Renewable Energy Systems, Electric Vehicles, and Smart Electricity Grids for a Carbon-Constrained World

Lawrence E. Jones, Ph.D.
December 20, 2008


Global warming is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. The general consensus is that unless concerted actions are taken to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) that are emitted in the upper atmosphere, the Earth’s climate will continue to change – resulting in increases in mean global temperature, more frequent extreme weather conditions, precipitation changes and reduced availability of fresh water. The realization that we must act now or face grave consequences has prompted the United States of America, Europe, and other global players to begin transitioning to a carbon-constrained energy future.


One solution to a low-carbon energy future is to increase the use of renewable energy sources (RES) such as wind and solar and also electric vehicles, all connected to smart electricity grids. The challenge is how to best integrate these non-conventional forms of energy and loads with the existing grids and eventually the emerging smart grids of the 21st century.


According to independent projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other organizations such as the European, American and Canadian Wind Energy Associations (EWEA, AWEA, CanWEA), tremendous growth in wind and solar power worldwide is expected in coming decades. While the capacities of most existing renewable energy systems produce few megawatts (MW) of electricity, to meet the anticipated demand for more clean energy, the capacity of new RES must be several hundreds to thousands of MW. Integrating such large utility-scale wind and solar plants, along with electric vehicles presents unique challenges and opportunities. We will discuss some of these, the enabling information technology solutions to address them, and potential opportunities.


Wind and solar power are intermittent resources and as such make it difficult to operate the power grids to which they are connected. To successfully integrate RES, electric utilities must have reliable forecast information about the quantity and availability of the power output. Thus, forecasting systems are one of the primary requirements to achieving increased penetration of wind and solar energy. The second requirement is combining the forecast information with the real-time operational data in the utilities’ control centers for decision making – both in the front and back offices.


What has emerged as a third requirement is the need for a fully integrated renewable energy information system (REIS) that uses the information from smart sensors and other intelligent applications to optimize the utilization of the generation resources and grid assets for reduced environmental impact. While progress has been made on the first and second, not much work has been done on the third requirement. The need for REIS is based on the fact that utility operators have to assemble an avalanche of data from disparate sources in order to make informed decisions about the impacts of RES on grid operations and reliability. Operators need tools that will enhance their local and global situation awareness. Other users of REIS may include utility executives, managers and regulators. The executives and managers need decision dashboards to better manage their portfolio of RES and mitigate operational risks and uncertainty. REIS will also allow them to maximize their asset performance based on the opportunities in emissions markets. Finally, regulators will need REIS to monitor and determine renewable power plants are in compliance with environmental and reliability standards.


The market for REIS is in its wellspring phase as electric utilities are only now beginning to realize the scale of the challenges they expect to encounter with higher penetration of large RES. New operational paradigms are emerging that will require the development and use of advanced analytical tools and techniques. Some of these include: data mining and pattern recognition, faster and more accurate near real-time forecasting, ultra-fast simulators that correctly mimic the interaction between RES and smart electric grids.


It is inevitable that the transition to a carbon-constrained world will also involve using non-fossil based fuels for transportation. Transportation sector in most countries is major consumer of energy and is a big emitter of GHG. In the USA for example, the transportation sector accounts for more than 30% of the energy consumption. Acknowledging this, there is major push for sustained government and private sector investments to develop batteries and other technologies for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). So much so that recently, in approving several billions of dollars in loans to three US automobile manufacturers, the US government required that these companies as part of their restructuring include plans to begin manufacturing more environmentally and fuel efficient electric cars.


Research and demonstration projects in the US, the European Union (EU) and Australia have shown that PHEVs connected to the power grid can provide ancillary energy during peak hours. Electric cars and emerging battery storage technologies make the power from wind and solar dispatchable. However, for this to happen, utilities also need decision support systems that accurately model the electricity demand of new automotive load. Such a system would also need to constantly and reliably monitor and predict the available stored energy from fleets of geographically dispersed electric cars and other storage devices.


Finally, a critical infrastructure for the low-carbon energy economy is an efficient delivery system (Transmission & Distribution networks) for electricity. Today, regulators, policy makers and utilities around the world are responding to the need for modernizing existing T&D grids by utilizing advanced information, communications and control technologies. These modernized so-called “smart” or “intelligent” grids, will facilitate greater electricity demand elasticity, and make integration of renewable and electric cars easier.


Operating smart grids with large wind and solar plants, fleets of PHEV, and energy storage devices will present unidentified problems for utilities. Developing solutions to resolve these problems will require in depth knowledge of the new kinds of interactions between utilities and their customers. Also required is an understanding of new utility business models as well as the regulatory environments in which they must operate.


The markets along the value-chains in a carbon-constrained energy economy are expected to exceed hundreds of billions of dollars within the next 5 years. In spite of the current global financial crisis, governments around the globe seem determined to stick to their commitments of investing directly or indirectly through policy measures in clean energy. Dealing with climate change and the economic crisis simultaneously has become a global imperative. This was evident from the sense of urgency expressed by world leaders at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change held on December 11 – 13, 2008, in Poland. Another strong positive signal has come from US President-Elect Barrack Obama who is expected to propose an economic stimulus package that will promote investments in wind, solar, energy storage, and smart electric grids. Collectively, these global actions will spur growth in clean technology sector.


To effectively integrate large amounts of renewable power generation with existing and emerging smart power grids, there will be increasing need for modern information, communications and control technologies. But these are not the only prerequisites. There must also be investments in education and training a new work force to carry out the millions of new jobs expected to be created. Work force development must be an integral part of every country’s long term goal in order to compete in the 21st century global economy.


Having skilled human capital is a competitive advantage, and the critical hinge-point for wide-scale deployment of renewable energy, building smart grids, efficient energy storage devices and other clean technologies. However the emerging work force demographics could pose a major problem. In especially North America, Western Europe and Japan, the energy sector is facing a looming crisis of an aging work force within the next 5-10 years. Fewer new and younger people are coming in to replace those leaving. This trend may continue in spite of any potential negative impacts of the current economic crisis on retirement savings. Therefore the recruitment, education and training of more young people in energy related fields must be accelerated.


Transitioning to a carbon-constrained energy future will result in transformation of markets and industries. Given the current pace of technology advances, this will happen much faster and have impact on scale bigger than previous industrial revolutions. The market opportunities for harnessing wind, solar and electric cars along with smart grids can be found all over the globe - from North America, to China, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the emerging economies in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Those who invest in human capital, business innovation, as well as clean technologies today will be the market leaders of tomorrow.


About the Author: Lawrence E. Jones is a contributor to the Smart Electric Newsletter. He has affiliations with academic, Think Tanks, and business institutions including: University of Washington, AREVA T&D Inc., E. E. W. Jones Electrical Engineering Foundation and LAUVICOM Group. He is also Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc… He received his PhD, Lic.Eng., and Civ.Ing. degrees from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this document by the author are his and not necessarily those of the organizations with which he is affiliated.

Google joins GridWise Alliance

The GridWise Alliance has announced that Google, Bridge Strategy Group, Sharp Laboratories and 3Tier have joined the national coalition.

The GridWise Alliance, founded in 2003, advocates a vision of an electric system that integrates the infrastructure, processes, devices, information and market structure so that energy can be generated, distributed, and consumed more efficiently and cost effectively. Its members include utilities, IT companies, equipment vendors, new technology providers and educational institutions.

On joining the Alliance, which mainly focuses on transforming the nation's electric power system, Dan Reicher, Google's director for Climate Change & Energy Initiatives said, "Smart grid technologies will empower consumers with real time, money-saving information about their energy use. Building a smart grid -- essentially an energy Internet -- will also enable plug-in electric vehicles, speed the development of utility-scale renewable energy, and spur the creation of clean energy jobs."

Guido Bartels, chairman of the GridWise Alliance and GM of IBM's Global Energy and Utilities Industry, said while there is general agreement that a sustainable energy future must incorporate energy efficiency, renewables, storage, and plug-in cars, it is often forgotten or underemphasised that these solutions all depend on a smarter grid to achieve scale and cost effectiveness.

"The GridWise Alliance members recognise that a smart grid is foundational for a sustainable energy future and if there is a growing consensus within the US that clean energy is a platform for rebuilding the American economy, then it follows that a smart grid is also critical to economic growth," said Bartels.

