By Josie Garthwaite
Posted November 30th, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
To much fanfare, Obama recently committed $3.4 billion to "smart grid" electric modernization. Now China is investing $670 billion.
Grid leap forward
To much fanfare, Obama recently committed $3.4 billion to "smart grid" electric modernization. Now China is investing $670 billion.
By Jordan Calinoff — Special to GlobalPost
Published: November 20, 2009 14:03 ET
To much fanfare, Obama recently committed $3.4 billion to "smart grid" electric modernization. Now China is investing $670 billion.
By Jordan Calinoff — Special to GlobalPost
Published: November 20, 2009 14:03 ET
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Al Gore: Super grid is critical to combating the climate crisis
November 20, 2009 - by Lisa Sibley, Cleantech Group
An effective smart grid could help keep the United States competitive in the international marketplace, the former U.S. vice president says.
He said the smart grid is "at the heart" of developing renewable energy and empowering people to get to higher levels of efficiency.
An effective smart grid could help keep the United States competitive in the international marketplace, the former U.S. vice president says.
He said the smart grid is "at the heart" of developing renewable energy and empowering people to get to higher levels of efficiency.
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Smart Grid Gets Its Own ETF (GRID)
November 19, 2009
The government is pouring billions into the technology. Cisco CEO John Chambers said it will be bigger than the internet. The opportunity for investors is indeed big and now there’s a diversified way to play “it” – the smart grid revolution.
There are quite a few useless and overlapping ETF’s out there and this industry is in need of a major shakeout, but every once in awhile a great ETF comes along and the First Trust/Clean Edge Smart Grid ETF (GRID) is no exception. The ETF aims to track the NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Index and is a modified market cap weighted index which includes companies that are primarily engaged in all components of the smart grid – from the meters, to the network, to energy storage to software.
The fund aims to focus primarily on smart grid plays by weighting those companies deemed as smart grid “pure plays” much more (80%) than big companies with a fraction of their business in the smart grid arena (weighted at 20%). For example, a company like Itron (ITRI) is going to comprise a much larger portion of the ETF than a GE (GE) would.
The ETF is comprised of 29 companies, but here are the top 10 holdings. Companies must have a minimum float adjusted market capitalization of $100 million and a 3 month average daily dollar trading volume of $500K.
Other smart grid plays included are AEIS, COMV, DGII, ESE, BGC, GE, ITLN, ITC, MTZ, PIKE, SATC, VMI, WCC, ABB, CBE, JST, TLVT, SI and NGG.
Here’s a prospectus of the Smart Grid ETF.
After just two days of trading, the Smart Grid ETF offers plenty of liquidity, trading 200K shares today. I’d imagine liquidity will continue to improve rapidly in the coming months for you short term traders out there.
The government is pouring billions into the technology. Cisco CEO John Chambers said it will be bigger than the internet. The opportunity for investors is indeed big and now there’s a diversified way to play “it” – the smart grid revolution.
There are quite a few useless and overlapping ETF’s out there and this industry is in need of a major shakeout, but every once in awhile a great ETF comes along and the First Trust/Clean Edge Smart Grid ETF (GRID) is no exception. The ETF aims to track the NASDAQ OMX Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Index and is a modified market cap weighted index which includes companies that are primarily engaged in all components of the smart grid – from the meters, to the network, to energy storage to software.
The fund aims to focus primarily on smart grid plays by weighting those companies deemed as smart grid “pure plays” much more (80%) than big companies with a fraction of their business in the smart grid arena (weighted at 20%). For example, a company like Itron (ITRI) is going to comprise a much larger portion of the ETF than a GE (GE) would.
The ETF is comprised of 29 companies, but here are the top 10 holdings. Companies must have a minimum float adjusted market capitalization of $100 million and a 3 month average daily dollar trading volume of $500K.
Other smart grid plays included are AEIS, COMV, DGII, ESE, BGC, GE, ITLN, ITC, MTZ, PIKE, SATC, VMI, WCC, ABB, CBE, JST, TLVT, SI and NGG.
Here’s a prospectus of the Smart Grid ETF.
After just two days of trading, the Smart Grid ETF offers plenty of liquidity, trading 200K shares today. I’d imagine liquidity will continue to improve rapidly in the coming months for you short term traders out there.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Duke Energy Wants to Own Every Piece of the Smart Grid
Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers sees the utility owning and controlling solar panels and energy management systems in customers’ homes.
Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, wants to own every piece of the smart grid, all the way down to the energy portals in customers' homes and the solar panels on their roofs.
After all, the utility is developing the technology to make all those systems perform at optimal levels – and Duke Energy has access to more capital than a family trying to save for sending their kids to college, after all, Rogers said Wednesday at the GreenBeat conference in San Mateo, Calif.
So instead of relying on customers to buy their own home energy systems, "I'm going to own the batteries, I'm going to invest in the homes," he said. "I'm going to redefine the boundaries of the business."
That's one of the ways that Duke, which plans to spend $1 billion over five years on smart grid projects, is bucking predominant trends among utilities in the United States.
Sure, Duke is joining with most utilities in deploying smart meters to its customers, with an eye toward linking them with in-home energy management systems. But Duke's approach has focused more strongly on utility control, and ownership, than most (see Utilities Mull Price Points, Policies for Home Energy Management).
While some utilities are awaiting the arrival of home energy systems on the consumer market, Rogers says he doesn't want to wait for that market to emerge.
After all, when it comes to being able to access capital for investing in energy efficiency in customers' homes and businesses, "I can beat Walmart in a heartbeat. I can beat Home Depot. I have a lower cost of capital," he said. "Why not own every piece of it?"
The key advantage to utility-owned systems, he said, is that the utility can coordinate them all to maximize payback in terms of energy efficiency.
"We're prepared to invest in other devices, sensing devices in the homes, all the way to writing the software, because we have a chance to optimize it against the mother grid," he said.
That's the idea behind the "virtual power plant" pilot project Duke has underway in its headquarters city of Charlotte, N.C. The project links solar panels, batteries for energy storage, smart meters and in-home demand response systems, all managed by software developed by Cincinnati-based startup Integral Analytics (see Integral Analytics: Orchestrating Duke's 'Virtual Power Plant').
While the solar panels and batteries involved now sit at Duke's McAlpine Creek substation, Rogers said the same concept could well apply to solar panels and batteries at customers' homes – if the utility can control them.
Similar projects, which can also go by the name of "microgrids," are being tested around the country, and could offer utilities a host of benefits, ranging from the ability to turn down customer power loads at peak demand times to making local distribution grids more efficient (see Microgrids: $2.1B Market by 2015).
To jumpstart that process with customers, Duke is "thinking about a [home energy] portal we give them, just to set them up," Rogers said. Just which company's portal Duke might be looking at, he didn't say.
North Carolina startup Sequentric Energy Systems has such a system, and Greentech Media has learned that it is being tested in Duke's Charlotte virtual power plant project, though neither company has confirmed that fact (see Sequentric Working on Duke Pilot Project).
On the other hand, Duke is also working closely with Cisco Systems on developing an overall architecture for its smart grid deployment, and Cisco is working on a home energy management system as well (see Duke Energy Enlists Cisco in Smart Grid Efforts).
Not to say that Duke wants to tell its customers what home energy gear they can buy, Rogers said. Any portal it gives to customers should be able to interoperate with others that emerge, he said.
"We can't envision the products that are coming. But we want people to be able to plug in," he said.
Duke has also taken a different tack from most U.S. utilities in choosing Echelon Corp. to supply its smart meters. San Jose, Calif.-based Echelon, which has an initial $15.8 million deal with Duke that could expand to as much as $150 million for Duke's planned 1.5 million smart meter deployment, uses powerline carrier technology to communicate over the same wires that carry electricity (see Echelon Expands Smart Meter Contract With Duke Energy).
Most other North American utilities have chosen smart meters that use wireless-based technologies (see RF Mesh, ZigBee Top North American Utilities' Smart Meter Wish Lists).
Duke isn't eschewing the wireless route. It has worked with Echelon, as well as smart grid communications startup Ambient, on designing a smart meter system that can be adapted to multiple communications modes.
The bottom line is the goal of bringing "universal access to energy efficiency to all customers – large and small, low income and high income," Rogers said. "The only way that can happen is with a smart grid."
Rogers also touched on Duke's partnerships with Chinese companies Huaneng Group to develop cleaner coal-fired power plants and ENN Solar Energy to build solar power projects in the U.S. (see Duke Energy, China's Huaneng Group Collaborate on Coal Carbon Capture and Chinese Company to Build Solar Power Plants in U.S. With Duke).
Duke is one of several U.S. utilities exploring relationships with Chinese companies, as the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, and Rogers said he sees more to come for Duke. After all, the utility is looking for ways to finance its five-year, $25 billion capital improvement plans, and Wall Street has become a tough place to raise funds, he said.
Chinese partnerships could also give Duke some extra clout when seeking to develop more projects overseas, such as in Brazil, where the utility already owns about 4,000 megawatts of generation capacity, he said.
"Let's take a U.S. company, and a Chinese company, and let's conquer the world," he said.
China is moving more quickly to find ways to capture and store carbon from coal-fired power plants, he said. While the U.S. could take 10 years or more to bring such projects to scale, in China, "If it's doable, they'll do it in five to seven years," he said.
And if carbon capture and storage from coal plants isn't doable, Duke wants to know, he added.
In that case, "I'll build nuclear plants, instead of coal plants," said Rogers, who has long pointed to nuclear power as a low-carbon alternative to coal (see Reuters).
Among the more experimental projects Duke is contemplating with Chinese partner ENN is a system to capture carbon dioxide from coal plants using algae, and then turn that algae into biofuel, Rogers said.
ENN has been testing the system at different power plants, and Duke is "exploring" the idea as well, he said.
Similar pilot projects are being proposed by utility Arizona Public Service Co. and the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory (see APS Gets $70.5M to Feed Captured Carbon to Algae).
Of course, Duke – as a recipient of $200 million in Department of Energy smart grid stimulus grants – might face some backlash if its partnerships are seen as directing U.S. taxpayer dollars toward Chinese companies. A stimulus-backed 600-megawatt wind farm planned to be built in Texas using wind turbines made in China has already raised the ire of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has asked the Obama administration to block federal funding for the project.
A study Duke has undertaken is expected to show that its Chinese partnerships will yield jobs and economic growth for both countries, David Mohler, the utility's chief technology officer, said Tuesday at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Conference near San Francisco (see Is China a Friend or Foe to the U.S.?).
Photo of an Echelon smart meter via Duke Energy.
Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, wants to own every piece of the smart grid, all the way down to the energy portals in customers' homes and the solar panels on their roofs.
After all, the utility is developing the technology to make all those systems perform at optimal levels – and Duke Energy has access to more capital than a family trying to save for sending their kids to college, after all, Rogers said Wednesday at the GreenBeat conference in San Mateo, Calif.
So instead of relying on customers to buy their own home energy systems, "I'm going to own the batteries, I'm going to invest in the homes," he said. "I'm going to redefine the boundaries of the business."
That's one of the ways that Duke, which plans to spend $1 billion over five years on smart grid projects, is bucking predominant trends among utilities in the United States.
Sure, Duke is joining with most utilities in deploying smart meters to its customers, with an eye toward linking them with in-home energy management systems. But Duke's approach has focused more strongly on utility control, and ownership, than most (see Utilities Mull Price Points, Policies for Home Energy Management).
While some utilities are awaiting the arrival of home energy systems on the consumer market, Rogers says he doesn't want to wait for that market to emerge.
After all, when it comes to being able to access capital for investing in energy efficiency in customers' homes and businesses, "I can beat Walmart in a heartbeat. I can beat Home Depot. I have a lower cost of capital," he said. "Why not own every piece of it?"
