Today at the LIGHTFAIR International conference, Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (NYSE: SSNI), a leading networking platform and solutions provider for smart energy networks, and LED Roadway Lighting, a leading designer and manufacturer of LED-based street and area lighting fixtures and control systems, announced a collaboration to deliver the market’s first networked, field swappable intelligent streetlight Continue reading →
Today’s distribution grids — the networks of power lines, transformers and other gear that carry lower-voltage electricity from substations to end users — mostly lack the sensor and CIT infrastructure needed to “light them up” to grid operators, so to speak. Distribution automation (DA) technologies are aimed at filling in that dark space, with a Continue reading →
The Smart Grid concept has been implemented at various levels for electricity networks, but is now becoming a reality for water distribution networks as well. The objective of a Water Smart Grid is to optimize three facets of the distribution system: water quantity, water quality, and energy. These system components can sometimes conflict, so they Continue reading →
There has been a lot of hype about the Internet of Things, but how important is it to energy efficiency? The new ZigBee IP standard for wireless RF mesh networking gives us a glimpse at how the smart grid and the Internet of Things can come together to enhance energy efficiency. ZigBee IP is the Continue reading →
Silicon Labs SLAB -1.41% , a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today announced that its Ember ZigBee solutions – silicon devices, software and development tools – have achieved Golden Unit certification from the ZigBee Alliance for the newly released ZigBee IP specification. ZigBee IP is the first open standard for IPv6-based wireless mesh networking Continue reading →
The UK’s largest smart grid project has completed the first stage of its research, which is comprised of ongoing trials with 12,000 customers. The £54m Customer-Led Network Revolution (CLNR) project is testing to ensure Britain’s electricity networks are ready for the mass uptake of technologies including solar PV, heat pumps, and electric vehicles. via Smart Continue reading →
Car Charging Group, Inc. (OTCQB: CCGI) (“CarCharging”), a nationwide provider of convenient electric vehicle (EV) charging services, announced today its proposed acquisition of EV Pass LLC, which specializes in building destination and location networks for EV charging, and its Central New York Destination Location Network (“CNY Network”), from Synapse Sustainability Trust, Inc., a 501c-3 organization Continue reading →
Spending in 2012 reached $23.68 billion by utilities transitioning their networks to Smart Grid capabilities, according to ABI Research. The research firm said 2012 spending was 48% of Smart Grid spending to-date. Spending in 2012 on transmission and distribution was more than smart meter investments, with utilities looking to improve their core networks and maximize Continue reading →
SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY) and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) don’t seem like a natural fit initially, but a growing number of partnerships between the solar company and electric vehicle maker may be a sign of what’s to come in these two industries. SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) already has deals with Nissan and Ford (NYSE: FORD) , and Continue reading →
Spending by utilities transitioning their networks to Smart Grid capabilities reached $23.68 billion in 2012. Highlighting the growing momentum behind the spending, 2012’s total alone represents 48% of Smart Grid spending to date. During the year, spending on transmission and distribution capabilities surpassed smart meter investments as utilities increasingly looked to improve their core networks Continue reading →
GainSpan’s GS2000 incorporates ZigBee/802.15.4 and Wi-Fi radios, enabling a single-chip solution that talks to electric meters and a wide variety of appliances and other devices in a home-area network. GainSpan’s GS2000 multimode system-on-chip (SoC) implements Wi-Fi and 802.15.4/ZigBee radios in a single IC with an ARM microcontroller along with memory, multiple interfaces, and I/O capabilities. Continue reading →
Energy storage is often seen as the holy grail for the smart grid. Storage solves a lot of problems: it can enable utilities to vastly improve the efficiency of their distribution networks by storing and releasing energy where it is needed, thereby forestalling or eliminating the need for new investments in infrastructure; it can smooth Continue reading →
Sensus , a leading provider of smart grid infrastructure technologies for electric, gas and water utilities, has received the ‘Companies to Watch in 2013′ award from Smart Grid News . This award underlines the importance of Sensus’ role in advancing the technology that drives smart water networks. via Sensus Named a Company to Watch in Continue reading →
Silver Spring Networks, a leading networking platform and solutions provider for smart energy networks, today announced a strategic partnership with Streetlight.Vision, the leader in streetlight control and monitoring software, to deliver a Smart City solution enabling operators to more efficiently and reliably operate their lighting networks while creating a city-wide IPv6-based communications and monitoring network Continue reading →
The electrical grid transformation to the Smart Grid puts tremendous reliance on wired and wireless networks to deliver situational awareness of grid operations. These communications networks enhance and optimize utility management of grid operations, as demonstrated by reduced service disruption times via automated outage reporting by smart meters or voltage conservation programs that reduce operating Continue reading →
Silver Spring Networks, a networking platform and solutions provider for smart energy networks, has announced it is expanding the capabilities of its Smart Energy Platform to support commercial and industrial natural gas users. The new Silver Spring Commercial and Industrial Gas IMU (Interface Management Unit) supports a broad array of C&I natural gas endpoint devices Continue reading →
Lionel Chocron, general manager for Connected Energy Networks Business Unit at Cisco, sees in the years to come a recognition by regulators and policymakers (and utilities) that “intelligent, secure and connected energy networks are key to enabling the lower-carbon, energy independent economy we envision for ourselves.” And because of that optimism, he expects those stakeholders to Continue reading →
The world’s water resources are under stress and unequally available. Some regions suffer from drought, other regions from water pollution or worn out distribution networks. For a variety of reasons water stress is a wide spread problem which is only worsening as a growing world population demand their share of food, energy and welfare. The Continue reading →
The complexity of the smart grid introduces a cybersecurity challenge that isn’t easy to overcome. The smart grid is unlike other critical information infrastructures in that millions of nodes located in businesses, government installations and residences connect to the grid, a collection of networks that employ technology to analyze supplier and consumer behaviors to efficiently Continue reading →
In power utility networks, the move is away from the legacy communications infrastructure and toward Ethernet transport and Internet Protocol (IP) or packet-based networks. This is part of the smart grid evolution, with these new networks providing functionality such as IP-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, advanced substation automation and high-resolution video surveillance. Continue reading →
