EPRI Joins Ford-SCE Analysis of Plug-In Hybrids on Grid

The Electric Power Research Institute and Ford have released details of a 3 year project focused on integrating plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the grid.

EPRI will form a collaborative of utilities in the New York-New Jersey area that will test Ford Escape PHEVs. Subsequent trials will be conducted with customers of the participating utilities.
Ford, which is also working with Southern California Edison (SCE), is the first automotive manufacturer to partner with the utility industry to facilitate advancing PHEVs. The new EPRI-Ford program will build on the ongoing Ford-SCE partnership and help determine regional differences in how the operation of PHEVs will impact the electric grid system.

"This partnership represents a concerted effort by the transportation and electric sectors to work together in advancing PHEV technology," said Mark Duvall, EPRI's program manager for Electric Transportation. "This effort should accelerate the pace of PHEV development while enabling the utility industry to prepare for the introduction of these vehicles."

Ford has designed and is building 20 Escape PHEVs for testing in the Los Angeles area under the Ford-SCE partnership. With this new EPRI-Ford agreement, Ford is able to expand the evaluation and demonstration program to include other utilities.

"EPRI brings our collaborative efforts related to the potential of plug-in electric vehicle technology to a new level," said Nancy Gioia, director of Sustainable Mobility Technologies at Ford. "PHEVs have great promise, but still face significant obstacles to commercialization, including battery costs and charging strategies. Ultimately such vehicles must provide real value to consumers."
The evaluation and demonstration trials should provide solid technical information on PHEVs that will enable the development of common standards among utilities to accommodate the vehicles.

"Expanding on the work Ford and SCE are doing can help move the automotive and utility industries closer in addressing the challenges of our transportation future," said Ed Kjaer, director of Electric Transportation at SCE.

PHEVs are part of a family of electric-drive technologies that could play an important role in achieving national objectives of energy security and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. They could also lower fuel costs and lead to more cost-effective use of the nation's electricity grid, particularly during off-peak hours.

EPRI, Ford and SCE's research and analysis on the Ford PHEVs will include data from four primary areas: battery technology, vehicle systems, customer usage, and grid infrastructure. The analysis will also explore possible stationary and secondary usages for advanced batteries.
The combined expertise of the partners in this project, Ford, EPRI and SCE, is designed to advance a greater understanding of a vehicle, home and grid energy system.

Source; EPRI

Appointment aims to drive forward Comverge Smart Grid applications

Arthur "Bud" Vos, who currently serves as Comverge's VP of Marketing and Strategy, has been appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President of Strategy effective April 1, 2008. Mr. Vos will drive forward Comverge's technology for Smart Grid applications with a focus on developing enterprise software for electric utilities.

With a background in distributed control systems design and agent based computing, Mr. Vos has over 15 years experience in the electric utility industry.

"The electric utility industry is embarking on a new class of infrastructure solutions for demand response and advanced grid control solutions -- solutions that are focused on the vision of a 'Smart Grid' and Advanced Metering Infrastructure initiatives -- significantly broadening the offerings of our Smart Grid Solutions Group. Bud's experience, combined with an extensive knowledge of the electric utility industry, creates a solid foundation for developing our Smart Grid software strategy," said Robert M. Chiste, Chairman, President and CEO of Comverge. Chistecontinued, "Utilizing our customer base of hundreds of utilities and a vision for the future of demand response systems, Bud's focus will be to develop Comverge's Smart Grid software platform and analyze strategic synergies of our solution portfolio with other clean energy opportunities."

"I am excited to take on this new role at Comverge and look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead as Comverge continues pursing its three core competencies of innovation, operational excellence and customer intimacy," said Bud Vos, CTO and Vice President of Strategy.

