Four Energy Trends to Watch in 2025

As we enter 2025, the world’s growing need for charging large battery storage in vehicles is driving many changes in how we generate, transmit, distribute and use energy. Against this backdrop, four major trends are poised to impact the energy sector in the coming year and beyond. We expect significant advancements to be seen in small modular reactors (SMRs), power systems distributing electricity to electrified infrastructure, the energy-water nexus, and resilient power systems.

COMMENTARY

Reemergence of Nuclear Power

SMRs are becoming a popular nuclear alternative to traditional nuclear power plants. The reactors, typically 300 MW or less, are increasingly being used by technology companies to power their large power-hungry data centers. Multiple announcements in nuclear power occurred in the fall of 2024. For instance, Dominion Energy and X-energy are involved in the development of SMRs under a partnership with Amazon. Additionally, Microsoft has worked a deal with Constellation Energy to restart the undamaged reactor at Three Mile Island and power Microsoft’s data centers. And Google announced that it is working with Kairos Power—another SMR company—and have a contract in place to deliver a reactor in a few years. There are a host of benefits with SMRs. They are reliable, carbon-free energy sources and tend to be safer in terms of theoretical failure modes. If they lose power off site, the reactors become inert and there is no radiation leakage. Still, observers note that nuclear has a lingering negative public perception, based in part on the highly publicized partial nuclear meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania in 1979. Nuclear supporters note that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversees this area and continues to protect public health and safety. On a global scale, the U.S., UK, and France are the largest players in this market at the moment.

Power Systems for Electrified Infrastructure

There are growing efforts in the industry to electrify infrastructures such as seaports, vehicle charging plazas, and the large data centers being built for artificial intelligence processing in order to decrease reliance on loud, carbon-emitting generators. [caption id="attachment_227950" align="alignnone" width="300"]

Mark Siira[/caption] The most intensive efforts are found in the European Union because there is a directive stating that all ships coming to port to connect to onshore power or “cold ironing” after 2030. This is possibly largely because they are integrating wind, solar, and energy storage sources from the port. Officials say this reduces emissions from boats in the port running emergency generators, which are usually diesel or heavy fuel. As a result, power system operators have had to significantly upgrade the power distribution capacity of the ports, and they are employing a lot of innovative technologies to integrate wind, solar, and hydroelectric sources that provide that increased capacity. The Seattle Port had to significantly upgrade the capacity of the substations due to increased load from electric boats, taxis, and ships. The seaport industry as a whole is reacting fairly aggressively to upgrade port facilities to accommodate the new directive. It is a challenge not just to distribute power from the port to the ship, but from the power grid to the port. There has been a lot of discussion about whether there need to be so-called “port distribution networks” to deliver that power from the grid.

The Energy-Water Nexus

There is an emerging need to better understand and manage the not-always-obvious relationship between energy production and finite water resources as the largest category for water consumption worldwide is electric power generation. The largest demand category for electricity is water extraction and distribution. To address this issue, IEEE SA started the Energy and Water Nexus Industry Connections Program to develop a community of interest in different technology areas including hydrogen, nuclear, energy/water and others. The goal is to get the voice of the industry involved in shaping standards. The Department of Energy recently published data that shows at the county and state level what water consumption is related to energy production and what the energy consumption is related to water extraction and use. The findings highlight the regionality of the interdependence of electric power and water. Solutions are different depending on where users are in the U.S. IEEE SA is also tracking hydrogen issues through Industry Connections projects and in conjunction with the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Energy Association. That group tracks a lot of standards developments with the infrastructure that relates to hydrogen. Interestingly, if a home generator switches to hydrogen power, the piping used for natural gas would not work for hydrogen. That is because the molecules are so small that the hydrogen may leak. A new set of distribution infrastructure requirements may be needed. In response, a lot of work is being done by standards development organizations such as ASME to upgrade the infrastructure to handle hydrogen as a source.

Building More Resilient Power Systems

A growing focus in the industry is on how to build more resiliency into the power systems, which support modern society in light of shifts away from centralized power plants toward a more decentralized model with more complexities. Current emphasis is on improving the ability to protect against and recover from any event that would significantly impact the grid. Work has been progressing on advancing standards related to energy storage systems at a system level. In the past, there have been many standards related to battery technology and how to apply it. But in the last three or four years, IEEE 1547.9, which is a guide for energy storage systems, and IEEE 2686 and 2688, which are recommended practices for energy management systems using a battery, have been implemented. The emphasis is now on the system and how a system reacts to unplanned events. Additionally, IEEE SA is collaborating with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on EPRI’s Climate READi Program. That effort involves developing a platform for predicting the effects of climate events on the electric power system. Examples include extreme winds and temperatures that impact the electric power system and may, over time, change the specifications for equipment in certain areas. Another technology getting a lot of attention is grid-forming inverters, which use the frequency on the electric power grid as a reference to produce their current. The grid-forming inverters are then able to operate on their own. This is proving to be an exciting development because it can be used to directly control voltage and frequency on some of the high-voltage systems. There are attractive applications for using the inverters for distributed remote applications. For instance, the village of St. Mary’s on the western coast of Alaska is powered by three diesel generators as there are no transmission or distribution networks feeding them. To develop a solution, the village ended up incorporating a grid-forming inverter with an energy storage device that operates as the base load at nighttime when there is no load. In effect, the diesel generators do not need to run all the time, and they forecast a 60% reduction in fuel consumption and emissions from the diesel generators. On balance, these four trends are likely to gain a foothold in 2025 and beyond as organizations and associations seek efficient and advanced energy applications that will lead to a more sustainable future. Mark Siira is chairperson of IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee.