smart grid Archives - Page 3 of 9

IBM AsiaPac Smart Grid announcements

November 8, 2010 by Tom Raftery

IBM seems to be making big moves in AsiaPac!

IBM made two significant announcements last week about projects it is involved in in South Korea and Shanghai. In the South Korean project, IBM is partnering with POSCO ICT “to develop South Korea’s first renewable energy management system for a smart grid.” When you combine this with the announcement last week that South Korea is investing $8.2bn to build out massive offshore wind farms, you can see why they might need a renewable energy management system!

The Shanghai project is a collaboration with Shanghai Electric Power to pilot new technology, developed by IBM Research and designated the Integrated Distribution Outage Planner (IDOP). IDOP upgrades a grid to reduce outage frequency and the duration of black-out time. According to the release:

Since the project was completed earlier this year, the rate of equipment availability at Shanghai Power has increased significantly, and the company’s sale of electricity has increased by 50 million kWh per month, which is equal to an incremental revenue of 35 million Yuan (US$5.1 million) a month.

So $5.1m in increased sales alone per month? That’s not to be sneezed at – kudos to the folks at IBM Research. Job well done.

No, energy is not too cheap!

November 4, 2010 by Tom Raftery

Is energy too cheap to motivate consumers to change their habits and use less?

In the Smart Grid Technology conference I attended in London last week a number of discussion points came up over and over again. I wrote already about how utility companies are wondering how to engage their customers around smart grid projects. Another topic which raised its head frequently was the question of how to motivate customers to change when energy is so cheap!

The obvious answer is to raise the price of energy, and this will happen over time, but it is the wrong answer – in the short-term at any rate.

The issue is not that energy is too cheap, rather it is that people have lots of demands on their attention. To make it worth people’s time to become involved in energy saving activities, if the return is not very high (because energy is cheap) then the process of reducing energy consumption needs to be made simple!

Look at the thermostat above. This is the thermostat to control the central heating/air conditioning in my home. I like to think I am reasonably technical. I have been a Windows sysadmin for a multi-national company, managing Windows, Exchange, Active Directory, ISA and SQL Servers. I edit php files regularly, I remotely manage my own CentOS server via SSH and I’ve even done quite a bit of regex scripting of .htaccess files!

But this thermostat is beyond me!

I know it has a timer, so it should be possible to set it to come on and off at pre-arranged times. Should. Getting it to do so seems to require a Stephen Hawking-like intellect. And, even if I did manage to figure it out, it is so unintuitive that the next time the clock goes forward (or back), I’d have forgotten again and would need to start over! Which begs the question, if my phone knows when to change its clock forward or back, why doesn’t the thermostat – but I digress!

This is far too much hassle entirely. So I don’t use the timer in my thermostat. Or any of its functionality (apart from on/off). And I’m far from being alone in this.

Home energy management systems have, to-date, suffered from having appalling user interfaces. Consequently, no-one uses them. Why would they? They are hard to use and energy is cheap. The room is too hot? Rather than trying to figure out how to turn it down, just open the window!

However, if energy management were made simple and no effort were required to make changes, then it wouldn’t matter nearly as much that the savings were not substantial.

Making energy device interfaces easier to use is no silver bullet mind. This kind of approach needs to be combined with a culture of increased client communications, as I outlined in my earlier post. However, combining these two strategies would go a long way towards making people energy responsive.

Smart Grid Technology conference

October 31, 2010 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit TerryJohnston

I attended the Smart Grid Technology conference in London last week and there were a number of interesting themes which became apparent.

The main theme to emerge was the question of how utilities could engage the residential customer. This is good news – the first step on the road to recovery is acknowledging that you have a problem!

The other two discussion points which came to the fore were 1) that energy is too cheap for small price shifts to incentivise behavioural change and 2) what to do with all the data arising from smart meter roll-outs (the prevailing opinion was that data from smart meters should be used for billing purposes only because that there was far too much data to be of any practical use!). I’ll talk about these in other posts.

The question of how to engage customers is a new one for utilities. Remember, this is an industry that refers to its customers as ‘load points’ or ‘rate payers’! Traditionally, the only time utilities interact with customers is to send a bill, to disconnect, or when the customer calls to enquire why their power is out. Not the most positive of communications, I’m sure you’ll agree! Consequently consumer attitudes to utilities vary from outright distrust to, at the very best, indifference.

How to change this?

Well, any councillor will tell you the best way to fix a relationship is through increased communication. Utilities need to really step up their game when it comes to communicating with their customers. This needs to be done using a combination of updating traditional communications, targeted, viral social media campaigns and good old-fashioned outreach. And this needs to be an ongoing, sustained two-way communication, not once-off and not not one-way.

It is only by building an ongoing conversation with their clients that utilities can build the necessary trust to engage customers in smart grids.

