Nobody has ever accused utilities of being good at marketing. This lack of sales sophistication continues to haunt the industry. As you will read below, utilities around the country are facing complaints that the consumer benefits of smart meters don’t justify the cost. That’s because utilities have foolishly focused only on bill savings, failing to Continue reading →
reliability
State utility regulators have adopted numerous resolutions across all utility sectors, including new guidelines for smart grid deployment, supplier diversity, carbon capture, flexibility on environmental rules, and call termination, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) says. via Renew Grid: Content / New & Noteworthy / NARUC Adopts Guidelines For Smart Grid, Reliability.
In a recent smart grid summit at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the power went out right in the middle of a smart grid security panel discussion. I was moderating the discussion between Southern Power, Cisco and Atmel when the lights dimmed and fell back to alternative power. With top security specialists in the audience Continue reading →
The U.S. electrical grid has been plagued by ever more and ever worse blackouts over the past 15 years. In an average year, outages total 92 minutes per year in the Midwest and 214 minutes in the Northeast. Japan, by contrast, averages only 4 minutes of interrupted service each year. via U.S. Electrical Grid Gets Continue reading →
In a recent post, I described how a lack of transmission lines in eastern Connecticut caused that area to fall below ISO-NE reliability standards. Therefore, ISO-NE to took action by issuing an RFP for diesel generation in that area. I thought I was done with Connecticut and the Grid for a while. I had used Continue reading →
My mother is writing a book. She learned how to use a computer, and has been diligently crafting her story chapter by chapter. If only the local electric grid would cooperate. A single power disruption of a few seconds wiped out an entire chapter of her book. Now she is reworking a previous version and Continue reading →
General Electric researchers are working with Arizona Public Service to determine the best way to integrate large amounts of solar power into the current grid, funded by a $3.3 million High Penetration Solar Deployment grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The team will identify systems and technologies that optimize grid reliability and efficiency with Continue reading →
The Department of Energy (DOE) selected a Pacific Northwest team including information services company 3TIER to conduct a regional smart-grid demonstration. The project will test new smart grid technologies including devices, software, and advanced analytical and forecasting tools that enhance the power grid’s reliability and performance. The Northwest study will involve more than 60,000 metered Continue reading →
Two recent smart grid surveys stand in sharp contrast to each other. Respondents to T&D’s global survey believe that the purpose of smart grid investments should be to enhance electric grid reliability, and that investments in smart meters will not necessarily lead to that vision of the automated smart grid. In contrast, a Greentech Media Continue reading →
Just like a few other nations on the fast track of development, China has also been under the scanner of world’s environment watchdog. GE is helping in this Chinese city’s evolution into a world destination for energy efficiency, reliability and sustainability. GE has been a key player in the implementation of the project of Yangzhou’s Continue reading →
With energy experts forecasting substantial increases in solar power in the coming decades, scientists at GE Global Research are working with Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest electric utility, to understand how large amounts of solar can best be integrated into today’s grid. The first-of-its-kind study, which was approved earlier this month by the state’s Continue reading →
GE is working with the city of Yangzhou, China, to become a worldwide destination for energy efficiency, reliability and sustainability by supporting the grand opening of Yangzhou’s state-of-the-art Smart Grid Demonstration Center. With worldwide adoption of smart grid technologies growing as a way to ensure adequate clean, affordable energy, solutions showcased at the center will Continue reading →
Now that Electric Transmission Texas, LLC (ETT) has activated the largest utility-scale battery in the United States, it seems the aphorism “everything’s bigger in Texas” has been extended beyond steaks and steer to include the improvement of transmission reliability and smart grid usage. The 4-megawatt NAS sodium-sulfur battery was energized on March 31 to the Continue reading →
The electric power system in the U.S. is dirty, antiquated, stupid, unstable, and a security nightmare. After years of discussion and debate, consensus now holds that the generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure will need hundreds of billions in new investment to reduce emissions, improve reliability, minimize waste and inefficiency, improve security, and facilitate the integration Continue reading →
It wasn’t that long ago that microgrids were commonly thought of in the utility industry as negatives: They were supposedly unsafe. And worse, they were competition. But it looks like more utilities and other industry players see them as critical building blocks that will help ensure the efficiency and reliability of the Smart Grid. via Continue reading →
After years of talking about a needed overhaul of the United States’ electrical infrastructure, the federal government decided to do something about it by awarding US$3.4 billion in smart-grid project grants on Oct. 27. Billed as “the largest single energy-grid modernization investment in U.S. history,” the funding under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is Continue reading →
In his best seller “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell shows that it is not equipment failure or storms that typically cause planes to crash, but wrong decision-making. Much the same can be said for the power grid crash that took down a large swath of the Northeast in August 2003. The emerging smart grid is supposed to Continue reading →
The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] on Nov. 24 was selected to receive federal stimulus funds from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of a three-year study to improve the efficiency and reliability of the United States' power grid. “For years, Boeing has developed secure, networked systems vital to our nation’s defense, and bringing this Continue reading →
Spirae, based in Fort Collins, CO, is pleased to announce its participation in the Northwest regional smart grid demonstration project in collaboration with a number of utilities, energy providers, vendors, and research organizations. This project is one of 16 regional demonstration projects announced recently by DOE. Battelle Memorial Institute, Pacific Northwest Division is the primary Continue reading →
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Role of Information and Communications Technologies in Building Smart Grid: Technologies and Markets” report to their offering. This report addresses multiple subjects associated with the development of Smart Grid ICT. It, particular, concentrates on the following items: * Standardization process: it is mostly at the beginning Continue reading →
