Commentary
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Standards are Important!Sep 21, 2010 |
Electrical equipment users request that the equipment they buy have a test certificate or report issued by a recognized laboratory. This is a regular practice in developed countries but only in the last 25
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Sep 16, 2010 |
Beginning during the 1960's, the US Northeast began taking delivery of low-cost hydroelectric power from Quebec and Labrador. A few years ago California imported hydroelectric power from British Columbia during a summertime power shortage. Changing weather patterns have the potential to reduce rainfall across some regions across -
Sep 15, 2010 |
Smart Grid has changed the way utilities look at their grids and the way customers look at their electric utilities. It all started with AMI infrastructure investments and now its time to look beyond the AMI so that investments in to the AMI in the name of Smart Grids can be realized. This article tries to summarize a point of view on the Smart Distribution Grids. -
Sep 09, 2010 |
We've all seen the Personal Identifying Information (PII) breaches in the headlines, from Bank of America's lost back-up tape releasing sensitive information on 1.2 million of its customers to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue mailing tax forms with taxpayer social security numbers visibly printed on the front. The most taboo security-related topic, however, is the one that presents a utility company with possibly one of its greatest risks -- the internal breach. -
Sep 08, 2010 |
In September 2008, EnergyPulse published an article by Harry Valentine on "The Potential for Seasonal Energy Storage" 1. One of the possibilities for very large-scale pumped hydroelectric storage that Harry mentioned would operate between the Salton Sea in Southern California and Mexico's Sea of Cortez. I didn't initially think his suggestion was practical. Lately, though, I've reconsidered. -
Aug 31, 2010 |
The concept of an intelligent electric utility infrastructure or "smart grid" is attracting wide interest among utilities, consultants, regulators, and other utility stakeholders. This interest, however, is accompanied by widely differing expectations about when the smart grid will emerge. -
Aug 19, 2010 |
Electric vehicles use electricity wholly or partly for traction - making them go along. That encompasses an increasingly large variety of modes of travel by land, sea and air. Add to that fresh water. Electric vehicle manufacturers and those supplying their components vary from ones that are so large, well funded and ambitious that they go for the biggest opportunity, which is hybrid cars for the next decade. -
Aug 05, 2010 |
Al is renting an apartment in Hopkins that has solar panels on the roof and a stand-by generator in the basement. Last summer during a heat wave there was a power outage because of a "brown out" -- when the grid was overwhelmed by air conditioning demand -- but Al's apartment didn't go dark during the entire episode. -
Jul 29, 2010 |
Demand Response (DR) is already a clear cut winner in category of "killer apps" in the evolving Smart Grid. A key area of opportunity moving forward, and which may help provide a more comprehensive valuation of DR programs, may thus be to give deeper consideration as to DR's impact upon the utility's relationship with its customers. -
Jul 15, 2010 |
The problem is not in product design, but in its daily operations, is where the challenge is presented. Utilities and Consumers will have to find different paths, but both convergent and this will not be easy, alone, technology may not be able to establish or even bring the expected benefits.
