A new report from the U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general shows that about one-third of U.S. smart grid projects developed with funding from the DoE failed to meet the necessary security requirements, Renew Grid Magazine reports.
via U.S. smart grid projects lack critical cyber security.
The electricity value chain of generation, transmission, distribution and consumption has a number of challenges, or pain points, to overcome to deliver all Smart Grid benefits. Electric utility Smart Grid investment decisions are made on the basis of what reduces or eliminates pain. There is no “one size fits all” answer in terms of innovations that are true painkillers for them, but here are a few that are most likely to be adopted by utilities.
via Four Smart Grid Innovations that are Utility Painkillers | Smart Grid Library.
Although the smart appliance market has failed to take off so far, shipments are expected to pick up and exceed 24 million units by 2017, according to a report from ABI Research.
Factors contributing to the growth of the smart appliance market include rising energy costs, increasing smart meter deployments and improving interoperability among smart grid devices.
via Renew Grid: Content / Features / Robust Smart Appliance Market In The Wings.
As industries mature from the go-go startup era with a zillion different business models, you tend to see a lot of consolidation. Bigger, better capitalized companies snatch up firms with technologies and services that complement their own, and offerings become more well-rounded and standardized.
It’s a well-established transition pattern that moves toward greater economies of scale, and it’s one we’re increasingly seeing in the smart-grid sector.
via Smart-grid industry climbs the evolutionary ladder | Energy.
A123 Systems will supply six Grid Battery Systems (GBS) to Northern Powergrid, which provides power to nearly four million customers in the U.K. The GBSs will be designed for peak-load shifting and to manage fluctuations in voltage on the U.K.’s power grid. The systems will be deployed as part of the Customer-Led Network Revolution (CLNR), the U.K.’s largest smart grid project funded through the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets’ (Ofgem) Low Carbon Networks Fund. The system is expected to be operational by the end of 2012.
via A123 Systems Helps Power Northern Powergrid.
One of the largest US-based industry conferences for electricity, gas, and water utilities just wrapped up in San Antonio, Texas. The entire value chain for electricity was well-represented there – you could find products for generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of electricity. These products modernize the grid – making it the Smart Grid. The profusion of products prompted me to think about what really drives innovation in the electricity value chain. In Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs know that successful new products or services have to be painkillers or vitamins. As a painkiller, an innovation has to resolve a pain for its target audience. If it’s a vitamin, an innovative product or service has to improve an existing situation. Otherwise, there’s just no motivation or incentive for a consumer or organization to adopt that innovation. And in a down economy, it’s all about painkillers.
via Painkillers – the Real Drivers of Innovation for the Electricity Value Chain | Smart Grid Library.
Wholesale natural gas prices have been on a steady downward slope, hovering at around $2.50 per million BTU. The latest official supply figures show the US has three trillion of cubic feet of stored gas, up 25% from this time last year. All this talk of cheap and plentiful natural gas has me wondering: What does this mean for cleantech?
via Cleantech Insights | What does cheap natural gas mean for cleantech?.
Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd launches Green Solutions to complement its recently-launched ApeosPort-IV multifunction device (MFD) series in a bid to reduce Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Aimed at enterprise customers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), the environmentally-friendly service offerings bring reductions in cost, electricity consumption, CO2 emissions, quantity of printouts, manual work and administrative efforts. In addition, companies can also reap increases in efficiency, convenience, security, brand reliability, user intuition and consciousness through these new solutions.
The U.S. Clean Heat & Power Association applauds the introduction of H.R. 4017, the Smart Energy Act.
According to a release, introduced February 14 by Representatives Charles Bass (R-NH) and Jim Matheson (D-UT), the bill seeks to establish financing mechanisms for energy efficiency retrofits for buildings and seeks to set a national goal to double the amount of power generated by combined heat and power systems to 170 GW by 2020.
This essay is the fourth of a series of four appearing this week on GigaOm. It draws from material in Jonathan Koomey’s latest book, Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs, which is being released by Analytics Press on February 15, 2012.
