Smart Grid T&D

Smart meters can benefit UK to the tune of $11bn says Hendry

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:03:00 GMT

Smart meter

The UK’s Energy Minister Charles Hendry says rolling out its smart meters will benefit the country to the tune of £7bn ($11.1bn)

Mr Hendry added that smart meters will significantly slash the nation's carbon emissions.

As the 2014 launch nears for the mass deployment of smart meters to millions of homes and businesses, the Minister vowed to keep "consumers' interests at the heart of the programme", reports ClickGreen.

"Smart gas and electricity meters will play a key role in bringing our energy management into the 21st century," he wrote. "They will bring benefits for consumers, giving us more control over how we use our energy at home and at work, helping us to cut energy consumption save money and reduce carbon emissions.

"They will also help suppliers run their businesses more effectively. New products and services will be supported in a vibrant and competitive market in energy and energy management services.

The roll out will also support the development of a smart grid delivering improved network efficiency and responsiveness and supporting the uptake of electric vehicles and microgeneration.”

Mr Hendry added that the government programme involved every home in Britain having a smart electricity and gas meter with an In-Home Display which will show consumers how much energy they are using.

"Energy suppliers will be required to install smart meters in 28 million homes and two million smaller businesses in Britain, delivering over £7 billion net benefit to the nation.

The mass roll out of smart meters will begin in 2014 and be completed in 2019.

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Denmark joins global Smart Grid group

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:02:00 GMT

Denmark has joined the Global Smart Grid Federation, an international group of technology associations.

The Scandinavian country will be represented by the Danish Intelligent Energy Alliance, an initiative set up by the Danish Energy Association (DEA).

Morten Baadsgaard Trolle, managing director of intelligent energy at the DEA, described the Smart Grid as “a clash between energy and information technologies”.

“It will be a major task to fuse energy with advancing technologies in order to ensure the effective conversion to an intelligent energy system,” he added. “The key to success is international co-operation. In joining the GSGF we have taken the first steps on the path to create a common language for Smart Grid that everyone can understand and act upon.”

Denmark is the 11^th member of the GSGF, which includes organisations representing the European Union, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, the US, Australia, Canada, the UK and Ireland.

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Google backed wind project takes forward step in US

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:03:00 GMT

A $5bn transmission line which is intended to send power from wind farms off the East Coast of the US has overcome a legislative obstacle, allowing the Google Inc-backed project to move to the next step in the approval process, officials said.

The US Department of the Interior, reports Reuters, that there was "no overlapping competitive interest" in proposed areas for building the line off the mid-Altantic coast.

The ruling cleared the way for an environmental review of the Atlantic Wind Connection line.

The project faces regional and federal regulatory hurdles which backers hope to clear within two years so it can nail down financial agreements and start transmitting power by the end of 2017.

The AWC, which would transport up to 7000 megawatts of power, is also backed by a private company called Good Energies, and Japan's Marubeni Corp.

Clearing the competitive interest hurdle allows the project to "intelligently plan for the backbone transmission system," said Bob Mitchell, AWC's CEO.

The United States does not yet have any offshore wind farms. But the AWC backers hope companies will build them soon, so they can transmit power that has not been generated by burning of fossil fuels.

Interior officials said the government hopes to move forward in coming months with lease sales for companies interested in building the wind farms.

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Smart Grid taking off in Asia

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:58:00 GMT

Asia is beginning to look like a powerhouse of Smart Grid technology with a new report predicting the market will be worth $19bn by 2016.

The cumulative smart grid market in China, Japan and South Korea is currently valued at US$8.5bn according to GTM Research's latest market report, The Smart Grid in Asia, 2012-2016: Markets, Technologies and Strategies.

"We expect to see the smart grid in Asia move forward at a breakneck pace," said Kamil Bojanczyk, the report's lead author and an analyst-at-large with GTM Research. "Over $45bn in funding has been earmarked by governments and utilities across China, Japan and South Korea, with the clear majority of those funds and opportunities originating in the Chinese market."

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Consumer backlash halts Smart Grid progress

Fri, 11 May 2012 10:34:00 GMT

The rising wave of opposition to the adoption of Smart Grid technology is having an adverse effect on the development in the industry across the US.

Reuters reports that American utility companies have invested more than $15.4bn in Smart Grids, but uncertainty about how regulators will react to the growing backlash has left some utilities unwilling to commit money to these projects.

Iowa utilities MidAmerican Energy Co. and Alliant Energy Corp. as well as Connecticut's Northeast Utilities all told their respective states that they intended to delay proposed Smart Grid development programs as they evaluate the best approach to customers' concerns. In all, more than $29bn in investment has stalled.

Consumers have raised several issues with use of smart meters in particular, with many claiming the costs outweigh the benefits, especially in some areas where such projects have seen major cost overruns.

