Photo Credit e-magic
Trilliant, are a Smart Network infrastructure provider who
provides intelligent network solutions and software to utilities for advanced metering, demand response, and smart grid management
Last week they announced that they had
closed a $40 million equity investment from an affiliate of MissionPoint Capital Partners and zouk ventures
Next Tuesday, Sept 2nd, I will be interviewing Bill Vogel, Trilliant’s President, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, for a podcast to be published here later in the week.
In the interview, amongst other things, we will be discussing what smart networks and smart grids are, and why they are such a good thing for the consumer as well as the utilities. We will be discussing the $40 million investment and where that money will be deployed and we will also talk about the Hydro One Smart Grid project (28kb pdf), a project to deploy 1.4m smart meters throughout Ontario.
If you have any questions you’d like me to ask Bill during the interview, please feel free to leave them here in the comments of this post (or email them to [email protected]) and I’ll ask them for you during the podcast.
In the Trilliant vision of the future, what level of access will an individual consumer have to their own energy data, and with what time resolution? Will they be able to export raw data? Manipulate it through Trilliant software? Compare with neighbors? In the future will there be an open ecosystem of tools to allow individuals to learn more about their energy use and make their own efficiency gains?
Trilliant sees its customers as large utility companies. Does Bill see any path where electrical grids could become more democratised. Where dynamic pricing could facilitate the sale and purchase of electricity by small consumers and producers depending on the current real time price. This could lead to huge growth in the production of distributed renewable energy and to the growth in demand response to pricing signals that suggested scarcity or abundance. How can the grid become more like eBay given the stranglehold that TSOs and Utility companies have over it.
-Is there any evidence that information on its own is enough to change consumption?
– Is multi-utility metering a real prospect/ has this been done by you?
– Is there added value in a ‘Utility Data Channel’ that could be used for Security Systems, Water/Gas/BioHeat/Oil/Sub metering/ equipment control?
– Is there interest in Smart Grids from makers of Electric Heating, Micro CHP, and Energy Storage Technologies?
– Has electric heating been integrated with the operation of smart grids before?
– Can such systems be modular and expandible?
– Can open standards have a role in maintaining the long term value of smart metering infrastructure?
– How can smart metering support markets in carbon reduction?
– What happens if we do not do a form of advanced smart metering in Ireland, what is a worst case?
– If Ireland is pioneering high levels of grid wind penetration, which other countries may follow?
– How may energy prices impact on your business, is your technology a hedge against rising prices?
What is Trilliant’s definition of the minimum functionality required for a meter to become a smart meter?
How fat do the data pipes need to be between smart meters to have a real smart-grid?
How do you overcome consumer rejection of Demand Response and avoid the situation in California where a major DR program had to be shelved because of a consumer backlash?
Cheers,
Finn