In this posted BNEF market analysis, it is estimated that the global net-zero target will require the annual grid investment to triple from $274 billion in 2022 to $871 billion per year in the decade preceding 2050.

Building and developing an electrical grid that meets the challenges of the net-zero target for the 21st century involves taking a good look at critical factors that impact the energy trilemma. The energy industry is facing new and complex challenges: the levels of power consumption, coupled with the integration of renewable energy sources and the increased urgency around sustainability objectives is propelling us to reimagine our approach, our strategy, and our innovation.

While sustainability dances in the forefront, ultimately it is just one aspect of the World Energy Trilemma Index, in tandem with energy security and energy equity. For the grid of the future to prosperous, these three foundational aspects need to be worked on independently and collectively. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues we are facing today, but also presents a strategic opportunity for GE Vernova. The future of energy will require clean grid related systems and solutions: we need to drive our innovations forward into planning how we can reduce our environmental footprint, how we can develop clean products, and how we can enhance our clean solutions.

To deploy successful solutions and support environmental initiatives, we need to somewhat rethink our business model. With that said, sustainability was and remains a core principle for our industry – I want to make that very clear. But with the changes we’re facing, our approach is also changing.

A reimagined business model for sustainable solutions

The rhetoric question that continuously gets asked is: what does a sustainable business model look like to get where we need to be? The answer is so complex that it triggers a surplus of other questions. We know we need to develop an ecosystem of efficiency, affordability, reliability, and sustainability, but how do we integrate? How do we go to market? Who are our partners?

I’ll present a layer of this: there are incentives in place. But that only brings us to a certain level. One example can be played out as follows: a general consumer acquires some coupons for energy-efficient lightbulbs. That consumer proceeds to buy said energy-efficient lightbulb with the coupons. However, as soon as those coupons expire, the consumer goes back to business as usual and buys a regular lightbulb the next time around. Now, I’m not saying this example is applicable to everyone. Consumers purchase energy-efficient lightbulbs for a variety of positive reasons, and not just because an incentive has been provided. BUT there are scenarios that do follow this method of action.

Clean products and solutions need to become viable, permanent solutions in every sense, independent of incentives. The business model, therefore, needs to make clear the differentiation. This includes:

• Affordability
• Better efficiency
• Faster operation
• Optimized OEM

All this to say – we need to tap into all advantages. We need to collaborate. We need policies that align with both business and environmental objectives. We need to continuously redefine what the grid of the future looks like.

A clean grid will require the development of interconnections among multiple regions and networks and programs, such as i2X, that aim to enhance the resiliency and reliability of our grid. In the meantime, check out what GE Vernova's Electrification business is doing to advance the future of energy here.

By focusing on electrification, GE Vernova makes its contribution to the decarbonization of our societies. In this interview, Philippe Piron, Chief Executive Officer of GE Vernova's Electrification Systems businesses, discusses the projects and initiatives that mobilize his company in this direction.

To support the decarbonization and global energy transition, GE Vernova is accelerating the development of its electrification activities. Tell us more.

GE Vernova's electrification activities, within its Energy division, consist of several assets covering a significant portion of the electrical industry: Electrification, specializing in systems and equipment for electrical transmission and distribution networks; Electrification, which develops energy conversion systems to decarbonize energy-intensive industries; Solar & Storage Solutions, providing energy storage systems and solar inverters. Our mission is, therefore, to contribute to electrifying the world in order to enable its decarbonization.

Decarbonizing is not limited to producing clean and sustainable electrical energy. It also involves evacuating this energy from low-carbon production sources (nuclear, hydro, onshore or offshore wind, solar), transmitting it on a continental or national scale, then distributing it regionally, and finally managing it at the local level of an industrial district (steel complexes, mining, refining, data centers, etc.) to store and/or convert it into other forms of energy (thermal, mechanical, chemical, radiative) useful for companies' final applications. Developing electric propulsion engines for ships or liquefied natural gas (LNG) compression, shifting process industries from blast furnaces to electric furnaces, and producing minerals and hydrogen via electrolysis are some of our contributions to decarbonization.

Today, one of the major challenges in electrification lies in the expansion, strengthening, and modernization of electrical networks - commonly referred to as the grid. According to the International Energy Agency, more than 50% of global electrical investments will be dedicated to the electrical grid by 2030. The grid has become the backbone of the energy transition. Without a grid, there can be no transmission of clean and sustainable energy from production points to consumption points. One of the cardinal objectives of Electrification is to accelerate the integration of renewables through high-voltage transmission systems (525,000 volts), flexible transmission systems that can compensate for the instabilities created by intermittent renewable energies, and modernized and digitized substations, including high-voltage substations, which are key nodes in the electrical grid, enabling the switching and disconnection of the current.