Source: Comverge

GridPoint and Duke Energy Conduct First Ever Commercial Test of Utility-Controlled Smart Charging for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

GridPoint Inc. and Duke Energy announced positive results from what is believed to be the first commercial test of utility-controlled "smart charging" for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Duke Energy engineers tested GridPoint's smart charging capability by plugging a PHEV into a garage wall outlet controlled by the GridPoint SmartGrid Platform in the late afternoon. Duke began charging the vehicle at 10 p.m. and completed charging prior to the morning peak, leaving the car fully charged for the driver's morning commute. GridPoint's platform successfully controlled, measured and verified the charging of an electric vehicle parked in a residential garage.

"Smart charging is an essential capability for Duke and all electric utilities as PHEVs enter the market," said David Mohler, Chief Technology Officer, Duke Energy. "Through this capability, we're able to reduce stress on the grid during peak periods and keep rates low."

GridPoint's smart charging capability enables utilities to control charging regardless of when consumers plug in their PHEVs, which is anticipated to be in the early evening when peak demand is high. Utilities can limit peak load growth as well as offer customers significantly reduced charging costs by billing lower rates for off-peak charging. Additionally, utilities gain complete control over when and how fast PHEVs are charged, allowing utilities to optimize generating assets.

"This is a major milestone in the evolution of the Smart Grid," said Peter L. Corsell, President and CEO, GridPoint. "We are pleased to have worked with Duke Energy to demonstrate PHEV smart charging, and we look forward to continuing to lay the groundwork for managing PHEVs."

Source: www.gridpoint.com

Sixteen State Regulators Join NARUC-FERC Smart Grid Collaborative

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners named 16 State commissioners to serve on the joint federal-State Smart Grid Collaborative.

The NARUC-Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Smart Grid Collaborative, developed in early February, will serve as an important forum for discussing technological and other issues to facilitate the transition to a smart electric grid. Many companies are promoting Smart-Grid technologies and this dialogue will help regulators understand what is being developed and how it will impact consumers.

NARUC First Vice President Frederick Butler of New Jersey and FERC Commissioner Suedeen Kelly serve as co-chairs of the Collaborative. "This is an issue that is coming to the attention of State regulators as local delivery utilities and purveyors of Smart Grid technology are seeking our approval for installing this technology and rate recovery for their efforts," said First Vice President Butler. "Before we get too far down this road, State and federal regulators must have a better idea of what technologies are out there, how they will benefit consumers, and how they will impact the grid."

The following State regulators will join First Vice President Butler on the Collaborative: Commissioner Garry Brown of New York; Commissioner Paul Centolella of Ohio; Rachelle Chong of California; Commissioner Robert Clayton of Missouri; Commissioner Sherman Elliott of Illinois; Commissioner Wendell Holland of Pennsylvania; Commissioner Colette Honorable of Arkansas; Commissioner Orjiakor Isiogu of Michigan; Commissioner Jon McKinney of West Virginia; Commissioner Katrina McMurrian of Florida; Commissioner Rick Morgan of the District of Columbia; Commissioner Pat Oshie of Washington; Commissioner Sharon Reishus of Maine; Commissioner James Tarpey of Colorado; Commissioner Harold Williams of Maryland; and Commissioner Dallas Winslow of Delaware.

"This Collaborative cannot succeed without the time and energy from our State colleagues and I thank them for going above and beyond in their efforts to serve the ratepayers of this country," said NARUC President Marsha Smith of Idaho. "The Smart Grid has the potential to help our nation meet its growing need for energy by making the transmission system more reliable, robust, and efficient, and through our efforts with FERC, this Collaborative will help us understand these developments."

"I am very pleased by the great interest around the country in the Smart Grid collaborative," Commissioner Kelly said. "It suggests that the time is ripe for development of the Smart Grid to begin. I look forward to working with my State colleagues to determine the functional requirements of the technologies that the utilities will install and to ensure that systems are built to a consistent set of technical standards to provide maximum benefit, quality and interoperability to electricity consumers."

NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.

Source; NARUC

Irelands’s ESB plan 22 billion Euros Spend on Renewables Future to include financing for Smart Metering and Smart Networks

Energy Supply Board (ESB) has announced that the company is to embark on an unprecedented capital investment programme of Euros 22 billion.

