IN Brief:
- Rising electricity demand is exposing the gap between new generation capacity and the networks needed to deliver it.
- Issue 3 covers secure data centre microgrids, behind-the-meter systems, composite conductor cores, and industrial power quality.
- Grid resilience will increasingly depend on combining physical reinforcement with distributed energy, digital control, and better power quality.
Renewable generation records are welcome, but the harder engineering begins after the headline. New capacity must move through networks that still depend on transformers, cables, substations, planning consent, and skilled people, while demand from industry, transport, and data centres continues to rise. That places greater weight on delivery, resilience, and the existing network assets.
Issue 3 2026 of IN Power follows that pressure from the grid edge to the factory floor. It considers why renewable microgrids are becoming attractive to data-centre operators, and why connecting batteries, inverters, SCADA, and vendor platforms creates an operational technology security problem alongside the energy opportunity.
The issue also examines how behind-the-meter generation and storage can make UK developments viable where conventional grid connections are slow or prohibitively expensive. On the transmission network, research into multi-wire composite conductor cores points towards higher capacity, lower thermal expansion, and continued strength when individual strands are damaged.
Inside electrified metals plants, meanwhile, power quality continues to present a production issue. Voltage dips, harmonics, and unstable supply can translate directly into lost output, equipment stress, and process variability.
This is a deliberately lighter summer edition and is free to read. Take five, then open Issue 3 in full below.
