Milton Hydro to expand TOU billing with smart metres

Milton Hydro, a local utility distribution company located in southern Ontario, along with Trilliant Incorporated, has announced the expansion of Milton’s existing Smart Grid initiative.

Milton, part of the Greater Toronto Area, is Canada's fastest-growing community, and is expected to reach nearly 150,000 residents by 2021.

Milton, who first delivered Time-of-Use (TOU) billing to its customers in 2005, now provides TOU billing for over 21,000 consumers.

The solution is already in full production at Milton, including Trilliant hosted data services and software, and provides for two-way communication capabilities between Milton Hydro and their customers. Furthermore, Milton has successfully completed production testing and enrollment with the province's centralised Meter Data Management and Repository (MDM/R) system.

This system is operated by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) in its capacity as the Smart Metering Entity.

The Government of Ontario, Canada, through the Energy Conservation Responsibility Act in 2006, has mandated the installation of smart metres in all Ontario businesses and households by 2010. Milton Hydro has completed the installation of smart metres for all their residential customers and all customers shall be on TOU billing by this fall, making Milton the first utility to fully implement Smart Metering and TOU billing.

AEP Texas signs contract with Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr has bagged a five-year contract to install 700,00 smart electric metres for AEP Texas.

AEP Texas, which is a unit of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the U. S., will deploy Landis+Gyr’s Gridstream advanced metering solution across the utility’s Texas service territory. The Gridstream network will provide two-way communication to 700,000 metering endpoints.

AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.

With this initiative, AEP Texas will be able to send energy consumption information and real-time pricing signals to consumers as well as provide automated load management options.

AEP Texas is connected to and serves more than one million electric consumers in the deregulated Texas marketplace. Major cities served include Corpus Christi, Abilene, McAllen, Harlingen, San Angelo, Vernon, Victoria and Laredo.

Including the contract with AEP, Landis+Gyr has now signed agreements to deploy approximately four million smart metres with Texas utilities.

China on right track

Frost & Sullivan foresees smart grid playing a significant role in the development of China’s national economy in the future.

It has highlighted that State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), China’s largest power grid builder, met with the Minister of Energy of the United States recently.

SGCC is constructing Ultra high and extra high voltage direct current (+/-800KV, +/-500KV) and alternating current transmission system (1000kV, 500kV, 220kV), and coordinating the development of a smart grid based on information technology and automation technology.

Known as the largest utility in the world, the SGCC serves 26 provinces and 1.08 billion people throughout China.

According to Frost & Sullivan China, smart grid in China focuses more on the transmission side than the distribution side at present.

Based on the fact that coal is the main energy source in China and coal mines are far away from the main load centres, it is the right choice that the power grid development be focused on the transmission network.

The company also highlighted that China has been constructing a unified national power grid network. The project includes what is known as the “West-East Electricity Transfer Project”, which includes three major west-east transmission corridors construction. The transmission capacity of each corridor will be 20 GW by 2020. Through these transmission grids, electricity distributors in China will bond regional power grids in different areas of the country, and improve cross-region electricity transmission ability. This will balance the power generation disparities in different regions.

Dutch set to create EU’s first intelligent city

Amsterdam has initiated the first phase of Amsterdam Smart City programme, becoming the first city in the EU to deploy intelligent technology, such as smart grids, in its electricity distribution system.

The Amsterdam Smart City will use a smart electric grid, smart metres, smart-building technologies and electric vehicles to reduce energy consumption in housing, commercial properties, public buildings and areas, and transportation.

Accenture, which has been chosen to implement this initiative, will also manage the integration of the smart-grid technology and the analysis and use of data.

The company will work with the Amsterdam Innovation Motor, a city affiliated agency that establishes public and private-sector cooperation, to develop, implement, manage and assess each of the phases and projects of the Amsterdam Smart City programme.

The first phase of the Amsterdam Smart City’s low-carbon projects includes: A ship-to-the-grid project, by which commercial vessels and river cruisers will be connected to electric grid when docked; Implementation of smart metres and in-home feedback displays to provide home owners with information to help manage their energy consumption; A smart building at Accenture’s Amsterdam office at the ITO Tower, where intelligent technology will collect, monitor and analyse the building’s programming and utility data to identify energy consumption efficiencies and lower the building’s carbon footprint.

As per the information available, the municipality, energy outfits, and private companies are expected to invest more than €1.1 billion in Amsterdam’s Smart City programmes over the next three years. That includes a €300 million investment by local electricity network operator Alliander in smart grid technology.

