Smart Grid Blog

Dreams of renewable energy riches have set off a scramble not seen since miners rushed into these surrounding hills in search of shiny nuggets.

“This is like a land rush with a whole bunch of people running side by side,” said David Christensen, one of the gurus of new electricity technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the Colorado foothills.

The winners, he said, will find “huge pots of gold at the end.”

Kansas and Missouri leaders are joining many other states scurrying to stake claims in the energy gold rush.

President Barack Obama is encouraging this renewed interest in renewable energy by pumping more than $60 billion in federal investment toward stimulating the economy, creating jobs and advancing the nation’s ability to generate energy from wind, sun and plants.

via Renewable energy brings modern-day gold rush – Environment – San Luis Obispo.

Andrew Tang, who leads Pacific Gas & Electric’s ”Smart Energy Web” program, recently presented his vision of the future of smart grid at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

PG&E goes into depth about smart grid technology at its blog.

Earlier this year, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced plans to follow in Southern California Edison’s (SCE) footsteps with equity investments in a large-scale renewable energy project. The plans will be similar to SCE’s $875 million, 250-megawatt rooftop solar project, explained Peter Darbee, PG&E’s CEO and chairman.

via PG&E Talks Smart Grids · Environmental Leader · Green Business, Sustainable Business, and Green Strategy News for Corporate Sustainability Executives.

The ZigBee(R) Alliance, and the European Smart Metering Industry Group (ESMIG), are working together to define interoperable communications standards for smart metering technology across the European Union (EU). The ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile is the first open standard to be endorsed by ESMIG. The ZigBee Alliance is a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, and ESMIG is the organization for smart metering in Europe.

ESMIG members determined that the ZigBee Alliance and its ZigBee Smart Energy provide a solid, open standards approach to smart metering communication. ESMIG provides impartial expertise to key stakeholders including EU institutions, EU Member State governments, authorities, regulators, electric, gas and water utility providers on all aspects related to Smart Metering. The ZigBee Alliance and ESMIG will collaborate and identify where ZigBee Smart Energy can be rolled out across the 27 Member States of the EU. The two organizations will evaluate ways to maximize the benefits of a standardized smart metering program for consumers, utility service providers and the environment.

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There are an estimated 2,000 electric, water and gas utility service providers in the EU. Each has unique needs that will require standardized approaches to deliver the numerous efficiency, cost savings and environmental benefits expected from smart metering.

via The ZigBee Alliance and European Smart Metering Industry Group (ESMIG) Agree to Work Towards Interoperable European Smart Metering.

Certicom Corp., the global leader in smart energy security technologies, today announced that its Device Authentication Service for ZigBee Smart Energy has shipped more than one million certificates for smart meters and ZigBee Smart Energy networked devices to help utilities and their customers enable more efficient energy consumption.

With the Obama administration’s focus on reducing energy consumption and smart-grid technology, utilities are increasingly investing in smart metering for more efficient energy management and to address environmental concerns. As they build out smart metering infrastructure, they need to ensure that the networks are protected from unauthorized access and that customer information is secure.

ZigBee is a specification based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard for wireless devices enabling low-cost and low-bandwidth networks for the mass-market. The specification is regulated by the ZigBee Alliance with over 300 members worldwide. The ZigBee Alliance developed the ZigBee Smart Energy Public Application Profile to meet the requirements of wireless smart energy applications such as demand response, load control and energy efficiency programs.

The ZigBee Smart Energy profile uses bandwidth efficient Elliptic Curve Qu Vanstone (ECQV) implicit certificates to authenticate devices on the network and performs secure key agreement based on authentic device identities. Certificate-based device authentication and key establishment enables a robust Smart Energy ecosystem where devices can be deployed and managed with confidence, avoiding the security issues associated with previous wireless networking innovations, such as WEP.

via Certicom’s Device Authentication Service Ships Over One Million Certificates for ZigBee Smart Energy Devices | Wireless Developer’s Journal.

