Tag Archives: Smart Grid

[…] Advanced Energy Management Patent Portfolio Developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire – Jan 29, 2013) – Calico Energy Services (www.calicoenergy.com) and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL, www.pnnl.gov) today announced that Calico has licensed a portfolio of advanced energy management Intellectual Property (IP) developed by PNNL.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

PNNL’s development of the technology was funded by DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The innovative Patent Portfolio is based on a single, integrated smart grid model that utilizes an economic signal to automatically balance supply and demand at the lowest possible cost.

“PNNL’s Patent Portfolio is a breakthrough that allows an electric power system to virtually balance itself,” said Jesse Berst […]

See on www.marketwire.com

DOE Report Shows Smart Grid Program Funds Mismanaged — Occupational Health & Safety

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The DOE inspector general said in a report that funds from $700 million smart-grid technology program have been mismanaged.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

There are 32 projects made possible from the 2009 grant, 11 of which were reported on by Friedman.

“Our review of 11 projects, awarded $279 million in Recovery Act funding and $10 million in non-Recovery Act funding, identified weaknesses in reimbursement requests, cost-share contributions, and coordination efforts with another Department program,” Friedman said in the report to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

Some additional issues found by Friedman included overpayments and failures in the procedures for vetting recipient cost-share contributions

See on ohsonline.com

Chicago Suburb Oak Park Joins International Solar-Powered Smart Grid Test

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The village of Oak Park, a suburb west of Chicago, was recently selected from a list of competing volunteer neighborhoods to be the test site for smart grid technology.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

The project is a joint venture between the Korean Smart Grid Institute and the Institute for Sustainable Energy Development, and will involve placing a set of twelve or thirteen 3-kilowatt solar panels, along with a battery system, on the roofs of 100 residential and 100 multifamily buildings. They’ll also all be linked up to an electrical grid boasting smart meters, and once the test run of the system is over the building owners will get to keep the installations, worth $20,000 to $30,000 [each].

The [scenario for Oak Park homeowners] we talk about the most is this idea of collecting the solar energy during the day and storing it in the battery and then having the house run on the battery at night so you’re completely offline at night and the battery provides a phantom load — your clocks, TV.

The [average number of outages] for Oak Park is 45 minutes per year. What the number doesn’t tell you about is the stories I hear when [residents] call up on day three of still not having power. Then I get calls from restaurants. You’re talking about an entire week’s or month’s inventory gone.

See on thinkprogress.org

PowerTools App Helps SDG&E Customers Manage & Save Energy

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San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Candi Controls announced that the PowerTools app is available for customers to download on their mobile phone or tablet…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

“As a number of innovations for the home rely on the collection and use of consumer energy data, a self-regulatory program powered by independent third-party enforcement will ensure that participating companies commit to responsible practices,” said Chris Babel, chief executive officer of TRUSTe�. “With the Privacy Smart Powered by TRUSTe Seal, SDG&E sends a clear signal to its customers that it respects their personal information.”

SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and more than 840,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The utility’s area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to creating ways to help our customers save energy and money every day. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy SRE +0.53% , a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego.

See on www.marketwatch.com

10 Key Data Center Energy Management Trends for 2013

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The ways data centers consume power will continue to undergo both subtle and substantive transformations in 2013. The first three trends identified here started in 2012, when organizations began struggling with increased power demands in the face of constrained capacity caused by both inefficient equipment and stranded power…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

[…] For example, because rates for electricity are at their lowest at night when demand is low and baseload generating capacity is under-utilized, shifting the current workload to “follow the moon” can result in considerable savings.

[…] To eliminate the stranded power that exists in virtually every data center, capacity planning efforts will also begin to include power distribution and actual consumption as critical design factors.

[…] To eliminate the considerable overlap between the DCIM and other management systems used by the IT department and the Building Management System (BMS) used by the Facility department, organizations will begin migrating to DCIM as the primary platform for managing data centers, and will integrate other systems with it. …

See on www.energymanagertoday.com

CanSIA 2012-Smart Grid Breakout Session

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CanSIA 2012-Smart Grid Breakout Session.

“At CanSIA Solar Canada in Toronto I [Joshua LaForge] attended a breakout session that focused on developing grid technologies for the integration of solar PV and other renewables. The speakers covered a broad range of topics, including weather forecasting for solar load balancing (Rhonda Wright-Hilbig, IESO), economic modelling of renewable penetration (Justin Malecki, Clearsky Advisors), and PV-pilot projects in isolated communities (PJ Fernandex, ABB and Scott Henneberry, Schneider Electric).”

Smart Grid May be Shortest Route to Obama’s Green Energy Goals – Forbes

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President Obama’s inaugural address listed climate change and renewable energy as among his top priorities in his second term. But one of the most critical means by which to achieve those goals was never mentioned: the smart grid.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

[…] Collaboration is instrumental, although Yeager warns that some interests can deflect progress because they are unable to set aside their agendas.

“We have to change policies to enable innovation,” he previously told this writer. “Utilities will not do this by themselves. They will want more power sources and to make more money. They have no incentive to empower consumers. Until the incentives for utilities change, they will block the door and the public utility commissions will keep the status quo.”