Irish utility calls for "Prudent" approach towards investment for smart meters

Irish electric utility ESB has reportedly said that it did not know if the Government's €1 billion smart metering proposals would lead to the desired level of savings.

Underlining that the installation of smart meters in every home in the country has been a policy cornerstone of Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan since he took up office last year, irishtimes.com mentioned that the process is now being explored by the ESB. According to the report, senior executives of the ESB indicated publicly for the first time that the "technology was not yet fully proven and that the case had not yet been made that such a substantial investment would result in commensurate savings".

ESB chief executive Padraig McManus said that the utility needed to take a prudent approach before making such a huge investment. That is why smart meters were being piloted over 18 months.

It was in September this year when the Minister had launched the National Smart Meter plan. Over 60,000 ESB customers were to receive a letter inviting them to take part in the first phase of the national roll-out of smart meters. Up to 21,000 customers were to get a smart meter installed in their home for free in order to participate in a behavioural and technology trial to inform the national rollout. The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has been charged with leading the implementation of the project

Recommendations for handling smart metering deployment

As smart metering gathers momentum, utilities must take extreme care to ensure deploying the new monitoring technology does not come at a business loss.

This suggestion has come from global management consultancy Arthur D. Little.

Until recently, many utilities have been reluctant to make the substantial investment required in order to deploy smart metering. However, rising costs of operation and improvements in fraud protection, along with increasing demand from environmentally-concious consumers, means that many more utilities companies are now ready to seriously consider the investment, highlighted the consultancy.

In its new report, Advanced Metering Management (prepared by Arthur D. Little's Energy & Utilities practice), the consultancy says implementing smart metering requires large-scale investment, necesitates a complex deployment process, and can have significant impact on a utilities key business processes. In order to be successful, utilities have a major task ahead of them in defining and planning custom approaches to making smart metering a cost effecitve and efficent part of their operations.

"Smart metering is nothing new, but as the current regulatory and consumer climate makes it more attractive for more utilities to consider deploying such systems, it is important they identify their strategic objectives and assess all risks before commencing," said Stephen Rogers, a director in Arthur D. Little's UK Energy and Utilities Practice.

"By establishing a working technological solution and including a thorough process impact analysis in the planning stage, utilities can deploy a smart metering system successfully."

Among the key factors to be considered is the amount of money involved in the process of deploying a smart metering system. The sheer complexity of introducing smart metering within the operations of an traditional utility provider will be another key consideration. It not only involves installing a large number of meters, but also introducing brand new information management systems within the organisation and, in some cases, installing new telecommunications infrastructure. Finally, utilties cannot underestimate the impact a new smart metering system will have on operations.

The report details how mistakes made in the complex planning process for smart metering deployment will have a severe impact on the utilities provider's logistics, economic planning, and organisational design in the long term.

RLtec and npower to trial Dynamic Demand technology

RLtec is gearing up for the trial of Dynamic Demand, a new technology that helps maintain the balance between supply and demand across the national electricity grid, in homes across the UK.

The company is working with npower to trial the same.

The trial is the first Demonstration Action to be approved by Ofgem under the CERT (Carbon Emissions Reduction Target) legislation and will contribute towards npower's carbon reduction obligations.

RLtec's technology will be trialled in a number of stages. In the first phase, 300 fridges fitted with this technology will be distributed to consumers so that analysis of how the technology works in appliances in everyday use can be carried out. Following the initial rollout, a total of 3,000 fridges and freezers of different types and models will be deployed so that the carbon savings from Dynamic Demand can be assessed and calculated against a full range of variables.

According to RLtec, appliances fitted with the Dynamic Demand technology automatically modifies power consumption in response to second‐by‐second changes in the balance between supply and demand on the grid ‐ without affecting the fridge's performance. This means that the amount of carbon emitting generating capacity used to maintain that balance can be dramatically reduced.

"The technology has the potential to create a 'virtual' power station and if widely used in the UK could eliminate the need for these carbon emitting balancing stations and save 2,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year," said RLtec's Andrew Howe.

"Our analysis shows that more than two‐thirds of the UK's balancing capacity comes from carbon emitting sources. Dynamic Demand helps reduce that carbon‐intensive balancing requirement, with no loss of performance from the appliances in which it is fitted, and with no action needed on the part of the consumer," said Howe.

General Mills focuses on energy savings

General Mills has chosen EnerNOC as its preferred partner for demand response. The company has added its West Chicago facility to EnerNOC's demand response network.

General Mills, a manufacturer and marketer of consumer food products, has chosen to work with EnerNOC to help prevent brownouts and blackouts in the West Chicago area.

This will be done by reducing demand on the electricity grid by as much as five megawatts -- the equivalent of roughly 2,500 households -- when called upon by EnerNOC. In exchange, EnerNOC rewards General Mills with periodic payments.

The company decided to go ahead with this initiative to bolster its sustainability efforts and practices.

"We feel that demand response is something that's good for our business, our community and the nation at large," said General Mills' spokesperson Jim DeLaPena.

Tim Healy, chairman and CEO of EnerNOC said energy conservation at the community-level, whether by individuals, small businesses, or large organisations like General Mills, can powerfully impact how electricity is managed and used.

"Demand response is an opportunity for businesses to do something that is positive for the environment and actually generates money for them, without the need to lay out capital," said Healy.

The company uses its Network Operations Center, or NOC, to remotely manage and reduce electricity consumption across a network of commercial, institutional, and industrial customer sites and make demand response capacity and energy available to grid operators and utilities on demand.

"Consumers must be motivated for DR"

smartelectricnews.com Special - Interview with Petri Trygg, Researcher, Institute of Power Engineering, Tampere University of Technology

Specialists recommend a thorough study or an insight into customers' requirements and behaviour before involving them for DR programmes right from the pilot/ test phase for any project.

Be it for what customers care about and what their "need drives" are (is it the environment-related or financial savings or social responsibility); a lot of introspection is required before one factors these into a communication and implementation strategy and starts reaching out to the customers. There are initiatives or rather new precedents taking place in a market like the US where the electric utility industry is testing the response of residential customers to different innovative pricing options under one programme to test an advanced metering technology. The consumer is checking out pricing options that could assist them in curbing their monthly bills by better controlling their power consumption.

Assessing such approaches, Petri Trygg, Researcher, Institute of Power Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, says, "I think it heavily depends on the issue [being] studied. In general, consumer´s attitude towards electricity must be quite uninterested [one]."

Trygg, who is also MD of PowerQ Oy, Finland, a company specialising in metering information analysis e.g. power quality monitoring and web-applications, pointed out that in Finland, price difference of electricity between different companies is few hundred Euros.

"In DR, potential of savings must be quite high to really boost usage of it in real life situations compared to simulations," said Trygg, who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

Through pilot programmes, companies or utilities are looking to get an insight into how consumers react to pricing information. They also want to learn whether consumers alter their usage habits, potentially resulting in lower energy costs, achieving energy efficiency gains and a reduction in the amount of kilowatts.

But Trygg categorically says before all this consumers should be informed first about the test and recommends communicating with them on a regular basis. "Like in medicine development using placebos for comparison group. Then comparing the different situations. Alternative with different compensation levels," Trygg told smartelectricnews.com.

On how the government/ state authorities and other organisations can get an insight into how consumers react to pricing information or any initiative, Jessica Stromback of VaasaETT Global Energy Think Tank recently told smartelectricnews.com: "Well, the very best way of course is to try them - and like the Canadians try a variety of possibilities so that you can build on previous knowledge and create real comparisons. You not only learn about how your customers' would react but also what such measures would really require in reality from your utilities, regulators, grid operators… If you don't have the budget for a pilot study - ask them."

It is also critical to remember that most consumers know almost nothing about the industry and they may not understand the ramifications of their answers. As Jessica says, for example, most customers that are asked if they would like to have "accurate billing" rather than the widely used estimated bills, say yes – until they are informed that their winter electricity bills may double. Therefore, the questionnaires must be carefully designed.
"A third method, which should not be forgotten and is always an important first step - is to review the excellent pilot studies that have already been done all over the world," says Jessica.

On the same, Trygg said, emphasis should be given to price difference for electricity versus amount of changes.

