Smart Grid Blog

Public Service Electric & Gas Co. has proposed expansion of an existing 230-kilowatt power line and approximately 80-foot towers from Berwick, Pa. to Roseland. It is proposing a double circuit line with one circuit being operated at 500 kV and the second circuit being energized at 230 kV.

The existing single line now on the right-of-way would be removed and replaced with larger 190-foot towers. The $750 million, 45-mile project could earn up to a 12.9 percent return on its equity investment, according to The Wall Street Journal.

via Is there an alternative to PSE&G powerline project? | dailyrecord.com | Daily Record.

The communications revolution is shifting the national and global focus towards e-health, e-education and smart grids. Increasingly we are seeing governments around the world undertaking national broadband initiatives as awareness grows that broadband infrastructure can also be used by other sectors such as healthcare, education and government services as well as by smart grids and digital media. Another key reason is that, in the context of the recent economic crisis, they see this development as a new method of economic innovation.

via OfficialWire: USA And Australia Leading The World In Smart Grid Development.

Smart Grid’s Expected 250% 5-Yr Growth Rate is Great News for Cisco, IBM, Accenture, EnerNOC

Lux Research forecast last week that the global smart grid market will grow some 250% over the next five years, reaching nearly $16 billion by 2015 compared with $4.5 billion today. Interestingly, Lux further forecast that only a few select firms will take full advantage of this looming largesse.

via Who Will Be the Smart Grid’s Billion Dollar Winners? — Seeking Alpha.

Cooper Power Systems has announced that its demand response thermostat is now a ZigBee Smart Energy-Certified product. The certification validates the device’s communication via the global wireless standard, allowing utilities to talk to thermostats installed in residential and commercial environments via ZigBee Smart Energy home area networks, including AMI meters.

via Cooper Power Receives ZigBee Certification for Demand Response Solution.

Only the rich will be able to afford heating/cooling when the Smart Grid goes nationwide. At least, that is the logical conclusion to be drawn from an early example of the Smart Grid – in Colorado, where the budget has tripled in two years.

via Smart Grid pain begins.

The communications revolution is shifting the national and global focus towards e-health, e-education and smart grids. Increasingly we are seeing governments around the world undertaking national broadband initiatives as awareness grows that broadband infrastructure can also be used by other sectors such as healthcare, education and government services as well as by smart grids and digital media. Another key reason is that, in the context of the recent economic crisis, they see this development as a new method of economic innovation.

via BuddeBlog » Blog Archive » Smart Grids – the Intelligent Energy Revolution.

Consumers do not know how much energy they have been using until they get the bill that usually surprises them at the end of every month. Although a bit expensive, smart meters can be one of the answers to this problem and to the energy capacity distribution.

via Smart Grid and the Future of Energy Consumption.

The next step in smart energy is the development of eco-towns, environmentally-friendly communities built to leave a minimal carbon footprint. This week, UK Housing Minister John Healey is expected to announce the start of construction on 100 eco-show homes fitted with smart meters, electric car charging points, solar-heated water tanks and water-saving and composting systems to demonstrate a green lifestyle of the near future.

via Eco-homes Set to Debut.

Magpie TI, a Colorado-based provider of software engineering services, and Green Energy Corporation, leading the global transformation of electric grids, is pleased to announce a strategic software development partnership. The partnership brings together top smart energy and software engineering experience and combines the common vision of the two companies to deliver solutions for power systems that are secure and sustainable.

via Announcing A Strategic Partnership to Drive Open, Sustainable Smart Grid Solutions.

Thousands of area residents with electric meters that transmit usage data wirelessly soon will be able to examine their power habits online.

CenterPoint Energy, along with other distribution utilities and IBM, is expected to launch an online portal, www.smartmetertexas.com, this month that will allow customers to monitor usage in real time regardless of which retailer provides their electricity.

via Site to let customers track electricity use in real time | Technology News | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued today the second draft of its Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements, which now identifies more than 120 interfaces that will link diverse devices, systems and organizations engaged in two-way flows of electricity and information and classifies these connections according to the level of damage that could result from a security breach.

Prepared by the NIST-led Cyber Security Working Group, which has more than 350 members, the new draft report expands upon an earlier preliminary version, which was released by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke last September and underwent 60 days of public review. It incorporates responses to the more than 350 individual comments received.

via NIST Issues Expanded Draft of Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy For Public Review and Comment.

The Smart meter technology is designed to show the exact use of energy; allowing them to curb its use, save money, and cut carbon emissions. These meters provide a wide range of advanced features. Such features include the ability to detect service outage, unauthorized use of electricity and change the maximum amount of electricity that a customer can demand. Further, they help in remotely changing the meter’s billing plan from credit to pre-paid, as well as from flat-rate to multi-tariff.

via OfficialWire: Smart Energy Meters Market In Europe 2009-2013 – New Market Report Published.

A lot of the interest in the smart grid industry tends to swirl around consumers and home energy management. It can be fun to picture consumers one day buying gadgets at big box retailers that will let them micromanage their home heating, cooling and lighting, and it's an especially attractive venture option for investors and entrepreneurs who cut their teeth on Internet and telecom startups.

via New Opportunities in the Smart Grid — GigaOM Pro.

While a lot of the attention has been focused on gadgets, software and services that will convince the consumer to engage with home energy management, an untapped area for opportunity for startups and incumbent players alike will be utility applications. That was one of the themes that came out of our Smart Grid Bunker Session we held last week in San Francisco (see videos here) and which I’ve focused on for an article on GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

via The Untapped Opportunity in the Smart Grid: Utility Applications.

A smart-grid project in Ohio will test whether the electricity business will follow the history of computing, with storage moving from center to the edge of the network.

Start-up International Battery on Monday said that it has been chosen to supply lithium ion batteries for a community energy storage pilot project run by utility AEP set to go online by the middle of this year.

The storage units will be about the size of pad-mounted transformers, the roughly refrigerator-size boxes that step down high-voltage current from transmission lines for local service, said Ake Almgren, the CEO of International Battery.

via Lithium batteries tapped for community storage | Green Tech – CNET News.