IBM Teams With eMeter For Smart Grid Technology Bundle

IBM Teams With eMeter For Smart Grid Technology Bundle

Package aimed at helping mid-sized utilities with smart grid deployments.

March 28, 2010
By 

D.H. Kass

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IBM Corp. said that its strategic relationship with eMeter Corp., a San Mateo, CA-based software developer, has yielded a customized technology bundle to help mid-sized utilities and municipalities implement smart grid projects.

The effort is noteworthy because smart grids, characterized by embedded sensing technology in utility meters that yields performance data useful in analyzing energy efficiency and allocation, are central to IBM’s Smarter Planet design.

The new offering, accomplished under a software licensing deal between the two companies, provides an out-of-the box solution for utility companies interesting in undertaking smart grid projects.

The end product, called the eMeter Smart Grid Appliance, combines IBM Tivoli Monitoring and WebSphere 7 Application Server software with the developer’s EnergyIP meter data management and Energy Engage home energy solutions, preloaded and optimized on IBM’s Power7 systems.

IBM and eMeter said that the Smart Grid Appliance can help utilities reduce the implementation and test cycle time from a year to as little as six months, and pare costs by 60 percent. It will be available by June this year.

IBM officials said that the vendor has invested upwards of $3 billion in Power7 systems development over the course of the last three and a half years, with its deployment in smart grid settings in mind.

Some $4.3 billion to build out smart grid projects is available in funding under the federal government’s stimulus package, prompting the interest of small- and mid-sized utility companies, some of which may not be fully equipped to carry out such endeavors on their own.

“By eMeter leveraging IBM technology, our utility clients will be able to streamline their Advance Metering Infrastructure projects and reduce implementation and operational costs associated with their smart grid programs," said Allan Schurr, vice president of strategy for IBM Energy & Utilities.

“This serves as another example of IBM and its partners working together to help transition the world toward smarter energy and ultimately a smarter planet.”

eMeter agreement shows off Smarter Planet plan

IBM believes that agreements such as the one with eMeter that yield concrete examples of smart grid technology give life to its Smarter Planet plan. The vendor said that last year it signed 500 similar software agreements with business partners worldwide, adding heft to the software group’s profit line, which reached $8 billion in 2009.

“Having worked with several utilities that have succeeded with large-scale Smart Grid rollouts, eMeter and IBM took on the responsibility of identifying the right set of hardware and software tools best suited for these critical projects,” said Bobby Napiltonia, eMeter senior vice president, sales and alliances.

“The Smart Grid Appliance delivers a solution for utilities looking to quickly and easily make the most of their Smart Grid investments.”

IBM suggested that additional arrangements such as the one with eMeter are certain to follow. The vendor’s strategy is to forge similar relationships in energy, healthcare, government, telecommunication and retail, grow its partner ecosystem, and increase possibilities for large-scale infrastructure improvements at local and global levels.

Charles King, an analyst at researcher Pund-IT Inc., said that “smaller companies, mid-market and municipal utilities tend to appreciate IT solutions that arrive fully formed and which require little in the way of customization or fiddling. This is the sweet spot which eMeter and IBM are aiming for with the Smart Grid Appliance.”

In praising the appliance, King said that the “new solution certainly benefits from eMeter’s utility software and tools background, but other key ingredients are IBM’s deep expertise in developing scalable workload-optimized systems and the thought leadership implicit in the company’s Smarter Planet initiative.”

Cisco Buys Stake In San Francisco Smart-Grid Company

By Andrew Morse, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)-Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) has bought a stake in a privately-held smart grid company, marking the networking giant's first investment in a technology it sees as being part of its future growth.

Cisco purchased a stake in Grid Net Inc., a San Francisco-based maker of software used to digitally manage the transmission of electricity over power grids. Grid Net also makes software used in smart meters, displays placed in homes that allow people to use electricity when it is cheapest.

The deal, which was concluded about a month ago, is expected to be announced as early as Thursday. Neither San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco nor Grid Net would comment on the size of the investment, but a person familiar with the situation indicated it was less than $10 million.

The investment comes as technology companies like Siemens AG (SI) and General Electric Co. (GE) stake claims in the growing smart grid market. Cisco has been particularly vocal about the prospects of the smart-grid market, which is estimated to be worth about $43 billion in the next few years.

The concept behind smart-grid technology is to modernize the electricity industry by using digital communications to help optimize the flow of electricity and ensure dependability. Many concepts are similar to those used in controlling the flow of information over communications networks, which automatically route around bottlenecks or disruptions.

