Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has proposed an ambitious pact with the state’s utilities and telcos to establish a broadband-enabled smart grid for the state. via Vermont’s utilities, telcos establish smart grid partnership – FierceTelecom.
telecom
BT is drawing up plans to win the rights to provide a key component for the Government’s multi-billion pound plan to introduce smart meters, designed to cut carbon emissions and slash energy bills, across the country. The telecoms giant will announce today that it has teamed up with transmission group Arqiva and technology consultant Detica Continue reading →
A strong opportunity exists for telecoms operators to enter the power market by providing backbone infrastructure for smart grids. This is the core finding of a new report from global management consultancy Arthur D. Little – “Smart Grid opportunities for telcos” – in which experts analyze a range of business models in the context of Continue reading →
The telecom and utility industries haven’t always agreed on how to work together — which is why utility companies have traditionally built their own communications networks. But with the major opportunity called “smart grid” looming, there is a new study afoot aimed at bringing the two sides together, or at least finding common ground. The Continue reading →
In the telecommunications business most telephone calling and Internet surfing is done at fixed prices; the trend favors flat rates. But, there’s no flat rate for electricity, where, to an increasing extent, the ground rule is “use more, pay more.” That rule is likely to be applied even more stringently in the future. With time-of-use Continue reading →
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is setting up two new focus groups – one to look at cloud computing and one at smart grids – to identify what future telecommunications standards might be needed to support these technologies. Any standardisation requirements identified by the groups will be taken forward by relevant ITU-T (Telecommunications) study groups. Continue reading →
There are a lot of similarities between the build out of telecom and Internet infrastructure, and the current rollout of the smart grid. But here’s one major, and very important, difference between the construction of communications and energy networking, which the President and Chief Operating Officer of utility ComEd, Anne Pramaggiore, mentioned on a panel Continue reading →
As a telecom veteran, I sometimes get a sense of deja vu at Smart Grid conferences. There are some strong similarities between the telecom industry of 25 years ago and electric utilities today. I know how much the utility industry hates to hear that but it is true. Here are the similarities and important lessons Continue reading →
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski did an hour-long Q&A at GigaOM HQ with GigaOM founder Om Malik and senior writer Stacey Higginbotham, in which they tackled issues like the lack of telecom competition and how to foster innovation in the broadband ecosystem. While Genachowski only briefly touched on the electric grid during his Continue reading →
Carl Weinschenk spoke with Zpryme Research & Consulting Managing Director Mark Ishac. Last month, Zpryme released a snapshot report describing smart grid opportunities for hardware and software companies. Weinschenk: Please characterize the relationship between smart grid, IT and telecom. via For IT and Telecom, Smart Grid Offers Big Challenges and Big Potential | Interviews | Continue reading →
While many companies are poised to benefit from the $3.4 billion in smart grid grants, the government funds may do more than just lend itself to telecom companies looking to expand their efforts in smart grid technology. When Obama announced the funding initiative in October, telecom companies and many U.S. states sprang to apply for Continue reading →
Atmel has announced a range of AVR wireless microcontroller (MCU) devices targeting wireless applications such as Zigbee and IPv6/6LoWPAN. … Atmel’s picopower technology offers ultra-low power consumption to enable longer battery life for wireless Zigbee applications, including smart energy, building automation, telecom and health care. via Atmel MCU devices target wireless applications: News from Atmel.
There is a common anecdote that very aptly compares the current state of the electric industry vis-à-vis the telecom industry. It goes like this: “If Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison were alive, Bell likely would be thrilled to see cell phones and other advanced telecommunications inventions in wide use, while Edison would see basically Continue reading →
It’s no secret that the smart grid movement is a big hotspot for telecom companies – big and small – to branch into a new industry sector to expand business, growth opportunities and visibility in another market. And now, with a new report from NanoMarkets, it seems that the smart grid movement will create opportunities Continue reading →
This week I attend my first Grid Week conference in Washington D.C., but I wasn’t the only newbie there. In contrast to most telecom trade shows this year, this jam-packed conference, in its third year of existence, sold out. The mostly vendor-driven show did have one important (at least to Connected Planet) segment missing, however Continue reading →
The smart grid is positioned as holding the answers to a lot of problems inherent in the complex and unwieldy beast that is the nation’s electric grid. It promises to enhance reliability, optimize energy delivery through granular control, give power to the consumer and minimize the grid’s huge environmental impact. The answers the smart grid Continue reading →
Telecommunications technology is advancing so rapidly that there is considerable FUD factor (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) in the idea of locking in your communications strategy for 20 years. So the Telco says to the Utilityco: no worries, just outsource your grid communications to us! Given the past problems with BPL and the expense of optical Continue reading →
In an article in SmartGrid.TMCNet, entrepreneur Shidan Gouran sketches out a variety of communications scenarios that future Smart Grid functions will need, including the ability of electric-vehicle charging stations to recognize and bill the car owner across different utilities; monitoring the large number of locations of a highly distributed generation system; accommodating a mobile workforce Continue reading →
We all understand that the Smart Grid is about communications between devices and control systems on the grid. But what isn’t clear is if the technology and standards for this system need, or can, in fact, handle the sophistication typical of modern human-centric telecom networks. If we all agree that the scenarios I’m about to Continue reading →
