http://xrl.us/bij3ti A new report from Pike Research forecasts that 276 million smart grid communications nodes will be shipped worldwide from 2010 to 2016, with annual shipments increasing dramatically from 15 million in 2009 to 55 million by 2016... this will represent a total industry investment of $20.3 billion during the seven-year forecast period, with annual revenues increasing from $1.8 billion in 2009 to $3.1 billion by 2016..."

Friday, March 18, 2011

Historic New FERC Ruling to Enable Smart Grid

Portland and Augusta, ME (Vocus/PRWEB) March 18, 2011

Preti Flaherty is pleased to announce that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has adopted a Final Rule which establishes a level playing field for those who wish to reduce their energy consumption during times of scarcity. Energy attorney Donald J. Sipe was actively involved in providing legal and economic thought leadership to FERC throughout two and a half years of advocacy, research and eventually rulemaking hearings.
This landmark decision creates a crucial tool in efforts to save energy and reduce the costs of energy, not only for the curtailer but for the grid as a whole. Under this new rule, consumers can now be compensated as generators for reducing their energy use, under certain circumstances.
This new rule is a key element in implementation of a comprehensive Smart Grid system. The Smart Grid seeks to interconnect electric-powered devices and facilities to manage electric supply by better understanding and controlling demand. In order to implement this on a large scale, consumers needed to be able to be compensated for their participation in this system – this new rule provides the regulatory framework that allows for that to happen.

More http://www.prweb.com/releases/smart_grid_ferc/energy_natural_resources/prweb8220634.htm

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

IEEE Smart Grid 2025 Online Multiplayer Game Launches 17 March

Smart Grid 2025 from Institute for the Future on Vimeo.

 PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced an innovative online game – Smart Grid 2025 – designed to explore what is needed to create the best possible future for Smart Grid. Co-sponsored by IEEE Spectrum and the Institute for the Future, Smart Grid 2025 is a multiplayer forecasting experiment launching on 17 March, 2011 at 12:00pm EDT (4:00pm UTC), and participants can register now at: http://game.smartgrid2025.org/.

Monday, March 14, 2011

STRONG SMART GRID WEEK- APRIL 11-15, 2011 BEIJING, CHINA

Why Your Smart Grid Must Start with Communications

The world talks about the Smart Grid as a single entity. It will actually be built as a series of related projects. To maximize the benefits – and to minimize the pain – utilities must plan for those individual projects to plug together seamlessly.
A communications backbone is the key to achieving that interoperability. If the backbone isn't developed early, projects may have to be retrofitted later to accommodate the eventual communications standards, adding greatly to time and expense. Moreover, each individual project will be burdened with communications planning and costs, and the business cases for each will become much harder.
To determine what the communications backbone should look like, utilities must collect the timing and data requirements. To make meaningful progress in that area, utilities should focus on five main activities:
1. Gathering data: Collect data from many sources on the grid (sensors, meters, voltage detection, etc.), in the customer premises (sensors for high-consuming appliances, etc.), and from external sources (weather, etc). How many devices, how big is the data and how often do you want to talk to the devices? Finally, what is the latency that is acceptable? Data that can be dibbled to the central location of the course of the day needs less bandwidth than the same amount of data that has time sensitivity. Remember that data travels in two directions and one of the largest transfers of data to devices is firmware updates. A simple spreadsheet can be used to collect the data. Remember to account for future growth.
2. Analyzing and forecasting needs: In the typical world not all the data that a device can send is sent, but there are times when the engineering team needs additional data for forecasting or analysis. In some cases, wave form can be captured by a sensor, but the size of the data makes it prohibitive to send for routine daily traffic. However, when there is an issue in the geographical area, that wave form data may be very useful to the analysis of the issue. In other cases, different data may be required for forecasting for engineering or other use. After large storms you may need additional data to map the causes of the outage, cascading failures, timing of events and so forth. Make sure you account for the transfer of that bulk data.
3. Security Requirements and Security Overhead: Standards like NERC-CIP and emerging standards in Europe require a level of security that adds to the traffic on the network. Additionally, standards like ZigBee and HomePlug can have message traffic which is more than 75 percent security overhead. Adding this to the bandwidth spreadsheet is an important step.
4. Monitoring / managing / acting: Once you know what the grid is doing, you have to act on it, and the latency on those actions is impacted by the traffic level on the communications network. It is important to provide operators with data in time for them to act on it. That does not mean sub-second response for every device; in some cases (e.g. a hot transformer), data within minutes with the right alarm set points is quick enough for the data to be actionable. In other cases, seconds can matter. Careful analysis of who needs what when in order to make a good decision and act on it, is the right way to finish the bandwidth analysis. It also helps determine the right placement of sensors and controls – you could do everything, everywhere and waste a lot of money. It is better to think through the actions that you can take and define the right sensors to support those actions.
5. Rebuilding the grid to support bidirectional power flow, looping circuits and transfer of power from substation to substation: The first four steps will have little impact to the end customers if you cannot act on the information that is collected and analyzed. This will be the most expensive part of the Smart Grid deployment, and will in most cases, take 20 years or more to complete across a whole service territory.
Elements of an intelligent power grid already exist in most electric utilities, but the full transformation involves much more than communications, and much more than just hardware and software. In Part II of this article, we will provide a conceptual view of all the components needed to deliver on the Smart Grid vision.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

