Ice Energy, a leading provider of advanced energy storage for the electric utility industry, has completed the installation of a distributed energy storage pilot project, in conjunction with Austin Energy, at the South Austin Recreational Center, located in South-Central Austin.
The Project represents the first installation of Ice Energy’s Ice Bear distributed energy storage technology in the State of Texas.
The ins and outs of tomorrow’s energy grid will be tested on an unprecedented scale in Chicago. Local utility ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, will use $5 million in Recovery Act funding to institute the program, which will initially outfit 8,000 homes with advanced smart meters in order to test how well consumers manage their energy consumption when monitoring and programming are available. The project will also include outfitting 100 homes with distributed solar power systems, creating “mini-utilities” through which ComEd can glimpse the smart home of the future.
‘Window of opportunity for malicious intent’ as energy firms roll out smart-grid pilot programs
Attacks against the power grid are likely to rise and intensify during the next 12 months as smart grid research and pilot projects advance, according to utility security experts and a recently published report that analyzes threats to critical infrastructure.
The so-called Project Grey Goose Report on Critical Infrastructure points to state and/or non-state sponsored hackers from the Russian Federation of Independent States, Turkey, and China as the main threats to targeting and hacking into energy providers and other critical infrastructure networks.
via Spike In Power Grid Attacks Likely In Next 12 Months – Donna’s SecurityFlash.
The first stop for Duke Energy's smart grid technology – which will give the company instantaneous energy information – is this college town.
Duke installed its first digital electric meters Thursday at 313 N. College St., home to Miami University students. The company said 6,000 residential electric meters will be installed in Oxford by May.
via Duke’s ’smart grid’ meters begin in Oxford | cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.Com.
India's power sector is slowly but surely connecting to smart grids to increase efficiency and reduce losses. Bangalore’s Electronic City is implementing a pilot project not just to modernise power grids but also to increase use of renewables.
In March 2008, it all sounded great. Xcel Energy announced that Boulder would be home to the very first smart grid in the country, and people loved it. City council members thought the idea was stupendous; environmentalists said it would help the average person conserve electricity — or at least spread out their electricity use so that peak loads could be diminished (and, therefore, so could peak-load plants that are most often run off of coal and natural gas).
But two years later, the smart grid doesn’t look as shiny as it once did.
via Was building Boulder’s smart grid a smart idea? | BigGreenBoulder Boulder, CO : BigGreenBoulder.
A smart-grid project in Ohio will test whether the electricity business will follow the history of computing, with storage moving from center to the edge of the network.
Start-up International Battery on Monday said that it has been chosen to supply lithium ion batteries for a community energy storage pilot project run by utility AEP set to go online by the middle of this year.
The storage units will be about the size of pad-mounted transformers, the roughly refrigerator-size boxes that step down high-voltage current from transmission lines for local service, said Ake Almgren, the CEO of International Battery.
via Lithium batteries tapped for community storage | Green Tech – CNET News.
National Grid has asked the NYS Public Service Commission for approval to run a “Smart Grid” pilot program in the eastern part of Onondaga County. The test area ranges from Bridgeport to Camillus and from the south-eastern part of the City of Syracuse to Chittenango and all areas in between. National Grid wants to replace about 40,000 meters in that area with “Smart Grid” technology.
via National Grid Wants to test “Smart Grid” Technology in CNY: The Real Deal – NewsChannel 9 WSYR.
What will convince people to actually reduce their home energy consumption and engage with new smart meters that are being rolled out? The folks leading ComEd, including the Chicago utility’s President and COO Anne Pramaggiore, want to know. At the Cleantech Investor Summit on Wednesday Pramaggiore said that in April ComEd would be starting a pilot project with 8,000 customers that would be getting four different pricing structures and various technology options by which to monitor and manage their energy consumption.
via ComEd Signs Up Silver Spring, Tendril for Smart Grid Pilot.
National Grid has proposed a new “smart grid” project to test new technologies that would allow people to more smartly manage their electricity usage.
The project will be located in Syracuse and impact 39,000 customers there.
The City of Norman has been selected by OG–E to be the first community in the company’s customer base to receive new “smart” meters intended to improve customer service and energy delivery.
via The Norman Transcript – Norman selected as first comunity to receive new meters.
The future is now — in about a third of the 131,000 homes in the Chicago metropolitan area ComEd has slated for its smart-meter pilot program.
About 45,000 homes in Bellwood, Berwyn, Forest Park, Maywood, Melrose Park and River Forest have been getting the meters — touted for providing more information and better service — installed since November, with Oak Park being added to the mix this week.
via ComEd looks to future, tests smart meters in area homes :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Business.
Smart meter roll-outs are taking place across the UAE. But what are the benefits of engaging with the new ‘smart ecosystem’?
Right now, the GCC is standing on the cusp of a ‘smart’ revolution. In some respects, the region is even further ahead than other competitor markets as it rolls out a selection of pilot smart metering programmes. While the numbers being deployed here may not be in the same league as in similar deployments in Europe and the US, the UAE, in particular, has been quick to see the benefits that new metering technology will provide both to utilities and the ultimate end-client – the consumer.
Western Power will pilot a new smart infrastructure project, SmartGrid-Advanced Meter Infrastructure, aimed at delivering more reliable, sustainable and cost effective energy to homes and businesses in the south-west of Western Australia.
The first fully operational smart grid deployment in the United States is in Austin, Texas, a city better known for its music festivals than technology. Dubbed Smart Grid 1.0, the upgrade was finished in October and included installation of 86,000 smart thermostats and 410,000 smart meters servicing one million consumers and 43,000 businesses in the greater Austin metropolitan area.
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