Friday Green Numbers round-up 09/03/2010

September 3, 2010 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit trindade.joao

And here is this week’s Green numbers:

1.25 Gigawatts of Solar Thermal Power Approved in California in Past Two Days Will Double US Capacity

?There?ve been multiple gigawatts of solar thermal power plants planned for various places in the California desert for some time, but finally some more of them are getting the approvals need so that construction can start: The US Bureau of Land Management has issued a final environmental impact statement for the 1,000 MW Blythe Solar Power Project; and the 250 MW Beacon Solar Energy project has received final California state approval as well.
The smaller of the two first: Renewable Energy World reports NextEra Energy Resources has been given the green light by the California Energy Commission to begin construction on the 250 MW Beacon Solar Energy project.
Green roofs offer antidote to urban heat island effect

Researchers at Columbia University have demonstrated that a layer of plants and earth can cut the rate of heat absorption through the roof of a building in summer by 84%

Perhaps the greatest overall benefit of green roofs comes in tackling the “urban heat island” effect, which Gaffin suggests is responsible for two-thirds of New York’s localized warming over the last century. The conventional black rooftops that he calls “tar beaches” are major contributors to this phenomenon, absorbing and re-radiating the sun’s energy as heat. “We’re going to want to cool regional climate down, especially where people are living,” Gaffin noted. “So we’re going to have to confront the urban heat island effect.”

While conventional roofs can reach temperatures of 80 ?C at 1.00 p.m. even outside of high summer, green roofs always stay closer to ambient temperatures. “These [conventional roofs] are almost dangerously hot spaces,” Gaffin told environmentalresearchweb. “That’s a huge heat load that we can get rid of.”

Plants in green roofs regulate their temperatures through evapotranspiration. “They evaporate copious amounts of water,” Gaffin explained. “That takes a lot of energy and means it’s a great way to stay cool.”
Creating 625,000 jobs and saving $64 billion through energy efficiency

Energy efficiency is THE core climate solution. It’s the biggest low-carbon resource by far. “Efficiency Works” [PDF], a major new report by Bracken Hendricks, Bill Campbell, and Pen Goodale, finds that a straightforward set of policies aimed at upgrading just 40 percent of the residential and commercial building stock in the United States would:
1. Create 625,000 sustained full-time jobs over a decade.
2. Spark $500 billion in new investments to upgrade 50 million homes and office buildings.
3. Generate as much as $64 billion a year in cost savings for U.S. ratepayers, freeing consumers to spend their money in more productive ways.
Cisco To Acquire Smart Grid Monitoring Tech Company Arch Rock

Cisco this morning announced its intent to acquire privately-held Arch Rock, which specializes in IP-based wireless sensor network technology with a focus on energy and environmental monitoring and Smart Grid applications.

Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
Carbon markets: HFC-23 – The smoking greenhouse gun

ONE of the curiosities of carbon markets is that they do not just trade in carbon. Other greenhouse gases can be given a value, too?sometimes a very high one. Claims that these prices promote scammery are now prompting some searching questions.

The gas at the centre of the controversy is HFC-23, a greenhouse gas which, on a weight-for-weight basis, is 14,800 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. HFC-23 is produced as a by-product of the manufacture of HCFC-22, an ozone-destroying refrigerant. HCFC-22 is banned in developed countries, but developing countries can keep making it until 2030.

The acronyms do not end there. Under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the United Nations HCFC-22 producers in developing countries that destroy, rather than release, their HFC-23 can be eligible for Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits, which can then be traded in the European Union?s emissions-trading scheme. This allows companies to buy extra emissions reductions to meet their cap-and-trade obligations, and in so doing to transfer money to schemes reducing emissions in developing countries.
3-8 Whitehall Place – real-time energy use

A page showing and explaining in-depth the real-time energy use (electricity & gas) of UK govt buildings at 3-8 Whitehall place
Iberdrola Renovables wins contract for nine wind farms in Brazil

Iberdrola Renovables, in consortium with Neoenergia, has been awarded the contract for nine new wind farms in Brazil, with total installed capacity of 258 MW. It is the second contract to develop renewable energy that the company has won in Brazil.

The contract award took place in Rio de Janeiro, during the second tender process for renewable energies in the country, organised by the Agencia Nacional de Energ?a El?ctrica (Aneel).

Iberdrola Renovables has committed to supply the electricity generated at these facilities to the Brazilian government for a 20-year period, starting in January 2013. The annual amount of the contract awarded yesterday by Aneel is about ?60 million (130 million reales).
Santa Cruz Mountains redwoods lure cash for trapping carbon

PG&E is handing over tens of thousands of dollars to the nonprofit Sempervirens Fund to protect a 425-acre stand of redwoods once slated for logging deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The deal, expected to be completed next month, is part of the utility’s efforts to combat greenhouse gas emissions, in this case safeguarding trees for carbon absorption, and is helping to drive a new marketplace where people and business are offered an incentive to offset pollution.

“We’re finding a new financial model here for doing things to capture greenhouse gases that wouldn’t have been done otherwise,” said Robert Parkhurst, climate protection and analysis manager for PG&E.