IBM Makes Progress in Smart Grid Innovation


Posted by Sheila Shayon on March 11, 2011 05:00 PM

IBM's tech smarts are bigger than Watson. When it comes to technical innovation, it's also at the forefront of smart grid technology — an area that IBM wants to make even smarter.
It's been investing heavily in its smart-grid business, a huge field that will generate an estimated $4.2 billion in annual revenue by 2015, according to Pike Research.
While GE and Cisco are also players when its comes to brands at the forefront of smart grid projects, IBM now boasts more than 150 different smart grid initiatives in major and emerging economies. In another significant win, it's now partnering with Progress Energy to bring smart grid tech to its operations.
Progress Energy, which runs utilities in the Carolinas and Florida that serve more than 3 million customers, is investing about $520 million dollars and leveraging IBM’s Tivoli and Rational software to make power distribution smarter and more reliable.
“Progress Energy’s smart grid efforts focus on improving the electric distribution network first, then cascading these improvements to the consumer,” said Guido Bartels, general manager for energy and utilities at IBM and chairman of the Global Smart Grid Federation. “We believe these efforts position the program as one of the more sophisticated deployments in the marketplace.” 
With headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., Progress is a Fortune 500 energy company with more than 22,000 megawatts of generation. Their strategic goal is a balanced strategy for a secure energy future and includes aggressive energy-efficiency programs, investments in renewable energy technologies and a state-of-the-art electricity system. 
In a move that bodes well for IBM's smart grid partnership, Progress is pursuing a merger with Duke Energy which would create the largest utility in the country, serving 7 million customers in six states.
“We are really starting to see our clients broaden their thinking when it comes to the smart grid,”commented Michael Valocchi, energy and utilities industry lead for IBM’s Global Business Services Unit. “Last year, there was an uptick in the distribution part of the business. Now we are starting to see utilities put things together.” 
The acumen of IBM and the commitment of a major utility anticipating near future needs of renewable energy sources and the impact of plug-in electric vehicles makes this initiative one of the most comprehensive — and smart — to date.

GE Energy: Smart grids 'give a good pay-back'

Published: 10 March 2011


Smart grids can bring great improvements in how we manage our energy supplies, but they require huge initial investment, says Bob Gilligan, vice-president of GE Energy in an interview with EurActiv.


Bob Gilligan is vice-president of 'Digital Energy' business at GE Energy Services, which aims to provide integrated smart grid solutions for electric utilities. Smart grids refer to the marriage of information and automation technologies with existing electrical infrastructure.


Read more:  http://www.euractiv.com/en/energy/ge-energy-smart-grids-give-good-pay-back-interview-502440

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

GE to build $40 million smart grid tech center in Ontario

Mar 9, 2011
Quick Take:  GE has a clever tactic as it races Siemens and ABB for the smart grid crown. It is partnering with national and regional governments to build innovation centers while encouraging those areas to adopt smart grid incentives. The governments get local jobs plus the hope of expanded export opportunities. GE gets local support and friends in high places.

