£4.7 billion needed for power grid

A study has indicated that Britain needs to invest up to 4.7 billion pounds to upgrade its electricity grid by 2020 to accommodate new power generation, including renewables and nuclear plants. Among the extensions needed to the grid will be high-voltage subsea cable links between Scotland and England, according to the report by the Electricity Networks Strategy Group.

Mike O'Brien, the energy and climate change minister, said it was vital to build a grid that was "fit for purpose" so that Britain could cut carbon emissions and make supply more secure. "This is a massive long-term investment opportunity and this upgrade work will help support jobs across the low-carbon economy," he added.

In Scotland, the report suggests between 8GW and 11GW of new transmission capacity could be opened up, with one of the key projects being the Beauly-Denny line rebuild, which has been subject to a long-running public inquiry. As per the information available, plans for a £780million series of major investments designed to carry green wind, wave and tidal power from the north of Scotland south to England were outlined.

The UK Government’s Electricity Networks Strategy Group wants an upgrade to the Dounreay to Beauly to Kintore line costing £180million and a strengthened east coast line costing £150million to follow the completion of the controversial proposed Beauly to Denny line. A second wave would include a Caithness to Moray reinforcement costing £450million.

Chris Stubbs, director at environment consultancy WSP, said the £4.7bn bill highlighted the “worryingly high cost” of embracing new energy generation and that the consumer or taxpayer would end up paying.

Ofgem has announced it intends to approve the funds for the pre-construction work on specific transmission projects. It is also developing proposals to make the regulatory regime capable of meeting the renewable challenges.

Bright future ahead of smart grid technology

In its global predictions for technology industry, Deloitte has stated that smart grid solutions providers enjoyed 50 percent revenue growth in 2008 and may generate $25 billion in revenues in 2009.

Although the global economy may make public spending on smart grid unlikely, governments may choose to offer tax incentives as well as consider how smart grid technology can reduce non-domestic energy dependence and help make the grid more secure.

According to Deloitte, to conserve costs, profit-oriented utilities and enterprises may deploy smart grid technologies even without government support.

Also, major manufacturers and utilities may even want to explore partnerships with or acquisition of smart energy companies.

"Smart grid technology will represent the biggest and fastest growing sector in green tech," said Eric Openshaw, vice chairman and U.S. technology leader for Deloitte LLP.
"The most significant emerging technologies will be those that deliver cost-efficiency, contribute to environmental sustainability and drive new forms of personal and business collaboration."

"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.

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.

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

ComEd customers’ electric bill to increase by six percent in Illinois

The Illinois Commerce Commission has granted Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) a delivery service rate increase of approximately $270 million.

This increase will raise the average residential customer’s monthly bill by approximately $4.50 on an average $81 monthly bill.

As per the information available, ComEd originally requested a $360 million increase last October to reflect higher costs of materials used to maintain and upgrade infrastructure, including power wires and utility poles. The increase will largely pay for the modernisation of the electricity infrastructure, replacing a century-old network of transmission lines with a smart grid.

The new rates are related only to the costs that ComEd incurs to deliver electricity to its customers.

“This increase is necessary to respond to higher infrastructure improvement costs and to support growing demand,” said Anne Pramaggiore, executive vice president of customer operations, regulatory and external affairs for ComEd.

ComEd will engage with the ICC and others to explore new Smart Grid technologies in order to empower its customers to make wiser energy choices. The ICC gave ComEd the green light to study Smart Grid technologies further as part of the utility’s proposal for a System Modernization Rider, and then to work collaboratively with other interested parties to consider smart grid issues. The collaborative effort will be followed by a formal docket filed with the ICC leading to adoption of smart grid goals, according to an ICC news release.

NCSU chosen to lead smart-grid project

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has chosen N. C. State University (NCSU) to lead a $28.5 million research initiative to transform the nation’s century-old power transmission system into a smart grid network.

The center will be known as the NSF Engineering Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems (FREEDM Systems). It will work to develop “smart grid” technology that can store and distribute alternative energy. The technology developed at this center will distribute renewable energy on a large scale, helping to build a society based on green energy.

The Center will partner with universities, industry and national laboratories in 28 states and nine countries. It will be supported by a five-year, $18.5 million grant from NSF, with another $10 million in institutional support and industry membership fees. More than 65 utilities, electrical equipment manufacturers, alternative energy companies and “other established and emerging firms” have agreed to join the partnership, NCSU says.

