Smart Grid Blog

Why so much of a buzz over the basic electric power utility meter by hardware and software companies in the electronics industry? The answer lies in what drives the business: money.

Companies around the world are sensing huge business opportunities in power grid design because of two things. First, utilities in US and Europe are embarking upon replacing over 45% of the existing utility meters by 2015. Second, there are huge requirements in terms of units being created by the swelling consumer and industrial base in the developing nations like China, India, Brazil, etc.

According to one projection, there is a requirement of $19.5 billion worth of utility meter and related communications between 2010 and 2015 with an estimated shipment of over 200 million smart-meters [1].

via Embedded.com – Getting basic utility meter designs ready for the Smart Grid.

The country’s swift deployment of smart-grid technology has security professionals concerned that utilities and smart-meter vendors are repeating the mistakes made in the rollout of the public internet, when security became a priority only after malicious attacks had reached mass levels.

But when it comes to the power grid, the costs of remote hack attacks are potentially more dramatic.

via Security Pros Question Deployment of Smart Meters | Threat Level | Wired.com.

Echelon announced on March 10 that it had shipped two million of its Networked Energy Services (NES) smart meters.  Danish utility SEAS-NVE pushed Echelon over the milestone with its order for 390,000 smart meters as part of the biggest smart grid project in Denmark.

The NES smart grid solution allows for a feature rich and highly scalable system of smart meters that are accessible over the Internet.  Utilities around the world are using Echelon’s solutions.  Installations exist in more than 10 countries worldwide.

via Echelon ships two million smart meters.

Several hundred utility executives, government regulators, and engineers have gathered in downtown San Diego this week for a three-day conference that is focused on what may be the utility industry’s biggest paradigm shift since the Tennessee Valley Authority electrified the Southeastern United States.

The only problem is that it’s the biggest paradigm shift that people have never heard of.  A Harris Poll recently highlighted the fact that U.S. utilities have committed billions of dollars to upgrade the electric grid by installing new “smart meters” in homes and businesses. But the Harris Poll shows about two-thirds of Americans (68 percent) have never heard the term “smart grid” and 63 percent don’t know what a smart meter is.

via The Smart Grid is Coming! What’s a Smart Grid? | Xconomy.

City of Tallahassee officials say plans are in the works to complete a “smart grid” system for Tallahassee, which began in April 2008.

The installation of smart meters is a part of the overall smart-grid system, which is designed to allow residents the ability to monitor their electric and water usage more closely.

via Tell us your thoughts on the city’s smart meters | tallahassee.com | Tallahassee Democrat.

Glendale Water & Power will begin this spring a demonstration project of a smart grid system funded by a federal grant.

The project will install 1,500 electric and water meters that allow for two-way communication between the customer and the city-owned utility giving real-time electricity usage data that will help save on Energy costs.

Glendale is the first city in the nation to sign an agreement for a Smart Grid Investment Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

via Glendale Starts Smart Grid Program with Stimulus Funds.

Echelon makes smart meter networks and building automation systems. Could it bring the two businesses together? On Wednesday, Echelon shipped its 2 millionth smart meter, adding recent contracts with a host of Danish utilities and partners to its big list of European clients — and, on the other side of the Atlantic, its contract with Duke Energy. Duke CTO David Mohler has said he’d like to see smart grid systems link up with building automation systems that control air conditioners, lights, boilers and other energy-sucking devices. Could Echelon sync up its building networking standard LonWorks with its smart meter services?

via Will Echelon Link Smart Meters & Smart Building Controls?.

One utility company is making efforts to restore consumer confidence in its new smart meters after months of complaints from its customers over high electric bills,

Oncor Electric Delivery began doing side-by-side meter comparisons last week in Temple between its new digital ‘Smart’ meters and the old, recently replaced analog meters.

via Oncor Side-By-Side Meter Comparison Draws Mixed Reaction.

On February 8 IBM announced the debut of its new POWER7 system that will support even the most demanding smart grid applications.  With this announcement, IBM set the tone for a month of smart grid breakthroughs.  Concerns were raised over the cost of the huge effort and customers in Texas worry that their smart meters are inaccurate.

via A month of smart grid breakthroughs and concerns.

Forget smart meters. Think Bayesian analysis and social networking for saving power.

For the past five years, pundits, investors, companies and others have gone out of their way to explain why the energy business isn’t like Web 2.0.

Energy companies require a tremendous amount of capital, nearly all of the products have to go through rigorous testing cycles, free distribution models often are not realistic options and the customers are typically installers, middlemen and utilities, not consumers who pass it along through word-of-mouth.

via TechCauldron: How Microsoft Will Make Energy Like the Internet.

Creating a revolution in the way energy is produced and shared, distributed solar energy is one of the top clean energy topics of the day.

Chicago utility company ComEd (an arm of the energy giant Exelon Corporation) has a new pilot project in this field that will outfit 100 Chicago-area homes with solar photovoltaic panels and “at least 50 of those with ’smart’ meters, net metering, battery backup and a grid-tied status that enables them to send unused electricity from their solar energy systems back to the grid.”

via Chicago’s New Distributed Solar Energy Pilot Project : CleanTechnica.

I like ice hockey, but I rarely watch a televised game.  There’s too much living going on to spend it plunked in front of a TV.   That said, I did watch the two Olympics games between the US and Canadian men’s hockey teams because I figured they would be well-played games that would be an enjoyable diversion (and they were).

What does this have to do with smart meters?  Everything.  NBC didn’t just broadcast the Olympics, they promoted the schedule of events to build interest and excitement about these games.   Newspapers and web sites also identified the dates and times and provided those “human interest” angles in stories.  If I had to work to get the information about the dates and times the US/Canada games were playing, well, I probably would have missed two great games.  But NBC knew that to get its’ message to the widest possible audience, it had to repeat the game schedule (multiple times), tell me where to find more information (multiple times), and continue to advertise the game right up to the moment the puck hit the ice.

via Hockey, Smart Meters and the Consumer Focus.

By this summer you can expect to find the first energy devices — smart meters, energy management dashboards, connected thermostats — that can link with Microsoft’s online energy management tool Hohm. Troy Batterberry, Microsoft’s product unit manager of its Energy Management & Home Automation division, told us in an interview on Tuesday that Microsoft has just released the software developer kit for Hohm to third party device makers and he is expecting Hohm to connect with devices– likely smart meters first — this summer. Batterberry also told us Microsoft “might” even one day develop its own Microsoft-branded energy hardware, but for now is focused on connecting with third party gadget makers.

via Microsoft Hohm to Connect with Devices this Summer, One Day Offer Its Own?.

Texas-based Nations power announced on February 26 that it was offering prepaid services and pricing in real time for its electricity customers.  The offerings make the utility the first in the United States to offer these smart energy services.

Nations Power is a certified Retail Electric Provider (REP) for customers with smart meters.  Its services are only available if a smart meter has been installed.  The prepaid program will allow Nations Power to provide service to customers who lack the funds for an up-front deposit or high pre-payments that other utilities require.

via Nations Power announces prepaid services and real time pricing.

Kern's SmartMeter backlash has raised red flags around the world and sparked debate within the electric utility industry over whether what some call “The Bakersfield Problem” is merely a public relations warning — or worse, a significant obstacle to efforts to modernize the U.S. power grid.

via Bakersfield’s SmartMeter trouble worries industry.