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Trending Tech Topics

About Trending Technology Topics in the Electric Power Industry

Each month, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Technical Activities Committees feature a trending technology topic that is shaping the future of the electric power industry. These topics spotlight emerging innovations, industry challenges, and cutting-edge solutions.

To ensure credibility and relevance, each featured topic is supported by curated IEEE and IEEE PES resources, including research papers, standards, white papers, and technical articles. This initiative helps power professionals stay informed and connected to the latest developments in power and energy systems.

2025 Trending Topics

Port Electrical Distribution Networks

2 December 2025
Ports aiming for climate-neutral operations must adopt advanced electrification and carefully designed power distribution systems.
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IEEE-2664 Standard for Streaming Telemetry Transport Protocol

17 November 2025
IEEE Standard 2664 is a secure IP-based protocol for streaming or on-demand power system data efficiently, supporting flexible data management, minimal fragmentation, and high-efficiency lossless ...
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Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) for Grid Sustainability, Stability, Reliability, and Resilience

24 October 2025
Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are critical for integrating renewable energy, supporting data center growth, and enhancing grid performance, with AI/ML approaches enabling efficient, chemistry-flexible ...
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Behind-the-meter DC Microgrid

19 September 2025
Behind-the-meter DC microgrids can boost efficiency, resilience, and renewable use—especially in data centers—by simplifying power conversion and resource integration, though they also pose challenges with ...
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Flexible Loads

20 August 2025
As energy systems face new challenges beyond peak demand, customer-side solutions are evolving into flexible load programs and virtual power plants, integrating customers directly into ...
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Inverter Based Resource (IBR) Modeling

10 July 2025
Accurate modeling of Inverter Based Resource (IBR) plants in power system studies is essential for planning and the secure operation of power systems. The IEEE ...
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Application of IEEE-603 Safety System Criteria to Advanced Reactors

5 June 2025
The next generation of nuclear power reactors utilizes a variety of non-light water technologies. These reactors are being designed and licensed using risk-informed (probabilistic) approaches ...
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Machine Learning for Microgrids: Resiliency, Stability, Control, and Operation

8 May 2025
Microgrids are a critical component of the electrical grid energy transition. Concurrently, machine learning applications to smart grids have received significant attention in recent years. ...
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Microgrid Protection

11 April 2025
Microgrids require control and protection systems. The design of both systems must consider the system topology, what generation and/or storage resources can be connected, and ...
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Earthing of Marine Systems

3 March 2025
Earthing (grounding) of maritime systems (waterborne vessels and ports) is an interesting issue with significant specificities in comparison with inland cases, but also with a ...
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Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS)

21 February 2025
Distributed Energy Resource Management (DERMS) optimize the integration, operation, and control of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), enhancing grid resilience, efficiency, and reliability through real-time monitoring, ...
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IEEE C57.91 – Guide for Loading Mineral-Oil-Immersed Transformers and Step-Voltage Regulators

13 January 2025
Transformers are one of the most capital-intensive assets in the utility sector. Learn more about how users can maximize the capacity of these assets.
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Digital Twins

17 December 2024
The electric utility sector continues to face challenges in managing a dynamic and evolving grid. Rapid changes associated with energy transition make the grid less ...
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Substations for Community Acceptance and Environmental Compatibility

This guide outlines key factors for achieving community acceptance and environmental compatibility during the planning, design, construction, and operational phases of electric supply substations.
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Synchro-Waveforms: a new era of power systems monitoring and situational awareness

Synchro-waveforms are a powerful new technology for monitoring and situational awareness of power systems.
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Risk-Informed Standard for Nuclear Power Plants

Use of risk-informed methods to categorize electrical and electronic systems and components in nuclear power plants has been shown to be safety-beneficial for nuclear power ...
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Virtual Power Plants

This document provides guidance for the development of a functional specification for the VPP control system.
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Lifetime Extension of Electric Power Equipment

The lifetime extension of electric power equipment is critical for ensuring the reliability and efficiency of power systems.
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Increasing EV charging system reliability through proven surge protection practices

In 2023, Plug-in America released a survey of electric vehicle owners. One question asked, “What are the most significant concerns with existing fast-charging networks?”
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Nuclear Power and Flexible Grid Solutions

To scale up a future low-carbon energy system effectively, it is essential to broaden the array of innovative grid solutions.
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Codes and Standards for Advanced Reactors

Software complexity in Electric Power Systems is increasing quickly with the digitization of protection, automation and control.
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Software Bill of Materials (SBoM) for Electric Power Systems (EPS)

Software complexity in Electric Power Systems is increasing quickly with the digitization of protection, automation and control.
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Smart Design and Control of Buildings and Communities and Achieving Low-Carbon Goals

How smart design and control of buildings and communities can be leveraged to achieve our low-carbon goals.
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Transformer Carbon Footprint

Transformers are a critical component of the present electrical grid and there is already a huge quantity of in-service transformers globally.
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Energy Equity and Energy Justice in Power Systems

The development and operation of electric power systems have had an unequal impact on different populations.
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Energy Equity and Resilience

