Rhizome

The Franklin fire in Malibu has destroyed 4,000 acres and several structures. It has also plunged tens of thousands of residents in the region into darkness, leaving them without power and cellphone communications. The Los Angeles Times provides detailed insights on how the destruction of cellphone towers and other vital infrastructure in the area that has been caught in the path of the inferno is making this fire uniquely difficult. The impacts of fires are multifaceted, and extinguishing them is dually essential to restoring infrastructure services as well as maintaining community safety. https://lnkd.in/et_gi79r

Winter is upon us, and the Great Lakes region is already seeing massive amounts of lake-effect snowfall, with more on the way. While wildfires and hurricanes have the most damaging impact on utilities, heavy snow and blustery winter winds from Nor'easters can have similar impacts on an already overworked power grid. Grid resilience in the face of extreme weather is a national issue, and no region is immune. https://lnkd.in/eW6vpVGW

Down at Rhizome HQ we're still full of thanks, especially for a growing team! Hot off the job board are two new roles on our Technology team. If you're passionate about the intersection of climate change and the grid... like NPR says, consider this! - Software Engineer – Applied Machine Learning - Cloud Architect/Engineer (Contract)

The Pacific Northwest was recently battered by a Bomb Cyclone, leaving over half a million homes without power in Washington state. An inflection point has been reached, with grid power capacity already pushed to its limits by the electrification of sectors like electric vehicles and data centers and climate change continuing to intensify and produce extreme weather events. Something has to be done. Recently, Aseem Prakash and Nives Dolsak presented the case in a recent article in Forbes on addressing resiliency concerns. Check out the full article:  https://lnkd.in/gyrEtJQd

We're thrilled to welcome Tyler Langenbrunner, who has joined Rhizome full-time! For the better part of this year, Tyler has been working with us as a contractor to help build out our web application and streamline our internal development processes. Tyler's passion, attention to detail, and contribution to company culture are a few of the many reasons we're excited to officially bring him on board. Tyler is based in Oakland, California, and in addition to being a phenomenal engineer, is a pickle ball coach in his spare time. It goes without saying that we're looking forward to the many Rhizome pickleball tourneys ahead!

Texas recently greenlit a grid resiliency plan, further proving that keeping the grid going is a bipartisan issue. Preparedness and resiliency go hand in hand, and having the most innovative technologies in the toolbox to simulate pressures and vulnerabilities creates a huge advantage and switches from playing defense against grid issues to playing offense. Senior Reporter at Utility Dive, Robert Walton, covers the approved grid resiliency plan this week, underscoring the importance of having a detailed plan and embracing intelligent technologies: https://lnkd.in/eT9vGwtb

Our team had a wonderful time learning from experts from all corners of the wildfire safety ecosystem at Convective Capital's Red Sky Summit, including fire chiefs, community organizations, local governments, and utilities . Of course, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the amazing technology companies present from their portfolio including (but not limited to!) Pano AI, Overstory, BurnBot, XyloPlan. We're proud to be in the family –– special thanks to Bill Clerico, Jay Ribakove, and Amy Brown for making it all happen. It seems as though every year we become better equipped at fighting wildfires, can't wait to check in on progress at the next one!

An aging power grid, combined with new pressures brought on by data center demands, EV charging expansion, and the rise of climate change, makes planning for grid resilience paramount. These pressures will continue to compound, but AI and other cutting edge technologies can help utilities keep the lights on by identifying vulnerabilities before they cause outages. Amy Jaffe, contributor at The Wall Street Journal, provides a great overview here: https://lnkd.in/e7pcYFgx

The future of the grid is happening right now. Next week is a big week for innovation in climate and grid resilience. Rhizome will be attending the following events: - 2024 NARUC Annual Meeting and Education Conference https://lnkd.in/gcMQAScV November 10th - 13th in Anaheim - Red Sky Summit, presented by Convective Capital https://redskysummit.com/ November 12th in San Francisco - Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Innovation Summit 2024, presented by DISTRIBUTECH https://lnkd.in/gDeQdniz November 13th in San Jose Looking forward to collaborating with industry leaders to tackle the world’s most pressing challenge: how we weather the impacts of climate change. Comment below if we’ll see you at any of these events! #RedSkySummit #UtilityInnovation #GridReliability

We’re excited to share that Rahul Dubey will be presenting a demo for Rhizome at EPRI Incubatenergy® Labs Demo Day 2024! Uniting the brightest minds and leaders in the energy industry to drive the future of #electrification, #decarbonization, and #gridmodernization, Demo Day is a leading event in the global energy transformation and we’re looking forward to being part of it this year. If you’re in the Tucson area and would like to connect, let us know! #IELDemoDay24