China plans on plowing hundreds of billions of dollars into smartening its grid, Bloomberg reports. Despite their ambitious spending plans, the PRC won’t overpay for its smart metering products, says Greentech Media:

ZigBee and mesh networking are winning favor with utilities in the U.S. In Sweden and some other European countries, however, concrete construction is somewhat common, which creates potential problems with maintaining a signal via ZigBee from inside the house to an external transmitter, said Meera Balakrishnan, Freescale’s Global Segment Leader for Building Control. Partly as a result, power-line networking has been adopted in many areas in Europe, including the 30 million meter network owned by Enel in Italy.

And in China, the issue is cost. “They are looking at sub-1GHz,” she said. “We are talking cents” for radios for meters, she added.

To that end, the chip company – formerly the silicon wing of Motorola – is showing off new products and demos at MeteringChina in Beijing. The products range in a spectrum, depending upon the communications systems required by a utility and whether the silicon will be used to monitor silicon, but also water and gas. One chip, for instance, combines an 8 bit microprocessor, a tiny bit of flash and an LCD driver for remote meter reading.

An AMR (automated meter reading) meter in China might have to sell for $26 to $60. A similar meter in U.S. or Europe might go for $82 to $120, depending on the capability. Potentially, a very basic meter that can be read “remotely” by someone in a nearby car with a radio receiver could be built for $10 in China.

via China Is Stingy With Smart Meter Orders.

Itron Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Unsworth recently reaffirmed the importance of embracing interoperability standards in the deployment of smart grid technologies during a meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

In his comments, Unsworth stated: “Our worldwide leadership and familiarity with smart metering and the rapidly emerging smart grid provides us with a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience, especially concerning open standards and interoperability. As a result, Itron will be fully extending IP support within its market-leading advanced metering solution, OpenWay®, down to the edge device to support smart grid applications beyond AMI. This, in conjunction with the use of the ANSI C12.22 and Zigbee Smart Energy standards, and other applicable standards to be defined through the NIST [National Institute for Standards and Technology] initiative will ensure full implementation of the smart grid vision.”

via Itron CEO Supports NIST Smart Grid Interoperability | Environmental Protection.

Norwood, Mass.-based Analog Devices Inc. (ADI), a provider of semiconductors for signal processing applications and radio frequency (RF) technology, has introduced two new RF transceivers for smart-grid and home and building automation applications.

“Wireless technology is becoming more pervasive as a mechanism to control and monitor energy, as well as to control home and business systems,” says Peter Real, vice president of ADI’s RF group. “Short-range RF transceivers offering robust radio performance are paramount for these applications. Analog Devices’ new transceivers offer a complete radio solution with the performance, integration and low power consumption required to ensure the transfer of critical data.”

ADI’s new ADF7022 RF transceiver and ADF7023 RF transceiver are effective for smart-grid and other applications operating on the short-range industrial, science and medical band for remote data measurement.

via North American Windpower: Content / Products & Technologies / ADI Introduces RF Transceivers For Smart-Grid Applications.

There are few battles fiercer in the cleantech business than the holy war currently being waged over which communications and networking technologies will prevail in smart grid deployments.

Wide area networking technologies are integral to the fabric of smart grids, and will be essential elements of any electric utility’s smart grid program. Current utility communication systems are highly fragmented, purpose-built for specific applications, and often based on proprietary technologies. However, the prevailing winds are blowing in the direction of more unified architectures that utilize two-way, low-latency, standards-based networking technologies that are scalable and flexible to support a variety of applications using varying bit rates.

Today Trilliant, already a significant player in RF mesh networking for smart grids, announced that it is acquiring SkyPilot Networks, a provider of broadband wireless mesh networking products for public safety, wireless ISP, video surveillance, VoIP, and AMR markets. SkyPilot utilizes standards-based Wi-Fi chipsets, but its special sauce includes synchronous switching technology that utilizes directional antennas to extend the range far beyond that of standard Wi-Fi.

via Trilliant Acquires SkyPilot Networks to Streamline Smart Grid Communications | Green Business | Reuters.

If a quarter of America’s cars went electric, they could store more energy than that produced for the nation’s entire electricity grid, an expert on electric transportation says. Making them a backup power source for the grid faces significant challenges, however.

Plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles could grow to be a greater source, or sink, of power than the entire American electricity generation system. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

It’s a question that utilities and policy makers have been grappling with as they prepare for what could be millions of new electric-powered vehicles to hit American streets. Unless those cars can be charged at times of lowest electricity demand, they could overwhelm the electric grid or require huge new investments in power generation.

But Jasna Tomic, new fuels program manager for Calstart, a nonprofit group promoting clean transportation, sees the conundrum as a big opportunity for such vehicles to serve as backup power for the grid, through so-called “vehicle-to-grid,” or V2G, technology.

If a quarter of the nation’s car fleet was to go plug-in hybrid or electric, the combined energy they could store would equal about 750 gigawatts, Tomic said Thursday at the Opportunities in Grid-Connected Mobility conference in San Francisco. Of course, that’s a share of the market that could take decades to reach, but if it comes about, “That basically surpassed the size of the electric grid,” she said.

via Greentech Media: Electric Vehicles Could Surpass Grid or Support It.

By Ariel Schwartz

A few weeks ago, we looked at Boulder, Colorado’s plan to become the first smart grid city. But Boulder isn’t the only U.S. city with visions of becoming completely smart meter-equipped. The Pecan Street Project in Austin, Texas aims to provide the city with 300 MW (a power plant’s worth) of renewable energy produced within city limits as well as thousands of smart meters installed in local homes and businesses.

smart grid

Austin’s smart metering project, which will officially launch in August, covers 440 square miles, 500,000 devices, 100 terabytes of data, 1 million consumers and 43,000 businesses. The roll-out is happening much more quickly than in other cities because Texas is the only state in the country with its own power grid. That means the Pecan Street Project doesn’t have to go through the three to four year federal approval process.

Local utility Austin Energy wants to transform the city into “the urban power system of the future while making the City of Austin and its local partners a local clean energy laboratory and hub for the world’s emerging cleantech sector.” That means implementing a number of solutions in the coming months, such as smart home energy control systems, smart appliances, smart markets built on a supply and demand model, smart transportation systems, and smart business plans. In this case, “smart” refers to anything related to the wireless smart grid system.

In the first phase of the Pecan Street Project, an action plan will be developed to deal with new smart grid technologies as they move from prototype to consumer stages. Eventually, Austin Energy hopes to create a research consortium to develop new products. Expect other planned smart grid communities to track Austin’s project closely; the Pecan Street Project is, after all, years ahead of most smart grid plans.

via Energy 101: Austin’s Pecan Street Smart Grid Project

Swedish energy company, Gothenburg Energy, is deploying 90,000 GE smart meters to meet a government mandate to have advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in place by June 1, 2009.

The smart meters will be installed by NURI Telecom by the end of the month.

Gothenburg Energy is implementing Europe’s first ZigBee-based communications infrastructure to support an AMI system for electricity. ZigBee is a low-cost, low power usage wireless mesh network.

In the near future, Gothenburg Energy plans to expand the AMI system to include district heating, gas and water meters.

“With the new AMI system in place, Gothenburg Energy will be able to provide accurate monthly bills, even down to daily consumption,” says Diarmaid Mulholland of GE Energy Services Europe. “This allows customers to be better informed about their actual consumption and then adapt their energy usage accordingly.”

Meanwhile, Google has announced the smart meter and utility partners that are joining its PowerMeter project. In the US, Google will be partnering with utilities San Diego Gas & Electric in California, TXU Energy in Texas, JEA in Florida, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, White River Valley Electric Cooperative in Missouri and Glasgow EPB in Kentucky.

Elsewhere, Google has co-opted Toronto Hydro in Canada and Reliance Energy in India. Its smart meter manufacturing partner is Itron.

Google PowerMeter is only available to very few customers at the moment, but the company says it plans to expand the roll out later this year.

And finally, Cisco has unveiled plans to provide a range of smart grid solutions for the entire energy infrastructure from power generation to end use. Products will include solutions for grid management right through to home and business energy management systems.

via Sweden to roll out 90,000 smart meters

President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul U.S. infrastructure includes constructing a nationwide “smart grid” that promises to help address many of our current energy challenges. The smart grid plan offers the hope that it “will save us money, protect our power sources from blackout or attack, and deliver clean, alternative forms of energy to every corner of our nation.” While these are noble societal goals, smart grid technologies and systems as envisioned also raise concerns about individual privacy rights.