“The unique vision of this (center) to enable the smooth inclusion of renewable energy sources into the power grid in a ‘plug-and-play’ mode will provide the knowledge and technology platforms the country needs to help reduce our dependency on fossil fuels,” NSF Deputy Division Director Lynn Preston said in a statement.

Alex Huang, N.C. State’s Progress Energy professor of electrical and computer engineering, will be the center’s director.

ADDRESS research programme gains momentum

Researchers at the University of Manchester and RLtec are getting associated with a £12.4 million project backed by the European Commission, looking at the use of smart electricity grids.

The development, reported by New Energy Focus, referred to ADDRESS research programme, which also includes EDF’s London-based transmission subsidiary EDF Energy Networks Ltd.

London-based technology company RLtec is privately owned and has received investment from the Low Carbon Accelerator fund.

For its part, the European Commission recently shared plans for four-year ADDRESS research programme.

The project, Active distribution networks with full integration of demand and distributed energy resources (ADDRESS), will deliver a comprehensive commercial and technical framework for the development of active demand in the smart grids of the future. energy-enviro.fi reported that European project aims to develop smart electricity grids that will give consumers for the first time the ability to actively participate in energy delivery, choosing when they consume their energy as well as giving them the opportunity to supply energy into the energy grid.

The ADDRESS includes 25 partners from 11 European countries spanning the entire electricity supply chain, qualified research and development bodies and manufacturers. Their efforts will be coordinated by ENEL Distribution. The project is expected to last for four years and cost EUR 16 million, of which EUR 9 million is being provided by the EU. It runs parallel to the vision of the European SmartGrids Technology Platform.

Trilliant gets $40m equity financing

Trilliant Incorporated has closed a $40 million equity investment to accelerate its growth and market expansion globally.

The company stated that this investment represents one of the largest investments to date in an independent smart grid technology provider. Trilliant, a provider of Smart Grid communication infrastructure, secured the investment from an affiliate of MissionPoint Capital Partners and zouk ventures.

Bill Vogel, CEO, Trilliant said his company has a very ambitious goal and the new investment definitely accelerates the same.

“We intend to be the leading provider of advanced Smart Grid solutions globally, helping utilities upgrade and modernise their network infrastructure and expand their energy management capabilities with best-in-class, flexible, robust solutions and service,” said Vogel.

To its credit, Trilliant has now delivered more than 750,000 intelligent devices with integrated communications supporting advanced metering, demand response and other Smart Grid applications.

The deal underlines VC’s growing appetite for companies working on technologies to improve large power grids. As per the information available, at least half a dozen other smart grid funding deals have been struck this year in a boom in government support for technologies that improve power grid monitoring and management. Other funding deals are a $23m investment in BPL Global, a smart grid rival, led by Morgan Stanley, and a $17.4m investment in Silver Spring Networks, a networking company focused on power grids.

PGE considers new demand-response options

Portland General Electric (PGE), a vertically integrated electric utility, is looking for new demand-response options.

PGE, which serves approximately 813,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Oregon, has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to prospective third-party providers to supply capacity that could help PGE manage its load during periods of peak power demand by organising qualifying customers to temporarily reduce their use of electricity.

The utility, which has been working on finding ways to partner with its customers to help meet the demand for electricity in its service territory, is targeting demand response programmes, which are designed to be activated on short notice to reduce the demand for electricity during times of stress on the grid.

The RFP calls for proposals for 50 megawatts (MW) of demand response peak capacity, with a deadline of October 29, 2008 for capacity available by December 2009.

On the new initiative, Joe Barra, director of customer energy resources, PGE said, “We see this as a way to help meet our customers’ need for reliable electricity, manage power costs, and reduce our impact on the environment.”

Customers who participate in demand response programmes typically receive some sort of incentive for reducing load on the system, while the utility benefits by having access to power at a lower cost than might be available on the wholesale market during peak periods.

Recently, while sharing its second quarter results, Peggy Fowler, CEO and president, PGE said that the utility is moving forward with its new smart-metering technology. Approximately 16,000 new meters are being installed as part of the project’s six-month systems testing phase, with the remaining meters to be installed by the end of 2010. PGE expects the smart-metering project to provide improved services as well as operational efficiencies and cost savings.

PGE’s net income for the six months ended June 30, 2008, was $67 million.

GE Energy acquires Kelman Limited

GE Energy has strengthened its smart grid product portfolio with the acquisition of Kelman Limited, a provider of advanced monitoring and diagnostics technologies for transformers.

