As the Smart Grid unfolds, utilities face pressing challenges they've never seen before. How do you grapple with technologies, programs and services that are brand new — and get it right the first time? Click inside for a new service to help utilities prepare for Smart Grid deployments, and to do it with less time and money.
Canadian electric vehicle fleet systems integrator Rapid Electric Vehicles is building fully electric Ancillary Power Vehicles for the U.S. Army to use in a multi-faceted microgrid research and development program. The vehicles are designed to reduce the high economic and environmental costs of fossil fuels and to provide fast backup power in emergencies.
Today's electric grid is too unreliable and vulnerable to suit the Defense Department. So the DOD and partners are planning a microgrid demonstration project that will incorporate Smart Grid technologies to improve efficiency and security.
Industry heavyweights are telling lawmakers tasked with planning America’s energy future that microgrids represent the most efficient and consumer-friendly plan for bailing out the country’s aging electricity infrastructure. Are they right? We’ve rounded up recent news and views, including a video showcasing a microgrid work-in-progress in a small UK village.
EDSA and Viridity Energy will collaborate on a project at UC San Diego to demonstrate integration of onsite renewable energy production into the university's campus-wide microgrid.
Utilities are gradually dropping their guard and seeing the overall advantages microgrids could bring to the Smart Grid, and many industry giants — think Siemens, Lockheed Martin and a horde of other companies and universities — are researching and developing ways to make them practical and efficient.
What's being ignored in all the hubbub over Smart Grid technology is that we are moving to a new way of buying and selling electricity. If you fast forward 10 or 15 years, it will look much different than it does today. But how will it look? Richard Tabors, author and VP at Charles River Associates, suggests there are four market models that capture the critical elements of what will emerge when the Smart Grid is fully implemented. Which one do you see in your future?
Infotility, a provider of distributed intelligent agent software, just kicked off the field-test phase of a Smart Grid demonstration project to optimize large-scale renewable energy in Marin County, California.
Between now and 2015, over 3.1GW of new microgrid capacity could come online worldwide, representing a total market value of $7.8 billion. So why do some utilities resist microgrids ... while others embrace them? Pike Research analyst Peter Asmus shares the backstory - and some changes afoot.
The Feds are committing more than $3 billion to renewable energy production facilities around the country. Read more on that, plus these developments too: GE wins Marine base microgrid project ... Study says utilities are still spending ... CHP systems get DOE support.
Grid divorce -- the process of becoming all or partly independent of a centralized utility -- was already a growing phenomenon in the U.S. A new financing mechanism may now make it even easier for campuses, office parks and neighborhoods to generate their own power. Click for the details...
The macro trends point inescapably to microgrids as the Next Big Thing, predicts Jesse Berst. Utilities must quickly decide when and how to cope. Vendors must quickly figure out when and how to profit. Click to read about the market drivers and get links to real-world examples.
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.
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
RSS
