Thursday 28 February 2008

OFGEM fines National Grid £41.6m


Energy regulator Ofgem has fined National Grid £41.6 million for a breach of competition law that restricted the development of competition in the domestic gas meter market.
The decision demonstrates Ofgem's commitment to taking action where there is evidence that a company has acted in a way that restricts competition and harms customers.

Ofgem's Chairman, Sir John Mogg, said: "Ofgem has imposed a substantial fine on National Grid for a serious breach of competition law. National Grid has abused its dominance in the domestic gas metering market, restricting competition and harming consumers.

"The abuse has prevented suppliers from contracting with other companies for cheaper metering deals and could discourage suppliers from installing smart meters."

When the metering market was opened to competition, National Grid struck long-term contracts with five of the six major energy suppliers to supply and maintain gas meters. These contracts include financial penalties that apply if suppliers replaced more than the small number of meters allowed under the contract by National Grid. They have severely restricted the rate at which suppliers can replace even National Grid's older meters with cheaper or more advanced meters from rival meter operators. By restricting competition, National Grid has deprived gas suppliers and customers of access to lower prices and improved service. Furthermore, it has curbed innovation in the provision and maintenance of domestic-sized metering.

Source: OFGEM

Smart Electric News announces Smart Grid initiatives


Smart Electric News a new Business Intelligence Unit for the Smart Grid industry has announced the first Smart Electric Power Distribution summit. The summit, focussing exclusively on critical success factors for delivering the smart grid of the future take place in Amsterdam (April 21 - 22) and brings together leading figures driving forwards the Smart Grid revolution.

The pan-European speaker line-up include the likes of EU SmartGrids, Elia, Endesa, ABB, Iberdrola, Areva, EDP, Electricity Authority, Energie-Control, Sintef, Tractebel, RLtec, Enel and Ecofys.

A well thought out agenda includes must have smart grid knowledge that addresses the factors involved in deplying and implementing a Smart Grid network rather than theorising what could be done with such a project. Technology updates, case study results, reducing time to market and securing project wins early will all be addressed over 2 days of insightful discussion and networking.

Michael Setters, Director of Smart Electric News stated "we're really excited by this event. We (Eye for Energy) already deliver a series of conferences in renewables (Tidal, CSP, Wave, CPV...) and the concept of delivering the Smart Grid to fruition is the glue that will hold these energy markets together in the future. We're delighted to be part of the event and even more excited by the level of interest seen so far."

Mr Setters went onto say " we only launched our new free e-newsletter service last week and already have over 1200 subscribers indicating the importance of the rapidly emerging market. We look forward to seeing many of our customers in Amsterdam"

More information on the conference and newsletter service can be found at www.smartelectricnews.com/smart08 and sponsor and media opportunities are still available.

IBERDROLA launches an open and non-proprietary telecommunications architecture for future-proof Smart Metering and Smart Grid evolution

IBERDROLA announced a a new open, public and non-proprietary telecom architecture to support not only smart metering functionality but also to progress towards the Electricity Networks of the Future.

New smart meters must be able to communicate securely and reliably to a central location, as well as to execute the commands and controls received. And all this becomes a daunting task, when the number of meters escalates to millions of units, and when functionality associated with smart grids require real-time communications. In this new context, the critical issue is telecommunications.

This is why IBERDROLA has gathered the relevant national and international industry players in the areas of metering, telecommunications, and silicon manufacturing to define, test and develop an open, public and standard AMI (Automatic Meter Infrastructure), into what is called PRIME project (Powerline Related Intelligent Metering Evolution). Current industrial PRIME partners are Advanced Digital Design, CURRENT Group, Landis+Gyr, STMicroelectronics, Usyscom and ZIV. A large number of European utilities have already expressed their interest in joining the project.Fully compliant with EN CENELEC 50065 and in band A, whose use is restricted to distribution network operators, in 2007 IBERDROLA performed several tests in different locations of its electricity network, with outstanding results. The success of using OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), a technology widely used in virtually any modern telecom infrastructure, such as xDSL, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, etc., has already been demonstrated in the field: a new high speed, low cost, PLC generation has become a reality. A large field deployment will soon be carried out based on this new architecture.

