Smart Grid Blog

Is your company’s electrical energy usage important to you? Whether still feeling the results of the recession or looking forward to competing as the global marketplace moves ahead, businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and increase revenues.

Trends in energy show utility companies raising rates and introducing more tiered rate structures that penalize high-energy consumers. And with all the talk about carbon footprints and cap and trade, energy becomes an important place to look for both savings and revenues.

So perhaps you’ve been formally tasked with improving energy efficiency for your company. Or maybe you’ve heard about the “Smart Grid” and are wondering how it will—or won’t—impact your business. Perhaps you want to understand your corporate carbon footprint before regulatory pressures increase. Maybe you’re a business owner or financial officer who needs to cut fixed costs. All of these and more are good reasons for finding out more about how you use electrical energy.

via AutomatedBuildings.com Article – Automation and the Smart Grid.

There has been discussion about privacy questions raised by the “smart grid,” where utilities would be able to collect granular data about consumers’ energy consumption — down to the daily electricity use by the fridge in your kitchen or the TV in your bedroom. The benefits could include more consumer control over usage, more efficient energy usage, a more reliable energy grid, and faster response by utilities to power outages. But there are questions about this intelligent meter system. Who would have access to this data — law enforcement, advertisers or others? What could they do with this data? What kind of security and privacy controls are there? The data could be highly personal: Do you have an alarm system and when is it activated; when do you usually shower or bathe; if a friend plugs her electric car into your recharging station in your garage, would her data be gathered or transferred?

via Privacy Lives » Blog Archive » Privacy and the Smart Grid.

The old cry of “turn off that light” used to be the staple of household energy saving activity. Today its modern version advises homeowners to turn off equipment on standby, or to insulate for better energy efficiencies.

There are many messages concerning energy and how we use it, pay for it, manage it, and conserve it.

via Brian Knolles: Smart meters only part of the solution – Small Business – NZ Herald News.

Eaton’s industry-leading Smart splitmetered distribution boards will provide energy metering to the latest requirements of the UK Building Regulations, Part L2, in a new energy-efficient college building in North London. MITIE Engineering selected the Smartboards to provide low voltage distribution throughout Barnet College’s new Wood Street campus. Meanwhile, Eaton’s 400A Mempower busbar risers were selected to carry power to riser cupboards on each floor.

via Smart metering for Barnet College.

Referencing a draft technical report submitted as part of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act, Secretary Ian Bowles says the commonwealth is on its way to achieving a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The act calls for a reduction of GHG emissions of 10% to 25% below 1990 levels by 2020.

via North American Windpower: Content / New & Noteworthy / Report: Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Policies Will Produce Dramatic Reduction GHG Emissions.

SINGAPORE must become a ’smart energy economy’ in order to work around its energy constraints, said the Economic Strategies Committee report released on Monday.

It can set up smart grids to encourage household energy efficiency, support low-carbon transport, and diversify its energy sources by looking into coal and electricity imports and studying the feasibility of nuclear energy, among other things.

via Be a ’smart energy economy’.

Some companies are looking to tap into increased demand from governments for more sustainable and efficient energy solutions – such as having smart grids for industry and consumers.

Just this week, Indonesia announced plans to pump some US$1 billion into a green investment fund.

via channelnewsasia.com – Some firms developing smart grid technologies.

WIth all the stimulus money going into the smart grid, you’d better hope that it would have an impact not only on energy efficiency but on reducing carbon emissions. And fast. Well, there’s a new report out from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory exploring just what those benefits might be: overall, a 12 percent reduction in carbon emissions in 2030.

via In case you were wondering: New report quantifies smart grid benefits – SmartPlanet.

With the fourth quarter of 2009 now behind us, it appears clear that the field of green technology — renewable energy and energy storage systems, energy efficiency technology, smart grid infrastructure and the underlying information technology to make it all work — is likely to end 2009 with the biggest venture capital haul of any industry sector.

via Cleantech Was a Market Leader in Q4 — GigaOM Pro.

Governments and utilities worldwide are likely to spend $200 billion on so-called smart grid initiatives by 2015, a development that promises greater energy efficiency on a global scale, but that is only a small step towards what could be done to use energy more efficiently.

via Smart Grid Spending On The Rise But Not Enough – Daily Brief – Portfolio.com.

We’ve all heard quite a bit of talk, speculation, argument and proposition regarding a solution to our country’s energy problems. Besides our desperate foreign oil dependence, the US also contributes a large portion of the greenhouse gases that pollute our planet- so clearly a solution is eminent. The beacon of hope has been placed on the shoulders of a futuristic ’smart grid’ – an energy efficient and eco-friendly grid that can power our country and perhaps save our economy.

via Energy Smart Miami: Cisco behind the Smart Grid.

The days of learning about your electricity consumption once a month are the on the wane.

Driven by consumer interest in energy and utility smart-grid programs, home energy information displays are poised to enter people’s kitchens and living rooms in large numbers over the next few years, Pike Research forecast in a report on Thursday.

via Millions of homes to get energy efficiency displays | Green Tech – CNET News.

President Obama warmed up for this afternoon’s health care meeting by visiting a suburban Home Depot to tout his proposal for tax breaks to property owners who make their houses more energy efficient — a topic he dubbed surprisingly “sexy.”

via Obama says retrofitting houses is ’sexy’ – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency.

In the run-up to Christmas, President Obama recently joked that Energy Secretary Steve Chu had asked him for a few million energy-efficient light bulbs as a holiday present.

In Copenhagen this week, world leaders are debating greenhouse gases and a number of other initiatives, including energy efficiency.

via Smart Grid: A Must for Energy Efficiency – BusinessWeek.

Watteco (www.watteco.com), a French System on Chip (SoC) manufacturer of “no new wire” Power Line Communication (PLC) modems for energy efficiency and intelligent home control applications, today announced it has received France’s inaugural Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Digital Green Innovation Prize for the company’s achievements in eco-sustainable technologies that reduce carbon footprints and improve energy efficiency. Watteco was recognized earlier this month, at a ceremony in Paris, for its pioneering technology that enables low-bandwidth, low-power, IP-based home energy-management networks for the Smart Grid.

via Watteco Wins France’s Digital Green Growth Prize for Achievements in Smart Grid Technology | Business Wire.