Today's Top Stories
1. Energy infrastructure gets near-failing grade
2. Making sense of the sea of smart grid vendors
3. GE enters energy gaming with National Geographic
4. Collaboration crucial to cybersecurity protection
5. The challenge of maximizing smart grid value Editor's Corner: Smart grid sentiment high, but are utilities ready for a data deluge? Also Noted: Oracle
Spotlight On... Research highlights cyberspace's lack of borders
Security appliances not always safe; SCE exhibits smart grid solutions and much more... Lessons from the Smart Cities Challenge
In 2011, IBM announced the Smarter Cities Challenge, worth $5 million in consulting services, to 100 cities with big problems and big goals. IBM sent teams of three to six to each city for three weeks to address issues ranging from healthcare to pollution and traffic to energy poverty. Feature News From Across the Energy Industry:
1. Energy-efficiency survey results encouraging yet disappointing
2. "Overly generous" incentives driving solar in Japan
3. AEE, MIT partner to speed advanced energy
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Smart grid sentiment high, but are utilities ready for a data deluge?
This month's Smart Grid Index (SGI) survey results from FierceSmartGrid and Zpryme show that overall smart grid sentiment increased by one percentage point in March to 72 percent -- the highest it has been since the survey launched in November of 2012. Seventy-five percent of utilities expect to submit new smart grid proposals for budget approval over the next year while 52 percent of respondents expect smart grid hiring to increase over the next 12 months. As data management and analytics take center stage in 2013, smart grid industry executives were asked if utilities were prepared to handle the volumes of data that will be produced from smart grid-enabled devices. According to 58 percent, utilities are not prepared; 28 percent believe they are prepared; the remaining 14 percent are not sure. Overall, the last five months of data reveal that the majority of utilities are committed to building a more intelligent grid. More than half the utilities surveyed expect to increase their smart grid expenditures -- a trend that has been consistent over the past five months. This is quite revealing given that the U.S. and European economies are growing at historically slow rates. From a vendor perspective, opportunities are still ripe, but niche and smaller vendors must be prepared (financially and strategically) to expand into markets outside the U.S. and Europe to maintain the growth they have achieved over the past year or two. As we gather more data from the survey, we will better be able to identify more trends in the marketplace, thus helping both utilities and vendors capitalize on the smart grid opportunity. -- Barb Read more about: Smart Grid, Zpryme
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Today's Top News 1. Energy infrastructure gets near-failing grade
When it comes to the energy infrastructure, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has graded the nation's infrastructure the same as it did in 2009. The D+ given to the country's generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure is due to an aging grid and a pipeline distribution system originating in the 1880s. ASCE's assessment would indicate that little significant progress has been made in terms of the smart grid. What does this mean for the next four to seven years? For starters, by 2020, grid funding is expected to fall short by $95 billion and demand for electricity is expected to increase by nearly 10 percent putting additional strain on the grid. Despite 17,000 miles of additional high-voltage transmission lines and significant oil and gas pipelines planned over the next five years, permitting and siting issues threaten their completion. Significant power outages, which went from 76 in 2007 to 307 in 2011, will only get more frequent and intense. And not only will we be more vulnerable to weather-related disturbances but with the deterioration of the grid, we are more vulnerable and exposed to cyberattacks. "A D+ is simply unacceptable for anyone serious about strengthening our nation's economy... If we want to create jobs, increase trade, and assure the safety of our children, then infrastructure investment is the answer," said ASCE President Gregory E. DiLoreto, P.E. For more:
- visit this website Related Articles:
Transmission and distribution investment strong, getting stronger
USDA loans benefit rural smart grid |
2. Making sense of the sea of smart grid vendors
As utilities focus on their smart grid technology adoption, they are awash in a sea of vendor and technology choices. A new report attemps to help calm the waters. GTM Research has identified its picks for the Top 10 Vendors in Smart Grid. The list is comprised of companies with proven market success, multiple deployments and clear business cases. From a pool of more than 40 finalists, the Top 10 represent today's best smart grid vendors across the smart grid value chain, according to GTM. Rounding out the Top 10, in alphabetical order, are: - ABB
- Cisco
- IBM
- Itron
- Siemens
- S&C Electric
- Schneider Electric
- Opower
- Silver Spring Networks
- Tendril
In addition to the Top 10 Vendors, GTM has created a watch list of up and coming vendors -- characterized by rapid innovation and sophistication of solution provision – well-positioned to take a lead position in the marketplace over the next 12 months. Accenture, EcoFactor, EMC, GE, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, On-Ramp Wireless, Oracle, Space-Time Insight, and Toshiba all made the Top 10 Watch List. For more:
- see this article Related Article:
10 smart grid companies to watch Read more about: top smart grid vendors, Smart Grid
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3. GE enters energy gaming with National Geographic