The final objective of the project is the establishment of a comprehensive set of international standards that will allow for interoperability between different manufacturers, thus boosting competition in the metering market for the benefit of all stakeholders, particularly the end-user. Contrary to other commercially available alternatives, no Intellectual Property Rights will be held on protocols, modulation techniques, data formats, etc.

In this light, the written specifications to be delivered will be detailed enough for third parties to proceed with the manufacture of interoperable meters and associated equipment, based on the defined infrastructure. The first building block of this infrastructure is the Physical layer specification, known as PHY spec, that is publicly available at AMI.info@iberdrola.es. A White Paper on the PHY spec is also publicly available and can be downloaded from www.iberdrola.com/suppliers/SmartMetering

Source: Iberdrola via TargetWire

EDP to work on InovGrid project

EDP Distribution (EDPD), as many other utilities, is facing new challenges regarding the liberalization of the European and Iberian electricity markets and regarding the need to introduce more intelligence to manage and control distribution networks with large scale integration of micro-generation and responsive loads.

With this in mind the InovGrid project addresses the technical architecture that is being developed for the implementation of a fully active distribution network. It is based on a multi-level hierarchical architecture, capable of dealing both separately and in an integrated way with commercial and technical information, where the infrastructure includes several components from Central and SCADA system to Energy Boxes (EB).

Besides being a large technical challenge, this project is an excellent opportunity to progress towards the smart grid paradigm, giving support to all new smart metering and commercial processes recently defined by Iberian energy regulators and allowing, at the same time, increases in operation flexibility and efficiency, grid reinforcement cost reduction, improvement of quality of service, and others, while keeping costs down.

The solution will apply to more than 6 million customers, bringing benefits for all stakeholders and also contribute to changes in energy consumption behaviors in order to successfully address the energy efficiency European requirements, as stated in the European Service Directive and subsequent local countries initiatives.

Luis vale de Cunha is the technical coordinator of the recently started InovGrid Project, an innovative initiative that aims to implement an "intelligent grid" during the next few years, trough a new systems, communications and technological infrastructure that will integrate commercial and metering processes, network automation and management, and also control of distributed energy resources and micro-generation.

Source: Smart Electric News

PG & E Funds $270,000 Peak Demand Energy System to Reduce Power Usage During Periods of Peak Demand


PG&E and Guadalupe have announced plans to install an Energy Director Intellekt system to reduce electricity usage by the company during periods of peak demand.

Commenting on the system, Danny Vincent, Plant Manager of Guadalupe Cooling Company, noted: "This is a green project that makes sense for both the company and the State of California. The Powerit system does not affect production, that's the key. It allows us to manipulate specific areas of our choosing at specific times. We'll use it for Demand Response when the state of California has problems and needs our help, but we'll use it everyday to cut our electrical costs."

Industry is the largest consumer of power in the U.S.

According to the 2005 EIA Annual Energy Review, U.S. industry used 29% of U.S. electricity and 37% of U.S. natural gas, consuming more energy than the entire economy of any other G8 nation.

Given a choice, a utility would rather support conservation and intelligent, reliable management of demand than build additional power plants. U.S. utilities remain concerned about their ability to meet instantaneous demand requirements of energy users. This relates to both the distribution capacity (and hence infrastructure investment) required to serve the peak demand of any given customer, and also the capacity to serve communities of customers during peak usage periods - such as the middle of the day and during seasonal periods.

Utilities have limited and expensive options available to them as they try to meet these additional demand requirements. Either they must build new power plants, build temporary stand-by (peak) power plants, or buy incremental capacity in the wholesale market - all expensive propositions.

Or, they can find mechanisms to cut-back on demand during times of peak usage such as financial assistance programs designed to help customers install technology solutions that make efficiency happen. In some cases, the end user is able to implement systems that take a substantial amount of kW off the grid and the cost of the technology is paid for by the utility. It's a win-win situation.

