The DistribuTECH Conference and Exhibition is host not only to receptions, conference sessions, live demonstrations of smart grid technology and some of the utility industry’s sharpest minds. The conference, held in San Antonio Texas from January 24-26, 2012, is also where leading companies choose to make announcements that change the industry.
Here are a few of the top news items that the utility industry first learned about on the DistribuTECH conference floor this year.
Global smart grid firms S&C Electric Co. and Alstom Grid announced an integrated solution combining S&C’s IntelliTeam SG Automatic Restoration System and Alstom Grid’s e-terradistribution Integrated Distribution Management System. This new solution, announced at DistribuTECH 2012 in San Antonio, is the outcome of joint research and development to support smart distribution through layered intelligence.
The integrated solution combines rapid, real-time response to system conditions using S&C’s distributed intelligence technology with regional area control from Alstom’s enterprise-level applications.
Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ: MXIM) announces that its G3-PLC™ protocol has been approved by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a new low-frequency, OFDM-based narrowband powerline communications (NB-PLC) standard.
In partnership with Electricite Reseau Distribution France (ERDF) and Sagemcom, Maxim developed the G3-PLC specification to promote open-endedness and interoperability among smart grid implementations. Currently, the G3-PLC is the only NB-PLC standard that supports the IPv6 internet protocol to allow new internet-based energy management systems. The specification also optimizes bandwidth, corrects errors, and provides a higher data rate that supports two-way communication for demand response and other smart grid applications. The result is an increase in the performance reliability of crossing transformers, enabling a dramatic reduction in deployment costs.
via ITU Approves G3-PLC as a New Worldwide Smart Grid Standard – PR Newswire – sacbee.com.
On Thursday, General Motors announced an alert system under development that would instruct the Chevy Volt to charge only when a relatively high percentage of renewable energy was available. Being plugged in at those times would further minimize the carbon footprint of the plug-in hybrid. Google plans to test the technology, facilitated by the subscription-based OnStar alert and navigation system, on its fleet of 17 Volts.
via Teaching the Volt to Charge Smarter and Cleaner – NYTimes.com.
Have you heard the term smart grid? If you answered yes, you are among the 49 percent of American consumers who are at least a little bit familiar with the term. Now comes a bit harder question: Can you explain what the term means? If you said no, you are hardly alone. According to findings in the SGCC Consumer Pulse Study, conducted for the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) by Market Strategies International, more than 21 percent of Americans said they know the term, but don’t know much about what it means.
Here’s the CliffsNotes version. A smart grid is an electrical grid that takes into account information and behaviors of both suppliers and consumers and uses it to provide more efficient, reliable and sustainable electricity services. Smart meters are devices used in the home to measure the amount energy used in the home. Of course, one of the major benefits of both a smart grid and smart meters is cost saving for consumers.
via Smart Grid: It’s About More Than Saving Money | EarthTechling.
Korean and US researchers are collaborating on smart grid solutions that use wireless sensing and control systems.
The engineering department of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has entered into a 10-year partnership with the government-supported Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) in South Korea to develop new technologies with the aim of creating a more robust smart grid.
via UCLA and KIER create network platform for the smart grid | News | The Engineer.
The Z-Wave Alliance and the OpenADR Alliance are collaborating on compliance and interoperability programs to support the successful market deployment of the OpenADR 2.0 standard. OpenADR Alliance executive director Barry Haaser says the successful adoption of the OpenADR standard in the consumer market “requires a pervasive adoption of high speed Internet and residential energy management. The Z-Wave Alliance has a large installed base home automation and service provider marketplace, making this a platform for aligning marketing and technical strategies to enable rapid market deployment.”
via Z-Wave Alliance Joins Forces with the OpenADR Alliance.
Many people working in smart grid argue that the smart meter, which got so much attention (and stimulus funds) in recent years, is just an endpoint. Real smart grid is on the grid itself, providing two-way communication and more efficient power flow across the distribution system.
But what if the meter can help with some of that? Following in the footsteps of Dominion Virginia Power, Entergy is using its Elster smart meter system to understand, and adjust, voltage conditions at the end of the line.
via Entergy Tests AMI Voltage Optimization : Greentech Media.
Ambient has announced that its Smart Grid communications nodes now include Qualcomm’s MDM6600 chipset. This mobile broadband solution adds communications flexibility to the platform and is certified by Verizon Wireless for use in its wireless network. Ambient currently connects over 500,000 smart grid application end points to utility network operation centers.
via Ambient Integrates Qualcomm Chipset.