"Consumer must be motivated for DR. And for finding out the motivating compensation study of the electricity sales price differences versus the rate of consumer changing the sales company should be done locally in the markets DR is designed," said Trygg.

On inducing a change in consumers' usage habits, Trygg said the approach would depend upon the market.

"In Finland, the main factor is the compensation to the consumer. Also knowledge that high demand situations require more polluting energy production may influence some of the customers. So by reducing peak loads only polluting production is limited and renewable is kept going. Cheaper "green" tariffs are also key to success. Currently, they are more expensive and this is not motivating consumers."

With reference to a "smart meter" getting installed at each participant's residence (for a pilot study) to measure electricity use at hourly intervals and transmit usage data each day through a wireless communications network, Trygg says in any case AMR is the solution also for DR.

"But alternative and independent models also exist. In critical network situations, frequency based DR is also new possibility. Customer behaviour is dependent on price differences also. Also, predictability of prices in each hour is key in changing the load profiles," said Trygg.

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Petri Trygg, Researcher, Institute of Power Engineering, Tampere University of Technology is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com
T: +44 (0)207 375 7581
==

"It is worth investing in DR resources if its cheaper than the alternative resources"

Interview with Ulrik Stridbaek, Chief Economist, Regulatory affairs at DONG Energy

smartelectricnews.com Special

During the hottest days or any other period of maximum demand, demand can rise to a level where even if generating capacity is available, the delivery infrastructure or the grid may be pushed to the point of failure. According to experts, demand response (DR) can be used at such times to reduce spikes and increase grid reliability.

This type of DR usually involves end users on `standby' able to be dispatched - often times automatically - by grid operators or utilities when demand is spiking and grid equipment failures are possible.

Apart from increasing grid reliability, another option would be to reduce short-term price volatility.

Depending on the configuration of generation capacity, DR may be used to increase demand (load) at times of high production and low demand. Some systems may thereby encourage energy storage to arbitrage between periods of low and high demand (or low and high prices).

As the proportion of intermittent power sources such as wind power in a system grows, demand response may become increasingly important to effective management of the electric grid.

According to Ulrik Stridbaek, Chief Economist, Regulatory affairs at DONG Energy, greater volatility in supply from variable resources such as wind power will create greater value in shifting demand from hours with a high price to hours with a low price.

"So if power is priced correctly the incentives for customers to respond will increase with the expansion of e.g. wind power. If incentives are sufficient to trigger DR, this can contribute balancing the system. Otherwise other sources of flexibility will have to be found. New intelligent generation and demand such as micro generation and electric cars can help creating the framework where demand becomes more responsive, by triggering the necessary investments for intelligent demand," says Stridbaek, who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

Stridbaek also spoke about few other issues in an interview with smartelectricnews.com. Excerpts:

smartelectricnews.com: What according to you is the appropriate way to merge pre-existing energy infrastructure to intelligent ICT, Smart grids and Virtual Power plants?

Ulrik Stridbaek: Investments in the grid, including smart grids, will probably require regulatory incentives. When necessary regulated infrastructure is in place, there must be proper incentives to make use of the infrastructure (e.g. for VPPs) and integrate traditional and new types of resources.

The best way to create these incentives is through well designed markets, competition and market forces.

smartelectricnews.com: How should companies go about planning and executing DR and DSM programmes and also partnering with specialists for the same?

Ulrik Stridbaek: It is worth investing in DR resources if this is cheaper than the alternative resources. So first step must be to have a good feel for the cost and value of marginal resources in any given system. Next step is to have knowledge about the cost of DR.

This also requires close relationships with customers. Partnerships with consultants, aggregators and vendors comes after that, and must depend on the specific circumstances.

smartelectricnews.com: How can DSM play an important role in helping balance supply and demand in any energy market as well as help reduce price volatility and increase system reliability and security?

Ulrik Stridbaek: DR is a resource to be compared with other alternative resources to balance power supply and maintain reliability. DR can help reduce prices and volatility but volatility is also what gives incentives for DR in the first place.

smartelectricnews.com: When it comes to installation, maintenance and data management of such programmes, what factors do you think need to be taken into consideration for enablement cost where one-time cost includes equipment installation and administration and annual maintenance cost?

Ulrik Stridbaek: This is complex. One point for consideration is that a lot of potential DR resources requires up front investment, but once these have been incurred and demand has been automated, the cost of responding may be low. So once the investment has been incurred it is highly competitive with other alternative resources, such as generation from peakers.

smartelectricnews.com: It is said that Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) programme costs are less than half the cost of peak generation resources. How do you assess developments related to Auto-DR platform designed to automated, electronic price and reliability signals as well as site-specific demand response strategies?

Ulrik Stridbaek: This is under development but probably focused on specific sectors and applications, rather than in a broad roll-out. Initial target sectors could be electric cars and specific appliances.

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Ulrik Stridbaek is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com
T: +44 (0)207 375 7581

Silver Spring reportedly on a contract signing spree

Silver Spring Networks, a firm which recently received $75 million investment for its global expansion, is reportedly finalising contracts "worth hundreds of millions of dollars to outfit three large, yet-unnamed electric utilities with smart grid technology in deal".

The multi-year deals include wirelessly networking more than three million electric meters for the utilities.

The agreements are expected to be finalised in December and would be worth more than $300 million, Silver Spring executives told Red Herring.

"The Silver Spring agreements, which are with two investor-owned utilities in the United States and one abroad, would cap a big year for the Kleiner Perkins-backed company," as per the report.

It was Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers's Green Growth Fund, which had led a $75 million investment round into Silver Spring Networks in October. The company provides its Smart Grid technology, systems, and services to customers including: Florida Power & Light Company, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Modesto Irrigation District, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Consumers Energy, and others.

Chief executive Scott Lang said Silver Spring has already inked multi-year contracts worth $500 million, and he expects that value to reach $1 billion within 12 months. He said the company would be profitable by next year, pulling in revenue exceeding $75 million.

Itron joins interoperability programme

eMeter has shared that Itron, a provider of AMI solutions, has joined its IntegratedMDM SM Programme.

The purpose of eMeter's IntegratedMDM Program is to foster closer cooperation and interoperability between eMeters EnergyIP and AMI technologies.

Larsh Johnson, CTO, eMeter said with the capabilities of AMI systems evolving so rapidly, this programme is designed to provide utilities with assurance that if they select a participating AMI technology, the technology will operate with the EnergyIP MDMS now and in the future.

Under the programme, each of the AMI companies independently agreed to cooperate in the integration of their AMI technology with the EnergyIP software.

The eMeter IntegratedMDM program consists of the following elements:

· Interoperability. Enabling eMeter's MDM to interoperate with the participating AMI technologies.
· Independence of MDM and AMI Systems. Creating open, independent MDM that allows utilities to select from the participant's offerings now and in the future.
· Integration Planning. On-going development cooperation and release planning between eMeter and the AMI companies covering existing and future functionality.

Itron joins Iskrameco, Silverspring Networks, Current Technologies, EDMI, Eka Systems, Elster, Landis+Gyr, Sensus and Trilliant as the newest member of the IntegratedMDM programme.

Gainspan and Grid Net to offer a smart grid HAN

Gainspan and Grid Net are developing standards-based Smart Grid connectivity that offers easy Home Area Network (HAN) access to utilities deploying AMI solutions using Grid Net's PolicyNet NMS.

GainSpan is an embedded Wi-Fi semiconductor company providing a low power single-chip solution.

According to the two companies, Grid Net's broadband smart meter HAN interface, coupled with GainSpan's ultra low-power chips that leverage the widely-deployed Wi-Fi infrastructure, will enable programmable, connected devices (such as thermostats and smart appliances) to optimise the control, delivery, and usage of power.

Over time, the companies plan to extend these capabilities to enable intelligent gas and water metering.

According to Ray Bell, CEO, GridNet, the "combination of GainSpan's ultra low-power Wi-Fi chips and GridNet's leading Smart Grid software and firmware enables utilities to benefit from cost-effective, secure Smart Grid home energy management solutions".

ECE goes for a Smart Grid-ready communications system

East Central Energy (ECE) is deploying a Smart Grid-ready communications system linking 36 substations with a 700 MHz licenced wireless broadband communication network from Arcadian Networks made possible through a partnership with the cooperative's wholesale power supplier, Great River Energy of Maple Grove.