“It’s a new paradigm for protecting the environment.”
More firms in carbon trade setting up shop in Singapore

More companies trading in carbon offsets and those financing emissions reduction projects are setting up shop in?Singapore.

More than 30 such carbon-related firms have done so in the last three years or?so.

The trade in carbon credits, worth US$153 billion (S$208 billion) globally last year, is driven by various requirements to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. These include cap-and-trade regulations in Europe and countries scrambling to fulfil carbon emissions obligations under the United Nations? Kyoto Protocol.
Exelon Grabs John Deere?s Wind Projects for $860M ?

And you thought John Deere was all about tractors. This morning utility Exelon said it will buy up the wind power division of John Deere, called John Deere Renewables, for $860 million, plus an additional $40 million once all of the projects are completed. John Deere Renewables has 965 MW of clean power projects under development in various stages.
New Filter Could Make LCDs >400% More Efficient : TreeHugger

The immensely popular LCDs screens that are found everywhere in the modern home (television, computer, laptop, cellphones, etc) use less energy than CRTs, the previous technology, but they are still far from being optimally efficient. Only about 8% of the light emitted by a LCD’s backlight makes its way out, and the rest is wasted. But that might be about to change thanks to a new filter that could boost that efficiency by more than 400% and allow around 36% of the light to pass through.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The zero-emissions Nissan Leaf test drive

August 31, 2010 by Tom Raftery

I love the idea of electric cars and have done for a long time.

Recently, one of my best friends Ray Flynn, proprietor of Flynns Garage (a Nissan Dealership in Carlow, Ireland), contacted me to let me know he is one of only 15 Nissan dealerships in Ireland who have been approved to sell the new all-electric Nissan Leaf. As such he had a limited number of slots available for a test drive and he wanted to know if I’d like one of them. I jumped at the chance!

The Leaf is a totally electric car relying completely on its 24 kW?h/90 kW lithium ion battery pack for power. The battery pack is rated to deliver 100 miles on a full charge but this can vary from about 62 miles (100 km) to almost 138 miles (222 km) depending on driving style, load, traffic conditions, weather (i.e. wind, atmospheric density) and accessory use.

Nissan Leaf under the hood

The car is a five seater with a spacious interior. It is very responsive to drive. My own car is a 2008 Toyota Prius and this is a much nippier car than the Prius. It handles well on the road and because there are 300kg of batteries under the floor, the car sticks to the road on corners!

Charge time varies on the type of charging (normal or fast) and whether the battery is fully depleted or only partially. Using a standard 220/240 volt 30 amp supply the battery can be fully charged in 8 hours. Fast charging using a 440V level 3 charger charges to 80% in around 20 minutes – these are typically the kinds of chargers you will see deployed in places like McDonalds, Tesco’s and motorway caf?’s I assume.

Nissan Leaf interior

There is a lot of technology built in to the car. It is connected to a global data center which provides support, information and entertainment at all times. The GPS navigation system delivers a constantly updating display of your range as well as showing all the charging stations on your route and it allows you to book a charging station to ensure that it is available when you arrive.

Mobile phone apps will allow remote turning on of aircon and heating as well as setting charging times to coincide with time of use rates from utilities. The advantage of turning on aircon/heating before getting to the car is to have it pre-heated/cooled while still connected to the mains to save on battery life.

Nissan Leaf rear spoiler with solar panels

It has a spacious boot and there is an option to get a rear spoiler with solar panels to trickle charge the auxiliary 12 volt battery, though, tbh this feels like a bit of a gimmick!

In terms of the main battery, Nissan has announced that it will warranty the battery pack in the Leaf for 8 years or 100,000 miles after which time Leaf batteries will still hold around 70-80% of their rated capacity. I suspect that there will be a significant market for slightly depleted car batteries at that point for home energy storage to better enable load shifting and smart grid applications.

The car I was driving is a pre-production model. Because the production lines are only now being set-up, this one was hand-made and is insured for a replacement value of ?1.2 million! Consequently I drove it very carefully.

Conclusion: The Nissan Leaf is the future of motoring, no doubt. It is fast, affordable and very cheap to run. And that’s not taking into account at all, the environmental advantages of running a zero emissions car! Sure, there are limitations to having a car with a 100 mile range – most of these will be overcome by the roll-out of networks of fast-charging stations. After this test drive, I have no doubt that when it comes time to replace my Prius, my next car will be all-electric.

The Leaf goes on sale in Ireland in February 2011 at a price of ?29,995 (after a ?5,000 govt subsidy), in the UK in March 2011 for ?28,990 and in the US in December for US$32,780.

And finally, if you are interested in going entirely zero-emissions with your motoring, my buddy Ray (mentioned above) has partnered with a solar panel company and they are able to offer a Nissan Leaf and the solar panels to charge it from. Now that’s serious awesomeness!

