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…
The convergence of information and communications technologies (ICT) with the traditional operations technologies (OT) is an ongoing Smart Grid trend. Within the USA and its 3000+ electric utilities, Smart Grid investments focused on optimization of transmission and distribution grid operations through machine to machine (M2M) communications and forays into data analytics for applications ranging from…
Streetlights are a ubiquitous presence in our modern infrastructure. They deliver security and safety benefits but are expensive to operate in terms of consumed electricity and fixture maintenance. Light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures that replace the old sodium vapor lights can reduce operating costs and CO2 emissions, improve lighting for traffic and personal safety, and produce…
Last week in Silicon Valley BMW convened a group of transportation, electric vehicle (EV), and energy thought leaders to participate in a dialogue with their senior executives and talk about sustainability, energy, and mobility services. It was a thought-provoking day and I shared my perspectives on V2G (Vehicle to Grid) integrations and pondered new Smart…
The USA could learn a number of valuable lessons from Sweden about energy policy. The Swedish Trade delegation recently sponsored a Smart Grid roundtable in San Francisco with Anna-Karin Hatt, Minister for Information Technology and Energy in the government of Sweden’s Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications. Several Silicon Valley Smart Grid organizations, including resources…
Now that the presidential election is over, perhaps we’ll see some reality injected into our energy policy. The existing energy policy professes to encourage “energy independence”. That policy in action embeds permanent subsidies, tax credits, and tax breaks in the US federal tax code for highly profitable fossil fuel industries. Have these favorable treatments given…
We often read the lament that the USA has no energy policy. Of course it does. It’s what we have today – a policy which favors fossil fuels through permanent subsidies and special financial treatments written into the federal tax code. And perhaps it will take an act of Congress to make them stop picking…