Myth: NV Energy will use smart meters to turn off appliances in your home without your permission. Fact: NV Energy simply does not have the capability to operate appliances inside a home or business. Smart meters aren’t able to be used to turn off appliances. NV Energy may offer voluntary programs in the future that Continue reading →
spectrum
U.S. Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., have urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to consider allowing smart grid communications to fill unused TV white-space spectrum. “If the FCC decides to allow smart grid technologies to utilize white spaces, I am certain that we will see innovative applications,” Matsui said in a statement. Continue reading →
A Federal Communications Commission director suggested the agency is exploring new ways to use a swath of spectrum to serve multiple users including utilities building smart electric grids as part of a national broadband plan the FCC will release March 17. “Just looking at data growth for iPhones and other devices, you can see broadband Continue reading →
We just got the first glimpse into how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will work with and oversee the smart grid industry. On Thursday afternoon at the Cleantech Investor Summit, Nick Sinai, the FCC’s new Energy and Environmental Director, said that the FCC will make specific recommendations for how to bring broadband to the smart Continue reading →
Are our governments really serious about Smart Metering, or are they just throwing money away as a political gesture? Increasingly it looks as if it’s the latter. Barack Obama just made a headline announcement that the U.S. Government is prepared to waste $3.4 billion putting smart meters into 13% of U.S. homes. The reason for Continue reading →
Spearheaded by American Electric Power, the massive utility covering the Midwest, Appalachia and parts of Texas, appealed to the Federal Communications Commission yesterday for the government to dedicate licensed radio spectrum to Smart Grid operations, reports Earth2Tech. To do so, the commission would have to ban other types of users from using selected airwaves. In Continue reading →
On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission joined the alphabet soup of federal agencies that’s contemplating what its role might be in bringing our electric grid a bit of intelligence. It’s not unreasonable—smart grid devices are all about starting a two-way conversation between utilities and their distribution equipment and end-user devices. But the FCC held the Continue reading →
American Electric Power (AEP), one of the largest generators of electricity in the U.S., told the Federal Communications Commission today during a workshop on smart grid technology that “dedicated licensed spectrum is sorely needed by utilities.” In other words AEP supports the idea of having the government allocate wireless spectrum specifically for utilities to use Continue reading →
