NTS Smart Grid Blog

ABB to bring Terra 51 electric car fast charging station to US market and support SAE Fast Charging

Derek — Sat, 19 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Power supply and distribution services giant ABB, manufacturer of the popular Terra 51 CHADEMO compatible DC Fast Charging station for electric cars, is bringing it to the U.S. market in the second half of 2012. via ABB to bring Terra 51 electric car fast charging station to US market and support SAE Fast Charging.

CIP and Smart Grid Analytics Play Major Role In Upcoming Smart Grid Summit

Derek — Sat, 19 May 2012 18:00:00 +0000

The 2012 Municipal Smart Grid Summit (MSGS) will showcase four moderated panel discussions for the Second Annual MSGS taking place June 4th-6th in San Diego. More than one hundred Municipal Electric Utility Executives representing over nine million customers will be in attendance listening and contributing to the dialogue directly affecting the Municipal Electric Utility Industry. Continue reading →

Will Clean Energy be a $2.3 Trillion Victim of Congressional Dysfunction?

Derek — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Global clean energy investment is expected to reach $2.3 trillion within a decade. Markets continue to expand 30 – 40% each year. By 2016, the global solar market alone is expected to reach $75.2 billion. Wind energy is expected to grow by double-digits annually, reaching $93.1 billion by 2016. These enormous economic opportunities are why Continue reading →

How Gridium is making sense of energy data

Derek — Sat, 19 May 2012 06:00:00 +0000

There will be petabytes of smart meter data emerging in the coming years, which means there will be a growing need for new tools to analyze and make sense of all that data. A new startup called Gridium, which launched a couple months ago and is co-led by energy entrepreneur Tom Arnold, has developed software Continue reading →

Remote Solar Plants Come with Added Costs

Derek — Sat, 19 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

On a desolate stretch of the Mojave Desert, twenty miles northeast of Barstow, construction workers recently began laying the foundation for a 2.8 square mile solar power plant. By 2014, electricity will flow from the facility into nearby power lines to homes and businesses throughout Northern California. The plant will help PG&E meet a state Continue reading →

Smart Metering Moves Towards a Sustainable Future

Derek — Sat, 19 May 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Implementing sustainable energy infrastructure is a global concern. Smart Meters contribute positively to this initiative by helping customers to map and reduce their energy consumption. Real-time energy monitoring helps energy suppliers to become more accurate in dealing with supply and demand, and, as a result, more efficient in generating clean, green power. The UK Government Continue reading →

Smart Meter Unit Shipments in North America Peaked in 2011 and will Decline 42% by 2013, while Global Market Continues to Grow

Derek — Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) have transformed a placid, 140-year old electricity metering market into a high-tech, high-growth juggernaut. In 2008, less than 4% of the global installed base of 1.5 billion electricity meters could be considered “smart,” but 4 years later this penetration has grown to over 18%, and is forecast to Continue reading →

Smart Energy Collective initiates design of five smart grid projects

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Twenty six partners of the Smart Energy Collective have signed a renewed cooperation agreement for the approval of the second phase of its smart grid initiative, which involves the development of five large-scale smart grid demonstration projects in the Netherlands. The signing follows a successful preparation period, and marks the start of the actual design Continue reading →

Major Smart Energy Companies Tout New Smart Grid Standard

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Elster, Itron, Landis+Gyr, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan, and Silver Spring Networks have announced the release of the 802.15.4g radio standard by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The new standard enables interoperable communications between certain smart grid devices, including smart meters and smart home appliances. The Continue reading →

Swings In Smart Meter Market Present Industry Challenges

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:00:00 +0000

While annual smart meter shipments in North America are expected to decline sharply, the news is not all bad, as the rest of the world will see increases, according to a report from Pike Research. North America saw 12.4 million smart meter units shipped in 2011 – a number that is expected to drop to Continue reading →

Kilawatt Technologies takes VPT Beyond Smart Grid

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Kilawatt’s Beyond Smart Grid will provide the granularity to understand energy consumption. Beyond Smart Grid will identify energy management projects with calculated, data based Return on Investments. Such an evaluation is critical to targeting your energy efficiency dollars to provide superior return on your investment. Working with Vermont Public Television at their Colchester Facility, Kilawatt Continue reading →

S&C Electric wins promising contract from EDF Renewables

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

S&C Electric Company Europe Ltd, a smart grid energy company and subsidiary of U.S.-based S&C Electric, has won an ambitious contract from Electricite de France’s EDF Renewables. The contract is reportedly worth several million dollars and will seek to establish a smart grid system in Scotland. This system is to be powered by a wind Continue reading →

Connected Home Global Summit 2012 day 2: From energy to entertainment

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

It has been a couple of weeks since the Connected Home Global Summit and it’s always nice to reflect on the events before jumping straight into writing about them. In this case it seems particularly important, as much of the talk is speculative and forward thinking, rather than headline news breaking. This was my third Continue reading →

Big Data Meets The Smart Electrical Grid

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Big data presentations frequently get around to mentioning smart electricity meters as an up and coming use. No wonder, when you hear a pilot project in Washington plans to take electric data feeds from houses every five minutes. Although Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project is a relatively small pilot project with 60,000 participants Continue reading →

The smart in smart meters

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 08:00:00 +0000

I am somewhat surprised and dismayed by the controversy surrounding smart meters. Those opposed to this program should read the article “The 21st Century Grid” by Joel Achenbach in the July 2010 issue of National Geographic. This describes how our current electrical grid is made up of very old haphazard technology with our house meters Continue reading →

Smart Meter Deployment Continues to Expand, Albeit More Slowly

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:00 +0000

The current penetration of smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) had reached 18 percent worldwide and is expected exceed 55 percent by 2020. However, new data from Pike research suggests smart meter deployment in North America peaked last year in 2011 and that in subsequent years rollouts are expected to slow, from 12.4 million Continue reading →

Chinese delegation visits Glendale to learn more about its smart grid

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

A delegation from a Chinese utility that serves more than 230 million customers visited Glendale on Tuesday to learn more about the city’s smart grid. Representatives for the China Southern Power Grid Co. were particularly interested in learning how Glendale Water & Power simultaneously installed electric and water smart meters, which provide consumption data in Continue reading →

S&C introduces new smart grid solutions for grid reliability

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 02:00:00 +0000

S&C Electric Co. launched new solutions to help utilities realize a self-healing smart grid. These products help reduce outage time and give utilities better grid management capabilities, ultimately improving the reliability and efficiency of power delivery for customers. The new product advancements integrate automatic restoration with grid optimization solutions. Also, enhanced communications system tools help Continue reading →

New Smart Air Conditioner Comes with App

Derek — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The new Friedrich Kuehl room air conditioner is the first consumers can control with their smartphone, tablet PC, or home computer. The manufacturer states the smart appliance will enable people to dramatically cut their cooling costs this coming summer and also notes it comes with built-in energy management schedules and is Smart Grid capable. via Continue reading →

Smart Meters

Derek — Thu, 17 May 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Smart electric meters have emerged as the most visible technology of the major modernization of the global electricity infrastructure known as the smart grid. Smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), terms often used synonymously, integrate embedded computing and two-way communications to transform meters from simple manual recording instruments into highly intelligent devices serving increasingly Continue reading →