National Geographic, GE and the Center for Science are hoping to "transform the future" with a national initiative designed to engage and educate the younger generation on the future of energy. Plan It Green: The Big Switch, part of Connect! Transform the Future, is a free online city-building game in which players design their own city into the most energy efficient while competing against friends and earning points for eco-friendliness and energy production. Players advance through the game by creating a diverse power portfolio and improving their town's energy efficiency by implementing smart energy technologies. The game is part of a growing trend that encourages behavioral changes in energy use via engagement in online digital gaming. "Students learn at home and through school how important recycling and eco-friendly habits are to their environment, but Plan It Green takes these lessons a step further," said Chris Mate, vice president of Games for National Geographic. "Through gameplay that is smart, fun and intuitive, players discover what it takes to build and run a community. By creating more energy-efficient neighborhoods, they reduce their town's impact on its environment and create happier, stronger communities. In doing so, they can associate the choices they make on Plan It Green with choices they or their own communities make in their everyday lives." The game is just the first program in the Connect! Transform the Future initiative. To follow are a Digital 3D film, teacher workshops, interactive educational materials, and exhibits and programs at local science centers. For more:
- experience the game
- visit this website Related Article:
National Grid using gaming for smart grid success Read more about: National Geographic, Plant it green
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4. Collaboration crucial to cybersecurity protection
Although it has so far been spared from a major disaster, the U.S. electric grid faces a growing risk of cyberattack. To this end, utilities have the difficult task of balancing cybersecurity protections with the unknown nature of these security risks. Cyberthreats are dynamic and nearly impossible to quantify, leaving utilities wondering if they are doing enough to fortify systems against the unknown. The constant pressure on utilities to keep costs low and provide reliable power means that allocating money to cybersecurity must be done prudently and with a value case in mind. "The amount of money we are going to have to spend is gigantic," said Kenneth Van Meter of Booze Allen Hamilton. Van Meter joined a panel of industry experts at Tuesday's EnergyBiz conference in Washington, D.C., advocating for a clear path forward on cybersecurity. Amid the complexity of managing these threats, there is a baseline of protection that can help utilities protect themselves, panelists said. These include performing risk assessments and developing an understanding of a utility's operating system. There are also organizations such as the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) that can help utilities gauge their systems. NERC CEO Gerry Cauley said he has seen "expenentional growth" in the number of cyberthreats facing the utility industry. It's no surprise, in that case, that better education can lead utilities to wiser investments. "One way to know you are getting to a good place is when you first of all have identified what all your new and emerging assets are," said Erich Gunther, CTO and chairman at Enernex. He said that utility boards need to review security budgets, policies and programs more frequently. Overall, conference panelists agreed that the goal should be to build a nimble and flexible grid capable of matching the quickly evolving nature of cyberthreats. Given the complex nature of cybersecurity, cooperation between utilities, government and regulatory agencies, and vendors is also going be a huge asset to accomplishing this mission. No one entity or level of government will be able to solve this problem, said NARUC President Philip Jones. "Collaboration is the only way to move this forward," he said. For more: Read more about: DC Events
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5. The challenge of maximizing smart grid value
Few people would describe the U.S. smart grid as "mature," but utilities are moving toward implementing new technologies that are helping monetize and optimize the value of today's smart grid infrastructure.  | | Utility and energy industry executives discuss the future of the smart grid. | This is all part of the transition from "smart grid 1.0" to "smart grid 2.0," according Mary Doswell, senior vice president of alternative energy solutions at Dominion who joined other members of the energy industry at this week's EnergyBiz Leadership Forum to discuss how to best realize the economic benefits of the smart grid. The prevailing goal is to get the industry to understand that electricity is a key to growing the economy and helping customers have a better quality of life. But Kurt Yeager, vice chairman of the Galvin Electricity Initiative, said that today's grid is "totally 'misaligned' with today's digital economy." Fixing this is going to take a dramatic rethinking of how utilities and consumers interact with the grid. It's no longer just about billing and meter reading, which has traditionally been the main purpose of the grid. "I think that fence is going to disappear," said Thierry Godard, president of the smart grid division at Siemens. One of the main avenues for achieving this transition is getting customers more involved in their energy usage. "We've found that the customer engagement side of the business has been very, very robust and we have learned a lot," said Michael Niggli, president and COO at San Diego Gas & Electric. As this trend continues across the industry, it is going to result in new programs and technologies to help extract more value out of smart grid technologies. Other tools include creating load shaving programs, implementing more robust demand response initiatives and developing smart pricing structures. For more:
- see complete event coverage Read more about: DC Events, EnergyBiz
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SPOTLIGHT ON... Research highlights cyberspace's lack of borders EU's European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has tracked some recent trends in cyberattacks that could be useful for the utility industry. The research highlights issues such as cyberspace's lack of borders and failing security measures. Report Quick news from around the web: >The Wall Street Source says merger and acquisition chatter in the big data arena is increasing. Article
>Enterprises should not assume that the security appliances they deploy have impervious security. Article
>The growing complexity of the smart grid creates opportunities for power quality to be compromised. Article
>Dominion Voltage Inc. issued patent for its EDGE technology. Article
>Southern California Edison (SCE) is demonstrating smart grid solutions in real world applications. Article
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