Progress Energy to Invest $200 Million in Smart Grid Ventures

April 29, 2010


"The two utilities of Progress Energy will also invest over $300 million on smart grid projects in addition to the DOE grant. Up to 500 jobs could be created by the total investment.  Progress Energy’s two utilities have already started assembling their workforces to support the smart grid transition better."

Smart Grid RoadShow - Bringing the Smart Grid Marketplace to Your Door!

Smart Grid RoadShow - Bringing the Smart Grid Marketplace to Your Door!

http://www.smartgridroadshow.com/4/

The SGRS is a new concept in industry events. Our slogan is: Bringing the Smart Grid Marketplace to Your Door! As this slogan implies, the core of the Smart Grid Road Show concept is to create a series of periodic, Smart Grid market-focused events in geographically significant venues across the US and Canada.

Smart grid technology sector could grow larger than the internet

April 23, 2:52 AMEnergy Policy ExaminerClifford Bryan

Smart grid technology is needed to connect electrical smart grid systems. According to the Electric Power Research Institute and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the total market size is approximately $200 billion spread over 10-15 years. Certain veteran observers within the technology space maintain that the Smart Grid represents an opportunity to technology providers larger than the internet.

Technology or service providers may recognize that technology won’t work in isolation. but rather, these technologies must work with other Smart Grid and legacy technologies. Depending on the technology, there must be work undertaken to interface with and understand the issues of utilities, consumer, and/or a service provider’s technology integrator. Technology providers should ensuring that a technology adds value for generators and consumers of electricity in the most efficient and economical manner possible.

Technology providers should in the near-term create a modernized electric infrastructure, which includes working with regulators to develop rules that support innovation and allow access to customers; encouraging market design that compensates consumers as they move from passive energy consumers to active providers; and helping to build a network ensuring that all stakeholders benefit over time…and as soon as possible. In the process, the nation can re-assert its global competitiveness and technologies and systems developed by companies will be replicated around the world.

Pete Najarian Believes In Smart Grid Trade (ITRI, ELON, GE)

Posted on 04/20/10 at 7:09pm by Craig Jones

Pete Najarian spoke on CNBC's Fast Money about smart grid technology as a way to reduce energy spending.

He said that Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) predicts that the smart grid technology market is going to be a $100 billion market. It is using Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) like algorithms to send electricity where it is needed the most and away from where it is needed the least, and it also allows the user to control his or her usage. Smart grid technology could really decrease energy expenses.

Pete Najarian recommends two direct plays in this field, Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) and Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON). It is possible to get exposure to this technology through General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) too.

Energy Dept. invests $100M in Smart Grid education

April 9, 2010 | Camille Ricketts 

The U.S. Department of Energy rolled out its Open Government Plan yesterday, pledging to be more transparent about energy policy shifts and to better educate the market about efficiency initiatives. A major part of the latter goal is teaching people about the benefits and importance of the Smart Grid — a concept that consumers and some utilities have yet to rally behind.

Tackling this challenge head on, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that the department will be sinking almost $100 million into 54 different Smart Grid training programs across the country. Targeted at about 30,000 utility workers and electrical equipment manufacturers, these programs will also use $95 million from universities, utilities and industrial groups to design curricula around the modernization of today’s electrical grid.

As some of the oldest and largely unchanged companies in the U.S., utilities move notoriously slow when it comes to adopting new technologies and updating equipment in the field. Some substations and transistors have been in place for decades. One of the reasons for this is that the workforce is older and accustomed to established practices. This new investment in training employees is an attempt by the federal government to shake things up and accelerate change.

Last fall, the Energy Department handed out $3.4 billion to utilities to help them deploy smart meters and other changes toward a cleaner, more energy efficient grid. Since then, thousands of meters have been deployed across the country, but response hasn’t been overwhelmingly positive.

Residents in Bakersfield, Calif. have gone as far as filing a class-action lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric, alleging that the installation of smart meters hiked their energy rates. Utilities have had a tough time responding these these accusations and others flowing in in other regions. Aside from verifying meter accuracy with third-party laboratories, they haven’t offered to do much else. Utility efforts to educate consumers about why smart meters represent a positive change have been weak at best.

At this point, bad PR could still break — or more likely, slow down — the Smart Grid. If the opposition gets loud enough in areas where smart meters have been rolled out, programs could be turned back or blocked elsewhere. Market education couldn’t be more critical — a trend that must start with the people working in the industry itself.

The $100 million allocated today will go to two categories of training initiatives: beefing up workforce training programs in the electric power sector in general, including interdisciplinary programs at universities and community colleges focused on training the electric power systems workers of tomorrow; and launching training programs for new hires — with an interesting emphasis on displaced workers and military veterans. This is consistent with the goal of most of the stimulus funds handed out in the green sector: the creation of a vibrant green-collar workforce.

Big utilities landing stimulus funds include:

• Pepco Holdings: $4.4 million to train its workforce in Smart Grid equipment and to advise customers about Smart Grid changes.
• Florida Power & Light: $5 million to enlist local academic institutions in retraining the utility’s workforce to better deploy the Smart Grid.
• Mississippi Power Company: $2.6 million to train workers in transmission line automation, substation management and new metering infrastructure.
• Duke Energy: $3.5 million to teach workers about consumer-facing Smart Grid products like home energy monitors and more.

You can see the full list of companies and academic institutions selected to receive money here (PDF)

AT&T, GE, Google, Intel: National Smart Grid Integration Could Save $46B in Energy

April 6, 2010\

AT&T, GE, Google, Intel: National Smart Grid Integration Could Save $46B in Energy

about 45 companies and organizations have united in an effort to push for greater national integration of the smart grid, especially as it pertains to business and consumer energy monitoring, pointing to a potential $46 billion in nationwide energy savings.

In an open letter to the president, the Climate Group coalition received the support of firms such as AT&T, GE, Intel, Google, HP and Verizon, among others. Non-profits including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Alliance to Save Energy also have signed on. Read the letter here (PDF).

The group wants the White House to launch a research effort to forge the best way to provide energy use information while at the same time establishing privacy rules, reports Information Week. Even a year ago, privacy was floated as aleading impediment to smart grid adoption.

Michael Terrell, Energy Policy Counsel for Google, wrote on Google’s blog that the effort would “unleash innovation in homes and businesses as new energy saving technologies and apps are developed.” In related news, Google and the Climate Group are hosting an April 6 smart grid discussion in Washington, D.C., with the White House energy official Carol Browner.

In the letter, the coalition stated that if investments in efficiency and the smart grid led to 15 percent U.S. household energy savings by 2020, that would equate $46 billion in energy bill savings. In terms of emissions, that would be the same as taking 35 million cars off the road.

The group also wants electricity customers to have greater access to pricing and pricing plans, as well as information about how the energy was generated.

The letter asked the White House to direct the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make such information available as a criterion for consideration in policy decisions, grants and other energy efficiency programs.

By 2015, the global household smart appliance market is projected to grow to $15.12 billion, from $3.06 billion in 2011, according to research from Zpryme.

From the energy delivery side, synchrophasors play a huge role in helping the smart grid deliver more power, more efficiently.