Smart Grid Blog

Elster, Landis+Gyr and Secure have reached an agreement to work together to develop common approaches for the development of smart communication standards necessary for the interoperability of equipment for the UK market. The solutions will be based on open standards and available specifications for Smart Meter technologies and will help to dramatically accelerate the roll out of gas and electricity Smart Meters in the UK.

via HiddenWires – Smart Meter manufacturers agree to develop communication standards for the UK.

CenterPoint Energy has received the results of independent tests that verify the accuracy of its smart electric meters.  Earlier this year, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) requested the tests be performed on all smart meters being installed by utilities across Texas after consumers in some parts of the state expressed concerns about the accuracy of digital smart meters compared to traditional electromechanical meters.

The tests, conducted by Navigant Consulting LLC, confirm the accuracy of CenterPoint Energy’s smart meters, manufactured by Itron, Inc., as well as the effectiveness of the utility’s meter data management and data transfer process and controls. All of the thousands of CenterPoint Energy smart meters tested were found to be accurate by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards.

via Independent Tests Verify Accuracy of CenterPoint Energy Smart Meters — HOUSTON, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ –.

Smart meter providers Elster, Landis+Gyr and Secure have reached an agreement to collaborate on common approaches for the development of smart communication standards.It is hoped that the collaboration will significantly accelerate the roll-out of gas and electricity smart meters in the UK.

via Smart meter makers collaborate to introduce UK standards.

Despite all of the rhetoric around, and government support for, a U.S. standards-based smart grid, proprietary communications technology will reign supreme for years to come, according to a report out from Pike Research. Pike found that for the portion of the network that will connect a home’s smart meter to the neighborhood network (in jargon terms that’s called the AMI-NAN)  proprietary wireless mesh technology will be the leading communication technology until at least 2016. That piece of the network will generate 90 percent of the market for smart grid communication nodes by 2012, so the proprietary technology will dominate a big chunk of the available revenues, too.

via Proprietary Smart Grid Tech Will Reign For Years.

In their first face-to-face meeting, the leaders of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) and utility regulators explored options for increasing state-level participation in developing the standards needed to modernize nation’s electric power system with two-way communication and control capabilities. Such capabilities will be needed to give consumers greater control over their energy bills, facilitate charging of electric vehicles, enable high penetrations of renewable energy, and improve the reliability of the power system.

via Federal-State Cooperation Can Remove Delays, Obstacles to Achieving Smart Grid Benefits, Regulators Are Told | Business Wire.

What will it take to usher in the age of the smart grid?

Is it technology? Policy? Standards? Economics?

According to Cisco senior vice president Laura Ipsen, it takes a combination of all three, all at once, to help roll out a digitized infrastructure that can help track and save energy across the entire electrical grid.

via Cisco’s Laura Ipsen: Smart grid success requires infotech, energy tech savvy – SmartPlanet.

The smart grid a massive shift as utilities move from the existing world of proprietary, standards-based legacy technologies and towards an architecture that will require a much greater degree of interoperability and use of open standards. Despite barriers currently prevent widespread adoption, the fact that it is possible at all to apply open source models is a testament to how far the utility industry has come in the past few years.

via Report: An Open Source Smart Grid Primer — GigaOM Pro.

Most of the electric utility infrastructure deployed in the industrialized world was built between 60 to 80 years ago, and was designed to provide customers with as much energy as they could consume, generated from a centralized fossil fuel plant. However, much of the infrastructure is antiquated, and with the continuing increase in demand for power, the grid cannot safely and reliably manage the loads of today and tomorrow without significant upgrades. Furthermore, climate change standards and renewable energy mandates are among the key drivers that are forcing utilities to upgrades their infrastructure to incorporate new generation sources that do not negatively impact the environment. In order to accommodate these renewable sources of energy, which usually produce power on an intermittent basis, utilities are needing to install more accurate measurement, monitoring, control and analysis equipment to ensure these energy sources can be properly and reliably integrated into the grid. These intelligent technological and communication enhancements are usually described as the smart grid.

via Smart Grid Applications.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is planning to launch an international entity to be tasked with developing a smart grid, a next-generation power transmission network, U.S. government sources said Friday.

With the launch of the envisioned international body, the U.S. government aims to expand the energy market through smart grid standardization and take the lead in the new energy business, the sources said.

via LEAD: U.S. eyes launching int’l entity for next-generation power grid+.

Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, I am John McDonald, Director, Technical Strategy and Policy Development, with GE Energy’s Digital Energy business. In this role, I set and drive the vision that integrates standards, policy, regulatory and industry participation with customer solutions development at Digital Energy.

My comments today are based upon my more than three decades of experience working in the electric power industry, my position at GE and my numerous industry leadership roles. These include Past President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power & Energy Society, current member of the Department of Energy (DoE) Smart Grid Electricity Advisory Committee, current Board Member of The GridWise Alliance and the IEEE – SA (Standards Association), and current Chair of the Governing Board of the NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP).

via House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Technology & Innovation Hearing | TradingMarkets.com.

According to government sources, the United States plans to announce the formation of the International Smart Grid Action Network, or ISGAN, to expand the U.S. energy market through smart grid standardization and take the lead in the new energy business. The Obama administration is expected to make the announcement at the first ministerial meeting on clean energy to take place in Washington, D.C. on July 19-20.

via US Planning International Smart Grid Network.

IEEE, the world's largest professional association for the advancement of technology, today announced that John McDonald, IEEE Fellow and Director of Technical Strategy and Policy Development for GE’s Digital Energy business; gave testimony on the progress of standards for Smart Grid interoperability and cyber security before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, House Committee on Science and Technology. Held July 01, 2010, the hearing was entitled Smart Grid Architecture and Standards: Assessing Coordination and Progress.

via Your Industry News – IEEE Fellow John McDonald Gives Testimony on Progress of Standards Development and Cyber Security for Smart Grid.

It takes time to hammer out an agreement, but progress is occurring.

That’s the word from John McDonald, the general manager of the transmission and distribution business at General Electric and the chair of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel Governing Board at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

via NIST’s Smart Grid Standards: A Work in Progress : Greentech Media.

The Home Gateway Initiative HGI today announced the significant progress it has made in its smart energy requirements work following a successful Summit held with other leading stakeholder organisations.The Smart Energy Services Summit was organised by HGI and brought together key industry fora and standards developing organisations – Beywatch, the Broadband Forum, Energy@Home and ETSI Technical Committees M2M and TISPAN WG5 NGN Home Networking – who are, together with HGI, all looking to facilitate reductions in energy consumption. Also present at the meeting was a cross section of companies within the field, including broadband service providers, energy utilities, smart meter providers, chip providers, and broadband equipment vendors.

via HGI Starts Work On Requirements Document Following Successful Smart Energy Event : GoArticles.com.

The vision of a smarter grid is of course a lovely thing to behold: an electric power system that’s much more interactive, interoperable, reliable, and robust—“self-healing,” even. That’s why so much excitement attended the news this time last year that the U.S. stimulus bill would contain billions of dollars in new funding to support smart grid construction, and the news six months later than the National Institute for Standards and Technology was issuing draft standards and a roadmap for completing standardization of the smart grid (the Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, issued in final form in January). And it’s the reason too why such high expectations ride on the avalanche of smart meter installation projects launched in the last year.

via IEEE Spectrum: Smart Grid Proof?.

Rebuild the U.S. electricity grid to support reliance on clean, domestic, renewable energy as an alternative to oil in motor vehicles and as a replacement for unsustainable fossil fuels across the economy. This involves increasing federal backstop authority for planning, siting, and cost allocation in the construction of new transmission infrastructure built to accommodate new renewable energy resources, as well as improved federal standards and cost sharing for implementation of digital smart grid technology within regional electricity distribution networks

via Fix the Real Problem: End America’s Energy Vulnerability.

The 1st IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm) will be held 4 – 6 October 2010 at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. Sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), the IEEE SmartGridComm conference focuses on all communications aspects that are relevant to the Smart Grid. IEEE SmartGridComm aims at bringing together researchers from Academia, Industry, and National Labs to exchange novel ideas, explore enabling technologies, analyze theoretical issues, discuss open problems, propose innovative designs, and share field trial experiences and lessons learned. The General Co-Chairs of IEEE SmartGridComm are Dr. George Arnold (NIST, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability) and Dr. Stefano Galli (Panasonic, Lead Scientist).

via Don’t miss IEEE conference on smart grid communication.

