Smart Grid Blog

The Brumby government’s troubled $2 billion smart meter rollout has been given a ringing endorsement by an independent economic analysis, which found it to be ”cost effective no matter which mix of costs and benefits are used”.

The Oakley Greenwood report, to be released today, found that the benefit of rolling out the smart meters would be between $1.87 billion and $3.51 billion over 20 years and that when combined with additional demand management services the benefits would be between $2.58 billion and $5 billion over the same period.

via Smart meters to save $5bn: report.

Smart meters have become well-known for their role in electric utilities’ smart grid deployments, but a lesser known trend is the increasing importance of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) for gas utilities, according to an industry analyst report from Pike Research.

via Smart Gas Meters to Reach 36 Million Installations Worldwide by 2016, Says Pike Research| Tekrati Research News.

Developing the smart grid is an important part of US President Obama’s energy policies. The enormous business opportunities presented by smart grid have prompted major IT corporations, such as Google and Microsoft, to engage in the smart grid business.

via Strategic Analysis of Cisco’s Smart Grid Deployment Available through Bharatbook.

The European smart electricity meter market is set to undergo rapid growth, with 133 million to 145 million new meters to be installed by 2020.

Sustainability research house Greenbang’s latest report, “Europe’s smart meter outlook for 2020: a market worth $25bn”, also finds that consumer perception around security of data could be an obstacle to growth. And that countries will only hit ambitious targets through effective public/private sector engagement and the development of a common set of smart meter standards.

via Smart meter rollout to reach $25bn in Europe by 2020, says Greenbang | Smart Grid.

NanoMarkets’ Smart Grid Analysis Group has issued a new report on opportunities in the Smart Grid distribution sector. The firm predicts that the global Smart Grid distribution market will approach $8.0 billion in revenues by 2015 driven by the need to automate distribution gear so as to enhance reliability in a world where power generation is highly decentralized and of many different types, and when there are also growing concerns about blackouts and grid security. This new report also prophesies the appearance of a new kind of Smart Grid transformer specially designed to meet the intelligence and efficiency needs of the Smart Grid.

via PR-USA.net – New Report From NanoMarkets’ Smart Grid Analysis Group Sees Markets for Smart Grid Distribution Equi.

A report from Pike Research forecasts that 276 million smart grid communications nodes will be shipped worldwide during the period from 2010 to 2016.

The cleantech market intelligence firm expects that this will represent a total industry investment of $20.3bn during the seven-year forecast period.

This means that annual revenues increase from $1.8bn in 2009 to $3.1bn by 2016, despite rapidly falling average selling prices (ASPs) per node.

via Smart meters to be largest wireless comms app, says analyst – 26/07/2010 – Electronics Weekly.

Whilst there may be a lot of buzz right now surrounding smart grids, most of it will be over the deployment of smart meters and the advanced metering infrastructure between now and 2015. This report looks beyond the hype, assessing the current status, drivers and barriers, value chain, and business cases of the grid.

via Reportlinker Adds Smart Grid & Smart Metering — NEW YORK, July 20 /PRNewswire/ –.

As grids get smarter, it throws open floodgates of opportunities for global utilities, reported a study commissioned by CSC and conducted by leading analyst firm, IDC (News – Alert).

2010 Smart Utility and Meter-to-Cash Study, which was conducted in the winter of 2009-2010 was recently released by CSC. The study queried business and IT executives from leading utilities from Australia, China, the United Kingdom and the United States about their major initiatives, objectives, expected payback, readiness and challenges.

via Smart Grids to Pave Way for Global Opportunities in Analytics: Study.

Frost & Sullivan released its end-user survey, Smart Grid Market – A Customer Perspective on Demand Response, which examines the motivations and probability of residential customers adopting demand response programs.

Demand response is defined as a load power management program offered and controlled by either electric utilities or curtailment service providers. Demand response is considered an essential component of smart grid rollout, as it is expected to reduce overall construction of peak generation plants, as well as improve overall power quality and the environment.

via Residential Customers Increasingly Adopt Demand Response Programs, According to Frost & Sullivan End-User Survey — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 12 /PRNewswire/ –.

