Smart Grid Blog

ENBALA Power Networks has been named a Smart Grid Company to Watch by SmartGridNews.com.

“We’ve built a solid foundation for our innovative Demand-Side Management solution, and we look forward to building on that this year and delivering on the expectations the Smart Grid community has for ENBALA and that we have for ourselves.”

The third annual competition identified 12 leading Smart Grid companies as Companies to Watch after nearly 7,000 readers voted online.

via Your Renewable News – ENBALA Power Networks® Named 2012 Smart Grid Company to Watch.

China, the world’s biggest producer of solar panels, cut subsidies for demonstration sun-power projects approved in 2011 and this year after the cost of components declined.

The government reduced the subsidy for projects approved last year by 11 percent to 8 yuan ($1.3) a watt, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. It will offer a subsidy of 7 yuan a watt for those that are eligible for the assistance this year.

via China Cuts Subsidies for Solar Projects on Declining Costs – Bloomberg.

Honeywell, one of the world’s largest thermostat makers, tells me that twenty years ago it tested out thermostats that can learn the home owner’s behavior and adapt the heating and cooling accordingly, but ultimately decided that consumers didn’t take to them, and would rather control their thermostat themselves.

I asked Honeywell’s President of its Environmental and Combustion Controls division, Beth Wozniak, in an interview if Honeywell was interested in making learning thermostats, because there’s been so much discussion about the startup Nest, which has created what it calls the world’s first learning thermostat.

via Honeywell killed off its learning thermostat 20 years ago — Cleantech News and Analysis.

Building enough new solar and wind capacity to meet California’s 33 percent renewables by 2020 mandate will not be easy — but reliably getting the electricity generated by those resources to the places where it will be consumed may be even tougher. That is the responsibility of the California Independent System Operator Corporation (ISO).

The ISO has just released a five-year strategic plan that lays out what needs to be done in four steps.

via California’s Grid System Operator Confronts the Prospect of 33 Percent Renewables by 2020 : Greentech Media.

It seems that one of the world’s largest thermostat makers, Honeywell, had a learning unit quite a few years before the now-popular “Nest” did, and nixed it soon after its conception. Speaking with Honeywell’s President of Environmental and Combustion Controls division miss Beth Wozniak, GigaOM’s Katie Fehrenbacher found that Honeywell decided to drop the program because people wanted to control their temperature themselves. We must wonder if the folks at Nest will run into the same problem with everyday citizens when they release their product this year.

via HVAC stalwart Honeywell could’ve bested Nest decades ago – SlashGear.

Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power plans to install about 17 million “smart meters” in customer households by March 2019 in a bid to increase efficiency, a report said Sunday.

TEPCO, the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, will solicit bids from Japanese and foreign companies, forgoing its usual practice of going through a group supplier, the Nikkei newspaper said.

via TEPCO to hold bids for 17 million smart meters – Yahoo!.

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.

via Driving the green: New study suggests that electric-powered trucks will save money for businesses.

All the “smart” grid gear in the world can’t help utilities very much unless they’ve got the back-end software to make sense of the floods of data those smart meters, sensors and other devices are delivering.

But not every utility can afford expensive enterprise data management platforms from the likes of IBM, Oracle, Microsoft or SAP. Some would prefer to buy only those “apps” that target the specific problems they face.

via Verdeeco: The iTunes of Smart Grid Apps? : Greentech Media.

OnStar is inviting utilities, energy companies and others to take advantage of an opportunity to create smart grid apps for GM’s Chevrolet Volt by offering developers a proprietary set of its application programming interfaces (APIs). The company hopes the offer will result in a broader selection of solutions for integrating EVs like the Volt into the electric grid.

via Smart Grid: OnStar takes the collaborative route to EV integration.

On January 24, the results of the Microsoft/OSIsoft Worldwide Utility Industry Survey 2012 were announced at the DistribuTECH conference and exhibition in San Antonio, Texas, which indicated a 25 percent increase in the number of utilities that have installed smart grid technology to their existing electrical infrastructure.

via Smart grid implementation rises 25 percent in 2011.

Inmarsat, a provider of global mobile satellite communication services, announced the launch of BGAN M2M, a new end-to-end IP data service targeting the growing global market for machine-to-machine communications. The announcement was made at DistribuTECH 2012, the leading annual smart grid event in San Antonio, U.S.