ECE, which is a member-owned electric cooperative that serves more than 57,000 homes, farms and businesses in east central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, has now completed installation of Arcadian at 32 of 36 substations and expects to complete the roll out by the end of the year.

Commenting on the previous arrangement, Linda LaTourelle, the IT Manager overseeing the transition to the Arcadian solution, said with nearly 70,000 PLC equipped meters reporting through substation data concentrators, communications with remote locations was challenging.

Considering that the older dial-up communications were maintenance intensive and needed to support an expensive frame relay network to get information back to headquarters in Braham, Minnesota, with some remote substations simply could not be reached by dial-up (and this required to patch together a non- broadband, mismatched solution), ECE saw the need to upgrade to a unified and modern communications platform to support its plans for additional smart grid applications in the future.

"We liked the idea of a private network and had considered putting in our own wireless system," said LaTourelle. "When we studied the capabilities of the Arcadian system, we saw that it brought the security, privacy, and reliability we wanted along with a strong ongoing return on our investment."

"We are already benefiting from the broadband accessibility to our substation communications throughout the entire territory, and the team is talking about the Smart Grid potential of the network."

IBM and EDF embark on an energy sustainability project

IBM has signed a collaboration with EDF to jointly develop high performance computing solutions which can significantly advance the operation and optimisation of the complex systems and processes involved in electricity production and power management.

The two companies will also work on a project to explore key aspects of the energy systems that are important in EDF operations, in an effort to further energy sustainability.

Acknowledging the significance of extensive collaboration between the scientific and business communities, and new approaches in technology, John E. Kelly III, senior vice president and director of IBM Research said this ambitious initiative will explore how to apply technologies with new intelligence to seek significant improvements in energy efficiency and alternative energy.

Together, the companies will develop and validate sophisticated computational solutions to model a number of complex processes critical to EDF activities. EDF expects that this common initiative will increase its ability to further advance the efficiency of its power plants.

IBM expects that its work with EDF will help advance IBM's systems, software, middleware and applications capabilities in its Power Generation, Intelligent Utility Network and Advanced Water Management solutions, as well as many other industrial, environmental and research activities and lead to improved computer systems and applications designs in the future.

For its part, EDF has been investing in research and numerical simulation to support efficient and sustainable use of power production. Its R&D teams have developed a set of highly validated numerical codes and simulation platforms that play a key role in optimising plant operation.

"Supply companies will need to learn about DR possibilities and efficiencies"

Interview with Alastair Manson, senior consultant, Engage Consulting Limited

smartelectricnews.com Special

The decision to go for a demand response programme in case of businesses depends upon a number of factors. For such initiatives, organisations have to diligently plan, implement, and monitor activities, which best fits in with the kind of business they are in, scale of their operations and other factors.

While for smaller retailers there might be not be a lot of electric load they can shift to off peak times, for relatively larger businesses the issues tend to be much more complex considering decisions related to production schedules, selection of equipment and much more.

Still, the general consensus seems to be that the understanding of such process, which is all about reducing load when contingencies occur that threaten supply-demand balance or market conditions occur that raise supply costs, is only gradually picking up.

"You would have to say that there is a lot to be learnt. There is much that is understood about demand response but more that is not known. Similarly, the generation profile will change in ways that are unknown," says Alastair Manson, senior consultant, Engage Consulting Limited.

Manson, who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009, says smart meters do not in themselves deliver demand response but can offer a number of ways that can provide or facilitate various levels of demand response: They can be linked to displays (giving consumption and pricing information including potentially CPP); They can have load limiting capability – in line or auxiliary switches that could control all or part of supply; They can be linked to other devices in the home directly or via an energy control device to allow automated management of devices usage and so on.

"It is probably fair to say that suppliers are investigating various levels of load control and with various levels of sophistication but that our initial challenge in Great Britain is to get the implementation of smart metering underway with the right functionality to allow for options to be decided into the future," Manson told smartelectricnews.com.

DR programmes are like other programmes but there is a particular need to learn along they way and to take in innovation, says Manson.

According to Manson, supply companies will need to learn about DR possibilities and efficiencies.

"There is a constant learning process and they need to keep learning what is effective with customers and what customer's abilities to change usage are. They need to understand what the rules are and have an understanding of what the rules will be and keep learning what technologies can provide," he added.

Automated DR systems have been deployed for critical peak pricing and demand bidding and are being designed for real time pricing.

On how does automating DR allows greater levels of participation and improved reliability and repeatability of the demand response and customer facilities, Manson said automation will suit many customers who will not want to manually micro-manage their consumption.

"It is a service that has to be seen as acceptable to customers rather than being inflicted on them. There needs to be an education process from suppliers and beyond including government. There needs to be an energy service to customers not just an energy supply service. Customers need to appreciate benefits of DR -this will take learning and time and they will need alternatives that make DR acceptable and a benefit rather than just reducing their demand," said Manson.

While the lack of knowledge about how to develop and implement DR control strategies is a barrier to participation in DR programs like CPP, another barrier is the lack of automation of DR systems.

At least one way that DR can be facilitated is via smart metering with sufficient abilities.

"But DR cannot be implemented by stealth," said Manson.


In terms of opting between Manual DR programme, and Semi-Automated DR, which involves a pre-programmed demand response strategy initiated by a person via centralised control system, and Fully-Automated Demand Response, which does not involve human intervention, but is initiated at a home, building, or facility through receipt of an external communications signal, Manson said this has to be done by study of what works and what is acceptable to and desired by customers, bearing in mind that conditions may well be very different not so far in the future.

Recently, it was indicated that less than one percent of all commercial and industrial companies use advanced technology to measure and manage energy spend, whereas nearly 100 percent use advanced technology to measure and manage telecommunications spend in the US.

Assessing the situation as far as the maturity level of Advanced Metering in Total Energy Management in the UK is concerned, Manson said, "I would be surprised if it is really one percent. I would have to say that UK is in its infancy but will grow quickly."

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Alastair Manson, senior consultant, Engage Consulting Limited is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com
T: +44 (0)207 375 7581

IBM CEO recommends smart systems

IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano has stressed upon the importance of technology and smart systems for improving global infrastructure.

He cited reports that energy grids lose as much as 40 percent to 70 percent from inefficient systems and said traffic congestion in the US costs $78 billion a year. That's 4.2 billion lost hours and 2.9 billion gallons, he said. Stockholm, Sweden's smart-traffic system reduced traffic by 20 percent and drove emissions down by 12 percent, while 40,000 new users take advantage of daily public transportation, he said, according to InformationWeek.

Palmisano, proposing a technology-fueled economic recovery plan that calls for public and private investment in more efficient systems for utility grids, traffic management, food distribution, water conservation and health care, said, "It's obvious, when you consider the trajectories of development driving the planet today, that we're going to have to run a lot smarter and more efficiently -- especially as we seek the next areas of investment to drive economic growth and to move large parts of the global economy out of recession." He added, "Fortunately, we now can. We see this in how companies and institutions are rethinking their systems and applying technology in new ways."

CalAmp embeds Ember ZigBee Technology

Ember Corporation has teamed with CalAmp Corp. to enable ZigBee and IP-based wireless networks to work together for automated meter reading, peak energy demand response and other smart grid applications.

CalAmp has integrated Ember's EM250 ZigBee System-on-Chip (Soc) and EmberZNet PRO ZigBee networking software into its new WiMetry IP-based wireless communications platform. WiMetry enables smart grid functions such as demand response, peak demand reduction and other advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) applications.

The integrated devices provide a two-way communication pathway to ZigBee enabled smart meters or In Home Devices (IHD) for energy load control, demand response, energy consumption or tariff display.

Referring to ZigBee wireless connectivity to both electric meters and ZigBee enabled IHDs, CalAmp's Industrial Monitoring and Controls unit VP and general manager Mark Christensen said the goal of the company was to provide real-time, two-way wireless communications to manage the sensing, collecting and monitoring of data from all portions of a utility's electric distribution grid.

The need for smart energy solutions is becoming more and more urgent, said Bob Gohn, vice president – marketing, Ember.