Post this acquisition, Kelman’s employees are now part of GE’s transmission and distribution operations.

The acquisition will expand GE’s smart grid portfolio by providing utility customers with a more comprehensive product offering.

Kelman says it is currently breaking new ground in transformer monitoring with the implementation of new Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) techniques, which are a vital part of the decision making processes for strategic plant. The company is also counting on other breakthroughs in transformer gas analysis and more sophisticated data analysis software programmes to enhance its reputation in this field.

According to GE Energy, which helps utilities to increase their productivity and reliability, Kelman’s advanced DGA capability delivers a new level of predictive maintenance for the utility industry allowing utility operators to have greater line of sight into the health and longevity of their transformer fleets.

The company’s advanced DGA technology provides critical condition monitoring for high power electrical transformers. This technology enables Kelman to deliver state of the art multi-gas portable and on-line DGA equipment.

After this deal with Kelman, General Electric Co. has indicated that its energy transmission and distribution equipment business is expected to reach $5 billion in annual sales within five years, up from about $2 billion now.

“That’s going to require a lot of investment in the business,” Bob Gilligan, GE’s vice president of transmission and distribution told Reuters. “It will also require acquisition of additional business.”

Gilligan added that GE is focused on buying “technology-driven companies” whose products will help modernise and improve the efficiency of power grids worldwide.

IBM works on technical blueprints for smart grids

IBM is preparing a technical framework “to accelerate new technology integration into the creaky electricity distribution grid.”

This was recently shared by Drew Clark, director of strategy for IBM’s Venture Capital Group, according to CNET. The report added that the focus is on a common set of communication protocols and data formats that utilities and smart-grid start-ups can adhere to. IBM’s San Mateo-based Venture Capital Group has been charged with finding partner companies that can help the tech giant offer its customers comprehensive data center solutions.

IBM is developing a software framework for writing applications that takes advantage of the two-way communication of smart-grid technologies.

Last year, IBM facilitated a 125-home pilot study of smart-grid technology for residential users on the Olympic peninsula in Washington.

In April this year, when IBM had teamed up with Country Energy, Australia’s biggest power system operator, to develop smart grids, it was then shared that with this and other ventures, IBM is targeting a global power grid infrastructure market worth about $81 billion and estimated to grow at about five percent a year through 2010. The core element of the initiative is an open digital network that remotely senses and directs the flow of electricity, enhancing efficiency by more intelligently managing load -- the amount of electricity flowing over the grid at any given moment -- while selecting power from the most efficient local generation sources.

Among other companies, SAP is involved with SAP AMI Lighthouse Council, which is a consortium of vendors and utilities addressing business processes and use cases to support AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) to create the SAP for Utilities solution.

Advanced metering technology being tested in the District of Columbia

A group of selected residential electricity consumers in the District of Columbia have been chosen for a pilot programme, PowerCentsDC, described as the first in the electric utility industry to test the response of residential customers to three different innovative pricing options under one programme.

Via this initiative, an advanced metering technology is being tested. Plus, the consumer are also checking out pricing options that could assist them in curbing their monthly bills by better controlling their power consumption.

From this pilot, organisations involved hope 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 needed to supply the District of Columbia’s demand, thereby benefiting all consumers.

The two-year pilot project, funded by $2 million from Pepco through a settlement agreement, will include about 1,200 randomly selected District residents representing all eight city wards.

A “smart meter” will be installed at each participant’s residence to measure electricity use at hourly intervals and transmit usage data to Pepco each day through a wireless communications network.

The three pricing options are Hourly Pricing, Critical Peak Pricing and Critical Peak Rebate. The participants can save on their bills by reducing electricity usage during designated hours when wholesale electricity prices are high. Participating Pepco customers will be notified of forthcoming high prices on the previous day.

Pepco Holdings, Inc., the corporate parent of Pepco, anticipates that the implementation of this technology widely will help in controlling of the regional electricity prices during peak demand periods.

The District’s utility regulators approved the programme that was filed by Pepco on behalf of Smart Meter Pilot Program, Inc., a nonprofit company.

BPL Global provides Integrated DER Solution to Jersey Central Power & Light

Smart grid technology company BPL Global has collaborated with Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) to deploy an Integrated Distributed Energy Resource (DER) management system to demonstrate energy efficiency and reliability as well as customer satisfaction in JCP&L's service area.

