 |
SpotlightYour turn: Be SGN editor for a day
|
Sep 30, 2010
|
|
| |
|
|
With 2011 on the horizon, we're in editorial planning mode here at Smart Grid News. And you can help direct the types of articles and analysis we provide in the months ahead by clicking through the polls on this page. If we've missed any topics on your radar, be sure to use the Talk Back comment form at the bottom of the page to write us a note. As always, we appreciate your input!
Smart grid technologies
We’ve provided a lot of coverage of communications options lately; ditto smart metering. And smart grid security and standards frequently make their way to the front page. But what are we missing that you want to know more about?
.
Smart grid issues
If you’re an SGN regular, you’ve read a lot about the smart metering backlash and the call for better consumer engagement practices. But what other issues would you like to see get more attention?
.
Smart grid companies
Cisco, IBM, GE, Elster, Schneider Electric and Microsoft have all been the subject of recent SGN analysis. But every time you turn around another company has jumped into the space. Which companies interest you most?
Smart grid roles and responsibilities
Here’s an area we don’t cover a lot… but maybe we should. Are there experts we should interview or analysis we should provide based on our readers roles and responsibilities in the smart grid universe?
.
Smart grid information
We know that news and analysis of important trends and developments in the industry is important to you. But what others types of information would you like to see more of?
.
Thanks for your input ... and please use the Talk Back comment form if you have a specific company, technology or topic not mentioned in the polls.
.
Stay connected with SGN …
Smart grid discussions: Get LinkedIn with Jesse
Join Smart Grid News on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Try our RSS feed
Get our email digest
| Job Opportunities |
| What are the job opportunities with which companies? |
| Antonio Carrero - 10/01/2010 - 06:57 |
| Evolution to Smart Grids |
| Can you please have articles/documents on the evolution of SGs, from a basic network/utility, through basic automation, full distribution automation, smart meters, AMI all the way to the ideal (as we know today) fully implemented SG. There is a lack of understanding by many on how a utility should evolve their networks from a basic grid to a smart grid. |
| Jayant Mistri - 10/01/2010 - 07:09 |
| Survey |
| Very difficult to make the choices you asked for. You already do an excellent job of providing a broad spectrum of coverage of the Smart grid space. Thank you. |
| Jeff Williams - 10/01/2010 - 07:17 |
| Smart Grid Technologies |
| While I realize that interoperability is necessary, I also believe that more emphasis should be given on identifying which new technologies will render the grid smart. Some effort is being done (e,g. storage) but a more compehensive review would be useful and it should be in parallel with the interoperability work. After all, we do need to know what technlogies must inter-operate. Further, it may be worth while to look at the phasing of the adoption of these technologies within the utility. In addition to budget issues, utilities can not absorb new technologies randomly. Realizing that each utility may have different priorities, a guideline of a staged approach, a technology Road Map, for smart grid technology adoption might be useful. It will also promote coordination among utilities sooner. After all, Smart Grid is all about interconnections and management of wide areas and these can be managed better if they are coordianated sooner and driven by similar technlogies. |
| Sandy Aivaliotis - 10/01/2010 - 07:38 |
| balanced coverage |
| There are negative issues about smart grids. They include consumer concerns regarding cost, safety, and privacy that are generally ignored or dismissed. Utilities have legitimate questions about the costs, logistics, and workforce requirements to implement smart grids. The benefits that are claimed are rarely matched to demonstrations, logic, or other evidence. This forum and most others I monitor is relentlessly positive on smart grids. There are two sides to every story, benefits and downsides to every choice. Cover some of the downsides. Bring some balance to the discussion. |
| Stephen Fairfax - 10/01/2010 - 07:39 |
| Smart Transformer |
| Smart Grid is a true revolution to bring the power distribution companies for the future, but investments are extremely high. Start projects from solutions smart meters is the best option? Why not start the project by deploying smart transformers? In the power distribution grid, transformers connected to is often less than the number of meters installed on consumers. Moreover, most of the benefits that result from a smart grid project may be obtained through the deployment of a smart project with transformer and costs actually acceptable. |
| Paulo Pimentel - 10/01/2010 - 07:39 |
| Utilities & Vendors Needing Integration Help |
| We hear lots about shortages of workers for Smart Grid. Can SGN have a spot where Utilities and Vendors needing some help with their projects can contact or at least be informed of brief listings of companies that could support various integration efforts? With there being a 3 year deadline for DOE funds being consumed, utilities will need to ramp up the speed of deployment to take advantage of the funds and may need help from Engineering firms like ours. |
| Jim Atkins - 10/01/2010 - 08:04 |
| Smart Grid VS Smart Customers |
| The smartest grid you could build is "Smart Customers". By adoption of the new low watt bulbs and just shutting off lights, my electric bill was 25% less in the last 12 months from the previous 12 months. And I had no help from my power supplier, Consumers Energy! Their bill structure is nearly impossible to follow. I have an electrical engineering degree and their electric bills are written in Greek. Take the bill format away from the accounts and give it to a couple smart 25 year olds. They could show the customer how to understand how much power their wasting. And tell Consumers Energy how much capital they could save with off peak rates. |
| David Vaughn - 10/01/2010 - 08:27 |
| Defining "Smart Grid" |
| Would it be fair to define three distinct topics that are all lumped together as "Smart Grid": 1 - T&D applications on the utility side of the meter 2 - The meter,itself,Smart Metering 3 - Demand response/distributed controls on the customer's side of the meter. These seem like very distinct topics to me. I am most interested by far in the third category. It is harder for me to choose between issues like renewable integration and micro-grids which overlap and are both of very high interest. |
