge facility deployment will include single-phase lithium-ion UPS and monitored and switched PDUs. Therefore, the emergence of edge facilities will significantly boost market growth.

Data Center Colocation Market - The global data center colocation market size is expected to reach USD 43.18 billion by 2027 from USD 29.59 in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2021 to 2027.The market witnessed supply chain-related challenges, impacting the timely deliverable of infrastructure in 2021 across IT infrastructure and support infrastructure providers. Vendors have taken several measures to ensure the timely supply of their products, reducing the impact to a greater extent. In addition, the invasion of Russia over Ukraine also created uncertainty across the European region, which created supply chain issues and oil shortages that led to delays in the operation of facilities. Also, most economies worldwide are facing high inflation rates and unemployment which is likely to impact the construction and growth of the data center colocation market.

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Americas Data Center Colocation Market to be Worth USD 10.6 Billion by 2027. Industry Insights and Competitive Analysis 2027 - Arizton - PR Newswire

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GDS partners with DCConnect to deliver advanced connectivity solutions, strengthening GDS’ presence in Southeast Asia and beyond – Yahoo Finance

Partnership to provide international customers with extended connectivity

HONG KONG, Nov. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GDS, a leading developer and operator of high-performance data centers, announced a partnership with DCConnect, a prominent Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology provider. By signing a memorandum of understating (MoU) with DCConnect, both parties will jointly develop innovative Network Automation and advanced connectivity solutions for customers across the Greater China, Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. GDS has moved forward to offer high quality automated network services to its customers, and to expand its presence in Southeast Asia (SEA) and the rest of the world.

Thanks to GDS' total IT infrastructure solutions and DCConnect's capabilities on connectivity automation, the new partnership enables GDS to offer high-quality data center interconnection solutions to customers and allows them to benefit from seamless global connectivity, faster speed to market, higher cost-efficiencies, and rapid provisioning with advanced technology. Through this strategic alliance, both parties will co-create three innovative automated connectivity solutions, namely Virtual Cross Connect, GDS Network Automation and GDS Global Marketplace.

GDS, with its overseas operations headquartered in Singapore, serves as a bridge to connect customers from SEA to the rest of the world. The strategic alliance with DCConnect will empower GDS' customers the ability to enjoy an extensive global network in over 1,000 data centers across 61 countries. The new solutions will facilitate enterprises to expand their businesses to the world and achieve global connectivity with single-point management.

"We value the DCConnect's capabilities on connectivity automation with impressive technology. We believe this will benefit GDS customers by offering innovative solutions and technology to support the advanced connectivity services. Through our partnership with DCConnect, we enable our customers to have on-demand connectivity to data centers, network resources and cloud services globally." said Jamie Khoo, the Chief Operating Officer of GDS.

Story continues

"GDS and DCConnect are working hand-in-hand to ensure the Network Automation and advanced connectivity solutions are delivered smoothly," said Charmond Tsang, the Chief Commercial Officer of DCConnect. "Our mission is to leverage advanced SDN to create the autonomous network ecosystem the partners are incentivized to involve, connect network and bandwidth resources to address today's networking challenges".

SEA's digital economy continues to thrive, leading to a stronger demand for digital infrastructure and the need for global connectivity that facilitates digital infrastructure development. Following GDS' S-J-B (Singapore-Johor-Batam) strategy, including developing hyperscale data center projects in Nusajaya Tech Park in Johor, Malaysia and Nongsa Digital Park in Batam, Indonesia, the partnership with DCConnect has marked another key milestone in driving the prosperity of SEA's digital economy and highlights the company's continued vision to expand beyond colocation services in SEA to an all-rounded IT solution, encompassing colocation services, network and cloud connectivity.

The partnership creates more opportunities and confidence for GDS to continue to improve and expand its data center platform and substantiates its commitment in supporting customers' digital transformation. Looking ahead, building upon the key advantage of our well-established data center platform in China, GDS will persist to strengthen high quality services to SEA and global customers, and to support the rapid development of SEA's digital economy.