Written for entrepreneurs and investors, this book describes how to profit from tackling climate change, one of this century’s greatest challenges. The author acts as your company’s scientific advisor, summarizing the business implications of the climate problem for both new and existing ventures. Koomey helps you effectively allocate scarce time and resources to the most promising opportunities, drawing upon his more than 25 years of experience in analyzing and implementing climate solutions.
via 5 ways to harness info tech to fight climate change — Cleantech News and Analysis.
The City of Big Shoulders will be doing some heavy smart-grid lifting in the near future, as its main utility company embarks on a 10-year, $2.6 billion upgrade to the electricity system.
Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) says the project will deliver something like a local economic stimulus to Chicago, generating up to 2,400 full-time equivalents jobs at the construction peak.
via Chicago goes big with smart-grid improvements | Energy.
Smart home technology company AlertMe, was honored with the award for Best Home Energy Monitor at the 2012 Smart Metering UK and Europe Awards. AlertMe’s product was singled out for its technology’s “usability, intelligent energy management platform, and ability to connect with the customer to help reduce energy usage and costs.”
Steve Horley, AlertMe Managing Directo says, “We are delighted to receive such a prestigious award, which recognizes our focus on giving consumers smarter ways of taking control of their energy use.”
via AlertMe Wins Award at Smart Metering Conference.
Silver Spring Networks and Chicago-area utility Commonwealth Edison have finally set the scope of their smart grid partnership — and it’s a big one.
IPO hopeful Silver Spring announced Thursday that it will deploy its smart grid networking platform to nearly 4 million homes, businesses and distribution grid devices over the coming years. That’s a big new deployment, compared to the 8 million smart meters the startup has connected in the field to date, and the roughly 17 million it previously had under contract.
via Silver Spring’s ComEd Project: 4 Million Endpoints : Greentech Media.
We reported in early December that industrial distributed generation (industries developing their own on-site power generation) is expected to grow dramatically over the next five years. On Thursday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu affirmed DOE’s support for a relatively young sector in the field, combined heat and power (CHP), during a hearing on the department’s 2013 budget proposal.
via Smart Grid: Smart grid trends: combined heat and power gets a boost.
A company looking to purchase an electric-powered delivery truck today will likely experience some sticker shock: Such a vehicle costs nearly $150,000, compared to about $50,000 for the same kind of truck with a standard internal-combustion engine.
But before long — perhaps surprisingly — it’s a purchase that should pay for itself. That’s the conclusion of a new MIT study showing that electric vehicles are not just environmentally friendly, but also have the potential to improve the bottom line for many kinds of businesses.
Like the closely-linked market for home energy management systems (HEMS), the smart appliances market has, so far, failed to take off as many had expected. Many products are still involved in small pilots and have failed to hit retail outlets in any large number. However, shipments will soon begin to pick up and exceed 24 million units by 2017.
China-based Linyang Electronics is integrating Cinterion’s BGS2 in their smart metering products and power utilization management terminals, to provide secure wireless data communications for a range of Linyang products and services including load monitoring and control. The services provider help utilities and consumers conserve energy, simplify reporting and billing procedures, and anti-theft and alarm applications to protect assets in the field.
via Linyang Electronics Smart Meters to use Cinterion Technology.
It may seem obvious, but the more knowledgeable customers are about the smart grid, the more they accept it, according to a survey conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value. At the same time, too much information can result in negative consequences for utilities trying to deploy smart meters.
Expectations have been running high for what smart meters and smart grid technology will provide to residential energy consumers in the long run. In consumers’ minds, gaining more control over energy use, improving environmental impacts and managing costs have been firmly associated with the term “smart grid,” according to the IBM survey, which included 9,000 respondents from 15 countries.
via Renew Grid: Content / Features / IBM Report: Knowledge Drives Smart Grid Acceptance.
The smart grid might not have been the revolution many predicted, but it is happening — gradually.
“Before the New Energy Economy can take off, consumers must get on board. It’s coming — but the process will be a methodical and collaborative one,” writes energy columnist Ken Silverstein in EnergyBiz.
Infosys and Wipro have been named among the top seven vendors in the world of smart-grid software, a recent research report of GTM Research has said. Smart grids are those that have electrical devices with embedded software that can give out a fund of data in order that the grid may be better managed. Software is a key part of smart grids.
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