BGAN M2M provides a low-cost solution to support real-time M2M applications.  The service is suitable for M2M applications that would typically send between 1Mb and 50Mb per terminal per month, offering a scalable solution for smart metering, SCADA, remote asset monitoring, meteorological and environmental data reporting, and other telemetry requirements.

via Scalable solution for smart metering and remote asset monitoring – Utility Products Magazine.

Cuculus GmbH, a developer of smart metering and home control solutions, has been selected to supply its ZONOS platform to Eandis and Infrax’s for their roll-out of 61,000 meters in Belgium.

Eandis is a Belgium based operator of grids for the supply of electricity and natural gas. It is headquartered in Melle and has more than 4,000 employees. Infrax is an operator of utility infrastructure including gas piping, electricity and cable networks and the sewer systems.

via Cuculus Selected for Largest Belgian Smart Metering Deployment – MarketWatch.

Cleantech market watcher Pike Research has released an analysis of which companies matter in cybersecurity technologies for the smart grid.

via 15 leaders in smart grid security | ZDNet.

Honeywell and Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO) have launched a pilot program that aims to demonstrate how smart grid technology can help integrate more intermittent renewable energy – such as wind power and solar energy – onto the electric grid.

During the two-year program, the utility will connect with commercial and industrial customers to temporarily reduce the need for electricity – which the companies say is critical to maintaining grid reliability as Hawaii reduces its dependence on fossil fuels.

via North American Windpower: Content / New & Noteworthy / Smart Grid Program Will Help Integrate More Renewable Energy Onto Hawaii’s Grid.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday the number of orders for the fuel-efficient Aqua compact hybrid has reached about 120,000 as of the end of January, some 10-fold its monthly sales target in just about a month after its debut.

The figure was the second-highest level for Toyota, following a record 180,000 orders for the third-generation Prius hybrid unveiled in May 2009.

via Toyota gets 120,000 orders for Aqua hybrid in first month [video] | Electric Vehicle News.

Governments, energy companies and tech firms all talk about the “smart grid” a lot, but what exactly is the smart grid?

Google that question, and you’ll quickly find more than 1 million results, including definitions from the US Department of Energy, its spin-off website SmartGrid.gov and Wikipedia. All, though, are describing essentially the same thing: an energy infrastructure with built-in, automated and real-time or near-real-time sensing, monitoring, measurement, communications and control capabilities.

via What is the smart grid? | Energy.

The Green Power Partnership works with a wide variety of leading organizations — from Fortune 500® companies to local, state and federal governments, and a growing number of colleges and universities. The following Top Partner Rankings highlight the annual green power purchases of leading organizations within the United States and across individual industry sectors.

via National Top 50 | Green Power Partnership| US EPA.

The thermostat in Colleen Lunden’s Upland condominium knows to turn itself on at 4:45 a.m. to warm up the house for her husband, Chris, an early riser, then to power down until she’s ready to get up at a more reasonable hour.

Later in the day, Lunden’s office computer shows her a live feed from security cameras in the condo so she can check in on her two dogs. After work, an application on her smartphone lets her turns on the lights at home before she walks in the door.

The Lundens’ home is a lot “smarter” since the couple signed on for a home automation package from Time Warner Cable last fall, and Colleen Lunden is hooked. “I’m finding that I really, really enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would,” she said.

via INDUSTRY: ‘Smart home’ technology goes mainstream | Breaking News | PE.com – Press-Enterprise.

Last month, GTM Research unveiled its new report, The Networked Grid 150: The End-to-End Smart Grid Vendor Ecosystem Profiles and Rankings. This article is the third in a series of perspectives on the topic from the report’s author. To read the first perspective, click here; the second piece is here.

At the moment, the mantra in smart grid is ‘Software, software, software.’ Across the board, the biggest players are snapping up the most promising software vendors, at a clip we’ve not before witnessed in this industry.

via Who Are the Smart Grid’s ‘Big Fish’? : Greentech Media.

Solar power has always had a reputation for being expensive, but not for much longer. In India, electricity from solar is now cheaper than that from diesel generators. The news – which will boost India’s “Solar Mission” to install 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022 – could have implications for other developing nations too.

Recent figures from market analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) show that the price of solar panels fell by almost 50 per cent in 2011. They are now just one-quarter of what they were in 2008. That makes them a cost-effective option for many people in developing countries.

via India’s panel price crash could spark solar revolution – environment – 02 February 2012 – New Scientist.