The Ontario center announced below is one example. But the one with the most long-term potential, in my view, is the one that opened in April in the Chinese city of Yangzhou.– Jesse Berst

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

European smart grid spending to hit $80 billion by 2020

European investments in smart grid technologies will reach $80.3 billion between 2010 and 2020, according to a new report from cleantech research and consulting company Pike Research. And smart meter deployments will hit 240 million in the same time period.
However, the European smart grid vision extends far beyond metering. Smart grids there are a significant part of the effort to achieve a low-carbon Europe by 2050, meaning dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the almost complete elimination of fossil fuels from its energy portfolio.
Eric Woods, a senior analyst at Pike, said that while smart meter deployments are getting most of the spotlight now, transmission upgrades will be the biggest chunk of Europe's smart grid spending into 2020 – 37% of total investments, followed by smart meters, distribution automation and substation automation. Also, EV management will absorb significant investments during the later years of the forecast period.
The report, Smart Grids in Europe, also details energy policy development, national smart grid strategies and the similarities and differences among European countries.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Get smart: Delivering electricity using a smart grid could save energy and the Earth





ANDREW KOMAR
Published on March 7, 2011


Read more: http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/03/get-smart/


For life in the 21st century, it is impossible to put a dollar value on the necessity of reliable electrical power. Electricity underlies every aspect of our modern lives, and yet the grid used to deliver this crucial commodity has not substantially changed since the 1890s, after its invention by Nikola “Electric Jesus” Tesla.
The current electricity delivery model is a source-sink one, meaning that a few giant power plants passively monitor the demand for electricity caused by net usage, and turn generators on or off accordingly. From a consumer perspective, your personal “sink” is monitored with a metre that is checked a couple of times a month and you are charged accordingly with a flat rate.
But the real cost of producing electricity is far from a flat rate. Over the day, as people go about their business, the net amount of electricity used rises relative to times when everybody is asleep, resulting in “peak power” consumption, such as when consumers begin making dinner as they collectively return home from work. This peak power is particularly noticeable during hot summers, when millions of people turn on their energy-intensive air conditioners.
...
.
A smart grid would cheaper, more robust, more reliable, and greener than the one we have today. The smart grid Telegestore project in Italy, which consists of 27 million connected metres, provides annual net savings of 500 million euros (around $680 million) every year. Based on an estimate published by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the present value of a smart grid can been conservatively estimated to be $7.5 billion to Canadians – not including the cultural, environmental or societal benefits included with radically rethinking how we consume power. Electrical demand will only increase in a growing, developing and heating world, and the very least we can do is provide it in a way that isn’t prone to catastrophic failure. It’s what Electric Jesus would have wanted.

Making people happy about the smart grid: There’s (probably) an app for that

"Smart grid investment will total $200 billion worldwide by 2015, according to a forecast by Pike Research. This represents billion-dollar opportunities for startups and major companies in everything from home energy management to building controls to lighting systems to demand response. Companies like Siemens, GE, Schneider Electric, LG and Intel are expanding their business to include  offerings in home energy management and electric car charging. As the smart, tech-savvy home becomes an increasingly important part of energy and technology companies’ products, Pecan Street is right on one thing: Getting homeowners to like the smart grid will be key."

read More: http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/04/smart-grid-consumers-apps/

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Ambient Corporation applications are available on America’s largest and most reliable 3G network: Verizon Wireless.


THE NETWORK MATTERS.
Ambient Corporation applications are
available on America’s largest and most
reliable 3G network: Verizon Wireless.

http://opennetwork.verizonwireless.com/pdfs/VWR60521_Ambient_V3c_chi.pdf

SMART GRID: Duke Energy Selects Verizon Wireless as Telecommunications Partner for Envision: Charlotte