Data privacy is also an issue, due to increased access to electricity usage.

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Elster wins smart meter contract in Rio

Thu, 10 May 2012 14:18:00 GMT

Elster has been contracted to supply 80000 smart meters to households in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by local utility Light.

Energy Efficiency News reports that the order follows the successful deployment of 20000 units in the neighbourhoods of Tabajaras, Cabritos and Borel, in the city, in the first half of 2011.

The advanced metering system was developed in Brazil and allows the utility to install up to 12 devices in one unit, which is then typically placed on top of an electric transformer pole to prevent interference.

The UK division of Elster was recently contracted by energy giant E.ON for the deployment of 300,000 smart meters.

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Nexans receives certification for Dow Endurance cables

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:01:00 GMT

Dow Inside alliance partners, Dow Electrical & Telecommunications (Dow E&T), and Nexans’ Energy Cable division in North America, have acheived CSA International certification for power cables manufactured by Nexans using Dow E&T’s advanced performance TR-XLPE, DOW ENDURANCE™ HFDC-4202.

The certification covers four separate cable insulation systems for medium voltage (MV) power distribution cables rated for 15kV to 46kV with an operating temperature range of 90°C to -40°C.

Compliance with the CSA C68.5 requirements reinforces the benefit to utilities of specifying cables that meet high performance standards.

“Our industry demands solutions that extend the life of the power system and demonstrate consistent reliability over time,” added Dave Hawker, Vice President and General Manager, Nexans’ Energy Cable division in North America. “Achieving CSA clearly exhibits our commitment to using the best materials to produce quality cables that will support utilities for years to come.”

As Dow Inside alliance partners, the intent of Nexans and Dow is to reduce the total life cycle cost of cable ownership for their end use customers while responding to the constantly evolving system requirements of the power transmission and distribution industry.

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Echelon rolls out new Smart Grid module in Asia

Wed, 09 May 2012 10:39:00 GMT

Echelon has launched a new control module to be rolled out in its Asian smart meter markets.

The new control module will be provided to partners serving China, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, and is aimed at expanding their reach from smart meters to a whole array of smart grid devices.

Green Tech Grid reports that the plan is to give regional meter manufacturers a tool to hook their smart meters to devices like solar panels and battery inverters, grid sensors, plug-in vehicle chargers and other grid devices, all over Echelon’s grid networking and software infrastructure.

Partners including Mitsubishi Electric Automation in Thailand, South Korea’s VIDCOM, Malaysia's Comintel, and existing partner China’s Holley Metering plan to use the technology, which will be available in the second half of 2012, Echelon reported.

China is going to need about 300 million smart meters over the next five years, according to government targets, and Brazil wants to deploy 65 million smart meters by the end of the decade.

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Modest global growth predicted for Smart Grid

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:41:00 GMT

A new report has confirmed that emerging markets and particularly the Asia-Pacific region look set to continue progression for Smart Grid technology.

The Asia Pacific region will continue to outpace all other regions driven by major deployments in China, utilizing a different breed of smart meter technology.

The global smart meter market is forecast to experience a modest 4.9 per cent CAGR between 2012 and 2020, but hidden beneath seemingly steady growth are significant regional peaks and valleys, each with their own opportunities and risks.

As anticipated in earlier Pike Research smart meter forecasts, the North American market has already peaked, and faces dramatic near-term contraction, just as the European market begins a similarly dramatic growth period.

In 2008, less than 4 per cent of the global installed base of 1.5 billion electricity meters could be considered “smart” but 4 years later this penetration will have grown to over 18 per cent, and is forecast to exceed 55 per cent by 2020.

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Smart Grid system provider wins Scottish wind farm contract

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:03:00 GMT

S&C Electric Co., the Chicago-based Smart Grid specialist is capitalising on Europe’s drive to develop its wind energy resources.

The company’s European subsidiary, S&C Electric Company Europe Ltd., has won a “multimillion-pound contract” from EDF Renewables to provide a smart grid system that will modulate the variable output of clean, renewable electricity to be produced from the Fallago Rig wind farm in the Scottish Border region south of Edinburgh.

S&C Electric, won the contract ahead of some much larger power industry technology and equipment providers such as ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB), GE (NYSE: GE) and Siemens NYSE: SI.

Located in the Scottish Borders region, EDF Renewable’s Fallago Rig wind farm will be the site of some 48 wind turbines with a total rated capacity of 144 MW, enough clean, renewable electrical power to supply some 90,000 homes, reports Clean Technica.

“To guarantee Grid Code compliance, S&C will deliver a 60MVAR PureWave DSTATCOM® Distributed Static Compensator to reduce voltage variations such as sags, surges, and flicker which can result from intermittent electricity generation, along with instability caused by rapidly varying reactive power demands,” S&C explained in a press release.