Also part of the plan: up to €200 million to be spent by local housing cooperatives on boosting household energy efficiency, and €300 million from companies including Philips and Dutch utility Nuon to be invested in other energy-efficient technologies.

Smart grid continues to be in news

The “smart grid” has become the buzz of the electric power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress, according to a report filed by AP.

A company like Cisco believes that the smart-grid infrastructure market size could be worth more than $20 billion a year for the next five years.

“It’s the marriage of information technology and automation technology with the existing electricity network. This is the energy Internet,” reportedly said Bob Gilligan, vice president for transmission at GE Energy.

The Obama Administration has recently announced a new solicitation for around $4 billion in stimulus, funding for new power- transmission technology.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, there are plans to distribute more than $3.3 billion in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring and technology viability.

According to Max Schulz, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, the irony in the stimulus package’s approach to grid investment is that private industry has long made clear its willingness to spend its own money to fix the grid, as long as Washington allows utilities and transmission companies to do it the right way.

“What the industry actually needs from Washington to fix the grid isn't money, but leadership,” he wrote recently. “That leadership can’t come soon enough. Even with robust energy-efficiency and conservation measures, the U.S. economy will require 30% more electricity by 2030.”

ZigBee Alliance adds new specification

The ZigBee Alliance has decided to incorporate global IT standards from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) into its specification portfolio of low-power wireless networking standards.

As a result of this initiative, ZigBee Smart Energy products will enhance their application capabilities with native IP support, allowing seamless integration of Internet connectivity into each product.

The move will see the strengths of the ZigBee Smart Energy standard getting combined with the ubiquity of Internet standards, ensuring that smart meter deployments currently underway will have a seamless path for continuous upgrades including Internet connectivity.

Through cooperative efforts with IETF, the members will create additional solutions for wireless sensor and control networks as part of the new specification. Internet connectivity is currently provided by existing ZigBee specifications; however, the addition of native IP support will offer tighter integration from wireless devices all the way to large scale utility IT networks.

The resulting specification will further broaden ZigBee’s suite of low-power wireless network solutions to meet the diversified needs of companies in the home, automation, healthcare, commercial building automation, telecommunications and consumer markets.

The deployment of an estimated 30 million ZigBee equipped smart metres is underway in North America.

Echelon to use a first-of-its-kind embedded T-Mobile SIM

T-Mobile USA, Inc. has developed what it describes as a first-of-its-kind embedded subscriber identity module (SIM).

The SIM is designed to withstand challenging environmental factors like temperature, humidity and motion to deliver reliable wireless connectivity, ideal for vehicle telematics and smart grid infrastructure solutions.

T-Mobile USA said the embedded SIM, slightly larger than the head of a pin, will be built of silicon rather than plastic, making it very durable, since too much heat, vibration, or humidity can damage traditional SIM cards.

Among the first to implement the embedded SIM into its M2M systems is Echelon Corp. The companies have formed an alliance to accelerate the adoption of the smart grid in the North American market by reducing the cost of communicating smart metres using Echelon's Networked Energy Services (NES) system over T-Mobile's GSM cellular service.

As part of the agreement, Echelon will utilise a first-of-its-kind embedded T-Mobile SIM within a cellular radio module to enable all the Echelon smart metres on a given low voltage transformer to communicate back to the utility over the smart grid.

Echelon, which has shipped more than 100,000 of its smart metres to U.S. utility owner Duke Energy and more than 1.6 million worldwide, said the partnership with T-Mobile would provide a cost-effective communications tool for the metres. Its metres reportedly cost about $100 apiece excluding installation.

The partnership’s wireless technology will be deployed on low-voltage transformers, which typically provide electricity connections to between four and 10 homes or businesses. Data provided from the transformers to a central collection point at the utility will allow the power provider to easily pinpoint problems in the network and reduce cost and duration of power outages.

A new device to protect New York City’s electrical system

Zenergy Power has been contracted by The Consolidated Edison Company to build and test a smart grid device to improve the stability and reliability of New York City’s electrical system.

The equipment, known as a Fault Current Limiter (FCL), instantly detects and absorbs spikes in power that, left unmanaged, could damage electrical equipment or trigger power outages.

In practice, Zenergy’s FCL is electrically connected to the grid it protects. It allows normal current to pass through unimpeded but, when it senses a fault current, instantly counters the electrical flow. This reaction, created in part by the superconductor in the device, chokes off a potentially damaging electrical spike. Once the fault current subsides, the FCL again allows standard levels of current to flow, protecting the electrical system automatically without human intervention.