Press Release Source: Duke Energy On Thursday March 3, 2011, 8:21 am EST
CHARLOTTE, N.C.March 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy today announced that Verizon Wireless will provide the telecommunications network that will connect the digital meters, signs and media players that will be used in Envision: Charlottea first-of-its-kind, public-private collaboration to make the commercial buildings in Charlotte's urban core more energy efficient.
Using digital energy technologies connected by Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network, Duke Energy will gather and aggregate energy usage data from about 70 participating buildings in Charlotte's 1.94 square mile I-277 inner-belt loop. The information will then be streamed to large interactive lobby-level screens provided by Cisco.
Building tenants will see the nearly real-time commercial energy consumption data for the community and suggested actions they can take to reduce their personal energy usage in the office.
"We are pleased that Verizon Wireless has joined along with Cisco in making this very important initiative possible," said Vincent Davis, Duke Energy's director of smart energy community projects. "Having near real-time energy usage information -- that's not available today with analog technology -- is the first step toward awareness and proactive human engagement to reduce the amount of energy that's wasted in commercial buildings."
"The Envision: Charlotte project is important not only because of what it provides the community but because it uses the latest 4G technology in a manner that could have only been imagined a few years ago," said Mark Bartolomeo, vice president, global enterprise sales, Verizon Wireless. "Verizon Wireless is excited to be a part of such a cutting edge project that will surely become a benchmark for others who need the high speeds, low latency and reliability of LTE network in the future. This is a real-life example of how machine-to-machine (M2M) technology is an effective way to empower people as they become stewards for energy savings."
To date, business and local government leaders controlling more than 12 million square feet of space have expressed a commitment to participate in Envision: Charlotte in an effort to reduce energy use by up to 20 percent and avoid approximately 220,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2016. The organizations include:
  • Bank of America, which is headquartered in Charlotte, and controls approximately 7 million square feet  
  • Wells Fargo, which has its eastern bank headquarters in Charlotte, and controls approximately 3 million square feet
  • The city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, which controls approximately 1.4 million square feet
  • Duke Energy, which is headquartered in Charlotte, and controls 1.3 million square feet

According to the 2010 census, Charlotte has a population of more than 750,000, making it the 18th largest city in the U.S. The city's high concentration of commercial office buildings also facilitates smart grid connectivity and consumer education on ways to reduce energy that is wasted in commercial buildings.
Announced by former President Bill Clinton last fall at the Clinton Global Initiative, Envision: Charlotte builds on the Charlotte region's economic development "energy capital USA" initiative that was announced by North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue, city and business leaders in April 2009. Today, the region is home to more than 175 energy companies, employing more than 13,000 people.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Welcome to Strong Smart Grid Week 2011 April 11 -15 , Beijing, China.

We are very excited that the Strong Smart Grid Week 2011 will be held in April 11 -15 , Beijing, China.
Entering the 21st century, it has been a consensus to develop low-carbon economy, build ecological civilization and realize sustainable development. The world energy structure is going through remarkable changes. New energy revolution is unveiling.
The core of this energy revolution is to develop clean energy, ensure energy security, solve environmental protection issues, and address climate change. As an important part in energy supply, the power grid is crucial to the development of clean energy and its development pattern is facing significant challenges. In recent year, international and domestic industries and research institutions are undertaking a series of innovative exploration and practice. The concept of smart grid is taking shape, which has been a common choice to deal with future challenges in power industry.
With the increasing demand of energy consumption and desperate need of carbon emission cut targets, smart grid is a must-be option for China’s sustainable development. Nearly two-thirds of energy supply in China has been fed by coal, making the country one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. According to a long-term outline for renewable energy development issued in 2007, China planned to increase the renewable energy proportion to 10 percent of the total energy use by 2010, and 15 percent by 2020. Meanwhile, a "unified strong and smart grid" system is to be built nationwide by 2020 to incorporate thermal power, hydroelectric power, nuclear power and other renewable ones.
Strong Smart Grid Week – World Leadership Forum will be held on 11-15th April, 2011 in Beijing, China. This solution-oriented conference brings together the brightest brains from multiple sector including power utilities, telecom operators, leading technology providers, investment banks, international medias, government and standard regulators to provide in-depth insights into China’s electrical power industry. Strong Smart Grid Week 2011 will focus on the leading advancement for smart grid in China and globally including long-distance UHV system, advanced grid operation, integration of renewable energy, energy storage, asset management, cyber security, EV charging infrastructure, eco-city, etc.

SMART GRID: Where Warren Buffett Will Aim His Acquisition ‘Elephant Gun’ Next


By Kirsten Korosec | March 1, 2011


"Berkshire’s future acquisitions, meanwhile, will focus not so much on transportation, but power generation and anything related to the electrical transmission grid. These days, that means investing in the smart grid, a wide-ranging industry that involves anything to do with upgrading the electrical grid and allowing for two-way communication between the utility and home or business. The opportunities in this sector are boundless, which haven’t been lost on companies like IBM,CiscoEchelon and Honeywell."


NOVA scienceNOW Smart Grid ... video

Our electric grid is inefficient and shows signs of strain. Can a "smart grid" help?


http://video.pbs.org/video/1801235533


More: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/toward-smart-electric-grid.html