Power supply and distribution services giant ABB, manufacturer of the popular Terra 51 CHADEMO compatible DC Fast Charging station for electric cars, is bringing it to the U.S. market in the second half of 2012.
via ABB to bring Terra 51 electric car fast charging station to US market and support SAE Fast Charging.
The 2012 Municipal Smart Grid Summit (MSGS) will showcase four moderated panel discussions for the Second Annual MSGS taking place June 4th-6th in San Diego. More than one hundred Municipal Electric Utility Executives representing over nine million customers will be in attendance listening and contributing to the dialogue directly affecting the Municipal Electric Utility Industry. Topics include: Critical Infrastructure Protection, Smart Grid Data and Analytics, the Future of Smart Grid Technology, and Smart Cities.
via CIP and Smart Grid Analytics Play Major Role In Upcoming Smart Grid Summit | PRLog.
Global clean energy investment is expected to reach $2.3 trillion within a decade. Markets continue to expand 30 – 40% each year. By 2016, the global solar market alone is expected to reach $75.2 billion. Wind energy is expected to grow by double-digits annually, reaching $93.1 billion by 2016. These enormous economic opportunities are why the Obama Administration has focused so intently on helping grow American clean energy businesses. This has not been just through the investments in 2009, but also standing up of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-energy, the issuing of the first loan guarantee for a new nuclear power plant in the United States in more than a generation, and setting ambitious auto efficiency standards that will encourage American auto manufacturers to innovate.
via Will Clean Energy be a $2.3 Trillion Victim of Congressional Dysfunction? | Third Way Perspectives.
There will be petabytes of smart meter data emerging in the coming years, which means there will be a growing need for new tools to analyze and make sense of all that data. A new startup called Gridium, which launched a couple months ago and is co-led by energy entrepreneur Tom Arnold, has developed software that can help industrial and commercial building owners tap into smart meter data to help lower their energy bills.
via How Gridium is making sense of energy data — Cleantech News and Analysis.
On a desolate stretch of the Mojave Desert, twenty miles northeast of Barstow, construction workers recently began laying the foundation for a 2.8 square mile solar power plant. By 2014, electricity will flow from the facility into nearby power lines to homes and businesses throughout Northern California.
The plant will help PG&E meet a state mandate requiring utilities to provide 33 percent of their power from renewable resources by 2020.
via Remote Solar Plants Come with Added Costs – The Bay Citizen.
Implementing sustainable energy infrastructure is a global concern. Smart Meters contribute positively to this initiative by helping customers to map and reduce their energy consumption. Real-time energy monitoring helps energy suppliers to become more accurate in dealing with supply and demand, and, as a result, more efficient in generating clean, green power.
The UK Government has set a target of installing Smart Meters in every UK home by 2019 as part of its commitment to reduce energy use. British Gas Smart Meters are leading the smart revolution, and are already a feature in over 330,000 homes and businesses.
via Smart Metering Moves Towards a Sustainable Future – MarketWatch.
Smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) have transformed a placid, 140-year old electricity metering market into a high-tech, high-growth juggernaut. In 2008, less than 4% of the global installed base of 1.5 billion electricity meters could be considered “smart,” but 4 years later this penetration has grown to over 18%, and is forecast to exceed 55% by 2020. Yet while global growth will continue, this remarkable rollout peaked in North America in 2011, and annual smart meter shipments are expected to decline sharply. According to a new report from Pike Research, unit shipments of smart meters in North America were 12.4 million in 2011 and will decline to 7.2 million by 2013, a 42% drop over just two years. After 2014, they will begin a gradual rise through the end of the decade.
Twenty six partners of the Smart Energy Collective have signed a renewed cooperation agreement for the approval of the second phase of its smart grid initiative, which involves the development of five large-scale smart grid demonstration projects in the Netherlands.
The signing follows a successful preparation period, and marks the start of the actual design phase of the five trial test sites. The projects will be implemented at Schiphol airport, in a few offices of ABB and Siemens, and in residential districts in Gorinchem, Heerhugowaard, and Goes.
Intelligent energy systems, also known as smart grids, are essential for the realization of an affordable and reliable sustainable energy supply. At the same time, the Smart Energy Collective wants to offer an important contribution to the standardization that this new field requires.
Elster, Itron, Landis+Gyr, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan, and Silver Spring Networks have announced the release of the 802.15.4g radio standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The new standard enables interoperable communications between certain smart grid devices, including smart meters and smart home appliances. The new standard represents a significant move forward in establishing common and consistent communication specifications for utilities deploying smart grid technologies.
via Major Smart Energy Companies Tout New Smart Grid Standard.
While annual smart meter shipments in North America are expected to decline sharply, the news is not all bad, as the rest of the world will see increases, according to a report from Pike Research.
