Smart Grid Blog

You may already know this, but our power grid system has been largely left alone for half a century. We’re using inefficient grid technology to try to thread power across our country and in the process are losing precious energy and a lot of cash. As part of the infamous American Reinvestment and Recovery Act–or Stimulus–Obama smartly set aside 3.4 billion dollars to invest in smart grid technology in 2010 and beyond. That block of funding was matched by industry money and private investment to total over $8 billion in funding for everything from installation of smart meters to funding for manufacturing processes.

via 8 Billion Dollars in Stimulus Funds to Jump Start “Power Grid 2.0″ in US | Inhabitat.

The green movement is creating new marketplace opportunities as a result of developing new green technology. One technology is smart grid software. Businesses, traditional and emerging, will soon be affected by how this technology will be deployed and adopted as they move into some version of peak load or variable pricing.

The modern electric grid is hardly modern; it has barely changed in seventy-five years. Most electric grid systems today consist of transmission and distribution networks that connect power plants to end users. These systems rely on centralized power generation and feature bottlenecks and choke points where damage to the infrastructure can disrupt service to thousands of customers if not more. Todays electric grids are poorly equipped to handle the demands of the post-modern economy, which due to the ever increasing use of digital devices requires higher load demands and uninterruptible power.

via Smart Green Grid Software Meets the Not-So-Smart Modern Electric Grid.

With smart meters gradually being rolled out across Europe, households are expected to gain full control over their electricity consumption, helping the fight against global warming and putting more renewable energy onto the electricity grid.

via Smart meters: Controlling your energy bill? | EurActiv.

The International Engineering Consortium (IEC) today announced the winners of the first GridVision Awards program celebrating outstanding contributions within the electronic power industry.

“The GridVision awards honor the services that represent significant advances towards the goals of a smarter, more efficient and more reliable electric power grid,” commented IEC President John R. Janowiak. “The initial group of GridVision Award honorees have been chosen by a panel of industry experts as exemplifying the most innovative and effective applications of these technologies.”

via IEC Applauds Winners of 2010 GridVision Awards Today at Grid ComForum in Santa Clara.

Cleantech’s vast ecosystem includes a dizzying array of emerging technologies, from green building materials to electric vehicles, lighting and wind power. But as Silicon Valley reinvents itself as a global center of clean technology, two sectors — solar power and “smart” upgrades to the electric grid — already are reshaping the valley and changing the way energy is produced and used.

via Silicon Valley makes big push into solar and smart-grid technologies – San Jose Mercury News.

Smart Grid advocates have long insisted that new renewable energy, information and communications technologies will transform the country’s electric grid into a strong, safe, secure system and significantly cut pollution along the way. A new report seems to agree.

via Smart Grid: Lab Report: Smart Grid Technologies Could Slash Energy Use, CO2 Emissions by 18% in 20 Years.

If everyone in Los Angeles put solar panels on their roofs, plugged electric cars into their garages and used smart power-meters today, something interesting would happen.

The electric grid would collapse.

via Building the ‘smart grid’ / UCLA Today.

PowerSecure International, Inc. (Nasdaq: POWR) today announced that its distributed generation systems have been in daily operation to support utilities and businesses across the country with power during the cold snap that is gripping the nation. Since the cold snap began on January 1, PowerSecure has placed over 600 distributed generation systems into operation, delivering unprecedented amounts of power to bolster the supply of electricity on utilities’ electric grids, and providing emergency power to businesses experiencing outages. In total, PowerSecure’s systems have run over 5,600 hours supplying utilities and their customers with mission-critical power over the last eleven days.

via PowerSecure Supports Utilities and Businesses Across the Country with Power during Cold Snap | Business Wire.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski did an hour-long Q&A at GigaOM HQ with GigaOM founder Om Malik and senior writer Stacey Higginbotham, in which they tackled issues like the lack of telecom competition and how to foster innovation in the broadband ecosystem. While Genachowski only briefly touched on the electric grid during his talk, after the session I asked him what the FCC would be doing when it comes to the smart grid.

via FCC Chairman on Smart Grid: Stay Tuned.

A start-up, Tres Amigas, is aiming to transmit renewable energy from remote regions to populated areas on the U.S. coasts by connecting three networks that make up the North American electrical grid.

Owned partly by American Superconductor, Tres Amigas is proposing to create a 20-square-mile power superstation where there is access to abundant generation of wind and solar power, and engage transmission companies to move that power across the United States.

via Startup Tres Amigas Bids to Power U.S. Smart Grid – Reviews by PC Magazine.