The project combines JCP&L distribution design and operations expertise with BPLG software solutions and device technology. Smart grid technology will support JCP&L's efforts to coordinate the management of distributed generation, renewables, energy storage and demand management.

According to JCP&L, the DER management pilot will exemplify the value and viability of targeted peak load management as a source of system reliability and energy efficiency for distribution circuits.

The Integrated DER project will deliver a projected eight megawatts of direct load control consisting of five megawatts from about 3,500 residential customers and three megawatts from 30 to 90 commercial and industrial customers.

The technology allows real-time management of the energy delivery system based on the changing conditions of the distribution network. The system can be configured to respond differently based on the condition of the grid, whether operations are normal, or under high load. Using the DER management solution can result in energy, operational, capital and environmental efficiencies that have the potential to create significant value for electric customers and utilities.

The pilot programme incorporates smart grid technology and is also consistent with demonstrating alternative means of cost-effectively addressing critical goals related to demand response in the New Jersey Energy Master Plan, said Steve Morgan, president, JCP&L, a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp.

Dominion Virginia Power ties up with Elster

Dominion Virginia Power, a subsidiary of Dominion, has chosen Elster's EnergyAxis System Smart Grid Solution for use in the utility's recently announced energy conservation plans.

In 2009, Dominion plans to deploy 200,000 smart meters as part of a large demonstration programme of smart grid technology in urban and rural areas of Dominion's service territory. Dominion expects to improve customer service and business operations through advanced system control, real-time outage notification, and power quality monitoring.

As part of this programme, Dominion is deploying a number of smart thermostats with the EnergyAxis System for a residential critical peak pricing pilot this summer. Dominion will measure customer responsiveness to changing energy prices and the impact on energy demand during peak usage periods.

Dominion's plans for using EnergyAxis System strengthens a long-standing relationship between Dominion and the smart metering and smart grid system solutions company.

As per the information available, Dominion Virginia Power plans to invest about $600 million to create a "smart" electric grid that it said will produce environmental benefits while providing customers with substantial cost savings. The smart grid is part of a larger conservation plan, called "Powering Virginia". The company hopes to begin implementing programmes next year.

The smart grid will allow energy to be delivered more efficiently and will result in significant energy savings by allowing more precise control of the energy flow, Dominion said.It plans to replace all of its existing electric meters with Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), capable of two-way communications, as well as additional equipment to monitor and control the electric distribution system.

eMeter leverages VMware technology for hardware cost savings

eMeter Corporation has joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) programme.

The VMware TAP programme helps technology vendors integrate their products with VMware virtualisation software and deliver timely, joint solutions to mutual customers.

Through eMeter's support of EnergyIP software running on VMware Infrastructure 3, eMeter's utility customers now have a combined solution to increase performance, cut operating costs, and achieve greener operations.

The company stated that VMware Infrastructure 3 improves business continuity and strengthens the security of eMeter's EnergyIP software. The capabilities of VMware virtualisation software and technology help eMeter customers cut costs through virtualisation and hardware consolidation resulting in reduced hardware and operating costs required to run EnergyIP.

Cost savings and benefits are realised immediately through a smaller total foot print in the datacenter including lower overall power and cooling requirements and a smaller carbon footprint enabling customers to meet their green initiatives.

Apart from providing hardware cost savings, VMware Infrastructure also provides a built-in redundant infrastructure that will meet many IT shops' high availability and disaster recovery needs.

"We are presently working on offering templates and appliances which would reduce the implementation time significantly," said Larsh Johnson, president and CTO, eMeter.

"This also fits well with the fact that EnergyIP, as meter data management (MDM) software, is a cornerstone component of the Smart Grid infrastructure and key to the ability of utilities to implement large-scale consumer energy efficiency programmes," shared Johnson.

eMeter provides software that enables utilities to realise the full benefits of their Smart Grid and Advanced Metering initiatives including demand response programs. Demand response programs have been shown to conserve up to 20 percent of electricity typically used, says the company.

State of Rhode Island focuses on New England's energy resources

The State of Rhode Island has entered into a five-year contract with EnerNOC, Inc. The development is being described as a positive one in Rhode Island's broader mission to promote environmentally responsible energy policies.

As per the contract, EnerNOC, a developer and provider of clean and intelligent energy solutions, will manage demand response capacity from city, town and government-related buildings into the Independent System Operator of New England, Inc. (ISO-NE) market.