Engineering and testing services company National Testing Systems (NTS) announced that it has completed Zigbee Smart Energy certification testing for a versatile wireless electric load controller made by SimpleHomeNet, which makes energy management and home and building automation devices. But the big news is that smart energy device testing appears to be taking off as a hot growth segment of the flourishing Smart Grid technologies market. The announcement also signals continuing widespread acceptance of Zigbee as the leading wirelessly networked sensing and controlling standard for consumer electronics, home area networks, commercial and industrial applications. NTS CEO William McGinnis said the explosive growth of smart energy device testing is a global phenomenon and that the market can only keep growing as more companies dive into smart energy technologies.

Quick Take: The Smart Grid initiative has given birth to an incredible array of new markets and opportunities based on innovative technologies we probably wouldn’t have imagined at the outset. That point also stresses how extremely important interoperability standards are to a functional, reliable Smart Grid.

via Smart Grid: Smart Energy Device Testing Taking Off: Explosive Global Growth Predicted.

National Technical Systems (NTS) Completes ZigBee Smart Energy Certification Testing for SimpleHomeNet Appliance
Rapidly Expanding Smart Grid Compliance Testing Market Is Key NTS Initiative

National Technical Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTSC) (NTS), a leading provider of engineering services, announced today that it recently completed ZigBee Smart Energy certification testing for a feature-rich, wireless electric load controller manufactured by SimpleHomeNet, a division of Compacta International. The tests were run at the NTS laboratory in Culver City, CA. Following completion of the certification tests, the ZigBee Alliance reviewed the test results submitted by NTS and the application submitted by SimpleHomeNet and certified the load controller.

NTS is the market leader in ZigBee smart energy certification testing and one of only three companies worldwidewith rights designated by the ZigBee Alliance to test wireless products for ZigBee Smart Energy certification. Completion of the certification tests for SimpleHomeNet is another example of NTS' expanding leadership in the burgeoning testing market for ZigBee Smart Energy.

ZigBee Smart Energy is the market leading wireless home area network (HAN) standard with more than 40 million smart meters being installed around the world. Last year, it was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as an initial interoperable standard for HAN devices. ZigBee has also been adopted by over 350 global manufacturers andthere is a large total potential market of 1.5 billion devices that could be installed in homes worldwide for energy management and demand response, according to a recently published report by ON World.

Smart energy device testing is a rapidly expanding global industry and a growing market for NTS,said NTS Chief Executive Office William McGinnis. The U.S. Department of Energy has allocated $30 billion as part of a national energy initiative backed by national utility companies, which is expected toencourage the development and certification of a broad range of smart energy products McGinnis said.

ZigBee Smart Energy certification demonstrates that a wireless product such as a load controller, or other wireless device, is compliant with the ZigBee Smart Energy standard that was created by energy experts and ZigBee Alliance members. ZigBee members include Ember, Freescale, Texas Instruments, Landis & Gyr, Itron, Cisco, General Electric, Honeywell, Intel, Mitsubishi Electric Corp., Philips, Samsung Electronics, Siemens, Sony and many other leading corporations around the world.

“This is already a large, rapidly growing market and an expanding list of companies is committed to the smart energy path, which we believe is a good opportunity for us,” McGinnis added. “We not only provide the test services, but we also design the test tools to simulate the functions of the appliances that allow our clients to do self-testing. We have a full solution for our clients with software testing and validation and multiple engineering services.”

Remotely controlled, wireless appliances such as thermostats, meters, load controllers, pool pumps, water heaters and display units designed for homeowners as part of a HAN are key components of a smart grid created to reduce energy usage, increase reliability and cut costs for consumers, said NTS Chief Technology Officer Osman Sakr. The NTS testing demonstrates that the appliances work together properly and can accurately show how much energy is being used, thereby allowing a consumer to manage energy efficiently.

Al Choperena, President and CEO of Compacta International, said the NTS testing and ZigBee Smart Energy certification of its load controller “is a key milestone in our ZigBee product roadmap and signals our strong commitment to the future of the smart grid. To date, our certification efforts have been on track thanks to our ongoing partnership with NTS.”

via NTS – National Technical Systems, Inc. – Investors – Financial News.

Version 1 of a 400-page document on how utilities and vendors should secure the smart grid is due this summer, and the 450 volunteers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s cybersecurity working group are girding themselves for the final push.

Some of them have been meeting this week at a smart grid conference in Silicon Valley and have had some intense discussions on what needs to be done.

via Tracking the security of the smart grid – SmartPlanet.