CalAmps WiMetry platform allows utility customers to implement efficient smart grid applications quickly, helping them respond to changes in their industry and the economy.

EnerNOC set to achieve its 2008 targets

EnerNOC says its on target to end this year with over 2,000 megawatts under management and it has dispatched the liability based capacity in its demand response network over 90 distinct times year-to-date and delivered an average performance of 98 percent based on nominated versus delivered capacity across all reporting events.

Sharing its third quarter results, in which EnerNoc posted record revenue performance of $44.2 million, 131 percent increase overall revenue in the third quarter of 2007, the company stated that this performance track record demonstrates the scalability and robustness of its network operation center and its fifth generation proprietary software application called Power Track, which is the primary application that it uses in EnerNOC for notifying, monitoring, and managing its expanding network of active customers' sites.

It uses this application for both demand response and its growing energy efficiency business.

On the performance during the quarter, Tim Healy - chairman and CEO, EnerNOC Inc., said, "This year-over-year growth was the result of many things including the significant expansion of our presence in the PJM market and our continued strong performance in New England as well as the growth and diversification of our portfolio demand response and energy management solutions throughout North America."

The company grew its demand response network ending September with over 1,760 megawatts under management, which is the capacity equivalence over 17 average size peaking power plant.

"These megawatts come from 3,400 different end-use customer sites in our network as of September 30, 2008 up from 3,067 customers' sites in our network as of the end of the second quarter," stated the company. "We have sold approximately 100 new megawatts since the end of the third quarter, with over 1,850 megawatts in our network we feel good about our ability to exit 2008 with over 2,000 megawatts under management."

Echelon extends its project winning spree in Europe

Sustaining its project winning spree, Echelon Corporation has bagged a smart metering project in France. The development follows recent contracts in Germany and Denmark.

The company shared that the Group of Electricity Distributors in France (GAELD), a consortium of electricity distributors, has chosen Echelon's Networked Energy Services (NES) System for up to 90,000 homes.

The project, awarded to Echelon partner Alter Way, is expected to begin within the next few months and to be completed by 2013.

One of the utilities in the GAELD consortium, Régie d'électricité de Loos, is allowing homeowners to sell back solar produced electricity to the utility. They are doing so using the ability of NES meters to measure the amount of electricity produced separately from the energy consumed, as opposed to simple "net metering" in which the details of production versus consumption are lost, making this the first instance of Echelon's meter to be used in an alternative energy application in France.

Echelon's NES advanced metering infrastructure consists of advanced electronic electricity meters, accessed via a web services based network operating system over an IP networking infrastructure. Multiple NES meters can share a single IP connection through the use of Echelon's power line networking technology.

According to the company, this decreases the per-point connection cost, enabling the system to easily and cost-effectively incorporate new wide area networking technologies over the life of the system.

"Far too many vulnerable Scots are facing soaring energy bills this winter"

Cabinet Secretary for Finance John Swinney has shared that annual public sector electricity bill is around £200 million.

Speaking in Parliament, Swinney said, "Far too many vulnerable Scots are facing soaring energy bills this winter – that is why this Government is putting an extra £10 million into the free central heating programme this year."

In this context, the new strategy aims to harness the combined purchasing power of the public sector to save taxpayers' money so that it can be invested elsewhere.

The contract will provide public bodies with access to energy management measures such as advanced metering, small scale renewables initiatives and opportunities to sell electricity into the grid.

"Elsewhere, we will increase advice to businesses and individuals. Scottish Enterprise has now started recruiting manufacturing professionals to double the size and capability of the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, to ensure that even more companies are able to gain access to quality advice," said Swinney.

"We will also provide a fast and effective, quality of service to people should they become unemployed. Partnership and local delivery are key to helping people back into work. That is why we will ensure that the Partnership for Continuing Employment initiative will be ready and available to provide the support that individuals require should they lose their jobs. This local network is unique to Scotland - and we will continue to develop it so that it helps us respond to redundancies as they occur," said Swinney.

PG&E opts for Landis+Gyr as one of its primary AMI suppliers

Landis+Gyr has signed a four-year contract to supply a major portion of the planned deployment of more than five million advanced electric meters to Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

The San Francisco-based utility plans to deploy Landis+Gyr Focus advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters to empower residential and small business customers in Northern and Central California.

Landis+Gyr's electric meter contract is part of PG&E's SmartMeter programme. Through this initiative, PG&E is rolling out advanced metering technology to its entire customer base, including over four million natural gas and five million electric customer accounts. As per the information available, this $1.7 billion deployment ranks as one of the largest ever undertaken in the US.

The company added that some of the services and products under the agreement are contingent on regulatory approval as part of PG&E's SmartMeter Programme Upgrade.

PG&E recently began billing a portion of its customers on data collected through its SmartMeter automated metering infrastructure. This data has been consolidated and validated using the meter data management solution provided by Bloomington, MN-based Ecologic Analytics, which is part owned by Landis+Gyr.

LCA increases its equity stake in RLtec to 77.4 percent

Low Carbon Accelerator (LCA) has made a further equity investment of £300,000 in ResponsiveLoad Ltd (RLtec).

LCA's investment was part of an overall £550,000 funding round, with £250,000 provided by a private investor. Further details weren't shared.

As part of this investment, LCA has converted its £900,000 convertible loan in RLtec, previously announced on 21 December 2007, into preference shares. These transactions result in LCA's equity stake in RLtec increasing to 77.4 percent and takes LCA's total investment in RLtec to £2,053,500. In addition, LCA has agreed to provide a further £300,000 in funding subject to the achievement of milestones.

It was originally envisaged that the convertible loan note would finance RLtec to the completion of a larger third party funding round. The company now expects to pursue this larger funding round after RLTec has agreed terms with the National Grid for the provision of grid balancing services using RLtec's patented dynamic demand technology. RLtec is targeting agreement of this contract in early 2009.

For its part, RLtec has shared that it is making steady progress towards agreeing a demonstration project with Ofgem and a major utility supplier under the UK's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERTs) programme. It has also recently received an order to trial its product using electrical load available in the Sainsbury retail store estate, in addition to successfully completing application testing with a major appliance manufacturer.

RLtec has developed technology suitable for demand- response and Smart Grid energy balancing applications.

HSBC to use advanced mini-building management system

HSBC is teaming up with energy management specialist t-mac Technologies to reduce energy consumption in its retail outlets by 20 percent.

t-mac Technologies will provide HSBC with its advanced mini-building management system (BMS) - t-mac.

By deploying the t-mac system, HSBC will be able to monitor and control the amount of energy their buildings are using.

The system gathers metering data and energy consumption information from sources of power, such as a building's air conditioning unit, lights and heating. The technology then identifies waste, with information collected into reports that can be used to gain an understanding of energy consumption patterns. HSBC will use the system to identify areas where buildings are losing and wasting energy, providing the bank with recommendations on how to cut carbon emissions and costs.

Stephen Gathergood, data centre and engineering manager, HSBC Bank, said, "The technology deployed through our partnership with t-mac is a good example of how our buildings can be more efficiently managed, without any material increase in operating costs, which enables us to continue to deliver the same value to both our shareholders and our customers."

The vendor says t-mac system works via the Internet and is therefore fully interactive from any location. In practice, when an air conditioning unit is leaking energy or operating outwith pre-set criteria t-mac will send the bank a text message or email to alert them to rectify this inefficiency. The bank can then log on to the Internet where they can, by the click of a mouse, turn down the heating or turn off the lights instantly without having to go on site.

PG&E to deploy up to 3.3m GE meters equipped with SmartMeter technology

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has shared its plans of deploying 3.3 million GE meters equipped with SmartMeter technology to utility customers in Northern and Central California.

Overall, PG&E plans to deploy 10.3 million SmartMeter gas and electric meters by the end of 2011 to virtually all of its customers.

The GE meters will be equipped with Silver Spring Networks smart grid/advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) communications technology.

According to GE energy, this technology will enable two-way communications between the utility and the electricity customer. It will support renewable generation at the customer's home, critical peak and time-of-use pricing and more. The company also shared that by employing SmartMeter technology, PG&E will, in the future, be better able to detect and respond to power outages.

According to EPRI, California experiences the greatest losses associated with power outages and disruptions, totaling $13.2-20.4 billion per year. That's more than any other state.