Yeager likened it to the days before telecommunications reform: Innovation will remain pent up in a regulatory model that has no motivation to change. And nothing will happen unless regulators force utilities to adopt those smart grid technologies. …

[…] Whereas energy conservation has typically been a back-burner subject, today it is up front. That awareness in combination with a difficult economy means that people will continue to search out ways to cut energy consumption, and costs.

“It will get there, but the smart grid really is still being defined,” says Nosbaum, […]

The smart grid supports the Obama’s administration’s green initiatives. As such, the president allocated $4.5 billion in the 2009 stimulus plan to various projects. […]

Over time, DNV KEMA says that a total of $16 billion in incentives will be targeted to the smart grid. That, in turn, will multiply and create a total of $64 billion in projects tied to the efficient production, transport and use of energy. The consultancy adds that such investments will produce 280,000 new jobs.

See on www.forbes.com

NREL: News – NREL Teams Up on Three ARPA-E Projects to Optimize Electric Vehicle Battery Management and Controls

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Over the next three years, NREL engineers will work with teams led by Utah State University, Washington University, and Eaton Corporation to optimize utilization, life, and cost of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries for electric-drive vehicles (EDVs) through improved battery management and controls. The three projects are funded under the AMPED program with more than $7.4 million from DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

The ultimate goal of these projects is to make EDVs viable options for a larger and wider population of drivers. The projects for each team are:

Power Management of Large Battery Packs – Utah State University ($3 million)

Objectives:    Reduction in battery size, 20% longer battery pack lifetime or 20% reduction in battery pack energy content and 50% increase in cold temperature charge rate […]
Battery Management System Design – Washington University ($2 million)

Objective:     20% increase in utilization of untapped Li-ion battery capacity at the cell level […]
Predictive Battery Management for Hybrid Vehicles -Eaton Corporation ($2.4 million)

Objective:    50% improvement in fuel economy of heavy-duty HEVs without sacrificing battery life […]

See on www.nrel.gov

Guest Post: The Future of Energy Management in Commercial Buildings : Greentech Media

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Industry experts make predictions for 2013.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

…the developments of 2012 are indicative of longer trends affecting how we will occupy and operate commercial buildings in 2013.

Policy and Disclosure

2012 saw a number of industry “firsts.” Perhaps none is more significant than the adoption of energy disclosure laws, which require residential and commercial buildings to reveal — sometimes publicly — the energy performance of the buildings. To date, six cities have passed such laws, which require the use of EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager for buildings…

Utilities and the Green Button

Another major trend of 2012 has been the adoption by 35 electric and gas utilities of the “Green Button,” a voluntary, standardized data format for energy data. Green Button, a data standard developed by industry along with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and ratified by the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB), is meant to provide customer data in a computer-readable format so that software applications can uniformly tackle energy problems and identify opportunities for savings.

Civic Government

2012 was also a major year for civic and federal governments, as energy efficiency was a focus for large portfolios of public buildings. While some cities have already made strides in improving their own building performance, there has been a faster adoption of new technologies and operations strategies, and more vocal public acknowledgement of their goals to reduce energy and save taxpayer money.

See on www.greentechmedia.com

EPB Deploys America’s Fastest Fiber-optic Smart Grid – Lee Baker, Smart Grid Consultant – Electric Energy Online

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EPB Deploys America’s Fastest Fiber-optic Smart Grid – Lee Baker, Smart Grid Consultant – While many utilities struggle with the question of whether or not to build a Smart Grid, for the Electric Power Board (EPB) in …

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Chattanooga: The Smarter City

EPB [Electric Power Board] is one of the first community-owned utilities to install a 100% fiber-optic network, which uses the fiber optic network for Smart Grid applications, in addition to the triple-play media services (i.e., high speed Internet, video and telephone) EPB already provides.

“Chattanooga is light years ahead when it comes to providing ultra fast broadband,” said Tom Edd Wilson, President and CEO of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. “By offering the fastest available speeds to a whole community comprising a diverse population living in both urban and rural areas, Chattanooga has become the living laboratory for today’s innovations and tomorrow’s companies.”

EPB has built fiber optics throughout their entire customer service area and communications services are now available to all homes and businesses. By the end of 2012, all 170,000 homes and businesses will be equipped with a Tantalus smart meter.

[…] EPB already has 22 large industries signed up for a time-of-use (TOU) rate program, and its projected that together they will save $2.3 million a year. Those kinds of savings help businesses run more efficiently and bring jobs to the community.

“What makes Chattanooga stand out is that it is leveraging the network both for a full range of Smart Grid applications and communications connectivity,” Wade added.

“We looked at how the communication system and the electric system interact for many years and realized how closely tied together they are. As costs have stabilized and technology matured, we felt that the time was right to proceed with the project.”

“We’re building this network not just for today but for the future. The system we’re building will provide rapid, two-way communications with every meter, home and device, making it possible and practical for our customers to interact with their energy use as never before.”

See on www.electricenergyonline.com