Insights from our Editorial Team
-
Sep 01, 2010 |
The pursuit of energy storage technology is racing ahead, fueled by federal stimulus dollars, matching private sector funds and intense interest from venture capitalists. The list of applications is long and critical to grid operations. One analyst sees the market exploding over the next ten years. Most of the global action, for a variety of reasons, is in the United States. We look at a new report that projects the market and names the technologies.
Comments: 1 -
Aug 31, 2010 |
The Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, is working on a specification for a socket interface that could add flexibility and options to in-home energy management scenarios for residential electricity customers. If the specification survives interoperability testing, now getting underway, it would be handed off to a standards development organization to achieve acceptance and reach the market. The interface is designed to be agnostic of numerous communications technologies and in-home devices and controls. Will this aid or challenge the smart meter-home area network concept?
Comments: 6 -
Aug 30, 2010 |
Demand response is a huge issue. The regulatory issues involved in ensuring compensation for demand response providers is both just and reasonable is an issue with thorns. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will be holding a day-long technical conference to address two of the biggest questions on Sept. 13. In the meantime, we discuss the issue here. What's the best and fairest way for FERC to address the issue, and why?
Comments: 2 -
Aug 30, 2010 |
SmartGridCity, the ambitious pilot project in Boulder, Colo., has become notorious for exploding costs, from an initial $15 million to today's $44.5 million. Now the sponsor, Xcel Energy, wants ratepayers to foot the bill. The city of Boulder has backed away from the regulatory question of who should pay and Xcel has called Boulder's explanation "pernicious." The state's Office of Consumer Counsel said yesterday that some costs might be appropriate for ratepayers to bear, given the convoluted circumstances of the case, but Xcel shareholders ought to pay as well. Hearings on the matter begin today and Intelligent Utility will have further coverage on this potentially landmark case.
-
Aug 27, 2010 |
JEA is implementing a pilot program for enhancing its IT architecture, among other objectives. With service oriented architecture (SOA), for instance, call center representatives can see the same Web portal page that customers do, to facilitate interactions. An SOA can integrate applications and automate business processes, speeding responses to internal and external customer needs and providing the basis for solutions to new business challenges. JEA's CIO "Wy" Kendrick explains the utility's pursuit of its own flavor of SOA, dubbed "eServices."
-
Aug 27, 2010 |
An outage management system integrated with smart grid technologies can help utility personnel quickly identify the cause of an outage and efficiently assign and coordinate the necessary resources to restore power or other services as quickly as possible.
Comments: 1 -
Aug 26, 2010 |
Summer is far from over and that calls for a seasonally appropriate smart grid discussion of demand response. An Energy Central webinar on the topic took place yesterday and insight into the Delaware Electric Cooperative's (DEC) "Beat the Peak" program may prove helpful. That's not just for cooperatives, because Bill Andrew, CEO at DEC, also spelled out several principles for successful DR programs.
-
Aug 25, 2010 |
SmartGridCity in Boulder, Colo., was heralded two years ago as the embodiment of the future. Today, the original $15 million cost estimate has mushroomed to $45 million due to the cost of laying fiber optic cable and software, according to Xcel Energy, which has overseen the project. Now questions revolve around the value of the outcome and who pays the hefty cost. The latter question will be settled soon by the Colorado Public Utility Commission. The bigger fallout is the effect such projects have on the future of the smart grid.
Comments: 10 -
Aug 24, 2010 |
The Obama Administration has pushed smart grid as a national priority, but many battles are being fought on the ground, locally, utility by utility. Reasons for smart meter pushback, for example, vary by utility and service territory. The common underlying theme, however, appears to be lack of consumer outreach and education. In California, disparate communities variously object to smart meter accuracy and to purported health effects. In Naperville, Ill., locals are debating how much to spend on consumer education. Are these isolated cases, with little national impact? Or do difficulties with smart meter rollouts presage trouble on the national level?
Comments: 1 -
Aug 23, 2010 |
Several aspects of the recent decision by the Maryland Public Service Commission to approve smart meter deployment by Baltimore Gas and Electric may influence similar rate cases elsewhere, according to Chris King, chief regulatory officer at eMeter. King pointed to the Maryland commission's interest in linking cost recovery and financial risks to consumer benefits. King said "the gap" between smart meter deployment and some types of benefits does not have to occur, citing Toronto Hydro as a good example. Finally, time-of-use rates shouldn't be mandatory; opt-in programs sometimes garner enough response to reach a utility's goal in shifting peak load.
