Smart Grid News is the granddaddy of web sites devoted to all things smart grid. As a result, our site houses a vast library of rich and relevant resources you might not discover at first glance. So take a few minutes for a quick tour. It will help you find what you're looking for faster – and uncover treasures you didn't know existed.
A123 Systems will provide six battery energy storage systems for the UK's largest smart grid project. The systems will be designed for peak load shifting and managing voltage fluctuations in the country's electric grid to maintain stability as more renewable energy sources are added.
With the decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday to approve the first new nuclear facility in the U.S. in more than 30 years, the Southern Company project in Georgia will be under a financial and operational microscope. But as Peter Gardett of AOL Energy explains, the long-term outlook for nuclear remains muddy.
Electric utilities take their share of grief. There's the smart meter angst. Ongoing complaints about electricity rates. Customers upset about response times after storm-caused power outages. Often the good things utilities are doing take a backseat. So as we approach Valentine's Day, we thought we'd take a moment to show a little love for utility programs that are helping customers and the planet. We're highlighting five; but we hope you'll click inside and add to our list.
The Department of Energy this week announced $12 million in funding to speed solar energy innovation from the lab to the marketplace. It's the latest in a series of announcements we've seen in recent weeks that suggest there's more money filtering into energy projects, including up to $120 million for advanced research on batteries and energy storage. Click inside and we'll show you the money.
BPL Global is one of the companies involved in a project in France's rural Alsace region that will supply end users with electric vehicles via a subscription service. The service is supposed to optimize the impact of EV charging on the grid by aggregating the load and storage capacities of the batteries and managing their charging patterns.
Some days you could spend all of what little reading time you have just getting through all the smart grid market studies, trend reports, forecasts and white papers. We've made the chore a little easier for you with a roundup of six recent releases that caught our eye on topics ranging from smart grid investments to building automation growth.
Results from the second wave of the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative's Consumer Pulse study reveal that there are smart grid benefits that resonate with consumers beyond reducing their monthly electric bill. SGCC Executive Director Patty Durand outlines the findings and actions her organization is taking in response.
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.
We're now at a spot down the smart grid path where utilities are moving beyond the expected and taking next steps with advanced technologies - from the flywheel systems protecting Austin Energy's new control center to SAIC's Smart Grid as a Service supporting critical energy management systems in remote Alaskan villages. In our latest project roundup we're spotlighting these and five other smart grid projects we think you'll want to know about.
An organization of U.S. businesses has 're-launched' to act as the leading trade group promoting the development of an American Waste Heat to Power market. The organization will support and promote projects designed to capture waste heat generated by industrial applications and convert it into emissions-free electricity.
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.
Security expert and SGN contributor Andy Bochman hits the highlights of wide-ranging security panel discussions at the 2012 DistribuTECH conference held recently. He covers a lot of ground, and it's interesting reading.
Given the dangers and costs, what would motivate a well-known cyber security researcher to release detailed vulnerabilities for specific, critical infrastructure products? EnerNex Chairman and CTO Erich Gunther suspects the release - which really did happen - reflects how fed up the security community is. It's tired of being ignored by vendors and utilities that live with known vulnerabilities rather than fix them. As Erich explains, there's way more than most of us realize at stake here.
While energy storage at the distribution substation level isn't big news (or big business) in the smart grid investment environment now, IMS Research predicts revenues will show impressive growth in the sector over the next several years – to the tune of an annual average rate of 50%. Read the story to find out why.
Texas and Oklahoma are pretty low in the rankings of energy efficient states. But a group of companies, including electric service providers cooperatives, retailers, manufacturers have joined forces to push for advanced building systems and energy-efficient products and services in the region. There's more on the new coalition inside.
In an effort to develop smart grid solutions for the Chevrolet Volt, OnStar is inviting utilities, energy companies and others to take advantage of a set of its application programming interfaces to develop new apps for Volt owners. Click inside to learn what OnStar is looking for from developers.
You'll be hearing a lot more about Big Data - and chances are some of it will come from state regulators. IBM's Sunil Soares expects PUCs will become increasingly assertive about protecting consumers' privacy rights in the context of Big Data. That's one reason, he says, utilities need to heed governance best practices for smart meter data. He suggests four you ought to start with.
If utilities want to be best in class at customer engagement, they should look at practices used in competitive service industries to help them tailor their offers and communication strategies to the right segments of the market. That was one of the takeaways from the recent Smart Grid Consumer Symposium. SGCC Executive Director Patty Durand has more.
The smart grid communications space is already noisy and contentious. But a UK company is making the case that we should consider yet another option, this time TV white space. Click for their argument in favor, and our word of caution.
The California Public Utilities Commission today gave a unanimous thumbs up to a Pacific Gas & Electric Company proposal to allow customers to opt out of its smart meter program - if they're willing to pay a fee for that choice. But after a noisy and emotional meeting it was clear that this story is far from over: smart meter opponents are dead set against paying the fees.
Security veteran Ernie Hayden can tell some scary stories about lax security practices he's been eyewitness to during utility site visits. He worries there's too much emphasis on security compliance rather than true protection on both the physical and cyber fronts. The fix? Click for five steps he believes every utility should take now to 'bake in' security organization-wide.
Brian Warshay of Lux Research outlines the highlights of a California Public Utilities Commission proposal for an energy storage policy that lays out the barriers to storage adoption – and a roadmap to deal with them. Get the lowdown on why stakeholders should be keeping an eye on this one.
In this week's blog about his stint on a privacy panel put on by the Smart Grid Consumer Collaborative, security ace Andy Bochman ponders why the SGCC needs to exist - and then answers his own question: Without it, there would be no one out there to give consumers a reasoned and sensible alternative to the alarmist ranting they're frequently exposed to in the mainstream media. (And he provides a good example of what he's talking about.)
DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is building a series of interconnected laboratories where researchers will be able to test new technologies on simulated and real power systems before plugging them into the electric grid. Get more on the story inside.
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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