"The idea that this will mirror how communications networking technology works is spot on," said Laura Ipsen, who runs Cisco's smart grid projects, in an email. "We believe that an (Internet Protocol)-based communications infrastructure will form the basis of the smart grid from generation to business and the home, much as it created the backbone of the Internet."

Ray Bell, Grid Net's chief executive officer and a Cisco alum, said the two companies would work together on new products that integrate both companies' technologies. He added that Cisco has an observer on Grid Net's board of directors.

Grid Net counts General Electric and Intel Corp. (INTC) among its partners.

Tollgrade Signs Interoperability and Co-marketing Agreement with Ambient Corporation

Tollgrade Signs Interoperability and Co-marketing Agreement with Ambient Corporation
 

Creating a Best-in-Class Remote Monitoring Solution for Electric Utilities

PITTSBURGH, March 22, 2010 -- Tollgrade Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: TLGD), a leading supplier of service assurance products and solutions, today announced that it has completed an interoperability and co-marketing agreement with Ambient Corporation (OTCBB: ABTG), a pioneering integrator of smart grid  communications platforms, headquartered in Newton, MA. The joint offering will empower electric power utilities with real-time grid intelligence via a robust communications network, enabling them to improve overall efficiency and reliability of energy delivery.

The companies have collaborated to integrate Tollgrade's LightHouse™ software agent and the Ambient Smart Grid® Node, enabling the LightHouse sensors to leverage the communications and remote management services available on the Node. Customers who purchase the joint solution can now deploy LightHouse sensors for outage notification, real-time fault detection and location, and continuous load monitoring and also have the ability to integrate other smart grid applications, such as AMR/AMI, distribution automation, and outage management systems. The Ambient Smart Grid® platform enables the building of an IP network utilizing a variety of standards based technologies to aggregate and transport data from all the smart grid applications.

"The integration of these two innovative products will enable electric power utilities to have the real-time intelligence they need to manage the distribution network and proactively identify and correct network troubles," said Joseph Ferrara, Tollgrade's President and CEO.

John J. Joyce, President and CEO, Ambient Corporation, added "In today's Smart Grid market, such collaborative efforts between companies such as Tollgrade and Ambient demonstrates what is required to form best-in-class solutions that will create opportunities for faster adoption of new technologies and realization of smart grid efficiencies."

For a discussion regarding the joint solution, which is available for deployment immediately, stop by the Verizon Wireless and Ambient shared booth 139 at DistribuTECH, March 23-25, Tampa FL.

Bloomberg: Smart-Grid Federal Grants Spared From U.S. Tax, Treasury Says

March 10, 2010, 5:39 PM EST

By Mark Drajem

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Companies that receive U.S. stimulus grants from a $3.4 billion smart-grid electricity project will not be taxed on those funds by the federal government, the Treasury Department said today.

The decision lets the Energy Department proceed with grant agreements in the coming weeks, according to a joint statement from the Treasury and Energy departments.

“By clarifying the tax treatment of Smart Grid Investment Grants, we are ensuring that their full impact is felt in the communities where these investments are being made,” Dan Tangherlini, Treasury’s assistant secretary for management, said in a statement

more ....

Barron`s:Special Report -WISE BETS ON SMARTER GRID: From Cisco to EnerNOC, many stand to cash in on the modernization of the power grid.

"But gradually adding smart-grid companies to build the green portion of your portfolio is probably a good idea. "Overall, we expect smart-grid companies to show superior earnings growth relative to other clean-tech sub-segments," says Barclays' Shah. "We expect the stocks to trade at a premium valuation.

Steven Milunovich, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, calls the smart grid Merrill's "favorite" green-energy sector, because smart-grid companies are less capital-intensive than solar and wind-power companies, and generally deliver higher returns.

Besides, as Canaccord Adams analyst John Quealy notes, smart-grid upgrades in the U.S. and elsewhere are prerequisites to using solar and wind power in the most cost-effective and efficient ways."

Silver Spring- plans a Smart Grid IPO may value high as $3 BILLION-according to Dow Jones !!!

Duke's 'smart grid' meters begin in Oxford !!!!!!!!!!!!

BY STEPHANIE MILES • ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR • FEBRUARY 18, 2010

OXFORD - The first stop for Duke Energy's smart grid technology - which will give the company instantaneous energy information - is this college town.

"With it being a college town, a lot of students and residents here are high tech," said Tim Abbott, director of government and community relations for Duke. "This will benefit the customers, company and environment."Duke installed its first digital electric meters Thursday at 313 N. College St., home to Miami University students. The company said 6,000 residential electric meters will be installed in Oxford by May.