More specifically, in what areas do you operate?

To give you an initial overview: we have over 16,000 collaborators worldwide, including 4,000 engineers dedicated to electrical engineering. We have 34 industrial production sites and over 20 R&D centers worldwide. Our activity is structured around five business lines:

• Grid Systems Integration, dedicated to major engineering projects such as High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) projects (these enable connectivity of offshore wind farms and long-distance transfer of high power onshore or underwater), Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS) - which provide compensation solutions and stabilize the frequency and voltage of the electrical signal - and turnkey equipment sets for substations.
• Power Transmission, dedicated to high-voltage equipment such as circuit breakers, air-insulated switchgears, gas-insulated switchgears, power transformers, and instrumentation transformers.
• Grid Automation, dedicated to relays, gateways, energy management systems that enable protection, control, surveillance, and communication on the network at the microsecond level. Grid Automation also offers advanced automation and control solutions, including Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, advanced distribution management systems (ADMS), enhancing network efficiency, reliability, and responsiveness.
• Electrification, creating systems and power electronics solutions (frequency/variable speed drive systems and automation) in the areas of marine (propulsion, energy distribution), oil and gas (electrification offshore platforms, steam crackers and LNG plants, replacement steam and gas turbines by high-speed electric motors, etc.), electro-intensive (metallurgy, mines, telecoms). Electrification also works to average network stability and high voltage by providing synchronous capacitors and compensators synchronous statics recreating inertia missing from renewable energy sources. Electrification is also a supplier of systems to the nuclear industry (fission power plants, tokamaks for fusion).
• Solar & Storage Solutions designs and supplies inverters relaying photovoltaic energy to the network in alternating current and stationary battery systems allowing short and medium-term energy storage and injection of current contributing to the stability of certain networks.

With this portfolio, what needs do you answer?

We contribute in particular to:

• Rapid expansion, interconnection on a continental scale, and the integration of renewable sources within the electric grid;
• The flexibility, stability and resilience of networks that were not initially designed to compensate for disturbances created by the intermittences, the lack of natural inertia of renewables, and the growth in bidirectional current flows (resale of current by individuals, unstable predictability of needs);
• The digitalization of the grid in order to operate the supervision of networks more efficiently;
• Microgrids, connected or not to the national/regional network, offering increasing energy independence to major industrial players with local energy sources.

At the same time, the sectors covered are the sector electricity (energy producers, transmission, or distribution network managers) but also independent developers or private equity players who invest in energy infrastructure (wind and solar farms, grid stability service providers), and finally all major electro-intensive industries (marine, rail, steel, hydrometallurgy, mining, petro­chemicals, data centers).

Most countries are targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. What are the main challenges and obstacles that persist?

The grid remains one of the main challenges since it was designed nearly a century ago to integrate fossil fuels. Today, it is both a bottleneck in the face of growing demand and a fragile infrastructure due to the vastly different characteristics of renewable energies in the energy mix. The capacity to sustainably store energy in very large quantities to support the global electrification of various uses is another challenge.

The production of hydrogen (green through electrolysis, blue through methane reforming with CO₂ capture solutions, turquoise via methane pyrolysis, white through native deposit exploration) is becoming a necessity, requiring specific means for its rapid scale-up (medium/high-voltage microgrids dedicated to high-power electrolyzers or furnaces, optimized compressors for its storage or transfer).

What are some examples of projects and interventions that are carried out by your business?

We recently announced the signing of an agreement with the Dutch-German network operator TenneT for five HVDC contracts (10 GW) in the North Sea. This program aims to accelerate the energy security of Europe and put it on the path to becoming the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050.

We have also recently commissioned our flexible static synchronous compensator solution for Eurotunnel. This solution provides the rapid voltage support required by Eurotunnel to operate 16 trains simultaneously in the Channel Tunnel, equivalent to 1,000 trains per day.

Additionally, we have secured a contract for three 380 kV Gas-Insulated Substations (GIS) T155 for the world's largest project for a hydrogen plant generated entirely by renewable energy (wind and solar). This project is located in the future smart city of Neom in Saudi Arabia. These substations will ensure a reliable and uninterrupted electricity supply to the hydrogen plant, which aims to produce over 600 tons of decarbonized hydrogen per day by the end of 2026, as well as to its wind and photovoltaic parks.

