With millions of dollars of federal stimulus money now in the hands of utilities and vendors to support smart grid initiatives around the U.S., project momentum is building. In this channel track smart grid projects, R&D efforts and find helpful expert resources.
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Curious about smart grid projects in your state - or the state next door? We've just updated all 50 of our state smart grid toolkits. Each one is packed with energy-related projects, news and trends. You'll also find useful state-specific resources, including state energy agencies, utility and regulator listings, advocacy groups and incentive programs. Click inside to start your coast-to-coast tour.
Smart meters may get most of the attention, but many would argue that grid optimization is how utilities and their customers are going to get the most bang for their buck. So what is grid optimization, and how do we bring it out of the smart grid closet? You'll find answers in our one-stop grid optimization toolkit, which is packed with the analysis, trends and resources you need to get up to speed.
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.
EPRI will demonstrate a prototype for fast charging electric vehicles that also could be used by utilities for other purposes. EPRI says the technology is fast and flexible - and more efficient and cheaper to install than today's commercial systems. We thought you'd like to know more about this multi-tasking charging system as it could be a real step forward for EVs, utilities and other businesses.
The Department of Energy this week announced $12 million in funding to speed solar energy innovation from the lab to the marketplace. It's the latest in a series of announcements we've seen in recent weeks that suggest there's more money filtering into energy projects, including up to $120 million for advanced research on batteries and energy storage. Click inside and we'll show you the money.
BPL Global is one of the companies involved in a project in France's rural Alsace region that will supply end users with electric vehicles via a subscription service. The service is supposed to optimize the impact of EV charging on the grid by aggregating the load and storage capacities of the batteries and managing their charging patterns.
We're now at a spot down the smart grid path where utilities are moving beyond the expected and taking next steps with advanced technologies - from the flywheel systems protecting Austin Energy's new control center to SAIC's Smart Grid as a Service supporting critical energy management systems in remote Alaskan villages. In our latest project roundup we're spotlighting these and five other smart grid projects we think you'll want to know about.
SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst notes that electric utilities in the U.S. are slowly coming around to the concept of saving energy with volt/VAR optimization (conservation voltage reduction if you prefer) and cites a cooperative project with the Electric Power Research Institute, Alabama Power and Duke Energy. Read more inside about the "green circuits" method studied in the project.
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.
We told you recently about smart grid resistance in Florida, Connecticut and Illinois, adding to the list of states experiencing consumer pushback. Click for an update on the situation in Illinois, where anti-smart grid activists in Naperville just lost a round.
GE Appliances and Flint Energies have teamed up in a pilot project to better understand the potential for GE's Brillion™-enabled appliances to save consumers money and lower peak load when coupled with peak time rebates. And a Colorado company is bringing its online game designed to get consumers involved in saving energy to Texas.
Honeywell has been signed to launch China's first smart grid demand response project. The company will demonstrate its automated demand response technology at office buildings, government and commercial facilities and industrial plants to reduce demand during peak load conditions.
There was a lot going on in the smart grid world in 2011: major developments and advances, successes and failures, rising and falling trends, and a lot in between. But some of those stories seem to go on and on and on. Take a look at our roundup of the year's stories that just won't end.
Want to see the future of smart grid storage? Look to China, which just completed a project that uses a 36 MWh energy storage system to integrate 140 MW of wind and solar, making it the country's largest smart grid storage facility and, as SGN Analyst Jesse Berst suggests, a potential template for smart grid storage efforts in the U.S. Click to learn why.
Africa's largest electricity provider has picked Comverge to create and co-manage the continent's first open market for demand response resources. There's more inside about this important pilot project.
Utilities around the country will want to keep a close eye on the progress of NV Energy's smart grid project. As a piece of that, the Nevada utility is taking an intriguing approach to encourage customers to enroll in demand response and dynamic pricing. Click inside for more on NV Energy's "big carrot" strategy.
UCLA's Smart Grid Energy Research Center, established to develop and test new smart grid technologies, has a new partner – the Korea Institute of Energy Research. Read the story for what to expect from this international collaboration.
There's a lot of smart grid happening this week – from power plant automation and wireless sensor projects to a California initiative to give customers access to their energy use information with the click of a button. Learn more about five very different smart grid projects that caught our attention.
FortZED is a set of active projects and initiatives in Fort Collins, Colorado, created by public-private partnerships. They use smart grid and renewable energy technologies to achieve local power generation and energy demand management.
The drama over Boulder's SmartGridCity gets the attention, but not far away in Fort Collins, partners in a DOE-funded Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration project are compiling results from their real-world research into load shedding and local energy generation. We talked with a project engineer about lessons learned - like how hard it is to go beyond a 25% reduction in peak load and how real-world constraints (such as the "noise pollution" of a diesel generator) can impact results.
The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has a handy tool for keeping track of the more than 200 smart grid projects throughout Europe. It's a project inventory in interactive map format intended as a platform for sharing the results of research projects. Click inside for more on this convenient smart grid resource.
Britain continues to push its aggressive smart grid deployment schedule with the announcement of almost $90 million awarded to six pilot projects ranging from automating and optimizing high-voltage networks to incorporating renewables and energy storage into those networks. Another signal that activity is starting to heat up in Europe?
In a new report, research firm GlobalData found the lack of permanency in new smart grid jobs and the number of contracts awarded to non-U.S. companies could thwart the government's intended Recovery Act objectives. But analyst Sankar Gupta does see a silver lining.
Pacific Gas & Electric this week asked the California PUC for the green light on six new smart grid pilot projects. The utility's plans range from enhancing distribution system reliability and flexibility to implementing voltage and grid control systems to cut customer costs, as well developing customer outreach programs.
Silver Spring Networks and Cable&Wireless Worldwide have agreed to participate in the Ecoisland Partnership, the UK's largest energy sustainability smart grid project to date. SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst introduces the story with some thoughts on what this partnership might say about SSN's European market strategy.
For years we've been expecting smart meter hardware prices to decline sharply. A California company we told you about earlier this year is promising a smart meter for as little as $20. Do you think it will happen? Will we see dramatic price drops in smart meters this year - or anytime soon? That's our Tuesday Topic this week. We hope you'll join the discussion.
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