The smart grid technology will offer remote meter reading, record daily energy use and be linked to Duke's power delivery system, Abbott said. The digital electric meters will save labor costs and eliminate the need for estimated bills. Also, remote service connections and disconnections will eliminate the need for scheduling appointments.

Customers will have online access to view their hourly and daily energy usage to make wiser decisions and avoid billing surprises, Abbott said.

Since people move in and out of the college town throughout the year, Abbott said the new technology will reduce disconnect and reconnect hassles and will improve power outage response times.

Duke plans to spend about $1 billion over the next five years on smart grid technology in Ohio, Abbott said.

The benefits will not start immediately but Oxford residents should see improvements after the installation process is completed in May, Abbott said.

"It's great to be on the cutting edge of technology," said Doug Elliott, city manager of Oxford. "We're excited about it."

For more information on smart grid technology, visit the www.Duke-energy.com/smartgrid or www.smartenergynewsroom.com.

Who Will Be the Smart Grid's Billion Dollar Winners?

February 07, 2010

Smart Grid’s Expected 250% 5-Yr Growth Rate is Great News ...

January 2010, Ambient received purchase orders from Duke to purchase its newest version of the X-3100 communication nodes in the aggregate amount of $9.9 million.

SEC filing S-1, Feb 5, 2010

...
In 2008, Ambient received purchase orders from Duke Energy to purchase its X2000 and X-3000 communications nodes, license its AmbientNMS™, and acquire engineering support in building out an intelligent grid/intelligent-metering platform, which generated $12.6 million in revenues for the year ended December 31, 2008 and $918,260 for the nine month period ended September 30, 2009.

In the fourth quarter of 2009 and in January 2010, Ambient received purchase orders from Duke to purchase its newest version of the X-3100 communication nodes in the aggregate amount of $9.9 million. We expect to ship these devices by June 30, 2010.


....

DUKE ENERGY Smart Grid plan kicks off in Cincinnati

Smart Grid plan kicks off in Cincinnati

Digital meters will replace analog during five-year deployment schedule

By Amanda Woodruff | The News Record

|

Published: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Updated: Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Anna Bentley | The News Record

The University of Cincinnati is scheduled to receive digital meters to help accuracy in energy readings by 2011 at the latest.

Duke Energy plans to spend $1 billion in a five-year deployment plan across five states to install Smart Grid technology.

Corryville is one of the first neighboring areas to receive the technology, according to the Duke Energy deployment plan. The University of Cincinnati should follow within one year.

The installation of Smart Grid technology might serve as a catalyst in UC’s goal to reduce green house gas emissions by 20 percent before 2012. The university is halfway there, according to the College Sustainability Report Card 2010.

The technology allows consumers to go online and check energy costs from day to day.
“It might be usually cold or usually warm,” said Sally Thelen, Duke Energy spokesperson. “If someone has a budget, they can see what they need to do to stay under it. It gives them the power to make decisions regarding their energy use.”

The switch from analog to digital meters reduces foot traffic of Duke employees, who travel from home to home, checking meters. Instead of 12 visits each year, there would only be one visit, which would check the integrity of the meter.

Employment would not be immediately affected, Thelen said.

Estimated bills become a thing of the past. Duke Energy employees can read the new meter remotely from the street so there is no need for a homeowner or renter to send in a reading if they miss the “meter reader.”

For college students, move-in and move-out dates present the hassle of transferring services.

“Every time we have a turn on and turn off a service, we have to be present out there to read the meter and make sure everything gets connected and turned on safely,” on safely,” Thelen said. Instead, it would be automatic. 

In reality, there are two types of this technology: a smarter grid and smart grid. The former is a short-term system that focuses on updated technology and affordability. The latter is a long-term system that mimics the convenience of the Internet, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

“By next year, there could be something that is even better, that is faster or does something different,” Thelen said. “We’re not committing ourselves to any one type — it gives us the flexibility to make sure we’re using the latest and greatest technology.”

The Federal government established a smart Grid Task Force to assist in the transformation. Although Duke Energy applied for stimulus money, it has yet to hear back.

The transformation from analog to digital meters is still a process in itself.

“We can’t snap our fingers and have it done overnight,” Thelen said.

Duke Energy installed seven smart switches on power poles in Price Hill September 2009. Queen City Avenue experienced apower outage during this time and the smart grid technology was able to reroute itself within one hour.

“It’s a smart-healing network,” Thelen said. “It’s such a new concept and it provides a peace of mind for people.”

The plan includes the deployment of 700,000 electric smart meters and 450,000 natural gas meters.