PART 4 - We Asked … and You Told Us: Smart Grid Companies to Watch in 2010

It’s now Day 4 of our look at Smart Grid companies readers nominated as ones to watch in 2010. (If you missed the first three installments, they’re linked below.)

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Here’s how this works: Our team reviewed all the nominations and did a preliminary sort. Posted below is the fourth set of Smart Grid companies that made the cut; we’ll run the remaining tomorrow so be sure to check back. Also, what you see below are abbreviated versions of the text provided by the person who nominated the company; we have not verified the information for accuracy. Normally, we vet things before we pass them along to you. In this case, we wanted you to see what readers said themselves.

 

Here is the fourth set of nominees, selected randomly:

 

AC Propulsion – They have the only V2G (Vehicle to Grid) electric vehicle. It lets you make the grid smarter without changing the grid.  They have demonstrated this at Google and the University of Delaware is running a test with it. It provides power regulation, power backup or feed-in power. It allows more wind which is intermittent to be used in the grid and stored until needed the most.

[Note from Jesse: Although I am skeptical about true V2G (the grid sucking power from individual batteries), I am bullish on smart charging (the system deciding when to charge batteries so as to fill troughs and shave peaks).]

AC Propulsion Web site

 

Beacon Power – Beacon Power of Tyngsboro, MA is a flywheel company that specializes in energy storage as it relates to frequency regulation. They are moving into commercial production with 2MW currently running at their headquarters. They were awarded $43m under the DOE’s loan guarantee program in July, selected in November by DOE $24m grant under the Smart Grid Stimulus program and recently broke ground in NY for the nation’s first 20MW Flywheel Frequency Regulation Plant. In addition, they have collaboration agreements in place with AEP and NGG.

[Note from Jesse: Beacon is hampered by a cadre of zealots that tries to stuff the ballot box anywhere the company is mentioned in hopes of affecting stock prices. Stock market manipulation aside, grid-scale energy storage is legitimately a sector to watch and Beacon legitimately has one approach to that challenge.]

Beacon Power Web site

 

VYCON -- VYCON designs and manufactures technologically advanced flywheel energy storage systems that enable a highly reliable, cost-effective and “green” energy storage solution for a variety of applications and customers. Interestingly, the Yorba Linda-Calif.-based company delivers energy storage systems into applications where the need for energy storage has not been adequately met by existing technologies…including other flywheels. As a result, VYCON is uniquely well positioned to re-examine, rethink and redefine how the world uses power. 

[Note from Jesse: See my comment above about the grid-scale energy storage sector.]

VYCON Web site

 

On-Ramp Wireless – As we know, without connectivity, the Smart Grid will fail. So how can we solve the connectivity problem? On-Ramp Wireless, a new Smart Grid player, has broken the adoption barrier for deployment of wireless device monitoring and control with its Ultra-Link Processing™ (ULP) communication system. Whether it’s for Advanced Metering Infrastructure, fault circuit indicator monitoring, or sub-station automation, the extended reach and high capacity of On-Ramp’s technology provides a low-cost, secure and simple-to-manage wireless network.

[Note from Jesse: We see claims of breakthrough communications concepts at least once a month here at SGN. We haven’t seen or heard enough about On-Ramp yet to know if its claims will stand up.]

On-Ramp Wireless Web site

 

Plug Smart – Plug Smart has products ready to meet the demand of the surge of electric cars that will be deployed on the existing grid.  They are definitely thinking ahead of the curve by creating such innovative products.

[Note from Jesse: Embedding intelligence all the way down to the plug itself may be important not just to new markets such as EVs, but also to retrofit markets. It may be easier to make the plugs smarter than to retrofit intelligence into legacy appliances.]

Plug Smart Web site

 

REGEN Energy – REGEN Energy has come up with a brilliantly simple and fast way to outfit buildings for demand response. They've designed a small controller that employs REGEN's swarm logic algorithm, where each controller communicates wirelessly with others in a facility to smooth demand, and also provide a portal to monitor how each load performs.

[Note from Jesse: Self-forming, semi-autonomous networks may be another important factor in the retrofit market.]

REGEN Energy Web site

 

Check back tomorrow for the fifth and final batch of reader nominations for 2010's Smart Grid companies to watch. And be sure to drop by on Wednesday when you’ll have a chance to vote for your favorite. 

 

More on SGN …

PART 1: Smart Grid Companies to Watch

PART 2: Smart Grid Companies to Watch

PART 3: Smart Grid Companies to Watch

PART 5: Smart Grid Companies to Watch

  

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