ABB is a $31 billion Swiss firm that was late to the smart grid party but made up for lost time with several important acquisitions and strategic changes to the ABB smart grid plan. ABB's smart grid ambitions are to provide the full range of smart-grid related gear and software. One part of ABB's smart grid strategy is to become the leader in the blending of information technology (IT) with operational technology (OT). It made important strides in that direction with the 2010 acquisition of Ventyx and the 2011 acquisition of Mincom.
The parent company provides power and automation technologies to a broad base of utility and industrial customers. Its product lines span transmission, distribution, turnkey substations, and industrial automation. It gets more than half its sales in Europe and has had early success in China.
How are we going to turn our frail and neglected electric power transmission system into a secure and reliable smart grid? It’s a critical and timely issue, which is why we’ve loaded this toolkit with some of the best analysis, most-promising trends and smartest research relating to next steps in electric power transmission.
Several promising developments were just announced on the EV charging front. Schneider Electric says its new EVlink DC Quick Charger is now available in the U.S. and ABB says its Terra 51 EV fast charger will be soon, with manufacturing in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Coulomb Technologies has raised $47.5 million to expand operations and grow its global charging network.
They can read smart meters over a city-wide white space network in England. In India, solar-powered microgrid technology is making a big difference in the lives of rural villagers. And speaking of microgrids, a vintage hydro plant on the Kalamazoo River now has one. Click for details on these projects and a few more we thought were pretty darn interesting.
Maybe we're reading more into it than we should, but there seems to be a lot of money going into transmission projects across the U.S. right now. The latest: ABB's $90 million order from American Transmission Company to improve grid stability in Michigan. Click for more on this and some additional examples of how our aging, outmoded power grid is finally getting some much-needed attention.
In this video from ABB you'll learn why excessive volt-ampere reactive (var) power on a distribution network is inefficient and how the problem can be solved. It also discusses how to develop a Volt/VAr optimization strategy to increase efficiency.
Siemens snaps up RuggedCom, a maker of hardened routers for substations. ABB snags Thomas & Betts, a maker of old-school low voltage gear. Valuations on these two recent deals may signal a new strategic phase of particular interest to smaller suppliers. Click for more on that, plus concerns about the Siemens deal from long-time industry analyst Chuck Newton.
Industry heavyweights ABB and Nissan and others are partnering to test retired lithium-ion battery packs from Nissan Leaf EVs for commercial and residential energy storage applications. Click to read how the companies hope to get a second bang for the buck out of the batteries.
This is the third year of SGN's Smart Grid Companies to Watch search and it just keeps getting more interesting. We had more nominations than ever this year and saw a fascinating mix of big players, little-known startups and a handful of companies located outside the U.S. Click to see the first six companies that made it through the first cut and into the voting round.
ABB will head up a team of high profile energy industry experts in a DOE-funded study of offshore wind grid interconnection along all U.S. coastal regions. The team will assess all things offshore, from technical and economic aspects to regulatory issues. Find out more inside.
Smart grid advocates (and what little there is of national energy policy) encourage going after energy efficiency full throttle, and IBM and ABB have taken up the cause. They're working jointly on a different approach to study and possibly develop a new high-voltage insulator capable of significant reductions in transmission line loss. Click inside for more.
This case study highlights CPS Energy's efforts to improve its distribution operations with an integrated distribution operations platform that includes OMS and advanced DMS network applications. The solution, provided by Ventyx, has improved operational efficiencies for control room and field resources. Shorter outage times has been another benefit.
ABB will use International Battery's lithium-ion batteries as part of a distributed energy storage system it is developing for a Swedish utility. Click inside for more on the smart grid storage system and SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst's take on this application of lithium-ion technology.
What happens to EV batteries after they've served their useful life in a car, but still have useful life left in them? GM and ABB are collaborating on an energy storage system that combines a proven EV battery technology and a proven grid-tied electric power inverter. SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst says it could be a great boon to utilities and EV owners. Find out why.
Swedish utility Falbygdens Energi has selected ABB to provide an innovative energy storage solution to help balance peak loads during the day and enhance grid stability. Read the story for more on this wide-ranging pilot project.
In an article published today in nyse magazine, ABB CEO Joe Hogan says we may be overlooking an incredible opportunity for energy savings – and that opportunity can be found in electric motors. Find out why he believes significant energy savings are right under our noses.
Watch out ABB, Alstom, General Electric and Siemens. With its just-announced purchase of distribution automation company Telvent, Schneider has put the Big Four on notice -- make room for a Big Fifth.
The Raleigh, North Carolina, area and surrounding counties have been identified in a new research report as among the largest hotspot locations for smart grid companies large and small. The report says the area boasts a number of assets and a supportive environment for smart grid firms.
ABB has purchased a controlling interest in Validus DC Systems, a company that provides DC power infrastructure equipment for energy-intensive data centers. Click inside to learn why – and what SGN's Jesse Berst has to say about it.
ABB will pick up Australia-based enterprise software and services provider Mincom, a move it says will add depth to its enterprise management offering – and beef up its leadership position in the key growth sectors of natural resources and energy.
ABB unveiled a new family of products at the 2011 Hanover
Fair in Germany that are designed to strengthen the power supply in electricity networks and industrial plants. As this video showcases, the PCS100 family is based on a low-voltage converter and advanced software. It can be adapted to a range of applications, from enabling wind parks to feed power into the grid at the appropriate frequency to connecting various energy storage technologies to the network.
Security blogger and SGN contributor Andy Bochman addresses the big question he and his colleagues involved in the smart grid can't help but ask themselves: Are we helping or hurting our overall security posture? It's a very good question, and Andy provides a very thoughtful answer.
Few smart grid startups are tackling heavy equipment for the grid. That leaves an enormous market to be carved up by the Big Three – ABB, GE and Siemens – which have just been joined by Alstom Grid as the smart grid’s Big Fourth. It is an epic clash, with tens of billions of dollars at stake. Head over to SmartGridNewsTalk, where Jesse Berst and industry insiders are debating who is in the lead now and who will be the ultimate winner.
ABB, the ambitious power and automation technology group, has announced it will acquire Obvient Strategies, Inc. The move will add business intelligence software to ABB's software offering for asset management, power distribution automation and smart grid applications.
ABB will acquire specialist software provider Insert Key Solutions, a move intended to create a broad set of solutions for asset and work management, maintenance optimization and equipment reliability.
It has taken a while, but more and more observers are calling the Texas "experiment" with retail competition a success... and even suggesting it may be a model for the rest of the country. Is it?
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
RSS
