EnergyAustralia signs a deal with IBM

EnergyAustralia says the project, a part of its initial investment of $170 million in its smart network roll-out, will help it stay at the forefront of the global intelligent network transformation.

EnergyAustralia has signed an agreement with IBM for the implementation of an energy network monitoring and control solution.

A key project within EnergyAustralia’s overall intelligent network programme, the Distribution Monitoring and Control (DM&C) project involves the roll-out of 12,000 sensing devices throughout the electricity distribution network, creating a smart grid.

As per the agreement, IBM will design and build the system IT architecture to support the project, in which sensing devices will connect with EnergyAustralia’s operational systems using a combination of fourth generation and existing technologies.

According to IBM, this network will carry the necessary data for EnergyAustralia to reduce outages through faster fault location and preventative maintenance and, to work towards managing distributed energy sources such as solar and storage devices.

Ember secures $8 million in funding

The company now has raised $89 million in total.

Ember Corporation has closed an additional $8 million in funding from its primary venture capital investors and strategic partners.

Polaris Venture Partners, GrandBanks Capital, RRE Ventures, Vulcan Capital, DFJ ePlanet Ventures, New Atlantic Ventures, WestLB Mellon Asset Management and strategic partners such as Chevron Technology Ventures and Stata Venture Partners participated in the latest round of funding.

Smart meters now being equipped with ZigBee-standard Ember radio chips and protocol software are serving as energy management gateways between utilities and consumers, said Ember chairman and Polaris Partner Bob Metcalfe.

The company, referring to projections from research firm, In-Stat, mentioned that the market for 802.15.4/ZigBee devices is expected to reach as high as 292 million units in 2012, up from about seven million units in 2007.

The company also announced the expansion of its sales channels with the addition of new distributors in Australia, New Zealand, India and Hong Kong, People's Republic of China which are emerging as key markets for ZigBee-enabled smart meters.

FERC steps up smart grid development

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has come with a proposed policy statement and action plan that would help set the “rules of the road” of a modern grid.

The proposed policy statement seeks public comment on standards for four priority issues critical to the smooth functioning and operation of the Smart Grid.

After weighing public comments, FERC plans to adopt a final policy statement providing guidance to the electric power industry on standards for:
· Cyber security;
· Communications among regional market operators, utilities, service providers and consumers;
· Ensuring that the bulk power system operators have “wide-area situational awareness” with equipment that allows them to monitor and operate their systems; and
· Coordinating operation of the bulk power system with new and emerging technologies for renewable resources, demand resources, electricity storage and electric transportation systems.

Prioritising the development of key standards will speed up the process of achieving an interoperable smart grid, said Commissioner Suedeen Kelly. Kelly said the proposed policy will require the sharing of information associated with smart grid deployments with the Smart Grid Clearinghouse being developed by the Department of Energy. “This will help to demonstrate the real benefits that investing in a smart grid can bring to the public,” said Kelly.

As per the plan, smart grid advancements will apply digital technologies to the grid, and enable real-time coordination of information from both generating plants and demand-side resources.

Related links: FERC

£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.

A call for spending $4.5 billion on smart grid in a rational way

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has reportedly said it could be wasteful for the Energy Department to spend $4.5 billion in matching funds provided in the economic stimulus bill to create a digitised, conversant “smart grid” if the investment is made in technology that becomes obsolete or if the public rejects or underutilises the technology.

“Is it possible to expect that this programme can spend $4.5 billion in two years in a rational way?” Murkowski said recently. “We first need to develop standards for the smart grid programme before we start just throwing money at it.”

A report filed by nytimes.com highlighted that smart grid operation standards have not been designated yet despite a provision in the 2007 energy bill calling for the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology to come up with standards with the help of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other organizations so that the technology can easily communicate on the same platform -- a concept known as interoperability.

That lapse combined with the general lack of public knowledge about the smart grid and how to manage energy in real-time could be a recipe for failure, said Murkowski, who has already stated that for the most part, the amounts of money allocated to programmes specified in the bill are completely unprecedented.

Murkowski acknowledged there is money in the legislation that would benefit Alaska, but she said a short term cash infusion doesn’t outweigh the long term financial burden the legislation places on future generations and state and local governments.

EnerNOC posts $106.1m in revenues in 2008

EnerNOC, Inc. ended 2008 with $106.1 million in revenues. This represents a 74 percent year-over-year growth.

The company’s network delivered over 100 percent performance on average based on nominated versus delivered capacity in more than 100 demand response events, according to its CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder, Tim Healy.

“Our attractive applications in combination with our stable grid operator and utility customer base and our own financial strength and visibility give us confidence in the following 2009 corporate objectives,” said Healy, who added that the company expects its revenues to grow approximately 55 percent over 2008 to a range of $155 to $170 million.

Through the first seven weeks of 2009, the company has signed two new utility contracts in Arizona and Colorado worth over $35 million in combined potential revenue. It has added over 500 new megawatts under management to its demand response network, and has also developed an MBCx pipeline that is stronger than its internal projections for this point in time.

EnerNOC recently entered into an eight-year contract with Public Service Company of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company, to provide up to 44 megawatts of demand response capacity. The company highlighted that states like Colorado and Nevada are at the forefront of developing market dynamics that allow utilities to benefit financially from increased investments in demand response and energy efficiency.

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."