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Amazons self-driving taxi service, Zoox, will first begin charging fares in Las Vegas, and will later expand to other markets. It will initially accept a limited number of passengers in Austin and Miami.On July 30th, Berenberg Bank analyst Andrew Wishart stated in a report that despite the energy price shock, European economic activity showed resilience in the second quarter, reducing the likelihood of a "precautionary rate hike" (aimed at preventing a new wage-price spiral) threatening the job market. He stated, "We believe the Bank of England may implement its threat of a 25 basis point rate hike if energy prices rise further." However, since this economic resilience has not translated into a recovery in labor demand, the trend of slowing inflation is likely to continue. Wishart believes this will allow policymakers to soften their hawkish stance and instead implement rate cuts to support employment. He expects the Bank of England to resume rate cuts in December and lower the policy rate from 3.75% to 3.0% by mid-2027.Market news: Members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) have agreed to boycott the World Cup.On July 30th, Google DeepMind unveiled the Gemini Robotics 2 model. According to reports, Gemini Robotics 2 enables robots to reason about every action, unlocking a wide range of tasks. For example, it can make a humanoid robot walk, crouch, stretch, and manipulate objects to clean a cluttered room. It can even collaborate with other robots to complete tasks faster. This deep intelligence can also run locally on the device and seamlessly adapt to entirely new robotic entities in just a few hours. Google DeepMind also released two other robotic AI models—Gemini Robotics ER 2 and On-Device 2. Gemini Robotics ER 2 is the most powerful embodied reasoning (ER) model, a visual language model (VLM) that will enable robots to communicate with humans, understand the physical world, and plan multi-step tasks lasting several minutes. On-Device 2 is the most efficient visual-language-action (VLA) model, optimized to run locally on robotic devices. This model can now quickly adapt to entirely new robotic entities using just a few hours of data.On July 30th, it was reported that the Japanese government officially established the "National Intelligence Agency" on July 31st local time. The first director is Kazuya Hara. Hara previously served as the head of the Foreign Affairs Division and the Director-General of the Security Bureau of the National Police Agency, and has served as Cabinet Intelligence Officer since 2023. According to a bill previously passed by the Japanese Diet, Japan will build an intelligence system with the "National Intelligence Council" at its core and the "National Intelligence Agency" as its executive body, responsible for coordinating intelligence activities in areas such as security and counter-terrorism, as well as "foreign intelligence activities" involving foreign espionage. The "National Intelligence Agency" is also granted comprehensive coordination authority to request intelligence from various government ministries and agencies.

The Texas Heat Wave Reveals Electricity Grid Congestion Issues

Charlie Brooks

May 18, 2022 10:14

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A plea over the weekend for Texans to limit their air conditioner and appliance use after six power plants went down reveals a weakness in the state's grid: transmission line congestion.


Since last year's February freeze, which caused more than 200 deaths amid widespread blackouts and power-price hikes that forced at least five power marketers into bankruptcy, power system reliability has been a concern. Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's grid operator, established obligatory reliability criteria for utilities to prevent future disruptions.


In contrast to natural gas shortages and frozen power plants, the weekend power alert had nothing to do with fuel availability. According to the state, six power plants producing 2,900 megawatts of energy "trip off," triggering the caution.


According to energy analysts, the consequent wholesale prices of almost $4,000 per megawatt hour in Houston and negative prices 150 miles (241 kilometers) distant demonstrated that power was unable to meet demand elsewhere.


According to Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer at the University of Houston, pricing anomalies and negative prices may have resulted from transmission issues.


According to Joshua Rhodes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute and Webber Energy Group, the likelihood of many power plants being offline for their own unique reasons is vanishingly unlikely.


ERCOT declined to make an official request for comment on Monday, and a spokesman refused to identify the cause of the shutdown of six power facilities. The operator stated that it will have enough power for the state this summer.


Neal Dikeman, a partner at the investment firm Energy Transition Ventures and former director of a smart grid startup that supplies power flow management, predicts that congestion will continue to be a problem in Texas as the summer progresses.


"During the summer, there is often congestion due to people turning on their air conditioners, which causes the temperature limitations of the transmission lines to be reached."