The great American musical, Hello Dolly, has catchy songs and a most memorable quote. As the main character, Dolly Levi points out, “Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.” Here in California, two different cities are embracing this concept, and encouraging…
The oft-enunciated primary goals for regulated electric utilities are to keep electricity safe, reliable, and inexpensive. An unintended consequence of these objectives have meant that US investor-owned utilities (IOUs) have underinvested in everything from distribution grid upgrades to the latest in information and communications technologies (ICT) to avoid adding costs to electricity rates. But are…
The Smart Grid engenders an evolution from centralized generation to distributed energy resources (DER) that has profound impacts on business models and operations. Technology is one of the drivers of this evolution. Legislative and regulatory policies that focus on improving grid reliability AND resiliency are other important drivers. But intelligently designed regulations and elegant technology…
The US Smart Grid transformation has the potential to deliver true energy surety at a more distributed and transactive level than enjoyed in today’s grid. The transformation drivers are technologies, regulations, and finance mechanisms. At the recent Distributech 2013 conference, Steve Berberich, president of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) offered a blunt and straightforward…
The Smart Grid will modernize and transform our energy infrastructures to incorporate more renewables and reduce use of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation. But energy surety or autarchy requires more than a transformation of energy sources to supply electricity. True energy surety requires the right grid provisioning – how our electricity grid is architected…
Were you one of the 100+ million fans watching the Super Bowl yesterday? How about that 34 minute power outage? It was a potent reminder of the reliance we place on an uninterruptible supply of electricity to maintain our lifestyles, our entertainment, and our economy. I’m reading an interesting book which (slightly tongue in cheek)…
Japan’s national energy strategy experienced a 9.0 quake of its own in 2011 as a result of the twin incidents of the March 11 tsunami and subsequent Fukishima nuclear accident. It rattled many assumptions about energy sources and electrical grid configurations for its major corporations too. A recent Silicon Valley Technology Forum hosted by Fujitsu…
The electrical grid transformation to the Smart Grid puts tremendous reliance on wired and wireless networks to deliver situational awareness of grid operations. These communications networks enhance and optimize utility management of grid operations, as demonstrated by reduced service disruption times via automated outage reporting by smart meters or voltage conservation programs that reduce operating…
The Smart Grid is all about grid modernization and transformation. When we modernize the grid, we update technologies, but leave in place existing energy sources, existing business models, and existing policies. When we transform the grid, we exchange old energy sources for new ones, reinvent business models, and revise policies to support the transformations. Of…
The large-scale rollouts of smart meters heralded one of the first noticeable machine to machine (M2M) communications deployments. It also launched a series of conversations about safety and privacy concerns, which will continue to play out in many other M2M applications. DOE ARPA-E funding jumpstarted an interesting array of technologies that will shape grid modernization…