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The Bonneville Power Administration and Mason County Public Utility District Number 3 announced today that they are partnering on a smart grid pilot project to help manage the electricity grid and use wind power more effectively.
The project address two fundamental bottlenecks in the power grid; congestion during times of high power use and the imbalance created when more wind-powered energy is being generated than is being used.
Australian startup BuildingIQ announced this week that its automated system turned down power use at a Perth, Australia city building in response to a demand response system now being piloted by utility Western Power. BuildingIQ CEO Mike Zimmerman says it’s the first time a building control optimization system has automatically met a utility’s demand to turn down power to manage peak load. But if Zimmerman has his way, the system will soon be tested out in the U.S. as well.
"Utilities have learned a lot about how smart meters can compel consumers to save electricity. Unfortunately, too often they aren't putting the knowledge to good use. "
These days, Idaho’s farmers are being paid to stop using power.
Great article on Idaho Power's implementation of demand response
Speaking at The Networked Grid conference Erfan Ibrahim — who heads EPRI’s work on communications, systems management and cyber security for the smart grid — dished out a sort of grab bag of opinions on a range of hot smart grid topics. Here are five myths, misunderstandings and truths he raised about how the smart grid should be rolled out...
In addition to the potential “prize” the Smart Grid might offer them, other consumer concerns must be addressed to gain their trust and comfort with the dramatic change the Smart Grid represents
Google Inc is in the early stages of looking at ways to write software that would fully integrate plug-in hybrid vehicles to the power grid, minimize strain on the grid and help utilities manage vehicle charging load.
"We are doing some preliminary work," said Dan Reicher, Google's director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives. "We have begun some work on smart charging of electric vehicles and how you would integrate large number of electric vehicles into the grid successfully."
Whirlpool Corporation says it will manufacture a million Smart Grid-compatible clothes dryers by the end of 2011. In homes where utilities have two-way communications, clothes dryers could be controlled remotely by the utility, powering it down in times of peak usage or running the appliance at a time when electricity is cheaper (for example, at night). Whirlpool estimates that if a utility has time-of-use pricing in place, a smart dryer could save a consumer between $20 and $40 a year.
Tim Healy is seeing utilities doubling what they spent in 2007-08 on new energy efficient technologies and products.
So he, and some of his competitors, are trying to usher that vision along, filing a protest yesterday with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for new market rules to make energy efficiency more appealing to American utilities than building new power generation.
Major smart electric meter maker Itron announced today that it has joined forces with home energy management device maker OpenPeak. Their combined technologies will help both utilities and their customers keep closer tabs on exactly how much electricity is being used, why, and how much it is costing.
Itron will be integrating OpenPeak’s line of easy-to-use touchscreen monitors into its smart meter systems
electricity rates will need to rise to reflect periods of intense energy use and to encourage consumers to change their electricity habits, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu
This green orb constantly polls the national power grid to see how it’s keeping up with demand, and subsequently whether your next cuppa will be a particularly carbon intensive one.
Balaji Natarajan is a senior IT strategist for Capgemini, focusing on smart grid, mobile computing, and unified communications.
History is a great teacher. The Internet took decades to evolve and take shape. Now upon us is a more critical challenge: how to build and sustain a smarter power grid. The tech community is already starting to initiate significant efforts to address this challenge, but here are some thoughts for how we can learn from the history of how the Internet was built, which will help us move into the fast-lane to tackle this massive task and monumental opportunity.
EnerNoc has released software that keeps air conditioners, motors and other devices in constant contact with its network operations center. It's a first in "presence-enabled" technology for the smart grid, the company says.
This month, the City of Newark, Delaware became the first electric utility in the US to use a car to store and provide power for the local electric grid.
The vehicle, which runs on electricity alone, is specifically designed to store energy and improve grid reliability. University of Delaware researchers helped develop the concept, called Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). With the City of Newark's approval, the UD team is now conducting V2G testing at two outlets within the City's service territory.
EnerNOC (NASDAQ: ENOC), the Boston-based company that pays factory operators, store owners, and local governments for the right to dial back their electricity usage during times of peak demand, announced today that the City of Boston is finally diving into the local “demand response” pool. Under a new agreement negotiated with the office of Mayor Thomas Menino, Boston City Hall, the Boston Public Library, and Boston Police Headquarters will be equipped with remote-controlled meters that allow EnerNOC to reduce non-essential electricity usage whenever local utilities need a buffer. In return, the city will get periodic payments—whether or not it’s ever called upon to cut usage—plus additional money for every actual demand response event.
Texas could reduce its peak electric usage by more than 23 percent in the next seven years if utilities would invest more in efficiency programs, according to a study released recently by the Public Utility Commission.
The efficiency efforts, which would funnel through existing programs administered by the electric transmission companies in the parts of Texas open to competition, would save consumers as much as $2 for every $1 invested, according to the study.
Extremely informative article on Smart Homes, HANs, NANs, Demand Response and ZigBee
Homeowners desperately need new methods to conserve energy. Utilities desperately need a system with which they can improve service and manage peak demand problems.
Enter the smart grid.
The power grid today is wasteful, costly, inefficient and dumb - and ill-equipped to address many pressing energy issues, from the need to focus on climate change and carbon cost, to the demand for high reliability. However, the advent of distributed generation, distributed storage, and distributed intelligence will change power infrastructure into an intelligent and more nimble power web.
"Smart grid technologies, like advanced metering infrastructure and demand response services, will enable the transformation of the current grid to a more reliable and intelligent power web," said Ying Wu, Senior Analyst at Lux Research.
Looks like he has been reading GreenMonk.net!!!
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