Under the contract terms, individual government buildings can enroll in EnerNOC's technology-enabled demand response network. Each site will be paid for agreeing to reduce non-essential electricity consumption during periods of peak demand. In addition, each participating site will gain basic access to EnerNOC's PowerTrak energy management platform, which enables users to view and analyse their energy consumption data in near real-time and measure efficiency gains.

The pact will also result in a revenue stream for the State that can be used to fund other government programmes.

"As Rhode Island is facing skyrocketing energy costs and consumers are being asked to pay more for electricity, reducing non-essential consumption is an important component of our commitment to support reliable, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable energy solutions," said Governor Donald L. Carcieiri.

GE again! Partner with Intel and Grid Net on Smart Grid solutions

Grid Net announced key collaborations with GE Energy and Intel Corporation, focused on providing innovative Smart Grid solutions. Grid Net has been working with the companies to architect and produce open, standards-based, industry-leading Smart Grid products and services for utilities.

The collaboration has been productive. The companies have already established the key technological underpinnings for Smart Grid solutions, which include:

• An open, interoperable Smart Grid communications and networking platform based on WiMAX, a leading 4G wireless broadband standard which is supported across the globe by the WiMAX Forum, a consortium of 522 industry leaders in the communications ecosystem, including Intel and Grid Net.
• Grid Net’s PolicyNet Smart Grid NMS™ software, of which core components are based on the Common Open Policy Service (COPS) engine1 and Intel® WiMAX Connection software reference kit, enabling an open standards-based, reliable, scalable, extensible, secure, policy-based networking platform for the Smart Grid, and
• GE Energy’s next-generation WiMAX SmartMeter products, which integrate Grid Net’s PolicyNet firmware, and the Intel® WiMAX Connection 2250 and Intel® WIMAX Connection 2400 chipsets (formerly codenamed Baxter Peak).

"Implementing the Smart Grid requires a truly open approach, using the best products and technology," states Ray Bell, founder and CEO of Grid Net. "Our focus is all about offering utilities a broader choice of better solutions, at lower costs. That’s why we’re pleased to collaborate with Intel and with GE Energy, and to leverage the ongoing innovations of more than 500 leading WiMAX technology providers into a Smart Grid ecosystem of open standards-based communications, utility transmission and distribution automation, and advanced metering products and technologies."

"The deployment of Smart Grid solutions addresses the issues of a growing population and climate change by increasing the productivity, reliability, and efficiency of our current electrical power grid. In addition, these technologies will empower the consumer to manage their electricity spend and usage, which will enable all consumers to become a part of solving the energy challenge now facing our planet,"says Bob Gilligan, general manager of Transmission & Distribution. "At GE Energy, we have made a choice to be actively engaged in developing these technologies to meet this challenge"

"WiMAX will enable innovative applications for a variety of industries," said Sriram Viswanathan, vice president, Intel Capital and general manager, Intel WiMAX Program Office. "Grid Net and GE’s Smart Grid solution is a brilliant example of what we can expect from solutions built with WiMAX technology’s performance, cost-effectiveness and standards-based, open architecture"

Open Standards and Interoperability

Implementing and managing the Smart Grid requires an "ecosystem" approach, where technology vendors collaborate using open standards to deliver an open, secure, cost-effective and intelligent technology infrastructure comprised of:

• Smart grid devices that are always on-line, via
• Reliable, high-speed, high-bandwidth, secure telecommunications networking, so that distribution automation, demand management, and other energy services are provisioned, delivered, consumed and analyzed rapidly and efficiently, and
• Centrally managed via policy networking (or business rules driven) software and protocols, to ensure consistent, cost-effective and adaptive energy service delivery
Smart Grids Require Truly Open Solutions
Grid Net is catalyzing an ecosystem of providers who believe that the optimal technology for implementing and managing the Smart Grid should be:
• Built on open standards and protocols, so that utilities can choose the most innovative and cost effective solutions, and avoid "single vendor, proprietary product lock-in" seen in other solutions
• High performing and scalable, in order to cost-effectively manage tens of millions of customer energy service delivery points, meters, and other distribution automation devices
• Integrated, interoperable and optimized, to leverage innovations from all technology and product providers, the Smart Grid solution ecosystem of vendors, customers, and standards groups
• Resilient and adaptive, so that the Smart Grid can self-heal points of failure, or provision new services rapidly and cost-effectively — self-healing, self-provisioning, and self-optimizing
• Secure and reliable, so that Smart Grid devices and services are well protected, and meet both governmental and industry Smart Grid security specifications, guidelines, and recommendations

MapFrame and GE Energy sign agreement - but whats it got to do with Smart Grids?

