News, Trends & Analysis
Archive for July, 2010
Report Finds 99.96% of Texas Smart Meters Accurate — Energy | The Texas Tribune
Jul 30th
by Kate Galbraith July 30, 2010
A new report has found that Texas’s smart meters are accurate in 99.96 percent of cases.
The report by Navigant Consulting, released today, had been commissioned by the Public Utility Commission in the wake of a crush of complaints about the meters, which are being rolled out across Texas. A class action lawsuit was also filed against Oncor earlier this year due to smart meters concerns.
“It is Navigant Consulting’s opinion … that the vast majority of advanced meters currently installed by Oncor, CenterPoint and AEP Texas are accurately measuring and recording electric usage, as well as communicating that information through the respective advanced More >
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Loading ...Residential Energy Storage « Pike Research
Jul 28th
One significant trend in the electric utility market that is beginning to gather momentum is residential energy storage (RES). Like many renewable initiatives, California is the trailblazing state for RES. In 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the so-called California Solar Initiative. The plan calls for a million solar roofs which will add 3 gigawatts of clean energy and is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million tons, all by 2018.
Fast-forward four years. The momentum of the California Solar Initiative is beginning to manifest itself into opportunities for residential energy storage. What is More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Energy Storage Needs Better Utility Policy, Language, Culture to Succeed
Jul 28th
ERIC WESOFF: JULY 28, 2010
How about we start by calling storage, storage and a battery, a battery?
Utility-scale energy storage in the field today is limited to pumped hydro, a few large deployments using compressed air energy storage (CAES), hundreds of megawatts of sodium sulphur (NaS) batteries, mostly in Japan, and some experiments with banks of lithium-ion batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries and regenerative fuel cells (flow batteries). Greentech Media has long covered the energy storage market with technologies that include:
- Batteries (Li-ion, NiMh, Zinc Air, NaS, etc.)
- Flow Batteries
- Flywheels
- Phase-change materials
- Ammonia
- Thermal Storage as heat or ice
- Hydrogen systems
- Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)
- Pumped Hydro
- Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES)
- Ultracapacitors
- Using off-peak wind energy to synthesize fuels More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...IEEE Power & Energy Society – FREE Webcast Alert – July 26, 2010 (8am-11:30am)
Jul 25th
IEEE Power & Energy Society – Webcast Alert – July 26, 2010
IEEE POWER & ENERGY SOCIETY WEBCAST ALERT
Power and energy professionals from around the world are invited to participate in an important live webcast on Monday, July 26, 2010 from 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM Central Time.
The webcast will originate from the Opening Session at the 2010 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting. The meeting carries the theme, Power Systems Engineering in Challenging Times and is being held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. On the day of the event, you may log on to More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Swept Away ― How the Smart Grid Tsunami Could Destroy Utilities (And What to Do About It)
Jul 21st
Jul 20, 2010
It’s easy to figure a strategy for surviving a tidal wave … run like hell for the high ground.
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It’s more difficult to apply that thinking to the Smart Grid. We can see the wave is about to hit the shore… but which way is the high ground? Should a utility start offering all sorts of new energy services behind the meter? Or become a wires-only utility and leave the new services to others? Or compete with the EnerNOCs of the world? Or partner with them? Or emigrate to New Zealand to herd sheep?
Often guidance lies n the experiences More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The Good News and Bad News about Cisco’s Smart Grid Strategy
Jul 19th
Jul 15, 2010
In separate stories, we’ve described how Cisco’s home energy management initiative reveals the underpinnings of the grid’s first operating system. And how Microsoft’s bureaucratic stupidity caused it to miss this billion-dollar opportunity.
I want to use this space to discuss the good and bad aspects of Cisco’s Smart Grid strategy from the utility point of view. Remember, I’m talking here about Cisco’s strategy, not about its current offerings, which still fall far short of the company’s long-term goals.
Let’s Start with the Good News
There is a lot to like about the idea of a standard operating system for the grid. For instance:
· A target for More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Challenges to Cisco’s Smart Grid Strategy
Jul 19th
Jul 15, 2010
Cisco is one of America’s great companies. But that doesn’t mean it has a lock on creating thegrid’s first operating system. I see at least five challenges in its way.
Finding the right business model. Can Cisco really foist the cloud computing model onto utilities? After all, utilities make money by building and owning assets. Those assets go into their rate base, on which they earn a regulated return. And utilities notoriously prefer to have close control of all their systems.
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Helping utilities find the right business model. Today, utilities are asked to spend enormous amounts on Smart Grid equipment that More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Cisco Smart Grid Strategy: The Grid’s First Operating System
Jul 19th
Jul 15, 2010
More than a year ago, I gave you an early warning of Cisco’s end-to-end smart grid strategy. Later in 2009, Tulane professor Geoffrey Parker stopped by with an important survival guide to the impending smart grid platform.
With the recent announcement of the Cisco home energy management solution, Cisco’s Smart Grid strategy is becoming ever more clear. The company describes its offerings as “an innovation platform.” I think you’ll get a better sense of its impact if you think of it as the grid’s first operating system.
In this article, I’ll quickly review the home energy offering. Elsewhere in this issue, More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Solar Power Surge Prompts TEP to Seek Changes to SunShare Rebate Program
Jul 19th
TUCSON, Ariz., Jul 14, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — A surge in the popularity of solar energy systems has prompted Tucson Electric Power (TEP) to propose new, lower subsidies for residential customers who install photovoltaic (PV) arrays.
Nearly 1,100 local homeowners have reserved TEP SunShare rebates for PV systems this year, exceeding the total number of residential solar power systems completed over the previous nine years combined. Local businesses also have rushed to invest in solar power systems, draining the funds designated for up-front commercial incentives in 2010.
In response to this unprecedented demand, TEP has asked the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) to More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...New Cost Allocation Methodology Unveiled by Midwest ISO
Jul 19th
Jul 16, 2010 4:19 PM Midwest ISO
After more than 19 months of collaborative work with its stakeholders, the Midwest ISO filed its proposed cost allocation methodology for new transmission projects. Multi Value Projects (MVPs), transmission projects that have a regional impact and are part of a regional plan, will now have a 100% regional allocation of costs, pending the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval.
“This system will fairly and equitably share the cost of projects that benefit the entire region and enable the Midwest ISO and its members to continue delivering low cost and reliable energy to the region,” said John Bear, president More >
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