| Peter Lilienthal, Ph.D. - 10/01/2010 - 08:56 |
| survey commets |
| I'm completely disillusioned... case in point - Touchstone Energy is a cooperative of 550 utility providers with a combined staff of 63,000 nationwide. I went to their website to see what they are doing to implement smart grid solutions. They offer one article about wireless communications to link remote buildings over the Internet. They don't have a smart grid strategy. As a communications VAR - what is missing is a national road map for utilities, instead of allowing them to proceed one market at a time on their own, which resulted in a disaster in Boulder by Excel, who now wants to charge its customers for its project mismanagement. If the Feds will continue to provide taxpayer funds - then they should set parameters. Utilities don't have the in house expertise to handle smart grid on their own and without specific implementation steps, are flailing on their own... Example is the debate between smart transformers and smart meters. The Feds should require smart transformers first, so that utilities can 'see' and control their infrastructure in real time. Great newsletter - focus more on actual deployment case studies. Cheers, Steve Aspen, CO |
| Steve Collin - 10/01/2010 - 09:03 |
| More about securing smart grid |
| What about more articles that discuss the challenges and opportunities of making smart grid technologies secure? What are the threats, etc. How can the utilities market learn from other industries that have deployed initiatives that are similar in scope. An example would be when wireless technologies became available. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon without thinking about how hackers could sabotage efforts, and quickly learned the risks and the effects of insecure deployment. |
| Ashley - 10/01/2010 - 09:44 |
| Smart Grid Scope |
| SGN has done a great job reporting on part of the smart grid - possibly the best newsletter on the subject, but recalling the story of the blind men describing an elephant, it is as if we are hearing from only one of those blind men. I think we would benefit from a stronger emphasis on a broader scope of coverage. Smart grid is being (or will be) applied throughout the whole electricity value change, but SGN tends to report on only the end-use part. Also a broader temporal perspective might be beneficial. Smart grid was likely conceived in the 1970s. We might better understand the issues of today if we revisited that legacy. Likewise, some thinking (speculating) about the future might be useful. Finally, SGN tends to focus on smart grid as the "objective" while success is more likely if we think of it as a "strategy." |
| Merwin Brown - 10/01/2010 - 10:27 |
| Various Innovations |
| I've read several articles wrapped around a wide variety of companies that offer products and services. How many of them continue to improve their water, gas, electric, wind, and solar product lines like the iPerl? How do these companies rate against one another in the products they sell to the utilities? |
| RIck Smith - 10/01/2010 - 10:36 |
| Distributed Generation on the Smart Grid |
| Residential cogeneration is an emerging technology and one that gets "lost in the euphoria of wind and solar". This distributed generation asset is a very viable Smart Grid application and one that can: Be centrally controlled, apply to vehicle charging, provide both heat and power, help in demand response and peaking situations, and offer backup power typically as an option. This technology is very popular in Europe and Japan and as usual, the US is five years behind. Power providers and/or utilities should recognize it for what it can to do help them instead of looking at this technology as a threat. |
| Mike Cocking - 10/01/2010 - 11:02 |
| Distributed Generation on the Smart Grid |
| I agree with the comments of Mike Cocking. I am frustrated with articles about the Smart Grid that barely mention the central importance of decentralization -- distributed generation. With some regulatory creativity, the utilities's throughput disincentive to distributed generation could be eliminated. But where are the articles about this? Where are the white papers? EPRI did a lot of work on this and published, "Business and Regulatory Models for Electricity Providers to Integrate Distributed Energy Resources" (with several related publications), but Smart Grid news should follow this more. |
| Stephen Merrill Smith - 10/01/2010 - 11:23 |
| Distributed Generation on the Smart Grid |
| I agree with the comments of Mike Cocking. I am frustrated with articles about the Smart Grid that barely mention the central importance of decentralization -- distributed generation. With some regulatory creativity, the utilities' throughput disincentive to distributed generation could be eliminated. But where are the articles about this? Where are the white papers? EPRI did a lot of work on this and published, "Business and Regulatory Models for Electricity Providers to Integrate Distributed Energy Resources" (with several related publications), but Smart Grid news should follow this more. |
| Stephen Merrill Smith - 10/01/2010 - 11:27 |
| Education for Smart Grid Technicians |
| I would like to see more stories or discussions on the education needed to prepare future Smart Grid Technicians. |
| Tom McGlew - 10/01/2010 - 11:35 |
| International perspective |
| Any chance of looking more at what is going on in other countries? South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the UK (as examples) are all taking different approaches on technology, markets and regulatory reform, and something that compares and contrasts these things might be useful to see what the US might be missing or could offer overseas. |
| Ed Thomson - 10/02/2010 - 17:13 |
| Smart Grid and Change Management |
| All the technological changes need a big change of behavior of the people. Smart Grid is a very strong technological change for the whole chain of energy. Is it necessary to work as soon as possible the Change Management topic so that SG is successful. |
| Manuel Acero - 10/03/2010 - 04:43 |
| International perspective |
| Thanks for your Email. I appreciate If you can offer information or case studies about construction companies will participate new business through Smart grid technology. |
| Jong Chan Yoo - 10/03/2010 - 07:58 |
| International perspective |
| Thanks for you Email. I appreciate If you can offer an information or case studies about construction companies will participate new business through smart grid technology. |
| Jong Chan Yoo - 10/03/2010 - 08:01 |
|
|
|
|
Talk Back
