The Energy Department has started a new Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse Web site to provide a forum for information sharing on smart grid technologies.
The beta version of the Web portal started July 7 and provides information on technologies, standards, rules, use cases, training and other best practices for smart grid technologies that use sensors, infrastructure and communications devices to better monitor and control energy use.
Governments and private interests worldwide are expected to increase investments in smart-grid technology, spending a total of more than $45 billion by 2015, says a new ABI Research report released today.
The electricity grid in the U.S. wastes power and discourages the use of renewable sources of energy like solar and wind, says journalist Joel Achenbach, who wrote about the nation’s electrical infrastructure in an article in July’s National Geographic magazine.
In an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, Achenbach tells contributor Dave Davies that most people don’t think about the way electricity from a power plant hundreds of miles away may be used to turn on a light bulb in their home.
“We’ve just become so accustomed to the electric power grid — it’s like oxygen,” he says. “But we can’t take it for granted. Things go wrong, and suddenly 50 million people are without power, and then they notice the grid and they learn about the system behind the magic.”
Aging infrastructure, combined with a rise in domestic electricity consumption, has forced experts to critically examine the status and health of the nation’s electrical systems.
Achenbach says blackouts and brownouts, cost Americans an estimated $80 billion a year — and unless upgrades are made, the grid will continue to be “prone to failure.”
But the process of changing the entire electrical system will be a slow one.
“For traditional reasons, it remains kind of a local/state-regulated system,” Achenbach says. “It gradually evolved. If you had to build it over again, you wouldn’t build it this way necessarily. It’s been 130 years in the making, and it’s not going to suddenly be erased overnight.”
To connect smart meters, utilities are using their own licensed frequencies, cellular networks and WiMAX, explains Earth2Tech
- Cisco is working with big utilities like Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light, Germany’s Yellostrom, and recently invested in Grid Net, a startup specializing in WiMAX. Its vendor partners include General Electric, Accenture, Oracle, Arcadian Networks, Itron, Landis+Gyr, Siemens, Schneider Electric and Verizon. It also has its EnergyWise platform for controlling building and data center energy use.
- Portland General selected a smart metering system developed by Sensus Metering Systems, which uses a wireless fixed network operating on 901 – 902 MHz at 8 KBps (pdf).
- CenterPoint Energy is installing 2.2 million smart meters around Houston with more than 550 sensors and automated switches that will help protect against system disturbances like natural disasters (Coverage Map).
Grid Net, formed a collaboration with GE Energy and Intel, focusing solely on WiMAX for their last mile connectivity. Motorola, General Electric and Grid Net are part of a group of companies installing smart meters in almost 700,000 households and businesses in Australia by 2013. Grid Net and GE Energy also appear to be positioned to rollout initiatives in U.S. WiMAX cities.
- Alvarion, the world’s largest WiMAX vendor, recently announced it will work with National Grid, the second-largest utility company in the U.S., to participate in a smart power grid (SPG) Proof of Concept with its BreezeMAX 3650 solution (at 3.65GHz), as part of a technology test-bed for potential pilot projects in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Silver Springs Network provides a connection to electricity, water and gas meters over a neighborhood area network (NAN). It supports a variety of WANs, including Zigbee and cellular networks. Florida Light is deploying hundreds of thousands of smart meters in people’s homes throughout Florida using Silver Spring Networks IP-based networking infrastructure.
- Cisco Systems and IBM have pursued smart grid projects across the globe. Cisco officials in May announced a smart grid push as keys to developing highly intelligent and manageable electrical distribution systems from the home to the power source. They say smart grids could grow into a $20 billion business within five years.
- Google has brought home electricity-monitoring to the mobile phone using its Web-based PowerMeter application and a small meter reading device.
- Microsoft has announced launch partnerships with Puget Sound Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy. The Microsoft Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA) was developed by Microsoft as a definitive reference in the utility and power industry and addresses technology integration across the full smart energy ecosystem. Enspiria Solutions, a systems integrator, will use it.
In other news, mini-car maker Smart USA said Tuesday it will test electric vehicles powered by a battery made by Tesla Motors in a handful of markets this fall. The Smart electric car is owned by Daimler AG, which has a stake in Palo Alto-based Tesla and uses a 16.5-kilowatt-hour battery pack.
Grid Energy Storage can be enabled by Electric Cars.
Power companies like the idea of wind turbines that can charge electric cars at night, when demand is low. During peak daytime loads, juice could actually be pulled from the car’s battery, reducing the need to build power plants.
Managing demand (and supply) is the main goal of the smart grid. It’s expected to lower costs and reduce greenhouse gases.
High Voltage DC systems are less expensive and have lower losses than AC. China’s system of 12.47 GW makes it the largest in the world. Two-thirds of the coal reserves in China are located in the North and 80% of the hydropower reserves are located in the West. But their energy demands are located in the East.
There are some 150,000 cell sites in the United States. Of those, American Tower says the six largest wireless providers operate 143,000 cell sites. Alcatel is aiming to install more than 100,000 base stations using alternative energy sources between 2010 and 2012. Intel has a Solar-Powered WiMAX Base Station white paper (pdf).
Telenor Pakistan completed the largest solar-powered telecommunication network in Universal Service Fund-assisted areas. India’s VNL has reengineered GSM with solar-powered basestations using between 50 and 150 watts.
Solexant (CdTe), SolarWorld (Si), Sanyo (Si), Solaicx (Si), and other companies have production facilities in Oregon.
Dailywireless articles include; First White Space Trial for “Smart Grid”, Obama Announces $3.4B in Electric “Smart Grid” Grants, Smart Grid Gets Unwired, Smart Meters on The Stimulus Channel, WiMAX SmartGrid Coming to 700K Australians, Home Networking: A Universal Spec?, Google Power Meter, M2M: Big Deal, Wireless Power Standard Emerging, and Sprint Announces Smart Grid Ambitions, ABI: Stimulus Means Big Bucks for Wireless, The Smart Grid: Licensed or Unlicensed Spectrum, Cellular-enabled SCADA, Smart Grid: Dumb or What?, Smart Grid: It’s Alive!, Google: Smart Power R US