This approach has the advantage of being able to absorb long-duration faults or multiple faults occurring in succession.

Con Edison, a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, authorised a project to design, build and test a single-phase FCL of a type that would be applicable to a number of substations within the utility’s electrical system.

Zenergy expects to deliver the prototype by the end of August.

Fault current limiters will be an essential element of the smart grid to maintain reliability and improve its resilience and flexibility, said Pat Duggan, a Con Edison project manager and specialist in fault current limiters.

“This is especially important as the load grows, including the move to electricity as a preferred source for new uses such as plug-in hybrids,” added Duggan.

Tests that Zenergy conducts in its development of the FCL for Con Edison will ensure the device is able to protect equipment from the damaging effects of fault currents that occur on the utility’s 13.8 kilovolt (kV) “feeder system” -- an electrical distribution network that delivers power to customers. At the conclusion of testing, Zenergy expects to extend its designs to other FCLs that are customised for protecting Con Edison and other utilities’ equipment on higher voltage lines of up to 138kV.

$4 billion marked for smart power grid

The Obama Administration has recently announced a new solicitation for around $4 billion in stimulus, funding for new power- transmission technology.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, there are plans to distribute more than $3.3 billion in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring and technology viability.

“A smart electricity grid will revolutionise the way we use energy, but we need standards in place to ensure that all this new technology is compatible and operating at the highest cyber security standards to protect the smart grid from hackers and natural disasters,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said.

The Recovery Act will fund the development of those standards, added Locke.

DOE’s Smart Grid Investment Grant Programme will provide grants ranging from $500,000 to $20 million for smart grid technology deployments. It will also provide grants of $100,000 to $5 million for the deployment of grid monitoring devices.

The draft Funding Opportunity Announcement is for smart grid demonstrations in three areas:

· Smart grid regional demonstrations will quantify smart grid costs and benefits, verify technology viability, and examine new business models.

· Utility-scale energy storage demonstrations can include technologies such as advanced battery systems, ultra-capacitors, flywheels, and compressed air energy systems, and applications such as wind and photovoltaic integration and grid congestion relief.

· Grid monitoring demonstrations will support the installation and networking of multiple high-resolution, time-synchronised grid monitoring devices, called phasor measurement units, that allow transmission system operators to see, and therefore influence, electric flows in real-time.

Each demonstration project must be carried out in collaboration with the electric utility that owns the grid facilities.

CPower raises $10m

Energy management firm CPower has closed its Series B round of financing, indicating that VCs are interested in technology that makes energy grid more intelligent.

This $10.68 million investment was led by a new investor in the company, Mayfield Fund, as well as returning investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Expansion Capital Partners, Schneider Electric Ventures, New York City Investment Fund and Consensus Business Group.

The proceeds will be used to accelerate business growth in new geographies and vertical markets, and to continue the development of its turnkey energy management solutions.

The company offers a range of energy management programmes including demand response capacity, reserves and regulation, energy efficiency, peak load management and white certificates.

CPower had bagged $17 million in its Series A funding in 2007.

In another development, CPower has been chosen to support plastics manufacturer Spartech Corporation’s energy conservation programme. The company will use CPower’s energy management demand response solution to reduce electric energy consumption at various facilities in North America.

Spartech has committed to curtail up to 10 megawatts of electricity capacity upon request by the regional transmission organisations responsible for calling demand response events when the grid is under stress. CPower will help manage this process at approximately 10 facilities throughout the U. S.

Initiative taken for new HomePlug specifications

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance, an industry-led initiative that creates specifications and certification logo programmes for using the powerlines for reliable home networking and smart grid applications, has worked on smart grid technology path.

The Alliance has completed its Market Requirements Document (MRD) for HomePlug Smart Energy.

The MRD will guide the development of new HomePlug specifications. It will help in creation of a new class of powerline communications products that offer lower cost, low power consumption while also being fully interoperable with the current HomePlug AV standard and the forthcoming IEEE 1901 standard - at data rates tailored to meet the anticipated future requirements of smart energy management.

Through its Smart Energy Initiative, HomePlug is focusing on adopting communications and networking technologies to help consumers monitor and reduce their energy consumption. It is actively collaborating with utility companies and the ZigBee Alliance to help build the Home Area Network ecosystem.

The Alliance has also announced the addition of Gigle Semiconductor, Intellon Corporation, NEC Electronics Corporation and SPiDCOM Technologies to the organisation's Board of Directors.

BPA seeks additional smart grid partners

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has issued its second request for potential partners for smart grid projects that could qualify for federal stimulus money.