North America saw 12.4 million smart meter units shipped in 2011 – a number that is expected to drop to 7.2 million by 2013, representing a 42% decrease over just two years. However, after 2014, shipments in this region will begin a gradual rise through the end of the decade.
via Renew Grid: Swings In Smart Meter Market Present Industry Challenges.
Kilawatt’s Beyond Smart Grid will provide the granularity to understand energy consumption. Beyond Smart Grid will identify energy management projects with calculated, data based Return on Investments. Such an evaluation is critical to targeting your energy efficiency dollars to provide superior return on your investment.
Working with Vermont Public Television at their Colchester Facility, Kilawatt Technologies has implemented a sophisticated energy sub-metering system that goes far beyond smart grid.
via Kilawatt Technologies takes VPT Beyond Smart Grid.
S&C Electric Company Europe Ltd, a smart grid energy company and subsidiary of U.S.-based S&C Electric, has won an ambitious contract from Electricite de France’s EDF Renewables. The contract is reportedly worth several million dollars and will seek to establish a smart grid system in Scotland. This system is to be powered by a wind farm that is located south of Edinburgh and near the Scottish Border. The wind energy injected into the smart grid will be used to power homes and businesses.
via S&C Electric wins promising contract from EDF Renewables.
It has been a couple of weeks since the Connected Home Global Summit and it’s always nice to reflect on the events before jumping straight into writing about them. In this case it seems particularly important, as much of the talk is speculative and forward thinking, rather than headline news breaking.
This was my third visit to the event, which I always enjoy. While it isn’t massively attended, the quality of attendees is always first class and the discussions interesting (and as it’s at a DoubleTree Hilton the coffee is great too, which helps).
via Connected Home Global Summit 2012 day 2: From energy to entertainment – Broadband Genie.
Big data presentations frequently get around to mentioning smart electricity meters as an up and coming use. No wonder, when you hear a pilot project in Washington plans to take electric data feeds from houses every five minutes.
Although Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project is a relatively small pilot project with 60,000 participants spread across five states, the data numbers add up. Ron Melton, the project director, estimated it would create up to several terabytes over the two-year period. The project, which includes publicly owned and investor-owned utilities, electrical cooperatives, the Bonneville Power Administration and the University of Washington, has a budget of $178 million — $89 million from the federal government and the rest in matching funds from the participants. It aims to determine whether smart grids make economic sense.
via Big Data Meets The Smart Electrical Grid – Forbes.
I am somewhat surprised and dismayed by the controversy surrounding smart meters. Those opposed to this program should read the article “The 21st Century Grid” by Joel Achenbach in the July 2010 issue of National Geographic. This describes how our current electrical grid is made up of very old haphazard technology with our house meters being basically 1920s technology.
via Nelson Star – The smart in smart meters.
The current penetration of smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) had reached 18 percent worldwide and is expected exceed 55 percent by 2020. However, new data from Pike research suggests smart meter deployment in North America peaked last year in 2011 and that in subsequent years rollouts are expected to slow, from 12.4 million in 2011 and 7.2 million by 2013. But Pike forecasts that in 2014 the deployments will begin to increase again and continue on an upward mark through the end of the decade.
via Smart Meter Deployment Continues to Expand, Albeit More Slowly.
A delegation from a Chinese utility that serves more than 230 million customers visited Glendale on Tuesday to learn more about the city’s smart grid.
Representatives for the China Southern Power Grid Co. were particularly interested in learning how Glendale Water & Power simultaneously installed electric and water smart meters, which provide consumption data in near real-time to the customer and utility.
via Chinese delegation visits Glendale to learn more about its smart grid – Glendale News Press.
S&C Electric Co. launched new solutions to help utilities realize a self-healing smart grid. These products help reduce outage time and give utilities better grid management capabilities, ultimately improving the reliability and efficiency of power delivery for customers.
The new product advancements integrate automatic restoration with grid optimization solutions. Also, enhanced communications system tools help simplify the management of distribution automation solutions for utilities.
The new Friedrich Kuehl room air conditioner is the first consumers can control with their smartphone, tablet PC, or home computer. The manufacturer states the smart appliance will enable people to dramatically cut their cooling costs this coming summer and also notes it comes with built-in energy management schedules and is Smart Grid capable.
via New Smart Air Conditioner Comes with App.
Smart electric meters have emerged as the most visible technology of the major modernization of the global electricity infrastructure known as the smart grid. Smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), terms often used synonymously, integrate embedded computing and two-way communications to transform meters from simple manual recording instruments into highly intelligent devices serving increasingly broad roles within the electricity infrastructure. Smart meters have transformed a placid, 140-year old, low-innovation electricity metering market into a high-tech, high-growth juggernaut. In 2008, less than 4% of the global installed base of 1.5 billion electricity meters could be considered “smart” but 4 years later this penetration will have grown to over 18%, and is forecast to exceed 55% by 2020.
via Smart Meters – MarketWatch.