The Board of ESB has approved a Strategic Framework to 2020 that will see major company investment in renewable energy, the halving of its carbon emissions within 12 years, and the achievement of carbon net-zero by 2035. Fifty percent of the overall investment package is geared towards investments in our renewable future. Euros 4bn of this will be directly invested in renewable energy projects and Euros 6.5bn will be spent facilitating renewables including smart metering and smart networks.

The plan, which will establish ESB as a world class renewables company, makes emissions reduction and energy efficiency central to its ambitious targets.

By 2020, ESB will be delivering one-third of its electricity from renewable generation. This will include over 1,400 megawatts of wind generation, in addition to wave, tidal and biomass. To promote this, the company will invest in emerging green technologies.

The Euros 11 billion to be invested by ESB in its Networks will ensure continued efficient delivery of the vital infrastructure needed to support the Irish economy. It will also facilitate the development of up to 6,000 megawatts of wind on the island.

ESB will maintain its market share of power generation at well below 40 percent to facilitate continuing competition in the energy market. Completion of the present closure/divestment of 1500 megawatts of its stations and sites will assist this process. ESB will continue to enhance plant availability and performance in line with EU norms.

ESB will drive substantial cost reductions in overheads across all its businesses in order to meet its new financial challenges. Strong financial performance and continuing rigorous funding will underpin the investment plan while achieving shareholder and customer value.
Preparing for competition in the retail market, ESB will focus on delivering energy conservation and new initiatives on energy efficiencies.

With the development of a single British-Irish electricity market by 2020, ESB's international profile will continue to expand. The company will invest in more generation plants and renewables in Britain and further plants in Europe.

ESB Chairman, Lochlann Quinn, said the Strategic Framework to 2020 addresses ESB's response to those major imperatives now demanding action. "ESB is operating in a dramatically changing environment. Three overarching concerns now exist - the consequences of climate change, energy security and competitiveness of energy supply and ESB is strong, focussed and prepared to deal with them", Mr Quinn said.

ESB Chief Executive, Padraig McManus, said ESB had demonstrated its ability to execute strategic change in the past while maintaining profitable growth. "ESB is now entering a new period of particular challenge that we embrace with enthusiasm and vigour. This robust plan will deliver tangible and sustainable results for the economy as we face global challenges in a coherent and managed way. It positions us as a leading energy company in Europe", he said

Source: ESB

Ontario Smart Grid Forum launched

Ontario's electricity sector has begun a broad-based industry dialogue to develop a vision for a provincial smart grid that will provide consumers with more efficient, responsive and cost-effective electricity service. The Ontario Smart Grid Forum launched today by the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) in collaboration with representatives from local distribution companies will bring together leaders from across the sector.

"The transformation taking place within the province's electricity sector, combined with advances in information technology, creates a unique opportunity for the development of a smart grid," said Paul Murphy, President and CEO of the Independent Electricity System Operator. "This forum builds on the provincial Smart Metering Initiative to install smart meters in all homes and businesses by 2010 and complements the renewal taking place in Ontario's transmission and generation sectors."

An initial working group, made up of senior representatives from the IESO, Hydro One, Hydro Ottawa, Burlington Hydro and Toronto Hydro, will help define the membership and terms of reference for the broader Smart Grid Forum. New members will be added over the coming weeks to ensure a broad cross-sector representation.

"Hydro One recognized the potential benefits of smart grid advancements during the conceptual stage of its smart meter initiative," said Laura Formusa, President and CEO of Hydro One. "Leveraging the two-way communications provided by advanced metering allows us to monitor performance of our electricity system and will also provide our customers with new opportunities to actively participate in a variety of conservation and demand management initiatives - a key requirement in our design decision."

"Smart meters are just the first step - sending and receiving information to and from the power grid," said David O'Brien, President and CEO of Toronto Hydro Corporation. "Smart meter technologies open the door to smart home - where residential consumers can manage their electricity consumption more effectively with in-home control systems, self-generation such as solar panels, and smart appliances."