About GDS Holdings Limited

GDS Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: GDS; HKEX: 9698) is a leading developer and operator of high-performance data centers in China. The Company's facilities are strategically located in China's primary economic hubs where demand for high-performance data center services is concentrated. The Company also builds, operates and transfers data centers at other locations selected by its customers in order to fulfill their broader requirements. The Company's data centers have large net floor area, high power capacity, density and efficiency, and multiple redundancies across all critical systems. GDS is carrier and cloud-neutral, which enables its customers to access all the major PRC telecommunications networks, as well as the largest PRC and global public clouds which are hosted in many of its facilities. The Company offers co-location and a suite of value-added services, including managed hybrid cloud services through direct private connection to leading public clouds, managed network services, and, where required, the resale of public cloud services. The Company has a 21-year track record of service delivery, successfully fulfilling the requirements of some of the largest and most demanding customers for outsourced data center services in China. The Company's customer base consists predominantly of hyperscale cloud service providers, large internet companies, financial institutions, telecommunications carriers, IT service providers, and large domestic private sector and multinational corporations.

About DCConnect

As one of the recognized brands in the industry, DCConnect leverages advanced SDN and blockchain technology to create the first autonomous network ecosystem whereby the partners are incentivized to involve and connect network and bandwidth resources to address today's networking challenges. DCConnect's solution was further enhanced and extended by the implementation of more than 1,000 Data Center PoPs in North America, Europe, APAC, SE Asia and MENA via selected partners, and access to over 61 countries. For more details, please visit our website https://www.dcconnectglobal.com/

SOURCE GDS Holdings Limited

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GDS partners with DCConnect to deliver advanced connectivity solutions, strengthening GDS' presence in Southeast Asia and beyond - Yahoo Finance

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Rock Samples from the Floor of Jezero Crater Show Significant Contact with Water Together with Possible Organic Compounds – Caltech

Analysis of multiple rocks found at the bottom of Jezero Crater on Mars, where the Perseverance rover landed in 2020, reveals significant interaction between the rocks and liquid water, according to a study publishing on November 24 in Science. Those rocks also contain evidence consistent with the presence of organic compounds.

The existence of organic compounds (chemical compounds with carbonhydrogen bonds) is not direct evidence of life, as these compounds can be created through nonbiological processes.

Perseverance previously found organic compounds at Jezero's delta. Deltas are fan-shaped geologic formations created at the intersection of a river and a lake at the edge of the crater. Mars 2020 mission scientists had been particularly interested in the Jezero delta because such formations are created when a river transporting fine-grained sediments enter a deeper, slower-moving body of water. As the river water spreads out, it abruptly slows down, depositing the sediments it is carryingand in so doing, traps and preserves any microorganisms that may exist in the water.

However, the crater floor, where the rover landed for safety reasons before traveling to the delta, was more of a mystery. In lake beds, one expects to find sedimentary rocks, because the water deposits layer after layer of sediment. However, when the rover touched down there and had a look around, some researchers were surprised to note igneous rocks (which is cooled magma) on the crater floor with minerals in them that recorded not just igneous processes but significant contact with water.

"The nature of the water interaction with the igneous rocks is very intriguing and unique chemically. There are carbonates, which require CO2 dissolved in water to form. There are also fascinating combinations of materials such as sulfate and perchlorate, likely formed through evaporating water," says Eva Scheller (PhD '22), now a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. Scheller, the corresponding author of the Science paper, conducted this research on the Jezero Crater floor during her doctoral work at Caltech.

The signs of different types of salts, including carbonates, sulfates, and perchlorates along with co-located possible organic compounds were discovered using SHERLOC, or the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals instrument. Mounted on the rover's robotic arm, SHERLOC is equipped with a number of tools, including a Raman spectrometer that utilizes a specific type of fluorescence to search for organic compounds and also see how they are distributed in a material, providing insight into how they were preserved in that location.

"The microscopic compositional imaging capabilities of SHERLOC have really blown open our ability to decipher the time-ordering of Mars's past environments," says Bethany Ehlmann, co-author of the Sciencepaper, professor of planetary science, and associate director of the Keck Institute for Space Studies. "The microscopic fingerprints show igneous rocks formed and then water circulated through them, altering the rocks and depositing minerals in voids and cracks. In some places, data show evidence for organics within these potentially habitable niches."

As the rover rolled toward the delta, it took several samples of the water-altered igneous rocks and cached them for a possible future sample-return mission. Determining definitively the nature of past wet environments, the presence and type of organics and whether these have anything to do with life requires returning the samples to Earth for examination in laboratories with advanced instrumentation.

"These will be key samples for understanding environments on ancient Mars and whether they had conditions suitable for life or even hosted life," Scheller says.

The Science paper has numerous co-authors from multiple institutions worldwide. This research was funded by NASA, the European Research Council, the Swedish National Space Agency, and the UK Space Agency.