The key advantage to utility-owned systems, he said, is that the utility can coordinate them all to maximize payback in terms of energy efficiency.
"We're prepared to invest in other devices, sensing devices in the homes, all the way to writing the software, because we have a chance to optimize it against the mother grid," he said.
That's the idea behind the "virtual power plant" pilot project Duke has underway in its headquarters city of Charlotte, N.C. The project links solar panels, batteries for energy storage, smart meters and in-home demand response systems, all managed by software developed by Cincinnati-based startup Integral Analytics (see Integral Analytics: Orchestrating Duke's 'Virtual Power Plant').
While the solar panels and batteries involved now sit at Duke's McAlpine Creek substation, Rogers said the same concept could well apply to solar panels and batteries at customers' homes – if the utility can control them.
Similar projects, which can also go by the name of "microgrids," are being tested around the country, and could offer utilities a host of benefits, ranging from the ability to turn down customer power loads at peak demand times to making local distribution grids more efficient (see Microgrids: $2.1B Market by 2015).
To jumpstart that process with customers, Duke is "thinking about a [home energy] portal we give them, just to set them up," Rogers said. Just which company's portal Duke might be looking at, he didn't say.
North Carolina startup Sequentric Energy Systems has such a system, and Greentech Media has learned that it is being tested in Duke's Charlotte virtual power plant project, though neither company has confirmed that fact (see Sequentric Working on Duke Pilot Project).
On the other hand, Duke is also working closely with Cisco Systems on developing an overall architecture for its smart grid deployment, and Cisco is working on a home energy management system as well (see Duke Energy Enlists Cisco in Smart Grid Efforts).
Not to say that Duke wants to tell its customers what home energy gear they can buy, Rogers said. Any portal it gives to customers should be able to interoperate with others that emerge, he said.
"We can't envision the products that are coming. But we want people to be able to plug in," he said.
Duke has also taken a different tack from most U.S. utilities in choosing Echelon Corp. to supply its smart meters. San Jose, Calif.-based Echelon, which has an initial $15.8 million deal with Duke that could expand to as much as $150 million for Duke's planned 1.5 million smart meter deployment, uses powerline carrier technology to communicate over the same wires that carry electricity (see Echelon Expands Smart Meter Contract With Duke Energy).
Most other North American utilities have chosen smart meters that use wireless-based technologies (see RF Mesh, ZigBee Top North American Utilities' Smart Meter Wish Lists).
Duke isn't eschewing the wireless route. It has worked with Echelon, as well as smart grid communications startup Ambient, on designing a smart meter system that can be adapted to multiple communications modes.
The bottom line is the goal of bringing "universal access to energy efficiency to all customers – large and small, low income and high income," Rogers said. "The only way that can happen is with a smart grid."
Rogers also touched on Duke's partnerships with Chinese companies Huaneng Group to develop cleaner coal-fired power plants and ENN Solar Energy to build solar power projects in the U.S. (see Duke Energy, China's Huaneng Group Collaborate on Coal Carbon Capture and Chinese Company to Build Solar Power Plants in U.S. With Duke).
Duke is one of several U.S. utilities exploring relationships with Chinese companies, as the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, and Rogers said he sees more to come for Duke. After all, the utility is looking for ways to finance its five-year, $25 billion capital improvement plans, and Wall Street has become a tough place to raise funds, he said.
Chinese partnerships could also give Duke some extra clout when seeking to develop more projects overseas, such as in Brazil, where the utility already owns about 4,000 megawatts of generation capacity, he said.
"Let's take a U.S. company, and a Chinese company, and let's conquer the world," he said.
China is moving more quickly to find ways to capture and store carbon from coal-fired power plants, he said. While the U.S. could take 10 years or more to bring such projects to scale, in China, "If it's doable, they'll do it in five to seven years," he said.
And if carbon capture and storage from coal plants isn't doable, Duke wants to know, he added.
In that case, "I'll build nuclear plants, instead of coal plants," said Rogers, who has long pointed to nuclear power as a low-carbon alternative to coal (see Reuters).
