18 Nov 2011
With the completion in October 2010 of the 260km-long, subsea cable between the UK and the Netherlands, the Dutch transmission grid is becoming a key interconnection throughout the EU. IThe Dutch government is spending billions of euros to improve and expand its high voltage grid, planning to add 14GW of power capacity to its grid by 2018, a 50...
The Dutch government liberalized its electricity industry in 1996. The Electricity Act of 1998 saw the end of monopoly positions. From 2007, all electricity customers could choose their supplier.
Metering
In 2007, in order to curb the nation’s energy consumption, the Dutch government announced that all households must have smart meters by 2013. Companies such as Continuon, Nuon and Delta Netwerkbedrijf installed meters in various cities. However, in 2010 the government postponed the...
08 May 2012
The UK’s smart grid upgrade will increase employment and bring significant economic benefits.
What happened
The UK will see a £13bn (US$21bn) boost to its economy, as well as the creation of 10,000 highly skilled jobs if the country upgrades its electric distribution network with smart grid technology. This is according to an Ernst & Young report, “Smart Grid: A race worth winning.” Click Green says this report offers the “most detailed assessment yet” of the smart grid’s potential benefits for the UK’s economy.
Reuters reports...
25 Mar 2012
The focus on analytics is not the "Big Data" as a result of what the industry is terming the "smart grid."
I asked the attendees if the smart grid was causing the data to grow on the trading side of the house. The answer was "no." Instead, smart grid data was going to the utility that would then use it for building a better forecast, and the forecast was being sent to the trading and trading tech centric organizations.
The first panelist to present was Patrick Reames, Analyst and Managing Director for the Americas at CommodityPoint. Mr. Reames presented recent research on data aggregation...
13 Mar 2012
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) tout data security and privacy as a non-negotiable part of its system fabric – privacy by default!
What happened
According to a press release, issued by SDG&E and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada, they have released a joint paper that looks at how SDG&E integrated Privacy by Design into its smart grid initiative.
Jeff St. John of Greentech Media says Privacy by Design is essentially a rule book for IT operators on data handling in the following sectors:
Smart meter networks
Distribution grid management systems
Back-...
23 Jan 2012
Four of the big players (in different aspects) of the smart grid have announced that they are making their products compatible with Sprint’s wireless network. This opens the question as to whether the cellular networks and the smart grid vendors and utilities are finally ready to collaborate.
What happened
Jesse Berst of Smart Grid News reports that four companies claim support for Sprint as a smart grid communications supplier. ...
15 May 2012
Smart grid plans in Africa … while Eight19 solar technology expands … and the objectives of the South African Smart Grid Initiative (SASGI.)
Smart Grid News: Is there a smart grid in Africa's future? The answer may surprise you
Doug Peeples of Smart Grid News points out that despite the continent’s “terrible odds,” some countries are using smart grid initiatives to help their economies recover and develop a smart, sustainable energy future.
Although some infrastructures are seen as “inadequate, unreliable and...
30 Mar 2012
Business Intelligence is not a new concept to utilities, as the analysis of data is as entrenched in every utility as the concept of providing safe, reliable and affordable power. However, the unique challenge facing utilities today is that there is exponentially more data, from more advanced sources, and dispersed to many more functional areas...
By Chris Lewis
Guest blogger, Energy Efficiency Markets
Utilities are operating in a new smart grid environment where they must start examining Business Intelligence and Analytics as a core competency. Careful planning and strategies need to be put in place to ensure data quality, manage and support system integrations, and ultimately determine the level of engagement of the customer.
Cognera conducted research in this area and surveyed investor-owned utilities, co-operatives...
20 Mar 2012
LIBERTY LAKE, Wash - Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) announced today that it has released its first set of specialized analytic software applications built on the Active Smart Grid Analytics™ (ASA) platform. Each application is bundled with Itron's Analytic Accelerators and Extension Toolkits, which help utilities take full advantage of their smart...
Built to leverage Itron's industry-leading metering, communication network and meter data management (MDM) solutions, these analytic applications provide actionable business intelligence to enable specific smart grid solutions for distribution operations, revenue cycle services and customer engagement. Each analytic application is operational "out-of-the-box" and comes with an Accelerator and Extension Toolkit. Each Accelerator offers immediate value by providing a fully...
15 Mar 2012
Utility privacy in the spotlight … while data focus shifts to customer information and billing … and smart grid benefits worth trillions, but still cost billions!
Engerati: SDG&E privacy policy
Jenni McCann of Engerati writes that San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada released a joint paper on how SDG&E integrated “Privacy by Design” into its smart grid initiative.
“Privacy by Design” is essentially a rule book for IT operators on data handling and its principles are summarized as – “privacy by default in all...
04 Apr 2012
Smart meters produce data – it takes work to make the data ‘smart.’
What happened
Adam Lesser of Gigaom wrote about the difficulties faced by utilities when dealing with “big data” and the opportunities that this offers to IT companies.
According to Lesser, utilities face petabytes of data that needs to be stored for up to seven years to comply with regulation. Not only that, these utilities also need to “mine” this data and be able to pull out useful information, in a usable format, to allow them to save the time and money promised...
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