Swansea University develops advanced Smart Electricity Meters

The Power Electronics team from Swansea University's School of Engineering has developed what is being described as one of the world's most advanced Smart Electricity Meters.

The team, based within the Electronic Systems Design Centre, is currently supplying nearly 1.5MWh per year of free `Green electricity' to the University.

The project is one of a number of Welsh Assembly Government Knowledge Exploitation Fund research projects being undertaken in Wales and facilitated by the Welsh Energy Research Centre (WERC) to ensure Wales is at the forefront of current energy technologies.

The team implemented their prototype Smart Meter to highlight the potential of electricity metering technologies. Termed as the focal point for consumers' personal energy queries, the Smart Meter monitors energy consumption, giving information not just through a traditional power reading, but in a user-friendly way by displaying animated graphics of money on a large clear screen on the meter, according to the University. Plus, it monitors individual power circuits, including upstairs lighting, downstairs lighting and kitchen sockets.

The University added that the team believes there is also the possibility to monitor individual appliances when the technology is adopted further. The presentation of consumption information is complemented by the ability to show power generated from micro-renewable technologies in a 'plug and play' manner, similar to the wind turbine currently commercially available, and generic solar panels.

The Smart Meter is linked to a number of solar panels on the roof of the University's Engineering building through a power converter. The power delivered from the solar panels is monitored within the meter to allow the 'Green energy' produced to be reviewed in an easy to understand way. This allows clear indications whether the renewable technology has been a beneficial purchase and the likely financial performance from the initial investment.

The meter also has communication abilities, allowing the readings of power consumption and generation to be instantly available to the supplier and to the consumer via web pages, wireless in-home displays, or potentially even a television channel.

"Both positive and negative incentives can be used to involve the end user"

smartelectricnews.com Special

The recent automatic electric meter installation by Sweden's Vattenfall for supporting the development of a secure grid is expected to result in better control over the electricity network and significant cost savings.

According to Telvent, the IT company which supplied and managed the automatic remote electric meter reading system for the project, an AMI system together with the rest of the Smart Grid Solution (SGS) suite will decrease operation cost, reduce frequency and duration of outages, improve customer service and satisfaction, optimise grid investment strategies and finally, prepare for the future where full customer involvement in voluntary usage profile management, peak shaving and energy demand side management will be a reality.

In an interview with smartelectricnews.com, Ignacio Gonzalez-Dominguez, executive vice president of Telvent's Energy division provided an insight into how this project supports the development of a secure grid as well as additional services for end clients, ways to attract the participation of the end user and much more. Excerpts:

smartelectricnews.com: Telvent acted as the main meter supplier by providing 600,000 of the 850,000 total meters, and allowed Vattenfall to bill all of its clients through remote reading of electric consumption. Can you take us through the key observations? Can you elaborate on how this project supports the development of a secure grid as well as additional services for end clients?

Ignacio Gonzalez-Dominguez: The role that Telvent accepts is to help utilities to transform their current grid into one that distributes electricity more efficiently and securely, while meeting the continuously changing demands of the customer base, all in a sustainable way.

We believe that Vattenfall, by executing this modern AMI project, has demonstrated an aggressive strategy to take enhanced levels of control of their electricity network, to realise significant cost savings in delivering their services on their network and to improve levels of customer service and satisfaction. The AMI system is delivering valuable actionable information (not just data) to other back-office systems that will improve network operations, network planning and outage management functions in the utility.

In the early stages of operation of the AMI system, Vattenfall is in a position to continue moving towards a true Smart Grid environment. These next steps promise to further reduce operating costs, improve utility network reliability and customer satisfaction. As an example, Vattenfall is able to use the load profiles delivered by the new system for demand response programmes that will influence consumption patterns in their customer base. The system provides Vattenfall, in addition to the obvious metered usage data, power quality information and other "events" such as tampering and diagnostics. Further, the system's ability to support new emerging technologies such as home area networks promises opportunities for new and innovative services for end customers.

One distinctive value that Telvent AMI customers can leverage in the future would be related to combining of real-time meter data with other advanced operational applications such as Outage Management (OMS) and Distribution Management (DMS) and even integrated with Telvent's flagship OASyS SCADA product to acquire, validate and analyse operations data and manage grid behaviour in real-time. With the complete suite of applications, Telvent's customers can develop grid investment strategies to minimise frequency and duration of outages, provide high levels of customer service and improve overall customer satisfaction with the utility.

smartelectricnews.com: Which according to you is an optimal way of inducing a change in consumers' usage habits, potentially resulting in lower energy costs and achieving energy efficiency gains?

Ignacio Gonzalez-Dominguez: It is clear that demand response optimisation is needed to achieve the levels of sustainability and reliability we expect as a society. The key factor in any optimisation strategy is the end user, who will respond to various and relatively (with respect utility asset investment) short term financial incentives by modifying habits and routine in the use of their personal and commercial electric power.

Of course, both positive and negative incentives can be used in concert to attract the participation of the end user. Society generally is interested in a sustainable and secure world so the efforts of the utility industry in playing their part through marketing programmes will become common-place in the years to come.

smartelectricnews.com: It is not a simple `one size fits all' situation– residential programmes can be done along the lines of one size fits all, but commercial and industrial programs can not. Can you elaborate on the basic differences for Demand Response programs in various environments?

Ignacio Gonzalez-Dominguez: Demand response programmes cannot be designed with the same criteria for both residential and C&I customers. The residential DR programmes are going to be largely influenced by the availability of new HAN (Home Area Network) devices that will allow integrators such as Telvent to make new intelligent load management applications. C&I customers, however, will not be able to leverage these applications to the same degree since their loads are mostly critical and/or constant. Very specific load management programs will be needed for C&I customers.

smartelectricnews.com: Recently, it was indicated that less than one percent of all commercial and industrial companies use advanced technology to measure and manage energy spend, whereas nearly 100 percent use advanced technology to measure and manage telecommunications spend in the US. How do you assess the situation as far as the maturity level of Advanced Metering in Total Energy Management is concerned?

Ignacio Gonzalez-Dominguez: It is a fact that today telecommunication and information technology costs of any business are tightly monitored and dynamic in nature as the competition for these services is wide spread and new incentives are being offered continuously. Businesses are hungry for more communication with their customers and are anxious to use more and more IT to create real-time business decisions. Even the very utilities we are speaking of here, like banks and public administrations, manage their communications and IT spends for gathering, distributing, archiving, integrating and optimising their customer data.

It is clear that this can be a source of competitive advantage for them. Many utilities are now realising we have the technology to allow us to focus on energy spends with respect to cost, efficiency and ultimately competitive advantage. It is logical to think that bi-directional communication with your customers and the ability to optimise energy generation and distribution to reduce operating costs, all in real-time, is going to be a significant strategic advantage for the progressive utility.



Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009 is scheduled to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com

Alcatel-Lucent helping energy suppliers in supply chain management

Alcatel-Lucent is working with a number of major energy suppliers on delivering smart grids.

The focus is on networks that provide enhanced visibility of energy flows, more granular control of energy, pro-active real-time monitoring and enabling rapid and accurate reaction to disruption of supply when it occurs.

According to the company, the move to a distributed generation of supply was being encouraged by increased regulatory emphasis for renewable energy. Changing patterns in energy demand also are fostering the movement, it pointed out.

It added that this is happening against a background of less flexible infrastructure, in an industry where pipelines and supply networks lifecycles are measured in decades, while rapid changes in communications and IT are happening in months.

"Smart grids, or intelligent energy networks, are all about maximising asset efficiencies and control right down to the individual consumer. The goal is to increase efficient energy use and better manage supply to meet demand," said Francois Loubry, VP of Energy in Alcatel-Lucent's Services business.

It is also focusing research and development resources into new methods of energy distribution that address the major environmental issues facing the world.

Grid25 to double capacity of National Grid by 2025

Grid25, the EirGrid strategy for Ireland's future electricity transmission network, has been launched. It will involve doubling the capacity of the national bulk transmission grid by 2025.

This will be achieved through a combination of upgrading the existing network and the construction of new transmission infrastructure, in a manner that balances cost, reliability and environmental impact. As per the information available, the plan will require the replacement or upgrading of over 2,300km of power lines and the building of a further 1,150km.

