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For news related to Smart Grid stimulus funds, please go to the Smart Grid Stimulus News Digest page.
Itron joins forces with DOE lab on security R&D. Itron, Inc., has teamed with Idaho National Laboratory (INL), creating a DOE cooperative to research and develop ways to make smart metering more robust and improve Smart Grid security generally. The partnership will be working with Itron’s smart metering solution OpenWay, as well as its 2.4GZ OpenWay Gas Module, and other home area network devices. OpenWay features hardware-level encryption, and the company is voluntarily participating in third-party security testing. As part of its security initiative, is continuing its partnerships with Certicom and Industrial Defender and is working with the the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) smart grid workshops in developing interoperability standards.
Quick Take: At first glance, this appears to be a very worthwhile initiative and a welcome sign that Itron is going to step up strongly into a leadership role in defining solutions and standards. In our opinion, they’ve been a leader in technology and sales, but not quite as strong in thought and industry leadership.
Siemens partners with eMeter for Smart Grid services. Siemens Energy has formed a partnership with eMeter to provide services to utilities planning on upgrading their systems to a Smart Grid. Together, the pair will create “Global Centers of Competence” and provide customers with guidance and support in designing, deploying, and operating a Smart Grid as well as managing the large amounts of data from smart meters. The initial three centers will located in Houston, Texas, U.S.; Vienna, Austria; and Nottingham, England. Siemens offers products and services relating to power generation, transmission, and distribution, while eMeter is known for Smart Grid management software. Quick Take: This news reinforces our view that Siemens is back in the Smart Grid game and is taking a very customer-centric approach. See our feature story in the links below as well as our company profile of Siemens at the Smart Grid Central. Smart Grid Central’s Siemens Vendor Close-Up
Who pays when smart meters aren’t smart enough? Dallas power company Oncor decided to jump start the Smart Grid for their customers by purchasing some 898,000 smart meters. Oncor apparently didn’t consult the Public Utility Commission first, however. The PUC required that smart meters have some features that the newly purchased ones lacked. Oops. To recover the cost of the ill-fated purchase decision, Oncor now wants customers to $93 million collectively in rate hikes, even though most customers never even got a smart meter out of the deal. Recently, two administrative law judges issued an advisory ruling stating that due to its “imprudent” decision, Oncor can only recover a portion of that money. Oncor’s rate case is still pending. Quick Take: Situations like this aren’t making it any easier for utilities to get over their Smart Grid apprehensions. It’s easy enough to say (as Earth2Tech’s Katie Fehrenbacher does) that utilities need to get educated about Smart Grid options. But unless regulators are educated as well, utilities may not get approval or (in Oncor’s case) something worse.
Chicago utility to test HAN products. Commonwealth Edison Co. has announced a pilot study that will determine the shape of its eventual Smart Grid plans for the Windy City. Silver Spring Networks and General Electric (GE) will help with the smart meter aspects. But the pilot, which is currently under review by Illinois Commerce Commission, will test a variety of home energy systems including alternative pricing plans, Web interfaces, in-home displays, home area network control systems, and programmable thermostats. Vendors for these products have not been announced.
Clean energy investment quadruples in 4 years. A report from the U.N. Environment Programme, $155 billion was invested in clean energy in 2008, some four times the amount for 2004. The report, titled “Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009,” noted that the energy efficiency sector, which includes Smart Grid technologies, was second only to solar in new private investment. Even so, this $1.8 billion figure was actually a drop of 33% from 2007. However that number only reflects private investment, not money from governments, corporations, and public financing bodies. The energy efficiency sector was also more than a third of global green stimulus measures.
Greenbox names industry veteran aCEO. Greenbox Technology, a San Bruno-based startup that makes a Web-based interface for monitoring and managing energy usage, has named electricity industry veteran Ivo Steklac as their CEO. Steklac has twenty years utility and AMI experience in management, sales, and marketing. The high tech company apparently hopes to bring some industry-insider experience to an otherwise Web-centric team. Such a move appears to be part of a trend according to Greentech Media, who cites Trilliant and GridPoint as other examples of high tech companies who turn to electricity industry insiders for leadership. Quick Take: High tech startups are smart to look for guidance from those with utility experience, but it will take more than that to succeed. Companies like Greenbox may have a more full-featured product than its competitors. But large companies like Google, Cisco, IBM, and others can afford to give their products away, confident that they can find a way to monetize their offering later on. Competing with free products, even inferior ones, has proven to be a challenge for Internet companies, and it will be no different in the Smart Grid sector.
SGN review of Greenbox energy management tool
GridWise announces 2009 awards. The GridWise Architecture Council has honored two individuals for their role in promoting openness in the Smart Grid sector. Richard Tucker was recognized for developing an advanced meter information model known as “Tucker Tables” while Paul De Martini was honored for his leadership in Southern California Edison’s Smart Grid projects. GridWise Architecture Council home page
All Your Grid Are Belong to Us. A team of well known Japanese companies —Hitachi, Toshiba, Fuji, and Panasonic —plans to construct a working Smart Grid system in an unspecified New Mexico town by 2010. The effort is led by Japan’s public research and development organization for environmental technologies, NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). The Japanese government is expected to invest between $20.3 and $30.4 million in the project, which will include digital monitoring and distribution of power as well as solar power generation and storage. Following construction, the Japanese companies will retain ownership of the grid and control it in large part via the Internet. Quick Take: Japan clearly sees that the Smart Grid is the Next Big Thing and is using publicly funded government agencies to improve the export possibilities for its home-grown companies. Smart.
PG&E signs up for solar ranch. Solar company NextLight Renewable Power has snagged its first utility contract from Pacific Gas & Electric. The solar startup, which has projects in Arizona, California, and Nevada, is planning a 2,100-acre “AV Solar Ranch” in California’s Antelope Valley, which expected to be operational by 2013. According to a story in Venture Beat, the project could supply 90,000 PG&E customers with 592-gigawatt hours of electricity annually. To do that, the utility will need to assist in the construction of a new transmission line and substation, for which it is currently seeking approval from the California Public Utilities Commission. Quick Take: Want to know where the next Smart Grid project is likely to launch? Watch for announcements of new solar and wind farms, which create a crying need for transmission in general and intelligent transmission in particular.
PJM and Areva team for smarter transmission. Areva’s Transmission & Distribution (T&D) division has formed a strategic alliance with PJM Interconnection to provide modern solutions to transmission issues in the northeastern United States. PJM’s specialty lies in coordinating the movement of wholesale electricity in more than a dozen states, while Areva is a nuclear vendor and key player in transmission and distribution. Having collaborated in the past, the two companies now hope to beef up Areva’s existing applications with an eye toward providing a new generation of products for improved operational efficiency and system security in the smart grid arena. Quick Take: For the past few years, Areva has been partnered with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop next-generation control center and visualization software. Meanwhile, PJM has been casting about for better solutions in the same area. Sounds like an ideal partnership and one that could create challenges for Siemens, ABB, and others that compete with Areva.
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