To meet these challenges and carry out these projects, human capital is key. Tell us more.

In a time of accelerated growth in our reference markets, our employees are our top priority. We are seeking individuals capable of addressing the challenges of the energy industry transition. This entails having strong technical knowledge and experience in fields such as electrical engineering, systems engineering, software engineering, and project management. Our sectors are in constant evolution, with new technologies, regulations, and emerging market dynamics. Being adaptable, willing to continuously learn to develop expertise in various customer domains, and being able to innovate are essential for thriving in this rapidly changing environment. We are actively recruiting, primarily in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, and India.

The global energy sector is experiencing an exciting period. We have a key role to play in the transition and energy security. We are electrifying the world to decarbonize our future.

This article has been translated from the French with permission of La Jaune et la Rouge Magazine. The original article in French is available here.

As the drive towards net zero accelerates, the power industry is charging ahead, ready to collaborate on finding solutions to the energy transition's most vexing problems.

That was readily apparent during my time at DistribuTECH, the leading technology trade show in the Americas for the electricity transmission and distribution industry. There is a feeling of urgency, a sense of purpose, and an undercurrent of excitement that is driven by the advent of new technology and a willingness to invest in building the modern grid.

Right now, we see three main challenges:

• Aging grid infrastructure;
• Integrating renewables and leveraging the distributed energy resources at the grid edge; and
• Generating enough capacity to meet increasing electrification.

While these three factors have created tension and bottlenecks in the networks, they are also spurring new technologies that will ultimately result in a more stable and resilient grid.

Much of the excitement at DistribuTECH centered on the new software and automation technologies. GE Vernova introduced GridBeats, a suite of five innovative software-defined automation solutions that digitalize grid operations and enhance grid resilience.

Utilities with older grid infrastructure often operate without complete visibility into the network and inadequate control measures to prevent problems that can destabilize the grid. Sensors coupled with digital solutions that use artificial intelligence and machine learning now enable utilities to see everything from the big picture down to the smallest piece of equipment. For example, GridBeats Zonal Autonomous Control allows utilities to divide their grid networks into autonomous zones, allowing the utility to isolate a zone when a problem occurs and bring another zone online to compensate.

Overlaying these advanced digital technologies on existing grid infrastructures creates a smarter, more efficient network that can cope with greater loads and allow more dynamic management of the grid.

Digitalization from the point of generation to the point of distribution also requires a comprehensive approach to cyber security. Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy in partnership with industry and government experts released cybersecurity baselines for electric distribution systems and DERs. Our industry understands that utilities are critical infrastructure and security is paramount.

That’s why we announced GE Vernova’s partnership with cybersecurity powerhouse Dragos at DistribuTECH. An end-to-end software solution must have an end-to-end cybersecurity package grounded in the most robust artificial intelligence and machine learning options available.

There is no question that the next few years will require unprecedented investment to tackle all that needs to be done to meet electricity demand as we decarbonize. Technology is moving quickly, which will require all of us to be creative and nimble. The excitement I saw at DistribuTECH indicates to me that the industry is ready to take the necessary risks that will accelerate the energy transition.

What if I asked you to describe your dream job? It’s not a rare question, but arguably one that lies dormant for many as we do not think about it deeply enough. And through no major fault of our own. Life gets busy and our career doesn’t always follow the course we initially thought it would. Sometimes we get off track. Sometimes we start going through the motions. Sometimes we get so caught up in projects and routine that we stop questioning how off track we got about our professional aspirations and feel stuck. Sometimes we just don’t know where to start.

While finding the answer to this question can be a continuous process, it can be particularly intimidating in the field of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This is due to a few different reasons: for one, women make up a smaller percentage of the workforce in this field; and further, it’s an industry that is highly specialized and it often takes many years to become skilled in one area of focus, making it more difficult to transition to something else. So, what can you do so that you keep evolving in your career while staying true to yourself and finding a way to do things that you really love?

To help you on this journey, which can be a complicated one, I’d like to share a high-level overview of a nine-step guide that has helped me tremendously in my career. More blogs will follow to provide you with even more tips and resources for each of the steps below, so stay tuned!