Friday Green Numbers round-up 08/27/2010

August 27, 2010 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit tiffa130

And here, after a short break, are this week’s Green Numbers:

US wind energy usage grows by 28%

Consumption of electricity from wind rose by 28% between 2008 and 2009, according to the federal government’s annual energy report.

tags: us wind energy renewables greennumbers
Spanish companies have 9,210 MW of installed wind power outside Spain

The installed capacity of Spain increased by 2,459 MW in 2009, reaching a total of 19,149 MW (these figures include both the activities of national and international operators). This way, wind energy rose as the third technology of the system with demand coverage of 14.4%, reaching peaks of over 50% on certain occasions.?

tags: greennumbers spain wind wind energy installed capacity
Three firms control 89% of US soft drink sales

Three firms control 89% of US soft drink sales. This dominance is obscured from us by the appearance of numerous choices on retailer shelves. Steve Hannaford refers to this as “pseudovariety,” or the illusion of diversity, concealing a lack of real choice. To visualize the extent of pseudovariety in this industry we developed a cluster diagram to represent the number of soft drink brands and varieties found in the refrigerator cases of 94 Michigan retailers, along with their ownership connections.

tags: soft drink sales coca cola pepsi dr pepper greennumbers
?200m wind farm for Co Clare

Clare County Council has given the go-ahead for construction on the largest community owned wind farm development in Ireland.

The ?200 million project will see West Clare Renewable Energy build 28 3MW wind turbines on a mountain slope between Ennis and Miltown Malbay, and will generate enough power to cover every home and business in Co Clare. Construction of the project will generate up to 300 jobs.

tags: Clare County Council community owned wind farm greennumbers wind energy
Indian Point Nuclear Plant?s Toll on River Stirs Debate

Just beneath the wind-stippled surface of the Hudson River here, huge pipes suck enough water into the Indian Point nuclear plant every second to fill three Olympic swimming pools. And each second they take in dozens of organisms ? fish and crabs, but mostly larvae ? that are at the center of a $1.1 billion debate: should the plant have to put in cooling towers that would vastly reduce the intake of water?

tags: greennumbers Nuclear Plant Indian Point cooling towers
The Many Benefits of Smart Grid Investment

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.? A power grid is only as secure and reliable as its most overloaded and vulnerable distribution areas.? A single point of failure can interrupt power for thousands, even millions of customers.? This flaw in our grid is becoming more apparent as electricity demand has increased quickly over the past few decades.? Since demand is outpacing the available supply of electricity generation capacity, power grid failures are becoming more common, but this need not be the case.? Smart grid technologies can efficiently schedule and redistribute electricity usage, smoothing the demand curve and reducing the peaks.? If we invest in smart grid technology, automating the detection of grid malfunctions before they become catastrophic, we will save billions of dollars a year.

tags: greennumbers smart grid investment
Maines Paper & Food Service Reduces Lighting Energy by 87% with Digital Lumens Intelligent Lighting System

Digital Lumens today announced that Maines Paper & Food Service, Inc. has deployed the company?s Intelligent Lighting System in their 460,000 square foot headquarters in Conklin, New York, to slash energy use, improve light levels, and meet corporate sustainability targets.? Lighting-related energy use has dropped by 87%.? Maines expects to save 1,726,108 kWh per year (more than enough electricity to power 200 homes for a year), and 1,240 metric tons of CO2.

tags: Digital Lumens Intelligent Lighting System led lighting greennumbers
CSC Baseline Data: Server Productivity – 4.7% of servers totally unproductive

As we collected baseline data for our first and second group of servers, we have been able to pull together some initial reports for our NightWatchman Server Edition case study environment.? Taking into account that we have a few servers that are not yet up and running with the software, it is worth noting that these are preliminary reports, but it is interesting to see what the data will look like and how it will help us begin to develop a plan in order to put the data to best use.
In this blog we?ll share the first set of reports around server utilization.?Here is the information we pulled from the tool around our pilot servers:

tags: greennumbers 1e csc NightWatchman Server Edition
China’s 45 Billion Disposable Chopsticks Require 100 Acres of Forests Every 24 Hours

Apparently China’s Ministry of Commerce has had it with disposable chopsticks. It sent out a warning to chopstick makers in June to warn them that: “Production, circulation and recycling of disposable chopsticks should be more strictly supervised.” The reason? With about 45 billion disposable chopstick pairs made every year in the country, or about 130 million a day, a lot of wood is being wasted, and that in a country that is trying to increase its forest coverage (from about 8% in 1949 to 12-13% today, compared to 30% for the USA).

tags: china chopsticks greennumbers disposable chopsticks forests wood

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Smart Grid Heavy Hitters – Dr Ann Cavoukian, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada

August 26, 2010 by Tom Raftery

I recently had an opportunity to interview Dr Ann Cavoukian, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Ontario, Canada about Smart Grid data privacy. Commissioner Cavoukian has written and presented extensively about Smart Grid privacy. She is also the author of a white paper on Smart Grid privacy called SmartPrivacy for the Smart Grid and Dr. Cavoukian partnered with two major utilities to develop a practical roadmap for utilities to achieve the gold standard in data protection (Privacy by Design: Achieving the Gold Standard in Data Protection for the Smart Grid).

