Page 2: The HEMS market, smart grid in MENA and more >>

By Liz Enbysk

SGN Managing Editor

 

It's like the mother lode of smart grid research – only we've done the digging for you. We’ve mined the latest smart grid research and briefly highlighted seven reports we think you'll be interested in. Scroll down and click to page 2 for reports covering everything from the rise of 'intelligent efficiency' to the next regulatory tussle you may not see coming.

 

Intelligent efficiency – not your father's device-driven approach

An interesting report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) talks about "intelligent efficiency" and how as a new source of energy it

could rival natural gas, coal and nuclear power. The ACEEE suggests that up to 22% of U.S. energy consumption could be replaced by intelligent energy. So what is it exactly? According to the ACEEE, the idea is  to stop thinking about energy efficiency simply in terms of individual devices and instead think about it in terms of complex systems - entire cities, transportation systems and other networks - connected through Internet and computer technologies. 

 

R. Neal Elliott, associate director for research, ACEEE, said: "This is not your father's device-driven approach to energy efficiency. A large portion of our past efficiency gains came from improvements in individual products, appliances, and equipment, such as light bulbs, electric motors, or cars and trucks. And while device-level technology improvements will continue to play an important role, looking ahead we must take a systems-based approach to dramatically scale up energy efficiency to meet our future energy challenges. Through intelligent efficiency, utility systems, interconnected cities, transportation systems, and communications networks can become the new normal across the United States and will undergird national and regional economies that, even in the face of increasingly scarce resources, grow and thrive." Read more >>

 

Shared services – your next regulatory tussle?

A new survey from Ernst & Young points out that many electric utilities view

administrative and general services – things like IT, HR, finance, logistics and legal – as among the most uncontested and secure of business costs. Yet they may be the most likely to be disallowed by regulators in a rate case.

 

According to Ernst & Young:  "Nearly 60 percent of electric utility managers who responded to the survey said they believe allocated costs associated with services provided by corporate service centers or shared services groups will come under little to no additional scrutiny by regulators. And yet such support functions often are viewed by regulators as second in importance when compared to operations areas (e.g. linemen responding to outages or operators that keep the power plants running). This makes it easier for regulators to question costs associated with 'overhead' rather than those associated with energy delivery and power plant operations." Read more >>

EPRI offers guidance on utility cyber security strategies

"Cyber Security Strategy Guidance for the Electric Sector" is a technical update from

the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to provide guidance to utilities on developing an overall cyber security strategy, developing a risk management process (including a risk assessment process), and selecting and tailoring cyber security requirements for the electric sector.

According to EPRI, key takeaways from the report are:

·         With the modernization of the electric sector, the cyber security issues that a utility implementing cyber security functionality must address are diverse and complicated.

·         The report includes practical tips that may be used by utilities as they develop and implement a cyber security strategy for grid modernization.

Get the free report >>

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On the upswing: smart grid technologies that enable renewable integration

Suggesting smart grid renewables integration to date has been a "mixed bag," a new

report from Pike Research suggests that's going to change. Pike forecasts a significant expansion of the market opportunity, with revenue from smart grid renewables integration expected to reach almost $4 billion in 2012 and climbing to $13 billion by 2018. The sector’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over those six years will be nearly 23%.

 

“European countries are boldly plowing forward while many U.S. utilities exhibit ‘electrotrophobia’ – the fear of change linked to greater reliance upon intermittent renewable energy resources," suggests Pike senior analyst Peter Asmus." That will change as many utilities launch comprehensive programs and place significant investments in the ability of the smart grid to lower the costs of integrating renewable generation at the transmission, distribution and residential levels.” Read more >>

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Link to EPRI report

In case you have difficulties accessing the 3rd report from EPRI (Cyber Security Strategy Guidance for the Electric Sector), here is a clean link: http://my.epri.com/portal/server.pt?Product_id=000000000001025672 Thanks Antonis Hadjiantonis Research Fellow KIOS Research Center e:antonish@ucy.ac.cy www.kios.ucy.ac.cy www.antonis.mobi

Antonis Hadjiantonis - 06/13/2012 - 02:32

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