Step 1: Make space and create time to reflect.
The first step can really jumpstart your journey to a more rewarding career. At this point, you need to ruminate over your profession thus far: what have you specialized in? Have you been promoted? What have you learned? Which skillsets do you use, and which ones do you want to improve? Are you proud of specializing in something specific or are you prouder of being able to wear many hats? Have you been enrolled in any training or classes that you want to leverage more within your work? Have you recently graduated? A survey of the past will help you understand and then articulate what’s next.

Step 2: (Re)discover your strengths.
As human beings and as professionals, we sometimes pay more attention to our flaws more than highlight our strengths. However, it is equally important to know and be aware of what you do well. Why? Because once you know your strengths, you can build on them, boosting your confidence. Your strengths will provide you with valuable insights on which type of role is best suited for your skill set but will also make you feel fulfilled.

Step 3: Define your values.
When you know your strengths, you’ll want to build on them to build your future. And you want to be ready for this because as opportunities arise, if you don’t know what your most important values are, you are more likely to dismiss your instinct about something. You’ll be faced with making many decisions about your career and will likely have to answer to this question: how does your choice match your values? If your intuition tells you that your values are or will be aligned with the decision you are making, then you already have a clear answer. You will feel anchored as you stay true to yourself and your values.

Step 4: Do the work and build your career development plan.
This step is the one that is most commonly overlooked. Your career plan is where you put your thoughts to paper and get your hands “dirty”. Whether it’s in the form of a vision board or a written-out plan, document your long- and short-term goals – because research indicates that there’s something magical that happens when you physically write goals down instead of letting them just live in your mind. Of course, this isn’t about writing a dissertation. This is about having the key elements that will help you structure your aspirations. You will see that when you define your aspirations with a clear purpose, your will perceive the entire journey differently. What I personally love about this step is that you truly discover so much about yourself that you likely wouldn’t by simply carrying on with your day-to-day. I will share some templates and helpful resources in my upcoming blog.

Step 5: Find a mentor (or two, or more!)
Who is a mentor? There are no rules here. Choose someone who inspires you, but keep in mind that what inspires you now may not inspire you tomorrow. And that’s okay. Your aim at this stage is to talk your mentor through your strengths, your values, and your career plan outcomes. A mentor should provide a safe space for you to share your “craziest” goals and ideas, because the more you say them out loud, the more of a reality they become.

Step 6: Get online and get searching.
At this point in the process, you will have learned more about yourself, and this is the primary objective. But even so, you may notice that as you talk with your mentor(s) and peers, sometimes it’s not quite easy to articulate what you want to do next, even if you figured out your purpose in Step 5.

I recommend relying on external resources here: from social media to web searches, review and study as many jobs as you can that contain everything you’re interested by. But here’s the catch: don’t search by job titles, but rather look at the job descriptions. Collect all the keywords and descriptions that resonate with you and align with what you are looking for. Consolidate these findings in one document and start creating your own dream job description without worrying too much if such a job even exists.

Step 7: Talk, talk, talk.
This one’s the fun one. Catch up with your network of mentors, family, and people you trust and share your findings about your “dream job” description. Open yourself to debate as to how this description fits your long-term purpose and passions. Try to structure the content of your dream job description into themes, because you will see that the more you repeat yourself, the more confident you become about the process.

Step 8: Rebuild your résumé.
Now it’s time to rewrite your CV by completely rephrasing it based on your new mindset and set of interests. In fact, you will likely have to spend time on rewording a lot of it, making sure it aligns with that higher purpose. While you want to focus on the content, your résumé is your new business card by which you build your brand, so ensure it looks outstanding, with a catchy visible title and executive summary. Venture away from sounding robotic and show your passion in what you do – professionally and beyond. Ultimately, it’s a story you’re trying to tell in one page or two.

9: Job applications.
At this point in the process, you should have a much clearer idea of what is it you want to do and why. Feeling grounded in your strengths and values, you should be more confident in articulating the vision you have about your career and feel ready to deliver your “elevator pitch” in an impactful way. This will arm you to be able to explain any gap interviewers may raise between where you are coming from and where you’re aspiring to go. Once you start submitting applications, take care to hit quality over quantity (in fact, I’d suggest only applying for a job when you can verify that you have at least a good 80% match between the role description and your dream job description that you consolidated in Step 6). A word of advice? Don’t become consciously or unconsciously eager and despairing – this is supposed to take time, so be patient and compassionate with yourself.

While these steps come from my own experience, I hope they will inspire you to define what it is you truly want to do and have a fulfilling career – no matter who you are, where you come from, or where you want to go. Stay tuned for more!