DigitalBridge to Acquire Australian Smart Meter Provider PLUS ES

PG&E announced a new phase of its community microgrid program backed by US$73 million in funding commitments, disclosing fresh grant agreements and a second round of awards for local clean energy resilience projects. The new funding extends the utility's community microgrid efforts into additional regions that have faced recurring outage and reliability concerns. PG&E operates a large regulated utility through Pacific Gas and Electric Company, supplying electricity and natural gas across northern and central California, and expanding community microgrids ties directly into how this US$29.5b operator manages reliability for its service territory. The clearest early signal to track is how many of the funded microgrid projects actually reach construction and successful operation on schedule, with PG&E securing timely cost recovery approvals from regulators for the roughly US$73 million already authorized and future tranches that could follow this template.

The State Railway of Thailand is not involved. This is a collaboration between National Telecom Public Company Limited, or NT, and MEA Smart Energy Solutions Company Limited, or MEAei, to develop a Smart EV Ecosystem Management project. Suwanna Hansajarupan, Senior Executive Vice President for the Enterprise Business Division at NT, and Patra Suwandech, Director and Acting Managing Director of MEAei, signed the agreement, with Associate Professor Dr. Rangsan Wongsan, Chairman of MEAei, presiding over the ceremony at NT's headquarters on Chaeng Watthana Road. Under this collaboration, NT will put its existing non-telecom space nationwide to strategic use and will support communications networks and digital platforms such as cloud computing, data platforms, charging management systems, cybersecurity, and IoT platforms. The two organizations will develop the project under the name NEXA EV Station Hub, which comprises the concepts N for National Network, NT's nationwide network; E for Energy Ecosystem, MEAei's energy ecosystem; X for Experience and Connection, user connectivity and experience; and A for Access for All, access to services for everyone. The goal is not merely to increase the number of electric vehicle charging stations, but also to cover the development of digital infrastructure and data management systems in order to create an EV ecosystem that links various services in a fully integrated way.