"Ontario - and Ottawa in particular - relies on high-tech industries as a major source of new jobs. These businesses demand high levels of reliability and power quality, and smart grid technology will be a valuable tool for achieving this," said Norm Fraser, Chief Operating Officer of Hydro Ottawa. "We see the smart grid as an important business attraction tool, providing the province with an additional competitive advantage in the years ahead."

"By leveraging smart grid capabilities, we'll be creating an electricity system that is not only more efficient in the way it delivers electricity, but is also more flexible, accommodating more demand response and other environmentally-sustainable sources of supply," said David Collie, President and CEO of Burlington Hydro and Past Chair of the Electricity Distributors Association.

The full Forum will hold its first meeting in May, with a final report expected by the end of 2008, identifying benefits that will arise from smart grid investments and what needs to be done to enable implementation.

Source: IESO

Smart Grids power up the agenda across Europe

A host of initiatives across Europe have led to an explosion in interest into how – and where – smart grids will be implemented and deployed.

Jose Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, a leading voice in the Electricity industry stated "It is clear that dramatic change is coming in the future for the electric utility industry and the way energy is generated, delivered and consumed substantially changing the whole business model. This change is coming to a piece of the industry that hasn't been known for radical change over its 120 plus year history... Implementation of the Smart Grid will require a complete rethinking of the utility business model and business processes."

US leading the charge

But it’s in the US that the most impressive initiative is taking place. A new project has been announced to deliver the first ever Smart Grid City that will be the "…first step toward building the grid of the future," said Dick Kelly, Xcel Energy chairman, president and CEO. "In Boulder, we'll collaborate with others to integrate all aspects of our smart grid vision and evaluate the benefits. The work we're doing will benefit not only Boulder, but also customers throughout our eight-state service territory. We're pleased to partner with the city and our Boulder customers as we begin this journey."

In addition the GridWise Alliance [including the likes of CISCO, GE, IBM, SAP] aims to drive forwards an ‘electric system that integrates the infrastructure, processes, devices, information and market structure so that energy can be generated, distributed, and consumed more efficiently and cost effectively; thereby achieving a more resilient, secure and reliable energy system’ (GridWise Alliance).

European projects taking shape

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), more than $16 trillion will be spent worldwide between 2003 and 2030 in pursuit of the Smart Grid vision. With this in mind several projects have been announced including EDP and IBERDROLA and more recently an announcement from Ireland that they will invest $10.2bn of it’s $16bn budget for renewable energy and cleantech projects in Smart Meters and Smart Networks.

The EDP project led by Technical Co-ordinator Luis Vale de Cunha recently started the InovGrid Project, an initiative that aims to implement an "intelligent grid" during the next few years, through 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.

Whilst IBERDROLA has been working extensively in the definition and testing of 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.

Smart Meters grab the headlines

Over the last few weeks a spate of announcements from the likes of ZigBee, Pepco, Gazprom, Siemens and eMeter have hit the market relating to Smart Meter projects indicating the wealth of interest in the space over the last 6 months. As the market gathers pace expect to see a host of new projects announced.

Smart Electric thought leaders coming together

Smart Electric News, a new Business Intelligence Unit for the Smart Grid industry has announced the first Smart Electric Power Distribution summit. The summit, focusing 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 attendee list includes Ecoventures, Everis, Electrica Distribution, EU SmartGrids, RLtec, Energie de Portugal, Siemens, Sensortran, Nedap, Ma-Afrika Energise Consultants, ABB, Tractebel, Energie-Control, ECOFYS, Cisco Systems, Everis, Day4 Energy, Nestland LLC, Enel, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, EU SmartGrids, IBERDROLA, Texas Instruments, Koncar, Roto Power Engg, Wilson TurboPower, Areva T&D, SINTEF, Energunet.dk, Areva T&D, Schneider Electric Industries, Pauwels, Actaris ...to name just a few!

A well thought out agenda includes must have smart grid knowledge that addresses the factors involved in deploying 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.

For more information visit; http://www.smartelectricnews.com/

Michael Setters
Smart Electric News
E. msetters@smartelectricnews.com
T. +44 (0) 207 375 7558