The Portland-based non-profit federal electric utility is hoping to tap into some of the $4.5 billion to be allocated from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act for smart grid technologies.

Even though the Department of Energy (DOE) announcement is still in draft form, BPA is moving forward with the request as a proactive step to help bring a Smart Grid project to the region.

“Collaboration is key for this project,” said BPA’s VP of energy efficiency, Mike Weedall. “We are working to finalise which utilities will participate in a proposal to DOE, and now we need to get other types of partners on board.”

The utility is looking for manufacturers, hi-tech companies and other stakeholders to commit to capital investments and matching fund contributions. In 2006, BPA partnered with DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to advance the technology through the Olympic Peninsula GridWise Demonstration project.

BPA markets more than a third of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. It operates a high-voltage transmission grid comprising more than 15,000 miles of lines and associated substations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Cisco gears up for smart grid market

Cisco Systems Inc. sees a $100 billion opportunity in communications equipment for upgrading aging electrical infrastructure to a digital smart grid.

Marie Hattar, vice president of marketing in Cisco’s Network Systems Solutions group, told CNET that the smart grid network will be “100 or 1,000 times larger than the Internet,” saying that virtually every home has electricity and many of them don’t have Internet access.

Cisco believes the smart-grid infrastructure market size could be worth more than $20 billion a year for the next five years, although some have called the projection overly optimistic.

“The opportunity is real,” reportedly said Judy Lin, the general manager of Cisco’s ethernet switching technology group. “Smart-grid is one of the top priorities and key market adjacencies for Cisco.”

Cisco’s Smart Grid solutions will address critical points within the energy infrastructure: from data centres and substations, through neighborhood-area networks, to businesses and homes.

The company will provide solutions for efficient, IP-based backhaul communications for smart metres that will integrate proprietary solutions into the overall smart grid platform. Cisco’s Home Energy Management and Business Energy Management solutions will help optimise energy demand, use and cost by providing greater access to data and analysis tools.

Last month, Cisco announced its partnership with the city of Miami to launch a $200 million Energy Smart Miami project. That initiative will bring smart metres and solar power systems to the city, as well as adding plug-in hybrids to the city’s vehicle fleet, and encourage the adoption of energy-reduction tools like home energy use dashboards, smart appliances and smart-metre thermostats to pilot programmes in 1,000 city homes.

Utilities to test Google’s PowerMeter gadget

Google has confirmed partnerships with eight national and international energy companies to allow consumers to access data about their energy usage through Google’s PowerMeter gadget.

Google PowerMeter receives information from utility smart metres and energy management devices and provides customers with access to their home electricity consumption right on their personal iGoogle homepage.

Over the past several months, Google has been looking to partner with utilities that are installing (or have already installed) this equipment in their customers’ homes.

Its partners are: San Diego Gas & Electric® (California); TXU Energy (Texas); JEA (Florida); Reliance Energy (India); Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (Wisconsin); White River Valley Electric Cooperative (Missouri); Toronto Hydro–Electric System Limited (Canada); Glasgow EPB (Kentucky).

Google PowerMeter is an opt-in service and users must sign up to participate. All energy data received by Google PowerMeter will be stored securely, and users will be able to delete their energy data or ask their utility to stop sending data to Google PowerMeter at any time. Google PowerMeter is not widely available yet.

EnerNOC secures over $100m of potential revenue

EnerNOC has secured over $100 million of future potential revenue in the PJM Interconnection (PJM) market as a result of the 2012-13 Reliability Pricing Model Base Residual Auction (BRA).

This future potential revenue is for demand response capacity to be delivered from June 1, 2012 through May 31, 2013.

According to EnerNOC, between its new and existing resources, EnerNOC captured 35% of the total quantity of demand response capacity that cleared in the BRA.

With the exception of the capacity that EnerNOC will deliver to Allegheny Power under a previously announced contract, all of EnerNOC’s new capacity in the BRA cleared in higher-priced, constrained regions.

After the first quarter of 2009, the company increased megawatts under management by approximately 300, a significant amount of which resulted from sales efforts in the PJM Interconnection region, bringing the company’s total megawatts under management as of the date of this release to over 3,000 across more than 5,000 customer sites.

In the first quarter, the company signed seven new long term utility contracts, three in new States for the company, Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho. And it captured more than 60% of a competitive RFP opportunity with four investors on utilities in Maryland. In aggregate, EnerNOC expects this long term utility contract wins to represent over $120 million in combined potential revenue to EnerNOC.