MapFrame Corporation announced that its shareholders and GE Energy have signed a purchase agreement enabling GE Energy to acquire MapFrame. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close at the end of June.

Combining MapFrame's expertise with GE Energy's worldwide reach, the acquisition will offer global customers a more comprehensive product line of mobile mapping and field automation technologies, significantly enhancing the GE Energy smart grid portfolio.

"Our innovative mobile mapping and field automation technologies including our FieldSmart software are an excellent fit with GE Energy's Smallworld portfolio and other geospatial solutions," said Paul Wilson, MapFrame founder and chief executive officer. "The acquisition is extremely positive news for all our customers and provides us with significant opportunities to further our solid reputation for worldclass products and services. As with GE Energy, we are dedicated to our customers and will continue to support all current customer projects, all platforms, and all partnerships. Our unique capability to work with any technology will also not change."

Mobile mapping and field automation technologies enable utilities to boost their productivity by automating field-based business processes through a map-centric user interface.

According to Martin Ansell, general manager of GE Energy's Smallworld business, "This new, fast moving and rapidly growing technology segment is highly complementary to GE's Smallworld business and consistent with our smart grid strategy. MapFrame's employees bring a wealth of experience in mobile mapping and field automation solutions and will be a welcome addition to our Smallworld business team."

IBM Partners with Utility Industry to Set Energy Efficiency Agenda

At an event attended by business leaders from North American utility companies, IBM (NYSE: IBM) issued a call to action between the IT and utility industry around energy efficiency, expanding IBM's existing collaboration on Intelligent Utility Networks to include corporate consumption of energy for data centers and facilities. The initial utility company to support this initiative is Con Edison of New York.

IBM is seeking to engage public sector utility companies to tackle significant corporate energy efficiency issues by jointly developing awareness on current levels of data center and facilities energy consumption and creating plans to reduce, monitor, verify and benefit from reducing energy consumption. IBM is also announcing a new carbon assessment service and a new virtual green data center.

New Energy Demand Management Programs

IBM, in partnership with utility industry leaders, plans to develop new energy demand management programs aimed at helping business of all sizes reduce energy consumption across the complete data center and facilities landscape. Major elements include educating IT departments on energy consumption, targeting specific projects that offer immediate energy reduction, helping customers monitor and verify progress, and applying for incentives that reward energy reduction.

IBM is working with leaders in the utility industry to reward businesses for reducing energy through the use of Energy Efficiency Certificates (EECs). These certificates from energy efficiency projects-- a first of kind program with results verified Neuwing Energy Ventures—an independent third party—are an easy way to verify that the amount of electrical energy savings resulting from specific energy efficiency projects is real and permanent.

New is the expansion of the program across the entire data center and facilities landscape. Customers earn certificates for the total energy demand reductions attributable to a project based on total megawatt hours saved through a certified Measurement and Verification (M&V) plan of energy reductions, an emerging business metric for corporate sustainability, which creates a true measurement of energy reduction. The end goal being the joint promotion of efficient use of electricity that results in reduced emissions of green house gases and other pollutants —these verified results lead to real environmental protection.

In addition to traditional data center projects, is the new ability to verify projects and earn certificates for reducing energy consumption beyond the data center including facilities components such as office lighting systems, cooling requirements, monitors and printers. Going forward generating the data required to validate energy reductions is being made simpler with the planned integration of automated reporting with IBM Tivoli Green Management.

Consolidated Edison—with more than 3 million customers in New York City and Westchester County, New York--is a pilot member of this initiative working with IBM around energy consumption awareness, co marketing and demand management with a focus on customer measuring and verifying energy reduction through Energy Efficiency Certificates.

"ConEdison wants to encourage reducing energy consumption in the marketplace enabled by new technologies and best practices," said Rebecca Craft, Director of Energy Efficiency Programs, ConEdison. "We are pleased to partner with IBM through their Project Big Green initiative to raise awareness and encourage and motivate client implementation. The ability to accurately monitor and verify the efficiencies gained is especially important as environmental regulations emerge which could have a significant effect on our large and small data center customers. Energy Efficiency Certificates, certified by companies like Neuwing Energy, are a positive initial step to the measurement of complex projects verification of results"

An additional focus area of this initiative is to support the goal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for common initiatives to promote energy efficiency gains in data centers. "Realizing these efficiency gains will take coordination and collaboration among many stakeholders, the government, the IT industry, data center operators, electric utilities and others," according to a recent report.