The strategy involves an investment of €4 billion in essential infrastructure over the next 17 years in the period to 2025, with appropriate regulatory oversight by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER).

The scheme will be funded through the introduction of a "transmission tariff" on domestic and commercial customers of 0.2pc. For a household receiving an average electricity bill of €100 every two months, this would equate to an increase of 20 cents on each bill until 2025.

EirGrid chief executive Dermot Byrne said: "We are forecasting growth in electricity demand of 60 percent over the period to 2025. Our role is to ensure that electricity infrastructure does not become a barrier to the social and economic development of any region or county. Grid25 is our strategic response to this challenge."

"When the Grid25 strategy is implemented, not only will Ireland be in a position to exploit our rich renewable resources, but, when fully connected to the UK and European grid, Ireland can also secure its supply and become anet exporter of electricity from renewable sources," added Byrne.

PowerCentsDC implements demand response CRM software solution

PowerCentsDC has gone live with Mincom's real-time, event-driven billing and demand response CRM software solution.

The smart billing solution supports the advanced 'smart' meter project managed by Smart Meter Pilot Program (SMPPI), a non-profit corporation in Washington D.C. It delivers demand response, time of use, critical peak and critical peak rebate pricing and daily billing information to residential customers in metropolitan D.C. using smart meters and smart thermostats provided by PowerCentDC under the programme.

"The solution plays a key role in the project by enabling us to calculate monthly bills for our PowerCentsDC customers successfully and reliably using three different dynamic pricing options," said Rick Morgan, chairman, SMPPI.

The solution will also manage the participant recruitment and enrollment process for the demand response programme.

The project was delivered through a strategic alliance between selected vendors, industry groups and the Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco).

Morgan added that the solution has also helped in avoiding major CIS customisation expenses. "Keeping costs low is critical to the success of PowerCentsDC project. Mincom's smart billing system allows us to deliver the programme's complex, real-time rating and pricing without disrupting the local utility's enterprise CIS."

Tampa Electric launches Demand Response programme for commercial customers

Tampa Electric has received approval from Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) to expand its Energy Planner pilot programme to all new qualified customers.

According to the company, Energy Planner allows customers to make energy consumption decisions based on near real-time energy prices by using a programmable "smart" thermostat provided by the company at no charge. Customers participating in the pilot study saved an average of one month's worth of electricity over the course of a year.

In all, Tampa Electric has added 12 new energy efficiency programmes to its roster; the company also made improvements to several longtime programmes.

Other new programmes include a Low Income programme, where qualified customers can receive a number of items geared toward increasing their home's energy efficiency.

The company has also launched a new programme for commercial customers. Known as Demand Response, the programme will pay incentives to participating commercial customers when they conserve energy at times of peak demand.

Tampa Electric has also filed a revised fuel forecast with the FPSC. Due to lower projections for 2008 and 2009 natural gas prices and the company's team members' ongoing efforts to maximise the availability of its coal-fired generating units, the bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity is now projected to be almost $11 less than originally expected.

The company now expects that it will be $133 million under-recovered by year-end, compared with its original September filing projection of $209 million. The company did not seek a surcharge this year to address the under-recovery. Instead, it intends to address it through its 2009 fuel charge.

Starting in January 2009, the bill for a 1,000-kWh per month residential customer would be $128.44, compared with the original projection of $139.25. This does not reflect the company's recently announced plans to request an increase to its base rates and service charges. If approved, the base rate increase would result in an additional increase of $10, effective in May 2009.

Silver Spring Networks raises $75 million from VCs

Silver Spring Networks, a provider of smart grid technology solutions, has received $75 million VC funding, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers' (KPCB) Green Growth Fund.

The new funding, a portion of which has been reserved for strategic partners, included returning investors Foundation Capital, JVB Properties, and Northgate Capital.

The investment will help Silver Spring Networks to expand globally, according to John Doerr, KPCB Partner.

KPCB stated that Silver Spring Networks has the only true smart grid platform "which has been proven at scale". The technology allows utilities to enhance the reliability and quality of their services while at the same giving them the potential to better utilise power generating capacity, reduce carbon emissions, and improve operating efficiency.

The company's technology, which is based on the Internet Protocol suite, also enables consumers to become informed participants in managing energy consumption.

Silver Spring Networks provides its technology, systems, and services to customers including Florida Power & Light Company, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Modesto Irrigation District, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Consumers Energy, and others.

Beacon Power tests its first megawatt of flywheel energy storage

Beacon Power Corporation has built and tested an integrated matrix of ten high-power flywheels that operated together to absorb and supply a full megawatt of electricity.

The system, located in Beacon's Tyngsboro Mass. headquarters, will be the first of up to five megawatts of flywheel-based regulation capability that will be produced this year and commercially deployed to generate revenues from the provision of regulation services.

Until now, Beacon had been building and running individual flywheels in preparation for its first full megawatt implementation. Based on internal testing of an integrated matrix of ten flywheels, the company says its one-megawatt Smart Energy Matrix can ramp up and down to absorb and supply a full megawatt of power.

Bill Capp, president and CEO, Beacon Power said, "We've proven that a matrix of our Smart Energy 25 flywheels, together with associated electronics, software and other components, can store and release a megawatt of electricity."

Beacon will begin system testing in conjunction with ISO New England, during which time the flywheel matrix will respond to actual ISO test signals to absorb and supply power. This plan will allow the company to meet its schedule to interconnect live to the grid and to begin performing frequency regulation services under an ISO New England Alternative Technologies Pilot Program scheduled to start on November 18th.

The ISO New England Alternative Technologies Pilot Program, which was announced last month, will provide revenue for regulation services until permanent market rules have been developed. This process is expected to take approximately 18 months.

DOE to develop solar power storage and heat transfer projects

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced 15 new projects, for up to approximately $67.6 million, to facilitate the development of lower-cost energy storage for concentrating solar power technology.

These projects support President Bush's Solar America Initiative, which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015.

Selected projects are expected to promote DOE's goal of reducing the cost of CSP electricity from 13-16 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) today with no storage to 8-11 cents/kWh with six hours of storage by 2015, and to less than seven cents/kWh with 12-17 hours of storage by 2020.

The department shared selections for negotiations of award under the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), Advanced Heat Transfer Fluids and Novel Thermal Storage Concepts for Concentrating Solar Power Generation.

DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy John Mizroch said, "These projects will not only spur innovation in concentrating solar power technology, but they will help meet the President's goal of making clean and renewable solar power commercially viable by 2015."

Proposals were selected from the following categories: Advanced heat transfer fluids research and development (R&D); Thermal energy storage R&D; and, Thermal energy storage near-term demonstration.

For more information, click here: http://www.energy.gov/news/6562.htm

Assessing the potential of nanoscopic meadows in driving electric cars

A report has highlighted that nanoscale meadows of grass and flowers could hold the key to increasing the amount of energy that can be stored in ultracapacitors, devices tipped to replace batteries in high-demand applications like electric cars.

The approach adopoted by Hao Zhang at the Research Institute of Chemical Defence in Beijing, China, and colleagues at Peking University is as follows: It is being said that this purpose can be served by creating nanoscale meadows of fuzzy flowers of manganese oxide (MnO), a material with a much greater capacity for ions than activated carbon.

The usually resistant MnO can be charged up to attract the ions it can store so well, and consequently the nano-meadow performs 10 times better than MnO alone. The nanomeadow's complex structure is resistant to the mechanical degradation that reduces the performance of ultracapacitors over time. The energy capacity of the new device drops by just three percent after 20,000 charge and discharge cycles, better than other high-capacity designs.

According to NewScientist.com, Mike Barnes at the University of Manchester, UK, says this is an interesting approach to improving ultracapacitor performance. But he points out that that a design ready for market needs to be even more resistant to physical degradation. In vehicles, ultracapacitors are charged during braking, which might happen about 60 times per hour in urban situations.

Flywheel systems bound to gain ground in the UPS space: analysis

Environmental factors and low-cost have propelled the European flywheel UPS market, according to an analysis from Frost & Sullivan.

