Smart Grid Blog

Many Arnprior residents got quite a shock when they received their most recent water bill and saw how much it said they owned the municipality.

Arnprior town council was under fire during the Aug. 23 meeting as more than 25 people expressed frustration with water bills that, in some cases, were three times what they were used to paying…

New water meters, known as smart meters, were being installed for all new residential construction and the town had decided to replace all existing meters in the town.

via Town of Arnprior tries to build bridge over troubled water bills – News – By Theresa Fritz Arnprior Local Community News.

The biggest complaint about SmartMeters is the huge spike in bills that many have seen. That was certainly the case for a Mountain View family and so far, there is no explanation.

An angry homeowner confronted a PG&E spokesperson about her SmartMeter back in June. PG&E originally insisted there was nothing wrong with it, but Alexei Kacharovsky and his wife Vera persisted.

via Mountain View couple confronts PG&E over SmartMeters | abc7news.com.

The Energy Department announced that over 2 million smart meters have beed installed across the country.

Cisco and power meter maker Itron announced they will team up to develop Internet Protocol-based communications for the power grid.

via Apollo Daily Digest » Blog Archive » September 2, 2010: 2 Million Smart Meters Installed in the U.S..

Smart meters capable of measuring and managing a building’s electricity use in real time are becoming increasingly common, but to date there has been little progress in the development of smart devices for managing the use of heat.

That looks set to change after smart meter developer Onzo and energy giant Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) yesterday revealed they are working on a project to apply smart meter functionality to domestic hot water and heating systems.

via Onzo and SEE reveal plan for smart heat meters – 02 Sep 2010 – BusinessGreen.com.

The Brumby government’s troubled $2 billion smart meter rollout has been given a ringing endorsement by an independent economic analysis, which found it to be ”cost effective no matter which mix of costs and benefits are used”.

The Oakley Greenwood report, to be released today, found that the benefit of rolling out the smart meters would be between $1.87 billion and $3.51 billion over 20 years and that when combined with additional demand management services the benefits would be between $2.58 billion and $5 billion over the same period.

via Smart meters to save $5bn: report.

A long-awaited investigation into PG&E’s Smart Meters has found that the residential meters being installed in millions of California homes are “consistent with industry standards and performing accurately.”

But the report blasted PG&E for its customer services practices, finding that the San Francisco-based utility did not adequately address customer complaints and concerns about the new technology.

via Probe finds no problems with PG&E’s Smart Meters but criticizes roll out – San Jose Mercury News.

I’m beginning to think that even Sarah Palin’s “real Americans” are starting to get it. Granted, it is taking manmade ecological disasters like the BP oil spill to nudge the masses along, but even from my perch on the outskirts of traditionally enviro-resistant Motor City, it is apparent to me that the American masses have begun to embrace and understand the desire and need for wide-scale adoption of clean energy and clean technology.

via Jeff Bocan: Saving the Planet With the Flick of a Switch.

ComEd said will letters go out this week to single family homeowners in the innovation corridor along I-290 – which includes 130,000 customers in Melrose Park, Bellwood, Maywood, River Forest, Oak Park, Forest Park, Broadview, Hillside, Berwyn and the Humboldt Park section of Chicago – asking for single-family homeowners to test solar panels.

The three-year photovoltaic pilot is partially funded by a $5 million U.S. Department of Energy grant and allows ComEd to install 100 solar arrays on residential homes in the corridor. The arrays produce enough electricity to power a small home and at the end of the pilot, the homeowners keep the panels, said Maryl Freestone, senior engineer and project manager for the PV pilot.

via ComEd seeks homes for solar panel test | Chicago Breaking Business.

Vancouverites are the first in line for Nissan’s new LEAF electric car in 2011 — a year before global distribution. BC Hydro is gearing up for their arrival, blanketing the city with smart meters and upgrading its electricity grid to support the charging needs of the LEAF. Whether this car is a success, however, depends in part on the ability of owners to charge these cars effectively and take advantage of time-ofuse rates.

via Taking control of electricity costs.

ComEd plans to propose an innovative approach to modernize the Illinois electricity system, stimulate economic development and create jobs.

In a proposal expected to be filed later today with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC), ComEd will propose a pilot program that would allow for accelerated modernization of the distribution system, increased assistance to low-income households and the purchase of state-of-the-art electric vehicles to service the electric system.

via ComEd Proposes Innovative Plan to Modernize the Illinois Electric System and Assist Low-Income Households — CHICAGO, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ –.