SuperPower is partnering in a $21.5 million smart grid demonstration project award announced by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu on November 24.

The project with SPX business unit, Waukesha Electric Systems of Waukesha, Wisconsin will demonstrate a smart grid-compatible fault current limiting superconducting transformer that will help improve the stability and reliability of our nation’s electric grid.

via Waukesha Electric to build transformer for DOE smart grid program – Utility Automation/Electric Light & Power.

Think back to the age of telecom before the breakup of AT&T, before the Internet, before Facebook or Twitter. That’s about how antiquated America’s system for delivering electricity—the electrical grid—is today. In many parts of the country, the grid is so “dumb” that workers still have to walk from house to house to read the electricity meter, and utilities have no clue when the lights go out until customers call to complain.

via Obama’s Smart-Grid Game Plan – BusinessWeek.

The race to build a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid has sparked a diverse, rapidly-growing industry, including traditional utilities, titans of the internet boom like Cisco Systems and Intel, and a crop of startups hoping to hit it big. Now a new report from research firm Zpryme says that if this market stays on track, it will double in just four years.

via U.S. smart grid market poised to double by 2014 | VentureBeat.

Maine faces two starkly different choices about the future of its electrical system. On one hand is a plan by Central Maine Power to spend $1.5 billion on massive upgrades to the electric grid. This would make CMP’s current “dumb grid” even bigger and dumber; …On the other hand is an alternative proposal by GridSolar to build a smarter grid; one that is based on energy efficiency and clean, renewable power generated right here in Maine.

via www.windaction.org | GridSolar plan still a good alternative.

Less than a month after it handed out $3.4 billion in stimulus grants to utilities working toward a cleaner, more efficient electrical grid, the U.S. Department of Energy says it is doling out another $620 million to projects working on demonstration-scale Smart Grid technologies. Today, it named 32 recipients working on every aspect of the grid, including smart meters, transmission equipment, storage devices and energy monitoring systems.

via Smart Grid handouts keep rolling: DOE earmarks $620M for demo projects | VentureBeat.

Energy Secretary Chu announced today that the Department of Energy is awarding more than $7 million for 2 Pennsylvania projects to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid. This announcement is part of $620 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will support 32 demonstration projects across the country.

via Above Average Jane: PA Receives $7M for Smart Grid & Energy Storage.

President Barack Obama announced $3.4 billion in spending for the nation’s power transmission system Tuesday. White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein talks to The Associated Press about the new ‘smart’ electric grid. (Oct. 27)

Tammy Yeakel is an admitted scold about turning off the lights and TV when her family leaves a room in their home near Allentown, Pa. When it’s hot, she closes the blinds. “When it’s chilly — suck it up and use sweaters and slippers. I am a bit of a miser when it comes to electricity,” she says. “I was always like that.”

That made her a perfect candidate for an ongoing experiment by her utility, PPL Corp., to see how much electricity consumers might save if they knew the real price of electricity during the day.

via Consumer Response a Lingering Riddle for Backers of ‘Smart Grid’ – NYTimes.com.

Renewable energy sources like solar and wind have the potential to strongly contribute to our electricity mix in years to come. To get a better grasp on how solar and our electrical grid work together, I sat down with Gary Paul and Andy Roehr, both Vice Presidents of Capgemini’s Smart Energy Practice in North America.

The smart grid is one of the “key applications” we need in order to scale solar energy. But how do we get to a point where the grid starts to evolve and modernize? Paul and Roehr both agree that our first step is to promote decoupling. Now, most utility’s profits are linked directly to how much electricity is sold.

via Solar Energy and Smart Grid: A Talk With Capgemini | GetSolar.com Blog.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will hand out $72 million in stimulus funds to states and territories working to establish energy efficiency initiatives. Recipient states must implement programs that slash energy consumption across the board, decarbonize their electrical grids and spur the creation of more green jobs, energy secretary Steven Chu said yesterday.

So far, South Dakota, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been tapped to received $9.59 million each. New Jersey will also receive $14.4 million. These are oddly small amounts to be giving out — even if about 60 percent of the money will be funneled into counties and cities that might not otherwise receive support for energy efficiency programs. Considering that major utilities like Duke Energy are applying for upwards of $200 million via the DOE’s Smart Grid grant program, even $14.4 distributed across an entire state can’t possibly do much.

via Dept. of Energy earmarks $72M for state energy efficiency programs | VentureBeat.