Image: A photo of Jezero Crater on Mars. It was taken by instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which regularly takes images of potential landing sites for future missions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL

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Rock Samples from the Floor of Jezero Crater Show Significant Contact with Water Together with Possible Organic Compounds - Caltech

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Co-location

‘Don’t lead with location’ and more tips from Madison founder who sold his startup – The Business Journals

'Don't lead with location' and more tips from Madison founder who sold his startup  The Business Journals

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'Don't lead with location' and more tips from Madison founder who sold his startup - The Business Journals

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How hybrid PV technologies can contribute to the decarbonisation of Thailand’s power system Analysis – IEA – IEA

While hybridisation has many advantages, it also adds locational and operational constraints, as well as a loss of visibility to system operators. These disadvantages need to be assessed and weighed against the benefits in order to ensure that the plants construction provides net benefits to the system.

First, in co-located or fully hybridised setups, the developer constructs multiple installations (e.g.solar, wind, battery or hydropower) in the same location. The chosen location, however, may not be ideal for any one of them, which would introduce the need for a compromise when co-optimising the location. This could reduce the potential of individual constituent technologies to provide system services such as non-wire alternatives, or reduce the potential yield.

For example, by installing solar PV and BESS in a hybrid setup, the location decision will be the result of a compromise between the optimum solar resource and the potential of the battery to relieve congestion. It is possible that installing the two resources in different locations could produce more solar PV electricity (due to higher solar irradiation at that location for example), while allowing the battery to serve as a non-wire alternative and thus reduce congestion.

This trade-off is particularly clear when considering hybrid hydropower projects. As the locations suitable for hydropower plants are extremely limited, from the perspective of solar PV siting, the joint locations are often suboptimal.

The decision in favour of hybridisation should therefore be based on verification that the system-level costs of the locational drawbacks are offset by the advantages of the hybridisation. Where in certain cases, the cost-benefit analysis might be positive for the plant operator, it is crucial to check that the setup makes sense from the system-level perspective.

Secondly, hybridisation can also add operational constraints, which result from the shared infrastructure or the operational linkage. In terms of infrastructure, and in the case of a retrofit addition of solar PV to existing plants, a constraint may exist in terms of the capacity of the connection point (described below). Furthermore, in the hybrid PV and BESS setup, sharing an inverter, while bringing some advantages as outlined above, limits the output in times of high generation. In the case of hydropower, the operation range of the plant could limit the full dispatchability of the hybrid system. Hydropower ramping for short-term flexibility, for example, could be constrained by the allowed volumes of water discharge downstream.

Coming back to our modelled example, and looking at the differences between the two additional solar scenarios, one can see that there are slight differences in the way the hydropower generation is adjusting over time. In the co-located scenario, to take into account the shared infrastructure of the hydropower/floating solar plant and the constraint on the PV generation due to the reservoirs location, two additional constraints were introduced into the model. Firstly, the scenario is modelled assuming the use of common transmission and distribution equipment and is therefore limited to the capacity of the existing hydropower plant (5.34 GW) at which they are located. Secondly, there is limited transmission capacity between the hydropower plant that is in the northern region of Thailand and the main load centres located in the centre of the country. These two constraints lead to slight differences between the two additional solar cases. Indeed, the adjustment of the hydropower profile to solar PV availability is stronger in the co-located scenario, as the capacity of the shared infrastructure limits the total output at the site. The fact that the hydropower resource is increasingly used to balance local congestion instead of being controlled at system level reduces the cost-efficiency of the system.

Lastly, in full hybrid or virtual power plant setups, a trade-off is the loss of visibility from the system operators perspective. Indeed, the fact that the hybrid technologies constituents are controlled together renders their individual behaviours invisible to grid operators, who then rely on plant operators to ensure operations are managed in a system-optimum way. Providing incentives and regulations to plant operators to ensure that operations are system-friendly can address this drawback.

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How hybrid PV technologies can contribute to the decarbonisation of Thailand's power system Analysis - IEA - IEA

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Cyber and Physical Threats Illuminate Need for Security Convergence in Energy Sector – HS Today – HSToday

Security convergence is the industry term used to describe the uniting of cyber and physical security into a single organizational structure. It is a point of discussion among practitioners since ASIS International and the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) established the Alliance for Enterprise Security Risk Management an organization dedicated to this concept 17 years ago. Yet only 52.5 percent of large companies surveyed are either fully or partially converged, as noted by Megan Gates in the latest issue of Security Management. Gates also cites the Colonial Pipeline incident, which operated as a traditionally siloed cyber and physical security program and is now merging security functions in the wake of experiencing a crippling ransomware attack in May. Critical infrastructure providers, particularly those in the energy sector, cannot operate effectively with cyber and physical security information siloes in place.