Here is the full transcription of our chat:

Tom Raftery: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Smart Grid Heavy Hitter Series. My guest on the program, today, is Commissioner Ann Cavoukian, the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Ontario. Commissioner, I?m curious, why is the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario concerned about Smart Grids?

Commissioner Cavoukian: Well, I always say that in order to protect the privacy of the citizens of Ontario, I have to protect the privacy of people anywhere in the world. Privacy knows no bounds and technology transcends jurisdiction. So, whatever new technologies arise that have privacy implications, we need to get right in there and ensure as much as we can that protections are built into, especially, new technologies and new developments like the smart grid. The ideal opportunity to protect privacy is at the outset and ideally embed privacy into the design of new technologies like the smart grid.

Tom Raftery: Why is there a concern at all about privacy and smart grids? What?s the danger?

Commissioner Cavoukian: Anytime that there?s the possibility of collecting personally identifiable information either directly or through some data linkage to it, privacy enters into the equation.

So, with the smart grid you start with smart meters. And I should tell you that here in Toronto, Ontario we are leading in the smart grid, smart meter applications. By the end of this year, all houses in Toronto will have smart grids and in Ontario by the end of 2012. So, it?s widespread application.

Now, what smart girds enable the utility to do is to on a real time basis go in to your home and give you a very clear indication of your electricity usage, which is very good because it will promote energy consumption reduction, and a number of other programs – this is all very positive. As long as the information is kept between the electrical utility and the consumer, there?s no issue. It?s no different than now so to speak.

However, with the possibility of third parties being interested in this information, the possibility of unauthorized data usage of this information there?s link to an identifiable individual and with the growth of smart appliances – your computer, your television, your refrigerator; everything is going to be telling you and telling the utility what you?re doing, when you?re doing at, at what times – this introduces a whole new element of potential profiling of a consumer?s activities within the household, which is after all your castle, right? Your home is sacrosanct.

No one has been able to peer into the activities within the home before now. They?ll be able to do that. So, we have to ensure that this information is protected like Fort Knox.

Tom Raftery: How widespread are the concerns? How many people are aware that this is an issue and how are people trying to deal with that issue?

Commissioner Cavoukian: And you are absolutely right. About a year, a year-and-a-half ago I did an article. And I call privacy the sleeper issue of the smart grid; because certainly last year not a lot of activity associated with this area, but I can tell you that in the past year the interest has grown dramatically.

In Canada, we have jurisdiction over electrical utilities. So, I?ve been working with Hydro One, here, in Ontario, Canada and Toronto Hydro and they not only understand the issues, of course, they?re regulated. I oversee complaints with these two utilities; however, I want to tell people – don?t rely on regulation.

I want to exceed regulation. I want appeal to electrical utilities that in order for the smart grid to work you need consumers to sign up and to become involved, you need to build trust and consumer confidence.

The way you do that is by ensuring that they know what you?re doing as an utility, they know what information you have from them, and most important, you are not going to disclose this information, you?re not going to share it with any third parties without their consent – this is big.

So, my appeal to utilities, and I?ve been working with utilities throughout North America and the US Smart Grid Alliance. I?m an active member there.

My pitch to them, is do this because it?s good for your utility, because you want to get the buy-in of consumers, you want to get their cooperation, you must have their trust, you must have their confidence.

So, by embedding privacy into the design of the smart grid you will be able to grow your smart grid in a way that attracts more consumers to it and that?s the win-win proposition of this.

Tom Raftery: It?s great that you?re telling utilities this. What are they actually doing? Are they taking what you say on board, are they saying, ?Oh! Commissioner, Cavoukian is a nut case and we?ll just put her concerns to one side,? or are there a range of reactions?

Commissioner Cavoukian: Well, I am sure it is some of them think I am a nut case, I give you that, but I think the majority the ones who have reached out to us have been actually quite positive about our approach.

They?ve actually given me a complement and they?ve said, ?You?re not like most regulators we know.? And I take that as a complement, because once there?s — my message to utilities and to everyone is do a positive-sum paradigm not a zero-sum paradigm.

By that, I mean, I definitely want you always to protect the privacy. I don?t care if you?re the private sector, the public sector. If you?re doing individual?s personally identifiable information you must protect that information.

However, I don?t say protected to the exclusion of your own interests, your business interests. You have a business model, it has to survive, and hopefully strive. In this case, with the smart gird electrical utilities want to grow this in an effort to promote conservation of energy, grow green programs, reduce reduction, consumption of energy, empowering your users your users. We are all for that; so we?re not doing this — we?re not saying protect the privacy to the exclusion of those interests, not at all.