Melbourne IT, a leading global IT services company that operates over 2,000 servers on a daily basis, is looking forward to the benefits of Energy Efficiency Certificates.

"We welcome the expansion of IBM's Energy Efficiency Certificate program" said Theo Hnarakis, CEO & Managing Director of Melbourne IT. "Energy efficiency is good for the environment and a key business requirement for us. We recently deployed double the number of new IBM servers for the same amount of power usage and heat signature as previous servers. Energy Efficiency Certificates will help us to officially validate and document our results as part of our Sustainability Strategy."

IBM also sees Energy Efficiency Certificates as a means to satisfy government utility regulator requirements to manage a percentage of electricity demand growth through energy efficiency.

"The initial launch of Project Big Green demonstrated that clients can achieve significant business results from completing energy efficiency projects while addressing urgent operational issues," said Rich Lechner, vice president, Enterprise Systems, IBM. "Over the past year, we’ve found that a one dollar savings in energy costs drives an additional six to eight dollars in operational savings. More and more, clients are committing to ‘green agendas’ and are looking for ways document progress toward the commitment they are making"

IT Carbon Strategy Assessment

IBM is also announcing a new service to help clients, just starting their green transformation, to identify the most rapid areas of reduction in IT carbon emission across the infrastructure, including both the data center and the distributed environment including offices, retail stores, warehouses, etc.

While early momentum has clearly been in the greening of data centers, studies are starting to reveal that in fact there is at least as much emission reduction potential in the distributed environment – in some cases 50 percent or more. As few companies have existing infrastructure that has been built with energy efficiency as part of the design criteria, the IT Carbon Strategy Study provides clients specific recommendations on project priorities with the biggest potential gains. Projects could comprise the network, printers, distributed servers (server closets outside the data center), facilities upgrade (HVAC, UPS, etc) and desktop computers and monitors.

A typical 3-4 week study includes a kick off workshop to agree on overall objectives and targets, data gathering and data analysis leveraging a carbon impact analysis tool to help assess cost benefit analysis. After completing an action oriented workshop, clients are presented with the results in a report including the specific findings and recommendations.

One example of a client that has benefited by early versions of this assessment includes a large UK retailer. Based on the study it re-engineered its end-of-day batch processing system and expects to save 1.68 million kilowatt hours of electricity which means an estimated £120,000 and cutting CO2 emissions by an estimated 1306 metric tons.

Virtual Green Data Center

IBM is also announcing a three dimensional Virtual Green Data Center that allows visitors to learn how to manage and improve their data center energy efficiency. It will demonstrate IBM’s leading green data center technologies covering energy efficiency, virtualization, and resiliency.

As energy costs continue to rise and additional expense control pressures are applied Web 2.0 technologies, like the virtual green data center become increasingly important as a means to increase productivity and control costs. For example, using similar Web 2.0 technologies IBM is able to save $97 million per year in travel costs.

Available on the Green Data Center on the IBM Island in Second Life and staffed 24 hours a day with multi lingual avatars, this new Virtual Green Data Center provides a realistic and immersive experience of IBM’s Roadmap to a Green Data Center. It offers easy access to "inside workings" of a data center in ways not readily duplicated in real life data center visits. It also creates an immersive experience that simplifies the understanding of complex concepts and processes and provides a public, open environment for self-guided tours, individual, or group tours with a trained staff guide.

The Center is available for on demand education and client briefings with sales team with no travel requirements.

About Project Big Green

Since it was originally announced last Spring, IBM’s Project Big Green initiative has helped more that 2,000 clients develop greener data centers with average energy saving of more than 40 percent and increased the utilization of systems by an average two to four times. Additionally, IBM has recycled more than 1.5 billion pounds of IT equipment since 1996. Also, since from 1990 to 2007 IBM has avoided energy-use-CO2 emissions equivalent to 45 percent of the companies 1990 energy use, saving more than $18 million annually, or more than $310 million in total.

Project Big Green is part of IBM strategy to help clients move to a new enterprise data center by focusing on best practices in virtualization, green IT, service management, security and cloud computing and offers dramatic improvements in IT performance, energy efficiency and helps enable rapid deployment of new IT services to support future business growth.