Global water utilities can now leverage the latest in intelligent water system management with the introduction of the Sensus iPERL™ smart metering endpoint for markets outside of North America. This version of the iPERL sets a new standard in efficient water measurement and low flow accuracy and unlocks the full potential of smart water networks for utilities and their customers.
Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) and Green Mountain Power (GMP) has selected CamAmp to supply its Fusion-LTE router for their mid-tier networks to enable broadband communication for Smart Grid advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and Distribution Automation applications.
Fusion-LTE was chosen as the communications link between the electric utilities’ AMI concentrators and their core communications infrastructures because it has the necessary bandwidth required for secure data backhaul over a Smart Grid installation. The expanded wireless communications capability enhances utilities’ ability to deliver customer service, system reliability, and billing services as well as provide room for network and services expansion.
via CalAmp Supplied Communication System for Smart Grid.
Cisco Systems is shipping its first routers geared for networks of smart meters. The Series 1000 routers are part of a second wave of smart grid systems from a business unit the company set up two years ago to address the emerging market for digital networked utilities.
The new routers can aggregate traffic from more than 200 smart electric meters over a 900 MHz Internet Protocol network. Data is sent back to utility substations over optional 2G, 3G or WiMax links.
via Cisco rolls more routers for smart grids.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), coordinator of the U.S. standards and conformity assessment system, is playing a key role in the national push for a robust, reliable, and interoperable smart grid for the United States. Ranking among the administration’s top priorities for the nation, the smart grid is a planned nationwide network that integrates information and communication technologies, enabling two-way flows of energy and communications to deliver electricity efficiently, reliably and securely.
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) accelerated approach for approving funding of smart grid projects led to inadequate review of cybersecurity plans, warned the DOE’s Inspector General (IG).
In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, DOE received $3.5 billion to fund smart grid projects, which the department awarded to 99 recipients.
EnerNOC Inc. and the OpenADR Alliance plan to host a two-day interoperability test event for the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) 2.0 Profile Specification at EnerNOC’s Boston headquarters.
During the event, which runs from Jan. 31 through Feb. 1, members of the OpenADR Alliance will conduct connectivity tests between servers and clients and perform dispatch scheduling, cancellation and modification trials.
via Renew Grid: Content / New & Noteworthy / EnerNOC To Host OpenADR Interoperability Test Event.
Home energy management systems and smart thermostats feature a lot of programmable settings that allow users and their utilities to maximize energy savings. Usually these are based on a consumer’s schedule or times of peak energy demand for the utility; but what if a thermostat could pre-program itself based on weather forecasts to optimize both a consumer’s energy savings and grid performance?
via Smart Software Adjusts Your Thermostat Based on Weather Forecasts In Your Neighborhood : TreeHugger.
The energy revolution might not necessarily be televised, but it will increasingly be monitored, measured and automated to push “intelligent efficiency” up to once-unimaginable levels.
For an idea of what that revolution could look like, consider a cluster of around 30 commercial and industrial buildings in an area west of London. Part of a £30-million project called the New Thames Valley Vision (NTVV), the investment here pales in comparison to billions pouring in to build London-area venues for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Over the long term, though, the impact of this project could far outweigh that of a new stadium or athletes’ housing complex.
via The secret to a green economy? Data first, then decisions | Energy.
I am not a fan of the power grid as it currently exists. I’m looking forward to a day when it has been phased out, and replaced with decentralized free energy devices that power every home and business as well as powering transportation, appliances and wireless devices at the point of use, drawing energy from the surroundings. Such technology has not broadly proliferated yet. But until such truly exotic technologies have reached the market place Electromotion Energy Corporation’s “Revolution”, a combined heat and power system, can offer us a glimpse at a free energy powered future.
via Electromotion’s Revolution Reveals a Glimpse of the Future.
BMW and Boulder, CO-based energy management company Tendril will build a demonstration home designed to power BMW’s ActiveE electric vehicle while minimizing the home and the car’s carbon footprint, the New York Times reported.
The home, which will be built at BMW’s San Francisco Bay Area technology office by this March, will have “smart” thermostats, solar panels and appliances, the newspaper said, citing the companies, which didn’t disclose how much the house will cost to build. The home will manage energy delivery to minimize power usage during the costliest times on the grid.
via BMW, Tendril will build demonstration home ‘wired’ for ActivE electric vehicle.
Duke Energy Renewables, Integrys Energy Services and Smart Energy Capital have completed two ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems for the Central Regional School District in New Jersey, US.
The PV solar arrays at Central Regional Middle School and Central Regional High School can collectively produce about 1.5MW (DC) of zero-emission electricity.
via Duke, Integrys, Smart Energy complete solar projects in US – Clean Technology Business Review.
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