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Lack of awareness harming Smart Grid

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:06:00 GMT

Despite utilities having invested billions of dollars in new Smart Grid program rollouts, customer adoption has been slow.

A new Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) US survey and report titled Listening to the Heartland: Insights into a Customer-Centric Strategy for the Smart Grid found that most (58 per cent) customers have not even heard of smart grid technology and those who have feel that they have very limited knowledge of the opportunities that the smart grid offers.

The report, which summarizes key findings from a survey of 900 utility customers in the US Midwest as well as follow up focus groups, explores how customers use energy, how Smart Grid technology will affect their everyday lives and how much they expect to embrace products and services related to the Smart Grid in the next few years.

The report details PwC's recommended strategies to successfully promote customer adoption of smart grid solutions, according to T&D World.

Included within the report are recommendations on how to help generate interest, such as utilities becoming more effective marketers, emphasising and clearly communicating to customers how Smart Grid technology can allow them to take greater control of their energy usage and providing new opportunities for the customer and the utility to develop a partnership for their mutual benefit.

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Boliva seizes control of Spanish national grid company

Thu, 03 May 2012 13:02:00 GMT

Bolivia’s president Evo Morales has seized control of the Spanish company Transportadora de Electricidad (TDE) which runs around three-quarters of Bolivia’s grid.

Morales nationalized the company after ordering troops to take over its offices and hang the Bolivian flag outside its door.

He told a May Day ceremony that the takeover had been carried out because of a lack of investment in Bolivia by TDE.

"In honour of all Bolivian people who have struggled to recuperate our natural resources and basic services, we are nationalising Transportadora de Electricidad (TDE)," he said.

The move has been slammed by both the European Union and the Spanish government.

John Clancy, trade spokesman for the European Commission, said today: “The European Commission is concerned by the Bolivian government's decision. Actions like this one necessarily send a negative signal to international investors over the business and investment climate in Bolivia.”

He added: “We trust the Bolivian authorities will fully uphold their investment agreements with Spain and ensure prompt and adequate compensation for this expropriation.”

Transportadora de Electricidad is owned by Red Eléctrica Corporaciión, which has run most of Bolivia's electricity distribution since the grid was privatised 15 years ago. In Spain, Red Eléctrica Corporaciión is the sole grid operator and is 20 per cent owned by the government.

Morales has said that the Spanish company will be compensated for the takeover.

In 2010, Morales took control of most of Bolivia’s power generation companies, including UK-headquartered Ruralec, which is still seeking compensation via a court case in The Hague.

Yesterday’s action follows Argentina’s decision last month to nationlise oil firm YPF, in which Spanish company Respol had a controlling stake.

$50bn investment predicted for Iraq as security fears recede

Thu, 03 May 2012 10:27:00 GMT

A predicted minimum investment of $50bn is set for Iraq’s energy network over the next five years as the country’s security situation continues to improve.

The prediction is contained in a report called ‘Iraq – An Energy Overview 2012’, developed by EIC Consult, the market research and consultancy arm of the Energy Industries Council (EIC).

The EIC Consult report found that, despite continued concerns over security, political instability, and the lack of a settled investment environment, the proposed infrastructure overhaul and ambitious plans to increase oil & gas production present huge and long-term opportunities for service providers at every stage of the supply chain.

The report also concluded that Iraq still has a severely underdeveloped power sector, with infrequent supply and insufficient capacity. The report found that electricity losses during transmission and distribution only exceeded 18 billion kWh in 2009, demonstrating that Iraq’s power grid has not been adequately developed to keep pace with increases in generation capacity.

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Duke CEO talks up Smart Grid and warns on gas dependency

Wed, 02 May 2012 10:50:00 GMT

US utility Duke Energy’s (NYSE: DUK), CEO Jim Rogers has urged the Smart Grid sector to fight fire with fire and outshout what he called ‘scaremongers’ whose vocal opposition threatened to damage the industry.

Rogers, speaking at a Charlotte conference on so-called “Smart Grid” technology, said the energy industry must continue to tout energy efficiency gains in the face of negativity to the new technology.

“We’ve got to be just as loud and repetitive as fearmongers,” Rogers told dozens of conference attendees at UNC Charlotte’s uptown campus.

Rogers’ remarks came Tuesday morning, during the opening of the 2012 North Carolina Smart Grid Forum, reports the Charlotte Observer.

The Duke chief also warned of the dangers of overdependency on gas fired power.

"The temptation is to build all gas, all the time because it's cheap and it's quick to build," Rogers said.