Part of what makes the smart grid “smart” is its ability to know a lot about the energy-consuming devices in our homes and to monitor activity for those devices to help determine when power should be used or limited. Such knowledge is useful in regulating power consumption to use energy more efficiently.

In addition to reaching into homes to regulate devices, information about usage and activities could be extracted from homes. Home energy consumption patterns could be gathered and analyzed on a room-by-room and device-by-device basis to determine which devices are used and at what time of day. Although this sort of information may not be considered terribly invasive for some, for others anything that violates the sanctity of “home” may cause tremendous concern.

Those not concerned by the tracking of mere energy usage may become more concerned as devices in our home becoming increasingly “smarter.” One can easily envision a not too distant state of technology convergence where such devices could be used to track more sensitive information. For example, security technology already exists to monitor presence in homes to detect break-ins. Could that same technology be applied in a smart-grid environment to monitor when residents are home? What else will smart appliances “tell” others about households? Will a smart refrigerator be able to determine and disclose the types and quantities of RFID-chipped food products and pharmaceuticals stored on shelves? Who will get this information? Will retailers be able to access this information and use it for marketing and services? Will law enforcement? Concerns such as these are already top of mind for academics and consumer privacy rights advocates as these technologies develop.

via Sustainable Industries | Clean Energy | Privacy Challenges to Smart Grid.

WASHINGTON – President Obama today announced over $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the United States.  The funding announced today represents a substantial down payment that will help the solar and geothermal industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come. Today’s announcement supports the Obama Administration’s strategy to increase American economic competiveness, while supporting jobs and moving toward a clean energy economy.

“We have a choice.  We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy,” said President Obama. “We can hand over the jobs of the future to our competitors, or we can confront what they have already recognized as the great opportunity of our time:  the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy.  That’s the nation I want America to be.”

“We have an ambitious agenda to put millions of people to work by investing in clean energy technology like solar and geothermal energy,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.  “These technologies represent two pieces of a broad energy portfolio that will help us aggressively fight climate change and renew our position as a global leader in clean energy jobs.”

Via President Obama Announces Over $467 Million in Recovery…

You know, in just about a hundred days of recovery we’ve already begun awarding $8 billion in Recovery Act funds to states for weatherization and energy efficiency programs. We announced significant Recovery Act investments in our energy future, including $2.4 billion in Recovery Act money to produce the next generation plug-in hybrid electric vehicles; $800 million to accelerate the use of biofuels and bring them to market; $300 million to expand the nation’s fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles.

We’ve offered consumers new and expanded tax credits for installation of energy efficient or renewable energy systems in their homes, or for the purchase of alternative-fuel vehicles. We’ve also outlined a strategic plan for developing a nationwide smart energy grid that will someday, someday put renewable energy sources within easy reach for homes and businesses all across America. It’s not available now.

And the best part, building the clean energy economy not only puts us on a path of a green and more sustainable future, but it necessitates the jobs that will get us there — good-paying jobs.

Promoting clean energy while creating incentives for polluters to clean up their act is going to create demand for renewable energy, generating jobs for workers at a pay scale they can live a middle-class life on: scientists, lab technicians and assistants, blue-collar workers building out the smart grid, green manufacturers who will build components for the new economy — some of whom are here today.

All told, our energy investment will, on their own, create 450,000 new jobs.

Now, some of you might look at me and say, look, that all sounds good, but I’ve been working for decades on old-school manufacturing; my collar isn’t green, it’s a deep shade of blue. Well, when I say these things people come back and say — Federico, I didn’t see you there, Mr. Secretary. How are you? (Laughter.) Federico Pena — they come back and say, look, I’m not prepared to do these jobs, don’t know how to do them. This is not going to help me very much at all.

Well, look, my response is I’ll reinforce what we can’t forget: We’re building this together. To make these programs possible, government will increase funding for workforce education that incorporates green technology training. We’ve got to change. On that score, I’m thrilled to make a few announcements today.

via What Joe Biden flew all the way out to Denver to say and do | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times.