Energy equity is recognizing and enabling the disadvantaged groups and communities to have access to the clean and sustainable energy through the process of relevant ...
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Offshore Wind Integration: Technologies, Challenges and Utility Best Practices

Applying big data and analytics for power systems: Dynamic Security Assessment (DSA) in transmission systems, cloud computing, data-driven modeling, monitoring and control.
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Big data analytics for power systems

Applying big data and analytics for power systems: Dynamic Security Assessment (DSA) in transmission systems, cloud computing, data-driven modeling, monitoring and control.
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Secure Communications for OT

Primary PES Technical Committee: Power System Communications & Cybersecurity Committee (PSCCC)
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Determination of the Useful Life of Fiber Optic Aerial Cable

The first aerial fiber optic cables such as Optical Ground Wire (OPGW), All-Dielectric Self Supporting (ADSS) and Helically Applied Fiber Optic cables were installed by ...
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Physics-informed Machine Learning in Power Systems

The increasing deployment of sensors such as smart meters and phasor measurement units in power transmission and distribution systems around the world has generated an ...
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Electrical Vehicle Chargers

Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular form of transportation, and as a result, so are EV chargers.
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Substation Resiliency

Grid resilience framework and metrics have been of industry focus as extreme weather events are occurring more frequently and the threat of man-made physical and ...
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Sustainable Maritime

The topic of Sustainable Maritime was selected during the IEEE PES Marine System Coordinating Committee (MSCC) plenary meeting in October 2022.
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Establishing Power Transformer Capability While Under Geomagnetic Disturbances

Geomagnetic Disturbances (GMD) is a phenomenon which is widely studied due to its impact on the operation of the electrical grid.
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Machine Learning for Power Systems

Machine learning (ML) is one of the emerging technologies for implementing the next generation smart grid. In recent years, the PES community has witnessed significant ...
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Processes and Benchmarks for Extreme Event Analysis in Power Systems

Extreme events, such as heat waves or very strong storms, may cause extensive damage and have substantial impacts on power systems, which post extreme challenges ...
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Mitigating Wildfires in a World of Climate Change

The realities of climate change effects every region differently.
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Influence of Renewables on Switchgear Equipment

Over the last two decades, the integration of renewable energy sources and inverter-based technologies has increased significantly across the world.
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IEEE Standards for Interconnection and Energy Management

Governments and corporations around the world have pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, if not sooner.
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SF6 Gas Alternatives

IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Substations Committee’s Gas Insulated Substations Subcommittee and its K19 Working Group has a new guide currently being written.
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Centralized Protection and Control (CPC) Systems within a Substation

Centralized Protection and Control (CPC) Systems within a Substation, the next great disruptive technology to design and implement electrical power substation protection and control systems ...
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T&D – Decarbonization

As attention across the globe increasingly focuses on climate change, technically sound solutions are needed to support both climate adaptation and mitigation.
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Decarbonized Sustainability In The Maritime Sector via Electrification

The topic of Decarbonized Sustainability In The Maritime Sector via Electrification was selected via a poll of the members of IEEE PES (MSCC) in November ...
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Distributed Optimization

Optimization of electric power systems has traditionally been centralized with data collected and processed at a control center. For instance, system operators collect all necessary ...
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Intelligent Electrification

To combat climate change and achieve decarbonization goals globally, electric power systems must integrate terawatts of variable renewable generation.
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Grid Resilience

Grid resilience, which has been a topic of industry focus as extreme weather events are occurring more frequently and the threat of cyber-attacks is growing, ...
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IEEE Development of Standards Supporting Advanced Reactor Design and Deployment

Nuclear power continues to be a significant contributor to carbon-free electric generation around the world.
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High-Voltage DC Circuit Breakers

HVDC transmission systems are being built rapidly to integrate the renewable generation resources through point to point, multiterminal and HVDC grids due to the advantages ...
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Issue of Aging Equipment (end of life, diagnostics, etc.)

Asset owners in electrical power systems are faced with an aging infrastructure. In particular in North America and other developed countries, the number of electrical ...
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Integrating Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Smart Grids in Ships and Ports

The topic of Integrating Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and smart grids in ships and ports was selected via a poll of the members of IEEE ...
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Thermal Runaway Gas Sensing and Fire Suppression / Ventilation for Li-ion BESS

The use of Li-ion batteries as a method of storing energy, either from baseload plants during non-peak-usage hours or from renewable but intermittent resources when ...
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Grid-Forming Inverter Technology for Enabling More Integration of Renewables

The transition to an inverter-dominant, renewable power grid is driving new developments in power converter controls technology that aim to offer the speed and flexibility ...
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Green Hydrogen

Green Hydrogen may help the world get to a fully decarbonized energy sector.
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Virtualization of Substation Applications

IEEE PES PSCC Committee’s Protocols and Communication Architecture Subcommittee (P0) met in January 2021 where the subcommittee approved the formation of the P21 study group ...
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Active Distribution Networks, Interconnected Microgrids, and Energy Hubs

As microgrids continue to grow as an important topic in the power and energy industry, it becomes more and more imperative for all engineers and ...
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