The grid is a marvel of ingenuity and a creation worthy of national pride, but the relentless impacts of climate change, aging infrastructure and a rapidly shifting generation profile have exposed its fragility. Today, electric systems are facing changes comparable to how fixed-line telephone systems transitioned to mobile.

To understand U.S. utility grid modernization progress and obstacles, Black & Veatch conducted surveys in 2020 and 2021 and researched industry trends and data points to form a comprehensive snapshot. In an era of ever - increasing risks and investment in rapidly changing technologies, this eBook benchmarks utility progress and provides signposts to guide future actions in Distribution Modernization, Cybersecurity, Asset Management, and Resilience.

As leaders in zero-emission transportation, advanced decarbonization solutions, digital water and more, Black & Veatch is working with our clients to prepare them for impacts from the American Jobs Plan.

The rise of digitization and smart technologies such as advanced driver-assistance systems, smart sensors and other Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are transforming the world of transportation as we know it. Black & Veatch’s Smart Transportation: Essential Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems eBook looks at how transportation authorities are actively collaborating with stakeholders to build the advanced digital communication networks necessary to support ITS and increase the capacity, safety and flexibility of existing and future transportation assets.

Black & Veatch’s 8-Phases of ZEV Infrastructure Deployment, and our proprietary ZEV Multi-Energy Hub concept, serve as a planning guide toward efficient charging and hydrogen filling networks that monetize low-cost energy, balance supply and demand, predict performance, and build resilient fleets.

As light-duty electric vehicle (EV) sales continue to soar, fleet and sustainability managers are banking on advances in power electronics, battery prices, and battery performance to mainstream medium and heavy-duty vehicle electrification. These upcoming EVs help managers capture savings, improve driver working conditions, and meet emission standards that are unattainable with diesel trucks and buses.

This eBook discusses the rural digital divide, how broadband transforms rural communities, and why co-ops are ideal leaders of fiber deployment. Finally, as experts in advanced communications infrastructure, Black & Veatch outlines eight actions that co-ops can take to remove hurdles, accelerate schedules, garner public interest and acceptance, and minimize costs of fiber deployment.

To ensure reliability, efficiency, and security, utilities must digitize their operations with a system-wide perspective. This eBook helps utility leaders understand the market pressures driving them to “go digital,” the operational value of digital technologies, and the six essential elements of digital distribution system planning.

Given the network complexity, true partnership must be forged between carriers, technology integrators, states, cities, and industries to successfully reach our 5G potential. This eBook explores the transformative power of 5G technologies and builds a framework of actions that carriers, utilities, government, cities, states, and fleet managers can take to strategically kickstart 5G.

Electric utilities are in the spotlight as transportation electrification grows. The U.S. needs 9.6 million charge ports by 2030 to support EV market growth, which drives up the demand for power and utility infrastructure, which can take 24 months or more to construct. As innovators devise work-arounds to the traditional grid system, utilities and other stakeholders need to embrace the challenge of new mobility and pivot to lead and enable the new energy ecosystem.

It won’t be long before success is measured by how well an industry or community system applies digital innovation. This eBook delivers expert perspectives on how leaders are using advanced communications to fast-track their connected future and capture the value of 5G & IoT innovation in our communities, across highways and mobility systems, in our workforces, and on our electric grid.

In major metropolitan areas, electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), are a promising solution to rising traffic, congestion and vehicle emissions challenges. However, the industry needs electric infrastructure that can handle the highly distributed, yet often concentrated, charging volume.

Autonomous vehicles are moving from test tracks to public roads. As self-drive tech companies log millions of driverless miles each year and as driverless fleets commercialize, the U.S. is at the tipping point of our New Mobility—one that trades vehicle ownership for shared ridership.

Our physical, digital, and human worlds are converging at an exponential pace, disrupting nearly every industry and community across the U.S. This Fourth Industrial Revolution is driving rapid urbanization and straining infrastructure that is already in decline. With increasing pressure on state and municipal budgets, civic leaders worry about delivering essential services to their citizens and staying competitive in our ever-evolving data-driven economy.