This research report about selected Smart Grid components presents an in-depth analysis of the development, applications, products, manufacturers, and trends in the development of transmission and distribution (T&D) system automation, energy storage, and microgrids in the United States and around the world. T&D system automation is vital to smart grid development, is badly in need of repair, and has not been designed for the power needs of high technology systems.

via Smart Grid Micro Grid Energy T&D and Storage Reports Now Available on ReportsandReports | Press Releases @ Your Story.

GTM Research, the market research arm of Greentech Media, today announced the availability of The 2010 North American Utility Smart Grid Deployment Survey, a comprehensive analysis of the trends emerging as utilities across the continent roll out smarter grids. The report is available individually or as part of a newly launched smart grid research annual subscription service.

77% of utilities polled rank distribution automation as the top smart-grid application. The three primary deployment concerns are systems integration, data management solutions and electric vehicle integration, each receiving marks over 50% when asked where the biggest technology gaps exist (multiple selections were allowed).

via The 2010 North American Utility Smart Grid Deployment Survey : Greentech Media.

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.

The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued today the second draft of its Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements, which now identifies more than 120 interfaces that will link diverse devices, systems and organizations engaged in two-way flows of electricity and information and classifies these connections according to the level of damage that could result from a security breach.

Prepared by the NIST-led Cyber Security Working Group, which has more than 350 members, the new draft report expands upon an earlier preliminary version, which was released by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke last September and underwent 60 days of public review. It incorporates responses to the more than 350 individual comments received.

via NIST Issues Expanded Draft of Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy For Public Review and Comment.

Is the smart grid nearly as smart as the hype around it says? It depends on whether you expect the technology to ax energy consumption and carbon emissions … or whether you think it’ll act more like a scalpel.

via Smart grid: An ax for energy use, or just a scalpel? | Efficiency.

Utilities make headlines for ambitious metering and other Smart Grid implementation projects. That suggests the enthusiasm for the new technologies is widespread, if not universal. New research suggests that it’s not.

A new research report says global implementation of Smart Grids could be hobbled by two seemingly unlikely stakeholders: utilities and their customers.

via Smart Grid: Are Utilities and Customers Holding Up the Smart Grid?.

Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report related to the Energy industry is available in its catalogue.

More information regarding this report:Smart Energy Meters Market in Germany 2009-2013… The report by TechNavio Insights forecasts the size of the smart energy meters market in Germany over the period 2009-2013. Further, it discusses the key market trends, drivers and challenges of the smart energy meters market in Germany and profiles some of the key vendors of this industry.

via New Report Just Published Smart Energy Meters Market in Germany 2009-2013.

This report looks at the advanced metering infrastructure value chain. It covers what is driving utilities to adopt smart meter technology, what technology makes up the infrastructure, how the technology benefits a utility, key players in the ecosystem and the competitive landscape for these players.

via OfficialWire: Smart Grid Technologies Address Issues Surrounding Distributed Generation.

Smart Grid Analysis, a newly formed practice within leading industry analyst firm NanoMarkets, today announced that it has added a new report to its schedule titled, “Smart Grid Market Opportunities: The Impact of Government Policies and Regulations.” The report will be available in early February of 2010. For additional details please visit the firm’s website at www.smartgridanalysis.com. An excerpt from the report is available upon request.

via Smart Grid Analysis Announces Upcoming Report Addressing the Impact of Government Policies and Regulations on Smart Grids | SOA World Magazine.

This power report gives a detailed account of the global market for IEC 61850 compliant routers and switches. The report covers the market elements related to IEC 61850 compliant routers and switches. The IEC 61850 routers and switches play a pivotal role in implementing smart grid norms through substation automation.

via IEC 61850 Routers and Switches in Smart Grids: Opportunity Analysis to 2015 – new report released.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, www.frost.com, Mountain View, Calif., estimates the smart grid/smart meter market to reach $11 billion by 2015. The study covers AMI (automated meter infrastructure), IT (information technology) systems, and communication technologies.

According to Frost & Sullivan, Europe is a front-runner, with Italy leading the way since 2005. Denmark currently generates close to 20% of its electricity from wind power and it has developed the most intelligent grid to manage this clean power load.

via M2M magazine | Europe Front-Runner in Smart Grid Space.