With rapidly changing geopolitical risks, persistent cyber threats, enduring COVID-19 with seasonal hot spots, and violent kinetic attacks and conflicts occurring globally, companies have re-thought traditional enterprise risk management frameworks to account for all risks and hazards. The risk surface for critical infrastructure providers particularly those in the energy sector is complex.

First, energy providers that deal in the dynamic world of dispersed generation, distribution, and transmission operations often have a vast array of infrastructure located in all types of threat environments ranging from urban to isolated rural areas. These bulk-electric system sub-stations, or critical pipelines, for example, fall under varying regulatory oversight (including NERC/CIP, CFATS, and TSA Pipeline Security directives), most of which require robust cybersecurity and even physical security controls (e.g., NERC/CIP 14). Second, energy providers are increasingly susceptible to Operational Technology attacks cyber attacks that target physical infrastructure and can have a devastating physical impact beyond operational disruption.

Additionally, sophisticated cyber attacks against the grid are increasingly how state actors attempt to punish adversaries in a non-attributional or obfuscated way. Earlier this year, DHS even warned of domestic violent extremists targeting infrastructure for physical attack to create widespread chaos and undermine confidence in the government. In September, the Nord Stream pipeline was sabotaged under the Baltic Sea a stark reminder of the disruption a surgical attack can have on exposed infrastructure. Global geopolitical instability has only increased the potential for a converged attack, in which a sophisticated threat actor gains access to a critical site or location and introduces malware directly into ICS/SCADA systems a threat vector that no amount of air-gapping IT/OT systems can prevent. Worse, a coordinated cyber and physical attack, targeting disparate key bulk-electric system nodes concurrently, could have an amplifying and cascading effect.

Based on these threats, regulators are attempting to drive greater security convergence and physical-cyber coordination within the energy sector. In addition to outlining physical security requirements, TSAs latest Pipeline Security Directive, released in July, requires covered Owner/Operators to have an up-to-date Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan that includes measures to reduce the risk of operational disruption. In addition to baseline cybersecurity criteria, NERCs CIP-014-1 Physical Security also requires transmission operators to identify and protect Transmission stations and Transmission substations, and their associated primary control centers, that if rendered inoperable or damaged as a result of a physical attack could result in widespread instability, uncontrolled separation, or Cascading within an Interconnection.

NERCs Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) also leads the GridEx exercise biannually to offer member and partner organizations a forum to practice how they would respond to and recover from coordinated cyber and physical security threats and incidents. GridEx planners continue to anticipate a rise in sophisticated, coordinated attacks that will challenge traditionally siloed security organizations. When read holistically, these key regulatory and exercise regimes highlight converging cyber and physical risks.

The criticality of the sector, its reliance on decentralized, exposed infrastructure, and the creativity and sophistication of adversaries demand the dismantling of information siloes within security organizations. The best way to eliminate siloes is to converge security functions under a single, accountable executive responsible for security-related risk management decisions and investments. An incremental model would see physical security programs converge with OT security functions (vs. the entire IT cybersecurity ecosystem), uniting under a single chain of command critical functions that prevent, respond, and recover from hybrid threats and attacks.

To manage these tail risk security contingencies, or those risks with low probability by high consequence, a converged or dedicated cross-functional team can:

Convergence is not a panacea, appropriate for every company and every sector. Cybersecurity and physical security practitioners have specialized skillsets and experiences that have evolved over time and warrant continued specialization. Each bring unique perspectives that can illuminate how an adversary would exploit a vulnerability. However, critical infrastructure providers particularly those within the energy sector lack inherent protections afforded to other industries (e.g., co-locating high-value assets or systems, less persistent threat activity, and limited physical impacts from an attack). Instead, these organizations are the target of sophisticated threat actors, operate vast arrays of exposed infrastructure with inherent physical and cyber vulnerabilities, and provide services that directly impact societys ability to function. Now is the time for the energy sector to earnestly consider converging security functions to effectively manage an unprecedented threat landscape.

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Cyber and Physical Threats Illuminate Need for Security Convergence in Energy Sector - HS Today - HSToday

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