The firm, in its analysis, European Flywheel UPS Markets, has shared that the market earned revenues of over €25.4 million in 2007 and estimates that it will reach €58 million in 2014. It highlighted that "green" initiatives have encouraged the gravitation towards environmentally friendly technologies such as flywheel UPS systems. The European Commission energy efficiency action plan has also helped drive the uptake of flywheel UPS systems.

"Although the technology has been in existence for a long time, it has seen widespread acceptance and increased uptake only over the past three or four years," said Frost & Sullivan's programme manager Malavika Tohani. "Flywheel UPS systems use kinetic energy, eliminating harmful emissions and disposal issues and reducing the impact on the environment."

"The total cost of ownership for a flywheel UPS is less than that of the battery-based UPS, primarily because of the lower operational costs," she said. "Moreover, this technology is energy efficient and space saving since it does not require huge storage space for batteries or cooling systems that are a part of conventional UPS systems."

It stated that ongoing efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and prevent climate change have triggered interest in alternative energy storage technologies. As awareness spreads and manufacturers ramp up R&D efforts, flywheel systems are bound to gain ground in the UPS space.

Evaluating the role of IT tools in automatic electric meter installation

smartelectricnews.com Special

Consumers are being proactively approached for the activation of programmes, in which they control electric consumption costs any time from their homes.

One such initiative was recently taken in Sweden, where Telvent completed the automatic electric meter installation for Vattenfall.

During the “Amrelva” project installation phase, Telvent acted as the main meter supplier by providing 600,000 of the 850,000 total meters, and allowed Vattenfall to bill all of its clients through remote reading of electric consumption. This real-time technology offers a benefit like reduction in billing errors, apart from increasing customer satisfaction.

Utilities like Vattenfall intend to transform their power grid by making electrical distribution more efficient, economical and secure, in addition to, in this particular case, permitting the electric company to comply with Swedish legislation requirements aimed at reducing energy consumption through performance and demand response.

The operational and maintenance phase, also managed by Telvent since 2006, is to be completed by 2011, with a six-year extension option.

Commenting on projects where consumers control consumption costs, Ignacio Gonzalez-Dominguez, Executive Vice President of Telvent’s Energy division told smartelectricnews.com that the technology exists today to make these programmes a reality.

The industry now has the tools, expertise, solution suites and finally experienced integrators to execute small pilots or large deployments such as Vattenfall’s AMI programme including 600,000 smart meters, communication and data infrastructure.

“Utilities will respond to customer demand for options and flexibility as consumers of electricity. Utility investors will demand the robust and stable distribution grids to deliver their product. And customers will become proficient in managing usage that can lead to efficient utilisation of exiting power distribution assets,” said Gonzalez-Dominguez.

On challenges in shaping up the project, Gonzalez-Dominguez referred to project management and IT tools as the main considerations.

“(It is significant) to have the right partners with clear and effective communications with the overall system integrator and the customer,” said Gonzalez-Dominguez. During the project, Telvent implemented very intensive control, weekly detailed reporting and regular meetings through all stages of the project, looking for ways to improve and quickly mitigating problems in the roll-out plan.

The IT tools in place to track, report and execute the plan, are equally important.

“In a large project like this, with so much material involved, so much customer data to manage and dispatch, it is mandatory to have the IT tools minimise the possibility of human error in the process. For example, the technicians were dispatched with PDAs used to electronically communicate a clear sequence of instructions to follow at each installation site. All this information was sent to the installer as a final outcome of the different work flows generated by utility and system integrator systems, and customer information. The up-front development of these interfaces has been an important part of the project’s success,” said Gonzalez-Dominguez.

Telvent also highlighted that it is very important to define clean-up procedures, check lists and field technician commentary to facilitate early detection of potential problems during the rollout phase while the technicians are still in the field. With a comprehensive set of clean-up routines and the PDA tools to support the installation, the company was able to avoid costly delays and additional field visits that can destroy the deployment plan.

Specifically, on factors taken into consideration while installation, Gonzalez-Dominguez said the two main factors contemplated in the project were: roll-out & logistics and system performance.

In the first one, rollout and logistics, of critical importance is the pre-planning in each geographical zone where the meters were to be installed. This planning demanded accurate customer data, specific installer work orders and route plans, equipment, specific meter types and tools needed to efficiently execute the plans in a timely fashion.

The second critical consideration, system performance and design had to insure a reliable network capable of automatic communication and detection of all meters as they came on line. During the roll-out phases of the project, Telvent’s applications monitored the system in parallel with operations to optimise data flow, ensure integrity and most importantly to validate and confirm performance targets were being met.

“Today, the system is achieving performance levels exceeding 99.70 percent,” said Gonzalez-Dominguez.

When planning a large AMI deployment, it is important to understand the need to define a very precise set of installation routines and related system support.

“Once those routines are defined and validated and the system is ready to accept the remote meter data, the attention must shift to thorough training of the installers and verification of the entire process in a pilot phase. An important milestone is created from the pilot to verify the system and process and make modifications before going into massive rollout,” said Gonzalez-Dominguez.

The AMI network management system plays a key role, with a single interface allowing operators to monitor progress, field devices as they are commissioned and overall system performance on a real-time basis for each geographical area. A powerful AMI management platform and its integration with other utility systems will be key to a successful and uneventful installation.

Work flows between both the work order management and meter data management systems is critical in feeding the overall AMI network management system with validated and high quality data in real-time, according to Telvent.


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Smart Electric News,
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Hitachi and Carina to jointly provide utility information solutions over GPON

In a collaboration expected to result in new revenue sources for utility companies, Hitachi Telecom (USA) is partnering with Carina Technology to provide utility information solutions over gigabit passive optical network (GPON).

The two companies are to offer the complementary advantages of reduced operational expense and increased revenue potential to utility companies that provide FTTP services using GPON technology. This combination can be achieved via:

- Operational savings through the real-time ability to read customers’ electric meters automatically, manage in-home devices for efficient management, manage pre-paid electricity service, and conduct peak demand power management functions over the FTTP infrastructure.
- Revenue generation from triple-play services, including video, data and voice and other applications that can be transported by the GPON network.

In this application, the CarinaPoint Ethernet Metering Device (EMD), which is connected to the Hitachi AMN1220 GPON system’s Optical Network Terminal (ONT) via Ethernet, resides in a collar base mounted between the residential electric socket and the electric meter at the customer’s premises. The CarinaPoint EMD is connected to the Hitachi AMN1220 GPON system’s Optical Network Terminal (ONT) via Ethernet.

Meter and management data is exchanged in real-time via the GPON network between the meter and the utility’s information systems. The AMN1220 ONT can also be powered externally from the CarinaPoint collar base, which reduces FTTP installation cost and speeds deployment.

In the context of efficient energy solutions, Carina emphasised that broadband will be essential for utilities to provide the sophisticated distribution and management capabilities.

Jay Newkirk, chief executive officer, Carina said, “Because of the bandwidth capability of FTTH, we can bring this sophisticated digital grid to life today rather than 5-10 years from now.”

Echelon ready for full-scale roll-out of its NES System in Germany

Echelon Corporation is ready for the first full-scale roll-out of its Networked Energy Services (NES) System in Germany.

The public utility of Hassfurt awarded the contract to Echelon’s NES value-added reseller partner EVB Energie AG to provide all of its approximately 10,000 customers with an advanced metering infrastructure over the next three years.

Germany recently proposed a new energy law requiring all new and remodeled homes to be equipped with smart meters by 2010 to promote energy conservation and efficiency.

EVB Energie AG highlighted that for the public utility of Hassfurt, smart metering is not only a digital metering system, but an instrument for process optimisation and customer relationship management.

“The management of Stadtwerk Hassfurt sees this instrument as an enabler of a new business segment. Only by using innovative technologies will medium-sized utility companies be able to survive in the German energy market,” said Johannes Alte-Teigeler, chairman, EVB Energie AG.

The NES advanced metering infrastructure from Echelon comprises integrated, advanced electronic electricity meters accessed via a web services based network operating system over an IP networking infrastructure.

Multiple NES meters can share a single IP connection through the use of Echelon’s power line networking technology. This drives down the per-point connection cost and enables the system to easily and cost-effectively incorporate new wide area networking technologies over the life of the system.

The system’s open interfaces allow the system to be cost-effectively expanded, adapted, and customised in ways unlike any competing system, shared the company.