The government is likely to incentivise the use of smart metres at homes, enabling users to monitor their power consumptions in real time and save on electricity bills by over 15 percent, officials said.

A smart metre is a device that uses smart grid technology, which integrates power generators and consumers to balance supply and demand.

via Government may incentivise use of ‘smart’ metres.

The stationary energy storage sector will play an increasingly larger role in the electricity grid of the future.  Demand is being driven by several key trends including the proliferation of renewable energy from variable sources such as wind and solar, the expansion of utility smart grid initiatives, and the introduction of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. According to a new report from Pike Research, worldwide installed system revenues will grow at a strong pace in the coming decade, increasing from $1.5 billion in 2010 to $35.3 billion annually by 2020.

via Grid-Scale Energy Storage Market to Reach $35 Billion by 2020, According to Pike Research | Business Wire.

This year has marked the first year in several that wind installation in the U.S. is on the decline. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported in July in that only 700 megawatts (MW) of wind energy were added in the second quarter of this year. This is down 57 percent from 2008 and 71 percent from 2009 levels. One of the reasons cited for the decline is a lack of investor confidence in the long-term viability of the industry. This could be overcome, in part, by the passage of a federal Renewable Electricity Standard (RES).

via Midwest Wind Summit Focuses on Policy, Infrastructure & Smart Grid – Domestic Fuel.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that with the recent excitement over the Stuxnet virus and other cyber threats, that this blogger believes security issues present the biggest challenge to the success of a national Smart Grid.

But there’s something else that threatens the grand Smart Grid project on an even more fundamental level: We all have to believe in the goodness of this work enough to see it through … even when there are setbacks. And sometimes it seems we might not.

via Smart Grid: The Smart Grid Threat That’s Even Bigger Than Security.

Our Monday coverage of the decision to go forward with “smart,” computerized electricity meters for BGE customers got a lot of reaction, much of it negative toward smart meters. This is not necessarily representative. People with complaints are usually the ones who pipe up; those who are glad or don’t care don’t take the trouble to respond.

via Jay Hancock’s blog: Fear, loathing and smart meters – Business news: Stock markets, banks and economic observations with columnist Jay Hancock – baltimoresun.com.

Transpower is going ahead with a new multi-million dollar smart grid project aimed to help relieve pressure on the upper North Island electricity system at times of high demand.

The project will use intelligent smart grid technology, which allows electricity supply to participating businesses to be adjusted remotely, under agreed conditions.

via Transpower launches smart grid project for upper Nth Isl | NATIONAL News.

Adding new capacity may not be the only way to prevent the massive power outage that most parts of the country experienced last summer. A move to “smart” power grids, at least for key load areas, may be another way to avert brownouts in crucial places.

In a briefing with reporters here, EMC Corp. Asia Pacific and Japan chief technology officer Par Botes said cities, where the bulk of energy demand was coming from, should consider a shift to smart grids, to enable better control of power transmission and distribution.

via Business – EMC urges move to ‘smart’ power grids – INQUIRER.net.

No one said transforming the century-old power system into a state of-the-art digital smart grid was going to be easy. But California already is getting bogged down in a growing fight over installing smart utility meters in homes.

The wireless devices are a linchpin in building the smart grid as they allow the two-way, real-time transfer of data about a home’s power use. Utilities need that information to balance supply and demand on a power grid that will be increasingly supplied with intermittent sources of renewable energy while facing new demands from electric cars.

via California’s smart meter fears | The Energy Collective.

Landis+Gyr, a global leader in energy management and advanced metering technology, today announced the signing of a software reseller agreement with Grid Net™, a leading global real-time, all-IP Smart Grid and Smart Home software platforms provider.

Under this agreement, Landis+Gyr will offer Grid Net’s PolicyNet SmartGrid NMS™ and SmartNOS™ software platforms, and PolicyNet SmartAgents™ as key software components of its open standards based, highly secure, Smart Grid Solution to Australian and New Zealand utility customers, with a worldwide distribution option.

via Landis+Gyr Announces Software Reseller Agreement with Grid Net | Business Wire.

Xcel Energy’s SmartGridCity is supposed to be an experiment in what a modern energy grid might look like.

Since the utility announced the project in Boulder in 2008, its costs have nearly tripled from initial estimates. But the utility says it’s still learning valuable lessons in providing power.

This week the Colorado Public Utilities Commission is holding hearings on the project and how much of its costs Xcel Energy can recover from customers statewide, not just in Boulder.

via The Associated Press: Colo. regulators hold hearings on Xcel smart grid.