We?re saying you can do both. We show you how to do both by embedding privacy into the design of the smart grid, and I should tell you it?s at the ideal time. This is the time to do it when you?re at the nascent stage. It?s at it?s infancy, the smart grid development, starting with the smart meters and I?m not giving you a pie in the sky. I?m telling you how to do it in a very defined way. We?ve worked with Hydro One, for example, and Toronto Hydro.

We have two papers that we?ve produced that are available on our website. This one, the latest one with Hydro One is called, ?Achieving the Gold Standard in Data Protection for the Smart Grid?.

So, we?re trying to get people to reach for the sky on this in terms of doing it now, embed privacy, and we tell you how to do it. This is best practices on exactly how to do it and we do it in partnership with an electrical utility. So, we give you the road map on how to do this and also respect privacy and enhance your business interests, positive-sum win-win.

Tom Raftery: Commissioner, we?re running low on time, so one final question. Is there anything about privacy on smart grids that I haven?t asked you that you would like to address?

Commissioner Cavoukian: Just one final point for the people listening to this. I would like them to view the smart grid and how to protect information in a way that is not the usual ?who owns the data?. The question of ownership often comes up and I?m going to suggest to you that?s the wrong language to frame this in.

When you talk about privacy and personally identifiable information, data protection you use the language sort of bundles of rights associated with that information. It?s the language of custody and control of the information as opposed to ownership; because it?ll be easy for the utility to say, ?You know, it?s our data, we collect it, and then you get mired into this whole legalese about who owns the data. It?s not one of ownership.

Of course, the utility is collecting the data, they?re providing a service to consumers, and there?s an exchange of information. I think it?s better to talk about what obligations and duties are associated with that.

So, for a utility, who has custody and control over the data they also have a duty of care and obligations with respect to protecting that data, they have a duty of care, confidentiality, and ensuring that the consumer not only knows what you?re doing. So, you?re transparent with respect to your practices, but they have access to their own data and ideally they have full ability to say no, no third party use of its data unless I consent to it.

That?s the Gold Standard and that?s what I?m hoping that, that language will be embraced in this area.

Tom Raftery: Commissioner, thanks a million for coming on the show.

GE’s U.S. Consumer Impressions of the Smart Grid survey

July 22, 2010 by Tom Raftery

GE published a U.S. Consumer Impressions of the Smart Grid [pdf] survey* recently.

I spoke to the general manager of Metering and Sensing Systems for GE?s Digital Energy business, Luke Clemente about the survey and he told me that the main points of the survey were:

96% of Americans who are familiar with the smart grid are overwhelmingly positive about the technology and what it will do for the country
while only 2% thought that smart grid was not a smart investment by utilities and/or consumers
80% of U.S. consumers are excited about upgrading the electrical network with smart grid so that their country can rely more on clean domestic energy sources
78% think that the smart grid would help reduce the number of power outages and restore power more quickly when outages do occur
74% understand that the smart grid will give them the info they need to make better decisions about electricity usage
72% think the smart grid will help them save money on their monthly bills
63% believe the smart grid will create new jobs in the energy sector
66% agree they would buy smart appliances and other in-home devices to maximize their control over energy once smart grid rolls out in their community

In our follow-up conversation Luke said

One of the awareness issues which needs to be driven, is that it does cost more to generate electricity at two o’clock in the afternoon than it does at 2am. To the extent that we can shift our use of energy to less intensive times, that will end up driving better utilisation of the grid and better economics

Luke went on to mention the Department of Energy’s year-long study which showed that consumers, when given information on their electricity consumption, reduced their bills by 10% and reduced peak demand by 15%.

There are three crucial points here –
consumers have quite a positive attitude to Smart Grids
consumers will adjust their behaviour when given information related to their energy use and
that response is good for the grid (and by extension, for its users).

We have seen some instances where utilities failure to communicate effectively with their customers has led to blowback against Smart Meter and Smart Grid projects.

However, as this survey shows, overall consumer sentiment to Smart Grids is positive. Utility companies need to beware that they don’t squander this goodwill – right now it is theirs to lose.

You should follow me on twitter here.

* The survey was conducted in March 2010 by StrategyOne among a census representative sample of 1,000 U.S. consumers via telephone. The margin of error for the sample of U.S. consumers (n=1,000) is + 3.1% at the 95% level of confidence.

What is the best communications protocol for Smart Grids?

July 19, 2010 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit urbanfeel

One of the key tenets of a Smart Grid is that you have real-time, two-way communications between the consumer and the utility company. To enable this a communications infrastructure needs to be rolled out. Before that can happen though, we need to examine the different communications protocols to find the most suitable one.

I was talking to Andy Slater, the EMEA Marketing Director for Sensus, the other day. Sensus are the company providing the communications platform for UK-based Arqiva’s Smart Grid pilot in Reading [PDF]. And their proposed Smart Grid communications infrastructure for all of Britain. While, in North America Sensus have 8 million end points rolled out across 225 utilities.

