Google’s PowerMeter tool is taking a bite out of the slow progress we're making toward a smart grid by jumping over utilities that move at the speed-of-molasses and putting energy data in front of users right away, including creating an easy-to-use energy monitoring platform and partnering with home power monitor companies like The Energy Detective. They’ve just made another smart move to speed things along by opening up their application programming interface (API) so that developers can start creating tools to interface with PowerMeter. Now developers can create devices and tools that can talk to PowerMeter, making it that much easier to have a whole-house energy monitoring system for a much lower cost, and much sooner than if we wait for a fully developed smart grid to provide it.
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Utilities around the world are still struggling to understand and implement new technology needed to make electrical grids cleaner and more efficient. Only 8 percent of them worldwide have finished rolling out smart meters and other equipment under the banner of “Smart Grid,” according to new survey data collected by Microsoft.
Completed Smart Grid deployments might not be the best metric, but data showing that only 37 percent of utilities are working on relevant projects, and that more than half have done nothing to transition their operations, indicates that we here in the U.S. think the Smart Grid is being adopted much faster than it actually is.
via Microsoft survey: Utilities still slow to buy into the Smart Grid | VentureBeat.
John Arnold, managing director and Larry Cochrane, industry technology strategist of Microsoft’s worldwide power and utilities industry division, explain the software behind smart grid systems.
Smart grid is the hot topic on every utility executive’s mind around the world.
The European Commission estimates that US€1 trillion will be spent improving Europe’s electricity network and generation capacity by 2030 in response to supply challenges, security requirements and climate change.
via Microsoft unveils smart grid software secrets | utilities-me.com.
Is Intel joining Smart Grid latecomers Google, Microsoft, Apple and Cisco in a bid to dominate the market or even to make utilities obsolete?
You could hardly blame utilities for being suspicious about Intel’s newly released Intelligent Home Energy Management software. Just consider what’s happening in the telecom space. Google and Apple are trying to “disintermediate” the telcos. They want to own the customer relationship, so the loyalty is to your Android or Apple phone, not to the carrier.
via Smart Grid: Intel’s Smart Grid Ambitions: A Swift Kick in the Apps.
eMeter, the global leader in Smart Grid Management software, today announced that the PowerCentsDC program it designed and managed in partnership with Pepco and Smart Meter Pilot Program, Inc (SMPPI), has won the “Best Pricing and Demand Response Program” award from the Association for Energy Service Professionals (AESP). The program is the first pilot in the electric utility industry to test the response of residential customers to three distinct dynamic pricing options under one program.
FutureDash Corp., an innovative start-up business-to-business (B2B) software company, announces today that GreenDash™, a new software product allowing manufacturers of consumer networking and electronics equipment to quickly and easily add real-time energy monitoring capabilities to their products, now integrates with Google PowerMeter using the newly announced Google PowerMeter API.
QNX Software Systems, a Harman International (NYSE:HAR) company, today unveiled its new smart energy reference, a pre-integrated software stack that makes it easier to design, deploy, and extend smart-home energy management systems.
The smart energy reference provides out-of-the-box support for Zigbee sensors, Insteon home area networks (HANs), streaming IP video cameras for security monitoring, an application for calculating costs of energy consumption, and Internet connectivity for retrieving weather information and performing remote control and diagnostics. Other features include zone temperature controls, individual and zone light controls, and appliance monitoring and control.
via QNX Unveils Reference Design for Smart-Home Energy Management Systems.
Software AG, a global leader in business infrastructure software, announced that they are partnering with Siemens to support the UK Government's “smart grid” and “smart metering” initiatives. The UK Government has set a target date of 2020 for installing smart meters in over 26 million homes country-wide. Siemens and Software AG have developed a demonstration with partners Electralink and eMeter to show how a central communications gateway can provide access to, and control of, smart meters. Power providers can use ElecraLink’s interim solution — the Smart Interoperability Portal(TM) — to start using smart meters immediately.
via NewsFactor Network | Software AG & Siemens Team on UK Smart Meter Project.
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?.
The green movement is creating new marketplace opportunities as a result of developing new green technology. One technology is smart grid software. Businesses, traditional and emerging, will soon be affected by how this technology will be deployed and adopted as they move into some version of peak load or variable pricing.
The modern electric grid is hardly modern; it has barely changed in seventy-five years. Most electric grid systems today consist of transmission and distribution networks that connect power plants to end users. These systems rely on centralized power generation and feature bottlenecks and choke points where damage to the infrastructure can disrupt service to thousands of customers if not more. Todays electric grids are poorly equipped to handle the demands of the post-modern economy, which due to the ever increasing use of digital devices requires higher load demands and uninterruptible power.
via Smart Green Grid Software Meets the Not-So-Smart Modern Electric Grid.
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) today launched its Smart Energy Enterprise Suite, or SEEsuite™, of advanced grid management applications to give utilities, system operators and defense customers unprecedented insight into their enterprise operations and command and control of their smart grid assets.
SEEsuite combines Lockheed Martin’s expertise in systems-of-systems integration, service oriented architectures, cyber security and mission-critical systems development with utility-specific functionality.
Ventyx(R), the world’s largest private software, data and advisory services provider to the energy and utility industry, today announced availability of the Ventyx Smart Grid Operations (http://www1.ventyx.com/solutions/smart-grid.asp) solution in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. An integral component of the first fully integrated SmartGridCity(TM) in Boulder, Colorado, the solution offers the only proven technology for successful integration of the commercial operations value chain for Smart Grids from portfolio optimization to customer program management.
via Ventyx Announces Smart Grid Operations Solution for EMEA | SYS-CON CANADA.
A decade-old software firm called Ecologic Analytics has been quietly cleaning up when it comes to the software link that connects smart meter data to a utilities’ back office (commonly called meter data management systems, or MDMS). This morning the company, which has meter maker Landis + Gyr as a minority shareholder, announced that utility Indianapolis Power & Light Company (IPL) will be using its meter data management system for its smart grid program.
via A Quiet Smart Grid Software Player to Watch: Ecologic Analytics.
Every smart grid company, IT firm and software startup seems to have the desire to build a home energy management tool these days. But one we’ve been waiting to see for awhile has just launched: Smart grid player GridPoint says that its home energy management tool, which partly uses software from the company Lixar it acquired back in June, is now available.
The term “Smart Grid” – meaning an integration of the electric power infrastructure with information and communication technology (ICT) – is echoing throughout the US energy industry. The major goal of the Smart Grid is to provide a communication path between the electric utilities and the users, utilizing information exchange to reduce electricity consumption in the home. The key technology is the Home Energy Management System (HEMS), and in the last few years HEMS-related companies in the US have been springing up like mushrooms after the rain.