According to Bob Zak, President and General Manager of Powerit Solutions, "There is only so much you can do by manually shutting loads down; you really don't have any idea of exactly how much you're shaving. Our Energy Director system intelligently monitors all energy loads in real time within the plant and strategically changes their run status. This allows our customers to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in peak demand charges and, more importantly, it allows them to participate in their utility's Demand Response programs. These savings offset most or all of the costs of installing our system. In short, it's good for the utilities, makes good business sense for the end user and helps us to use these important energy resources more efficiently."
Powerit's Energy Director creates ongoing reductions of 10-40% (20% on average) in peak demand charges, corresponding to a 7-15% reduction in overall electricity savings. The peak energy savings alone create a typical ROI (return on investment) period of only 6-24 months. Remarkably, existing incentives from utilities for these programs can often pay for Powerit's solution outright (literally an immediate ROI). This is especially true if the Energy Director's intelligent demand response capability is utilized to enable the user to participate in coordinated curtailment.

As energy demand and costs continue to rise, there is a clear need to assist energy consumers in lowering the grid's peak demand charges by providing them the ability to participate in Demand Response programs. Powerit now provides industries a tool to do just that, managing their participation in curtailment events and ensuring that no unexpected actions or consequences result. The system provides the desired financial and social benefits of better energy efficiency.

Source: Powerit

The Electric Utility of the future...

The European Commission's 2006 Green Paper "A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy" stressed the fact that Europe has now entered a new energy era - the way you respond to the implementation of the Smart Grid is now business critical. No one is saying this will be easy but major industry changing projects are already underway. So, how will your business respond to technological challenges and opportunities for integrating new technologies into European electricity grids?

The overriding objectives of European energy policy and practice will be sustainability, security of supply and competitiveness, which means implementing a logical and reliable set of policies and measures to achieve them.

The need to renew Europe's electricity networks, meet growing electricity demand, enable a trans- European electricity market and integrate more sustainable renewable resources are all major challenges to the industry today. In this context, much research and development has been done - now is the time for implementation. The European electricity networks of the future must be:

* Adaptable: to meet consumer needs whilst having the capacity to respond to unforeseen challenges

* Accessible: particularly for renewable power sources and high efficiency local generation with zero or low carbon emissions

* Secure: assure and improve the security and quality of supply
Cost-effective: provide best value through innovation, be energy efficient and ensure fair competition.

Why do we need to take action now?

New technologies are flooding into the market which provide new tools for generation, networks, energy storage, load efficiency, control and communications. All providing opportunities for your business to develop and implement future proof strategies. This means that each decision you make is even more vital if you are to reap the true benefits of an integrated demand management system, and how to benchmark your current projects against those of the industry leaders.

Challenges the industry faces:

* Changing European and national policies will encourage lower carbon technologies and will require the implementation and integration of renewable energy sources into the grid

* How to manage and prioritise the technological challenges and opportunities for integrating new technologies into grids

*Finding new ways to invest in obsolete grid systems to better provide the networks for the next generation of operation

* Assessing how to reduce uncertainty and risk to businesses making investment decisions relating the intelligent utility of the future - and how to sell the business case to those at the top

* Identifying the technologies that deliver both short and long term wins at a reasonable cost

* The need to drive forwards interoperability agreements to help the industry as a whole

* Selling the vision of the intelligent grid to an economy creeping towards recession

Moving beyond the planning phase pilot projects are starting to deliver with the Smart Grid Facilitation Act 2007 in the US leading the charge and notification of the GridWise initiative (completed by the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Lab.) findings that consumers will reduce their energy use based price signals are key indicators that progress is being made.

So how far are we down the route to the Smart Electric Power Distribution grid of the future?

Well, we're definitely making headway but it's going to take some serious work and certainly don't expect this to be a quick turnaround. But the recent report released by Platts and Capgemini indicated that the majority of those surveyed are embracing new technology to improve grid performance and in an industry that has seen little change in the last 50 years it really is a key indicator that things are changing.

So what will we get from Smart Grids?

Well, there's a great deal of hype out there and indeed cross industry argument about whether it will be BPL or some other solution which will drive forward the Smart Grid revolution. However, the intentions are (among many others) that we'll be able to deliver high quality, reliable electricity to an increasingly power hungry consumer, improve grid reliability, manage load demand more effectively and benefit the consumers pocket through efficiency gains.
How much do we need to invest?

EU Member States need to invest at least 400-450 b€ in transmission and distribution infrastructures over the next three decades according to a statement from the European Commission. Depending upon distance between new generation and a robust grid (e.g. off-shore wind, concentrated solar power), a further 10 to 25% share of connection costs may add to the global grid investment.