Among the more experimental projects Duke is contemplating with Chinese partner ENN is a system to capture carbon dioxide from coal plants using algae, and then turn that algae into biofuel, Rogers said.
ENN has been testing the system at different power plants, and Duke is "exploring" the idea as well, he said.
Similar pilot projects are being proposed by utility Arizona Public Service Co. and the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory (see APS Gets $70.5M to Feed Captured Carbon to Algae).
Of course, Duke – as a recipient of $200 million in Department of Energy smart grid stimulus grants – might face some backlash if its partnerships are seen as directing U.S. taxpayer dollars toward Chinese companies. A stimulus-backed 600-megawatt wind farm planned to be built in Texas using wind turbines made in China has already raised the ire of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has asked the Obama administration to block federal funding for the project.
A study Duke has undertaken is expected to show that its Chinese partnerships will yield jobs and economic growth for both countries, David Mohler, the utility's chief technology officer, said Tuesday at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Conference near San Francisco (see Is China a Friend or Foe to the U.S.?).
Photo of an Echelon smart meter via Duke Energy.
New York Times:To Build a Smart Grid, Start With Smart Meters
By ROY FURCHGOTT
Published: November 18, 2009
FOR nearly 30 years, Itron has dominated the American market in what had been a profitable but unglamorous field, automating power, gas and water meters. But with $8 billion in government and private money devoted to modernizing the power grid, meter automation is suddenly a growth industry. Without millions of new smart meters, no smart grid is possible.
Read more ...
Published: November 18, 2009
FOR nearly 30 years, Itron has dominated the American market in what had been a profitable but unglamorous field, automating power, gas and water meters. But with $8 billion in government and private money devoted to modernizing the power grid, meter automation is suddenly a growth industry. Without millions of new smart meters, no smart grid is possible.
Read more ...
Brace yourselves, electricity prices will rise over next 10-30 years, Duke CEO Jim Rogers says
GreenBeat: Brace yourselves, electricity prices will rise over next 10-30 years, Duke CEO Jim Rogers says
November 18, 2009 | Camille Ricketts |
“In the last 50 years, electricity prices have been flat — in the next 10 to 30, the price of electricity is going to rise,” said Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers in conversation with Matter Network’s John Gartner at GreenBeat 2009 this evening. “This is going to lead to a lot of frustration from consumers and political reactions,” he continues. The key, he says, is how utilities, their customers and governments respond to this increase.
Duke, for instance, is already putting incentives in place, anticipating this shift. Rogers used his talk to stump for his company’s Save-A-Watt program — a proposal that is not quite decoupling (separating utility revenue from the amount of power they deliver) but rather providing financial incentives to both utilities and ratepayers for conserving energy. So far the plan has only been approved in Ohio, only one of a handful of states that Duke serves, though Rogers says that win will soon be a catalyst for others. This model, he believes, will help energy utilities and customers weather upheavals and price hikes in the US energy mix.
Save-A-Watt is superior to outright decoupling, he says, because the latter will no doubt lead to utility apathy — bad for the environment and equally tough on customers’ wallets. “Greatness is never a consequence of indifference,” he said. The one positive side effect from decoupling will be varying power rates, he said — people should start seeing energy prices being more closely pegged to time of day and demand rates. This is something both Rogers and Duke supports.
In addition to responding to money consumer behavior can also be shaped by convenience, he pointed out. There are two schools of thought on how to encourage conservation at the consumer level, he explained: one says you can reinforce new patterns with the right mix of technology and enforcement, the other says you can do it without the consumer even really knowing — meaning no change in their daily lives.
A prime example of this is installing refrigerators programmed to make ice only during off-peak times, when energy is cheapest. The ice is still there, regardless of whether it was frozen at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. — that’s all the customer cares about. In reality their energy use has changed, without them actually changing. Rogers stressed that this is the path to victory.
