In This Issue
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As 2011 came to an end, the Innovation Observatory released a report indicating that 80 percent of the worldwide investment in building electricity smart grids by 2030 will be concentrated in 10 countries.Over the next five years, the United States will dominate global capital expenditure, culminating by 2030 in a spend of US$60 billion on intelligent smart grid infrastructure. Ultimately,...1 -
State government and energy officials joined Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie and Japan-based New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) President Hideo Hato in early February as the two men signed a memorandum of understanding to memorialize ongoing efforts between the State of Hawaii and NEDO. (NEDO is an arm of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.)The two... -
In early February, the Daily Telegraph in London reported that 40,000 people in Britain signed up for a pilot program called the Big Switch, in which the collective purchasing power of consumers will be tested.British Energy Secretary Edward Davy called the bulk buying of energy "a game changer," producing lower energy bills for consumers.The newspaper reported that this is the first time...
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No. 1 utility racks up three consecutive wins
THE THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM, OR SO THE OLD SAYING GOES. FOR San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), all three times have been magical, actually. Last year marked the third year the California utility captured the UtiliQ crown as the most intelligent U.S. utility.Sempra Energy-owned SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides energy service to 3.5 million people through 1.4 million... -
No. 2 utility builds foundation for the future
PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC (PG&E) CONTINUES TO CLIMB THE UTILIQ ladder. Garnering a fourth place finish in 2009 and third place in 2010, PG&E has finally grabbed a silver spot in the 2011 UtiliQ rankings right behind fellow California utility San Diego Gas & Electric.Incorporated in California in 1905, PG&E is one of the largest combination natural gas and electric utilities in... -
Large electricity co-ops of the U.S. shine
BEGINNING WITH THIS ISSUE, WE ARE TAKING A CLOSER look within our Top 12 for 2012 at the unsung heroes of electric utilities across the United States, from large co-ops to small, both large and small municipal utilities, and large and not-so large investor-owned utilities.The first thing we realized is that every co-op works as an entity, and singling out one person from within that entity is... -
No. 3 utility has its hands full
YOU WILL HAVE TO FORGIVE THE FOLKS AT AUSTIN ENERGY IF they don't notice they dropped a spot in the Intelligent Utility's UtiliQ Top 25 Intelligent Utilities rankings, from second place in 2010 to third in 2011.They have been such busy campers continuing to transform energy consumption and delivery in the Texas capital-and unveiling Austin Energy's first proposed rate increase in 17 years-that... -
EPRI technical executive discusses the importance of distribution management
THE ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IS undergoing an evolutionary change thanks to the implementation of smart grid technology.With the addition of millions of points of new data on the grid, it's even more imperative that utility operations be able to monitor and control, in near real time, what's happening on the distribution network.Enter the distribution management system (DMS), which Robert... -
Trends explored at Knowledge2011
WE SAT DOWN WITH ELECTRIC UTILITY CHIEF INFORMATION officers gathered in Florida for Knowledge2011 to discuss the issues of most importance to their companies in 2012. Their comments, edited for style and length, follow.What is the biggest challenge facing the electric utility industry?HATRIDGE Certainly, an aging workforce is a business issue with us. The big challenge of that is not... -
PECO’s progressive innovation, putting the customer first
IN THE DAYS BEFORE HURRICANE IRENE pounded the East Coast last August with wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour and torrential rain storms, PECO mobilized its arsenal of field staff, local and national personnel, to respond to the record-breaking Category 1 storm. But equally important to those last-minute preparations were the steps PECO took in the almost two decades preceding the storm:...
