IN Brief:
- Renewable generation, distributed storage, and AI infrastructure are increasing the demands placed on electricity networks.
- ABB examines how grid intelligence and automation can improve visibility, fault response, and resilience.
- The October edition also explores energy storage protection, battery economics, and emerging data centre power architectures.
Grid capacity remains essential, but the ability to control and protect increasingly complex networks is becoming just as important. Renewable generation, distributed batteries, and power-intensive AI infrastructure are changing how electricity moves through systems that were often designed for steadier operating conditions.
That shift is central to the October edition of IN Power. In the cover interview, ABB’s Sami Raitakoski discusses why network intelligence and automation need to become part of everyday grid operation, allowing utilities to detect faults, isolate affected sections, and restore supply more effectively.
The challenges extend beyond substations. Battery storage can provide flexibility, yet its contribution depends on sound medium-voltage protection, secure control systems, and electricity contracts that reward the services it provides. The technology alone does not guarantee a viable business case.
Meanwhile, AI data centre expansion is changing the requirements placed on grid connections and on-site electrical systems. Flexible demand, integrated cooling, and proposed 800VDC distribution architectures offer different approaches, each with its own practical engineering constraints.
Across grid automation, storage, and data centres, the issue examines how better coordination can make existing infrastructure work harder while new capacity is developed.
The October edition of IN Power, Issue 4 2026, is available to read now.
