At its heart, the Smart Grid remakes the delivery of electricity. It adds intelligence, telemetry, and communications to every part of the grid. This section will let you quickly find the business and technical information you need on all aspects of electric power transmission and distribution.
Results: 386 results found. You are on page 1 of 16 pages.
Smart meters may get most of the attention, but many would argue that grid optimization is how utilities and their customers are going to get the most bang for their buck. So what is grid optimization, and how do we bring it out of the smart grid closet? You'll find answers in our one-stop grid optimization toolkit, which is packed with the analysis, trends and resources you need to get up to speed.
How are we going to turn our frail and neglected electric power transmission system into a secure and reliable smart grid? It’s a critical and timely issue, which is why we’ve loaded this toolkit with some of the best analysis, most-promising trends and smartest research relating to next steps in electric power transmission.
Over breakfast with Thierry Godart, president of Siemens' smart grid division in the U.S., SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst learned that for Siemens, 2012 is going to be all about integration - and that Siemens wants to be the leading smart grid integrator. Click for a peek at the three areas that Siemens is targeting - and how Jesse thinks this old school company's prospects shape up against new school competitors.
SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst notes that electric utilities in the U.S. are slowly coming around to the concept of saving energy with volt/VAR optimization (conservation voltage reduction if you prefer) and cites a cooperative project with the Electric Power Research Institute, Alabama Power and Duke Energy. Read more inside about the "green circuits" method studied in the project.
Siemens snaps up RuggedCom, a maker of hardened routers for substations. ABB snags Thomas & Betts, a maker of old-school low voltage gear. Valuations on these two recent deals may signal a new strategic phase of particular interest to smaller suppliers. Click for more on that, plus concerns about the Siemens deal from long-time industry analyst Chuck Newton.
Revenues from transmission and distribution infrastructure investments are expected to more than double over the next several years – from $7.27 billion in 2010 to $15.53 billion in 2020, according to a new analysis from Global Data. The business intelligence company says the increase in demand from emerging economies is primarily responsible for the growth.
Efforts to build new transmission and expand natural gas production in the U.S. have been a qualified success because of "studious" efforts to craft the right price signals and break down traditional monopolies on power generation and sales, former FERC Commissioner Marc Spitzer tells AOL Energy. Click for more of their wide-ranging interview.
Utilities facing the challenges of an aging/retiring workforce and an aging infrastructure can find themselves dealing with problematic feeders that require too much time and attention. With launch of its Intelligent Distribution Sensor product line, CURRENT is offering a solution - and Pepco is taking them up on it with a rollout planned for its Washington, D.C. service area.
A tool from GE that spots grid stress sooner and two new security solutions from Tropos Networks are featured in today's installment of our Discovery Showcase series. Click for a look at seven new product releases from some leading smart grid vendors (and a couple you may not have heard of - yet anyway). And a special bonus: A free tool from EPRI that helps you evaluate electricity generation technologies.
A new partnership between Clevest Solutions (field force automation) and In Motion Technology (field force wireless communications) provides a glimpse of a likely future for utility workers.
What's the application that will take smart grid over the top? That will make it seem as obvious, inevitable and valuable as the Internet seems to us today? Some say it's demand response, some say voltage optimization, some say customer empowerment. What do YOU say? That's this week's Tuesday Topic in our discussion forum.
The ambitious Tres Amigas SuperStation project, an initiative to hook up the three major U.S. electric grids, has picked up considerable steam with two international partners signing on: Japan's Mitsui and Co. and the European Power Exchange. SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst takes a quick look at what the excitement is about.
A comprehensive grid optimization study being undertaken by the German government is urgently needed since the country has opted to abandon nuclear, says SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst. Learn how the study's results could influence Europe's future role in smart grid.
Over the years, we've spent a lot of time at Smart Grid News talking about how best to communicate with meters and home area networks. But what about the growing need to communicate with substations, circuit breakers and transformers? As you will see in today's guest column by Andrejs Rozitis of FreeWave Technologies, new communications technologies are transforming that part of the grid as well.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called this week for a roadmap to set up an "electricity highway" from areas with excess generating capacity and resources to help the downstate region which has extensive energy needs. Read the story for more on the governor's remarks and a state smart grid initiative.
Traditional outage management poses at least three challenges for electric utilities -- lack of timely reporting, slow restoration of nested outages and difficulty diagnosing single-customer outages. With a well-designed AMI system, utilities can overcome those issues, according to Chris Montgomery of Silver Spring Networks. Click to learn the six outage-management capabilities Chris says your AMI system should deliver.
The microgrid market experienced several changes in 2011, most notably a move away from pilot projects to practical full-scale commercial microgrids. Read what a recent tracker report from Pike Research has to say about the market's worldwide growth and microgrid adoption.
SGN's Jesse Berst attended the annual predictions Webinar hosted by IDC Energy Insights and walked away with nine that he believes in. Did you realize that utility mergers will accelerate? That munis and coops are now in the driver's seat for AMI deployments? That analytics is the Next Big Thing? Click to read the full list.
A new year is on the way, and so are new smart grid technologies from leading vendors. In this latest installment of our Discovery Showcase series, you'll learn about special-duty surge arresters, software that turns PMU data into valuable insights, and three more just-released innovations. Click to read the details.
New research from Frost & Sullivan finds that distributed generation could eliminate, or at least reduce, the instances of black outs that are associated with current electric grids relying only on big central power plants. But there's a catch.
There's a lot of smart grid happening this week – from power plant automation and wireless sensor projects to a California initiative to give customers access to their energy use information with the click of a button. Learn more about five very different smart grid projects that caught our attention.
We've been talking for years about moving computing into the cloud. What about moving electric power generation into a cloud configuration? We might be able to get there partway, suggests Telvent's Jeffrey Meyers, a concept he dubs "the Partly Cloudy Grid." Click inside to read his forecast.
The future smart electric grid needs not only smart meters but also smart transmission and distribution technologies as Dr. Ram Adapa of EPRI discusses in our featured video that highlights the role power electronics will play in smart transmission by enhancing transmission capacity, reliability and security.
Britain continues to push its aggressive smart grid deployment schedule with the announcement of almost $90 million awarded to six pilot projects ranging from automating and optimizing high-voltage networks to incorporating renewables and energy storage into those networks. Another signal that activity is starting to heat up in Europe?
Pacific Gas & Electric this week asked the California PUC for the green light on six new smart grid pilot projects. The utility's plans range from enhancing distribution system reliability and flexibility to implementing voltage and grid control systems to cut customer costs, as well developing customer outreach programs.
We're getting mixed signals about the vitality of the smart grid market. On the one hand, the recent DistribuTECH conference was one of the most successful ever. On the other, a well-known Wall Street analyst recently told his clients that the smart metering sector is "facing several headwinds," including weak regulatory support in the U.S. and delays in European adoption. Taking the pulse of the smart grid industry is this week's Tuesday Topic.
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