"But the reality is,what strengthens the electric grid of the U.S. is our mix of generation." Today's low gas prices "make it uneconomic to burn coal at this time. ... I don't want to put all my chips on any single (generating) technology--I want a blend. ... The toughest challenge today is to convince regulators and consumers to let us build something other than natural gas (generation)."

In the U.S., developers and utilities continue to unveil plans to build new gas fired generation to meet demand growth and to replace capacity being shuttered by federal environmental regulations like the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) and the Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) regulation.

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US firm awarded Scottish wind power contract by EDF

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:48:00 GMT

S&C Electric Co., has been awarded a Smart Grid contract on a Scottish wind park from EDF.

S&C Electric Company Europe Ltd. will supply a system that helps smooth the power supply from the Fallago Rig wind farm.

Smart grid technology, developed by companies including American Superconductor Corp. and ABB Ltd. can help integrate wind power to the grid by controlling voltage, preventing outages and intermittency as demand surges.

The Fallago Rig project in the Scottish Borders could power 90,000 homes with 144 MW of capacity when built, according to a statement.

Britain could generate £13bn($21bn) for its economy by upgrading its power network with smart grid technology by 2050, according to a report this month by consultancy company Ernst & Young LLP.

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Jordan turns attention to Smart Grid

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:43:00 GMT

Jordan is exploring Smart Grid upgrades across its electricity network after the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) awarded grants for feasibility studies.

The studies are intended to include plans for a smart metering implementation across the grid, and are part of the Jordanian government's plan to improve grid reliability whilst reducing costs.

The funding will help the Electricity Distribution Company (EDCO), Irbid District Electricity Company (IDECO) and the Jordanian Electric Power Company (JEPCO) to explore smart grid options for their networks, reports Utilitiesme.com

US ambassador to Jordan, Stuart Jones said of the studies, "these grants demonstrate the commitment of the US government and Jordanian private sector to work together to improve Jordan's energy infrastructure and decrease reliance on imported energy resources".

The grants have a combined value of over $1m.

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ABB wins $16m industrial microgrid upgrade in Qatar

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:23:00 GMT

Qatalum has awarded ABB an order worth $16m to upgrade the power distribution network, also known as a microgrid, at its aluminum smelting site in Mesaieed Industrial City, 50 km south of the capital Doha.

The project includes re-engineering and reinforcing the existing distribution system to help increase the availability and reliability of the on-site power supply.

ABB is responsible for the design, engineering, supply and commissioning including civil work. The project is scheduled for completion by 2013.

ABB previously supplied the electrical equipment for the facility’s captive power plant, as well as the 220 kV gas-insulated switchgear substation.

Qatalum is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and Norway’s Hydro Aluminum.

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Dubai seeking Smart Grid bidders

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:22:00 GMT

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has invited consulting firms to submit proposals for the implementation of a Smart Grid strategy in the UAE.

The last date for receiving tenders is May 17.

Saeed Al Tayer, managing director and chief executive officer of Dewa, said: "Dewa is now working on a Smart Grid strategy to identify breakthrough opportunities and challenges through the integration of Smart Grid applications and initiatives.

Nonetheless, we understand that utilities are still facing additional barriers such as the need to change consumer behaviour, ensure cost-effectiveness and to overcome financial constraints, perceived infrastructure complexity and necessary advances in technologies."

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Alstom selected for Hawaii Smart Grid project

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:54:00 GMT

Alstom Grid (Euronext: ALO) has been selected to provide its e-terradistribution Integrated Distribution Management System (IDMS) for Maui Electric Company's (MECO) Smart Grid demonstration project ("Maui Smart Grid Project") in Hawaii.

The demonstration project will evaluate how smart grid technologies can help MECO reduce peak demand, improve service quality, inform consumer energy use decisions, and integrate renewable energy. Some of the technologies tested in the project include advanced metering infrastructure, home area networks, and battery energy storage, reports Business Wire.

Alstom's IDMS suite of smart distribution applications will integrate information from the smart grid network to improve monitoring and control of MECO's distribution system and distributed energy resources (DER).

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Eletropaulo steps up Smart Grid drive in Brazil

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:35:00 GMT

The Brazilian utility unit of AES Corp. (AES), Eletropaulo Metropolitana Electricidade de Sao Paulo SA, plans to install smart meters to monitor electricity usage for as many as 80,000 customers to improve the reliability of its power grid.

The installation is part of a three year program which also intends to be used to curb theft.

A growing number of South American utilities are using smart meters, which may transmit data wirelessly and provide utilities with information on blackouts and identify customers who may be illegally tapping power lines. Eletropaulo has installed about 60000 smart meters to date, making this its biggest smart-grid project, reports Bloomberg.

The meters will comply with national standards that are expected to be issued this year by the country’s electricity regulator Agencia Nacional de Energia Eletrica, he said.

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