For this reason, Duke is getting involved in every segment of the Smart Grid’s supply chain. The utility has teamed with companies like Echelon and Ambient to provide cutting-edge communication systems for its smart meters (the goal being to deliver energy use data in real time to both utilities and the customers themselves in an actionable format). Rogers went as far as to say the company would build its own software if that was necessary to improve and speed the transmission of helpful data.
“We have the ability to optimize technology against the mother grid,” he said. “That’s where there are savings that will make the grid and our economy more efficient — optimization of homes on the mother grid is what will create transformation.” He said Duke is bringing in all the experts it can to make sure this happens — and fast. Rogers seems to be all about speed. When his team tells him a smart metering roll out will take three years, he asks why it can’t be done in one.
“The scaling aspect is really critical,” he says. “I want to close that gap — I want people to see it, feel it, touch it — there’s a sense of urgency because we’re making significant investments in this area.”
Rogers predicts that Duke will have smart meters rolled out to its entire coverage area with an automated distribution in place within five or six years.
He added that the company is looking for innovative ways to shrink its own footprint while its at it — promising to convert its full fleet of vehicles to electric cars and plug-in hybrids between 2010 and 2020.
November 18, 2009 | Camille Ricketts |
“In the last 50 years, electricity prices have been flat — in the next 10 to 30, the price of electricity is going to rise,” said Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers in conversation with Matter Network’s John Gartner at GreenBeat 2009 this evening. “This is going to lead to a lot of frustration from consumers and political reactions,” he continues. The key, he says, is how utilities, their customers and governments respond to this increase.
Duke, for instance, is already putting incentives in place, anticipating this shift. Rogers used his talk to stump for his company’s Save-A-Watt program — a proposal that is not quite decoupling (separating utility revenue from the amount of power they deliver) but rather providing financial incentives to both utilities and ratepayers for conserving energy. So far the plan has only been approved in Ohio, only one of a handful of states that Duke serves, though Rogers says that win will soon be a catalyst for others. This model, he believes, will help energy utilities and customers weather upheavals and price hikes in the US energy mix.
Save-A-Watt is superior to outright decoupling, he says, because the latter will no doubt lead to utility apathy — bad for the environment and equally tough on customers’ wallets. “Greatness is never a consequence of indifference,” he said. The one positive side effect from decoupling will be varying power rates, he said — people should start seeing energy prices being more closely pegged to time of day and demand rates. This is something both Rogers and Duke supports.
In addition to responding to money consumer behavior can also be shaped by convenience, he pointed out. There are two schools of thought on how to encourage conservation at the consumer level, he explained: one says you can reinforce new patterns with the right mix of technology and enforcement, the other says you can do it without the consumer even really knowing — meaning no change in their daily lives.
A prime example of this is installing refrigerators programmed to make ice only during off-peak times, when energy is cheapest. The ice is still there, regardless of whether it was frozen at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. — that’s all the customer cares about. In reality their energy use has changed, without them actually changing. Rogers stressed that this is the path to victory.
For this reason, Duke is getting involved in every segment of the Smart Grid’s supply chain. The utility has teamed with companies like Echelon and Ambient to provide cutting-edge communication systems for its smart meters (the goal being to deliver energy use data in real time to both utilities and the customers themselves in an actionable format). Rogers went as far as to say the company would build its own software if that was necessary to improve and speed the transmission of helpful data.
“We have the ability to optimize technology against the mother grid,” he said. “That’s where there are savings that will make the grid and our economy more efficient — optimization of homes on the mother grid is what will create transformation.” He said Duke is bringing in all the experts it can to make sure this happens — and fast. Rogers seems to be all about speed. When his team tells him a smart metering roll out will take three years, he asks why it can’t be done in one.
“The scaling aspect is really critical,” he says. “I want to close that gap — I want people to see it, feel it, touch it — there’s a sense of urgency because we’re making significant investments in this area.”
Rogers predicts that Duke will have smart meters rolled out to its entire coverage area with an automated distribution in place within five or six years.
He added that the company is looking for innovative ways to shrink its own footprint while its at it — promising to convert its full fleet of vehicles to electric cars and plug-in hybrids between 2010 and 2020.
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