The Sensus solution uses long range radio to communicate with smart meters. This allows Sensus to achieve a 99.5% first-time connection rate during installations, according to Slater. This is higher than most other technologies (GPRS, WiMax, etc.) and so saves a considerable amount of money by obviating the need for a second call out or re-engineering.

When I mentioned that Power Line Communications (PLC) would, by definition, have as close as possible to 100% first-time connectivity, Andy countered that that’s all well and good for electrical meters but the Sensus solution also works for gas and water meters. He then went on to point out that PLC requires far more repeaters to boost the signal and that it is not suitable for high voltage equipment.

The other advantage which Andy mentioned is that for gas and water meters which are not powered, battery life is going to be an issue. GPRS and mobile solutions require a lot of power and their battery life may be as short as 5 years whereas Andy claimed because the power requirement of long range radio is lower, the batteries in their meters could last up to 15 years, thereby reducing service calls to replace depleted batteries.

Listening to Andy, you could be forgiven for wondering why any utility would go with a communications protocol other than long-range radio – so can anyone enlighten me – what is the best communications protocol for Smart Grids?

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Friday Green Numbers round-up 07/16/2010

July 16, 2010 by Tom Raftery

Photo credit XcBiker

And here are this week’s Green Numbers:

Smart Grids

GE announces $200M Smart Grid challange

GE wants to spark a revolution in the way we create and distribute electricity, and seizing on a critical underfunding of grid investments by the U.S. government (a paltry $3.4 billion) the 2nd largest company in the world (as ranked by Forbes) wants to do something about it.

GE is partnering with four major venture capital firms, including Al Gore-advised Kleiner Perkins, to issue the $200 million challenge to “…businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators, and students to share their best ideas and come together to take on one of the world?s toughest challenges ? building the next-generation power grid to meet the needs of the 21st century.”

tags: ge greennumbers electricity $200 million challenge smart grid
Smart Grid Spending To Plateau at $35 Billion in 3 Years

The smart grid has been a lumbering but steady and inevitable presence in the utility industry, with a speedy uptake in the number of start-ups interested in creating everything from energy storage technology to user dashboards for home energy consumption and a somewhat slower uptake in the number of smart grid pilot projects popping up nationwide. Less than two years ago it was expected to grow to at least $65 billion by 2013. Cisco has identified at least $20 billion in potential business opportunities around the grid, which the company says will be bigger than the Internet, and $3.4 billion of stimulus money was to be dished out to 100 projects. So why the projection from Pike Research that the spending will top off at $35 billion by 2013?

tags: greennumbers smart grid investments spending
Trilliant Raises $106 Million of Capital

Trilliant Incorporated, a leader in delivering Smart Grid solutions that enhance energy efficiency, utility operations, and renewable resource integration, today announced that it has closed financing totaling $106 million from a global syndicate of industry and financial leaders.

The financing round was led by two highly-respected financial investors, Investor Growth Capital (the wholly-owned venture arm of Investor AB of Sweden) and VantagePoint Venture Partners and two leading global grid-related equipment companies, ABB and GE. The financing, which was coordinated by Deutsche Bank, also includes a significant credit facility from a major venture credit provider as well as continuing financial support from existing investors MissionPoint Capital Partners and zouk ventures. The new investment will be used to finance Trilliant?s continued growth in North America and globally.

tags: trilliant smart grid financing round investment greennumbers

Policy and Regulation:

Europe needs to reduce emissions by 30%

An excellent article by the UK climate change secretary, German federal environment minister and French environment minister:
Europe’s current focus on recovery from recession must not distract us from the question of what kind of economy we want to build. Unless we set our countries on a path to a sustainable low-carbon future, we will face continued uncertainty and significant costs from energy price volatility and a destabilising climate.\nThis is why we today set out our belief that the European Union should raise its emissions target. A reduction of 30 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 would represent a real incentive for innovation and action in the international context. It would be a genuine attempt to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 2?C – the key climate danger threshold – stiffening the resolve of those already proposing ambitious action and encouraging those waiting in the wings. It would also make good business sense….

tags: europe eu low carbon emissions 30% 20% carbon greennumbers
Cutting UK central Government carbon emissions by 10%

“The new Coalition Government has pledged to be the ?greenest government ever? and has committed to reduce carbon emissions across the central Government estate by 10% within 12 months. Launched at the end of May, our Central Government Carbon Management Service is already working with twenty one Central Government bodies to help them meet this challenge.”

tags: uk govt greennumbers central Government estate Central Government Carbon Management Service
China to Invest $3.7 Billion in Smart Grid this Year Alone

The state-owned electric transmission company in China, State Grid, has moved forward with establishing a set of industry rules, standards and favored technologies for the growing smart grid industry in China. But the aggressive move to establish industry standards has competitors in the nascent smart grid sector a bit concerned.

tags: china smart grid state grid greennumbers

Sustainability

The Seven Triads of Sustainability

Seven ‘Triads of Sustainability’ – where seven issues (participation, decision-making, partnership, governance, knowledge and information, continual improvement, and lifestyles) leading to sustainability are explained in detail with case studies . These triads are key ingredients that define and drive sustainability, particularly at the local level.

tags: sustainability triads Seven Triads of Sustainability greennumbers
Eurosif – European Sustainable Investment Forum Remuneration Report

Eurosif partnered with EIRIS for the Remuneration theme report.

