IBM smart grid: Progress Energy win emphasizes IBM's super integrator positioning

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Quick Take:   Even though Accenture is hot on its heels, IBM continues to lead the pack as the smart grid's leading super integrator. Its most recent win, described below, has IBM in the top dog role for Progress Energy's $520 million grid upgrade.– Jesse Berst

Progress Energy has picked IBM as lead systems integrator for its $520 million smart grid upgrade program. The project will cover a lot of ground: improving power efficiency, increasing power quality and reliability, and expanding its capability for integrating renewables, energy storage systems and EVs. The Progress investment, which includes a $200 million Recovery Act smart grid grant from DOE, will take place at two of its utilities that serve about 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida.

IBM's smart grid participation brings in its expertise in technologies and systems integration, not to mention its knowledge of large-scale smart grid systems planning and implementation, system architecture, business process design and development and business analytics. Progress Energy's EnergyWise® initiatives will incorporate IBM's WebSphere software to integrate new distribution management, advanced metering, meter data management and demand response with existing services like customer and outage management systems.

"Progress Energy's smart grid efforts focus on improving the electric distribution network first, then cascading these improvements to the consumer. We believe these efforts position the program as one of the more sophisticated deployments in the marketplace," said Guido Bartels, general manager for Energy & Utilities Industry at IBM and chairman, Global Smart Grid Federation.

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