Research highlights and recommendations for shareholders and regulators include:

?- 29% of FTSE Eurofirst300 listed companies have some commitment to linking remuneration to ESG performance ? although concerns exists around the extent to which performance targets are set as ?soft targets? thereby guaranteeing a minimum level of bonus
?- Financial institutions account for 23% of the FTSE Eurofirst300 index but only 16% of financial institutions have an ESG-linked remuneration system
?- Shareholders should engage with companies by voting against unacceptable remuneration packages and calling for and taking part in shareholder dialogue in determining remuneration policy,
?- Regulators should promote active dialogue between companies and shareholders by legislating for a binding ?say on pay? vote and setting appropriate guidelines to promote good remuneration practices and disclosure.

The report examines critical challenges and opportunities for companies in relation to remuneration, incentives and long-term sustainability.

tags: remuneration remuneration report eurofirst300 greennumbers
Accounting rules could force businesses to disclose environmental impact

Companies could be asked to publish details of their environmental and social impacts alongside their financial accounts under new rules being discussed with the organisations that set accounting standards.

News of the initiative ? which would mean that businesses have to account for the impacts they have on local water quality, plants and animals ? emerged as a major report for the UN is published today. It warns that companies are causing vast damage to the “living fabric of this planet”, raising threats to society and their own profits, but also that the business opportunities to make money from improving the environment are forecast to quadruple over the next decade.

tags: environmental impacts social impacts csr corporate reporting greennumbers accounting standards
AT&T Rolls Out Its 2,000th Alternative Fuel Vehicle and 1,500th Compressed Natural Gas Vehicle in Its Corporate Fleet – Yahoo! Finance

AT&T today announced the deployment of the 2,000th alternative fuel vehicle and 1,500th compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle in its corporate vehicle fleet, giving it one of the largest CNG vehicle fleets in the U.S. These milestones are part of a $565 million planned investment announced in March 2009 to replace more than 15,000 fleet vehicles with alternative fuel models through 2018. Currently, the AT&T corporate fleet includes more than 75,900 vehicles.

AT&T anticipates purchasing approximately 8,000 CNG vehicles over a five-year span, at an anticipated cost of $350 million. AT&T expects to spend an additional $215 million through 2018 to replace 7,100 fleet passenger cars with alternative fuel models. According to the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), AT&T’s alternative fuel vehicle initiative will:

– Save 49 million gallons of gasoline over the 10-year deployment period.
– Reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons ? the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 147,929 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.

tags: at&t att cng compressed natural gas vehicle fleet greennumbers

Renewables

Africa?s Largest Wind Farm Opens in Morocco

Earlier this week, Morocco?s King Mohammed VI officially inaugurated a wind farm in the town of Melloussa.?? With 165 turbines and a production capacity of 140 megawatts, the farm is touted as Africa?s largest wind farm. Besides significantly reducing CO2 emissions, the farm is expected to save over 125,000 metric tons of oil annually.

tags: morocco wind farm greennumbers
Germany targets switch to 100% renewables for its electricity by 2050 | Environment | The Guardian

Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world’s first major industrial nation to kick the fossil-fuel habit, the country’s Federal Environment Agency said today.

The country already gets 16% of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources ? three times’ higher than the level it had achieved 15 years ago.

“A complete conversion to renewable energy by 2050 is possible from a technical and ecological point of view,” said Jochen Flasbarth, president of the Federal Environment Agency.

“It’s a very realistic target based on technology that already exists ? it’s not a pie-in-the-sky prediction,” he said.

tags: germany electricity renewable energy greennumbers fossil fuel
10 Myths About The Gulf Oil Well Blowout And Offshore Drilling

Is shutting down offshore drilling more risky than carrying on? What about jobs that real families depend on? Do we have to choose between dolphins and employment? What are the real issues in the Gulf? Here?s 10 Questions that were fielded by Andy Sharpless, the CEO of Oceana at a recent TedxOilSpill conference. We?ve let Andy speak in his own voice here unedited.

tags: Andy Sharpless TedxOilSpill oilspill offshore drilling greennumbers
Gulf Oil Spill Investigation Now Includes Tens Of Thousands Of Abandoned Wells

A lead congressional committee investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has broadened its inquiry, now checking if tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells are leaking or even being monitored for leaks.

tags: salazar oilspill Gulf of Mexico oil wells gas wells abandoned oil wells greennumbers

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