| This week's sponsor is ABB. |  | Webinar: The IT/OT Integration Imperative
April 23, 2 pm ET/ 11 am PT
Traditionally, IT and OT systems worked as separate entities; however, the smart grid requires a convergence of both. Join FierceEnergy and a panel of experts as they examine the effects on utilities that do not take steps to converge/integration their IT/OT systems. Register Today. |
Also Noted: Spotlight On... Global clean energy investments hit five-year low
The industrial internet; cybersecurity bills and much more... Smart Water Grid Outlook
The smart water technology market is still in the early stages of development. Several completed projects show the enormous potential of the smart water market. Currently, deployments are occurring in all major markets worldwide. Feature
Oil and Gas outlook: Energy challenge or world domination?
Unprecedented amounts of domestic oil and natural gas resources, energy security concerns, and efforts to improve the environment and boost the economy are turning the nation's attention toward the oil and gas industry. Feature Pacific Gas and Electric reaches $390k settlement in spying case
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) will pay $390,000 to settle a regulatory investigation into its 2012 smart meter "spying" scandal.
The agreement with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) was reached earlier this month. CPUC had been investigating the actions of former PG&E employee William Devereaux, who was accused of monitoring anti-smart meter groups online between 2009 and 2010 using fabricated credentials. The CPUC issued an Order Instituting Investigation (OII) in April 2012, and it has only now been resolved. Feature News From Across the Energy Industry:
1. Utilities see value in deploying smart grid tech
2. EV infrastructure business booming
3. Blurring the lines between batteries and supercapacitors
Today's Top News 1. San Diego Gas and Electric renewables: Better late than never
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has signed five new renewable power purchase agreements for a total of nearly 62 MW of solar and wind energy. The contracts include two for a total of 14.7 MW of wind with TerraGen Development Company; a 20 MW solar contract with E.ON Climate and Renewables; a 7 MW solar contract with Northlight Power; and a 20 MW solar contract with Silverado Power. For the second year in a row, SDG&E surpassed the 20 percent mark in renewable power in proportion to overall power sales. In 2012, approximately 20.3 percent of the energy delivered to retail customers was provided by renewable energy sources, such as wind, geothermal, biomass, hydroelectric and solar facilities. In 2011, the company reported renewable energy deliveries representing a total of 20.8 percent. SDG&E signed 13 renewable contracts in 2012 and 23 contracts in 2011 for a total of 36 renewable contracts totaling over 1,750 MW of generation capacity over the past two years. These contracts put SDG&E in a position to maintain California's 20 percent renewable portfolio requirements in the 2011 to 2013 time frame and achieve the 25 percent renewable power requirement by 2016. SDG&E is on track to meet or exceed the state's mandate that 33 percent of its retail sales be produced from renewable energy projects by 2020. "After starting with less than one-percent renewable energy in 2002, SDG&E put an aggressive course of action in place to obtain competitively priced renewable power for our customers to meet California's renewable requirements," said James P. Avery, SDG&E senior vice president, power supply. "This has resulted in a well-balanced renewable portfolio that encompasses a broad spectrum of energy sources including solar, wind, biomass, biogas and geothermal energy." For more:
- visit this website Related Articles:
SDG&E hits renewable energy target a year late
Study shows not all renewable energy investments created equal
SDG&E invests in future paradigm utility-scale solar generation
Future power needs plague San Diego Gas and Electric Read more about: SDG&E, San Diego Gas and Electric
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| This week's sponsor is Equifax. |  | Webinar: The Equifax Big Picture Outlook on the US Economy
Monday, April 15th, 2pm ET / 11am PT
Attend this webinar, and you'll gain a clearer understanding of current and future economic indicators along with a high-level analysis of the big issues facing markets today. Register today! |
2. PSEG CEO confirms commitment to infrastructure
Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) is planning to invest billions in projects aimed at making the energy infrastructure of New Jersey resilient to natural disasters, providing reliable service, helping the environment and stimulating the economy. The company is proposing investing $3.9 billion over ten years to protect critical electric and gas facilities, deploy smart grid technologies, create additional redundancy to minimize outages, strengthen poles and move some overhead lines underground. This effort would create nearly 6,000 jobs, and thanks to low commodity prices and some restructuring fees rolling off, is expected to have minimal net impact on customer bills. Superstorm Sandy was the biggest storm in PSE&G's history, causing unprecedented damage. "Changing weather patterns, along with an increased dependence on energy, require a re-thinking of the state's energy infrastructure," PSE&G's Chairman, President and CEO Ralph Izzo told shareholders at a recent meeting. "We need to strengthen our system so that we're better prepared for the next Sandy or Irene, and New Jersey is better positioned for long-term economic well-being." For more:
- see this article Related Articles:
Public Service Electric and Gas still responding to Sandy
Public Service Electric and Gas files customer impacts of Energy Strong Read more about: Public Service Electric and Gas, PSE&G
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3. Gartner predicts IT trends in energy
As the industry faces significant challenges from ongoing environmental sensitivity, changing policymaker attitudes and consumer expectations, a number of trends have emerged that will affect the energy industry. Among the trends predicted by Gartner, Inc.: - Utility IT leaders have opportunities to use social media as a customer acquisition and retention medium for competitive energy retailers, as a consumer engagement channel to drive customer participation in energy efficiency programs and as the emerging area of crowd-sourcing distributed energy resources coordination. Social media for outage communications is also rising in importance and value for utilities and customers experiencing outages. Opportunities to use social media to improve internal utility business processes are starting to emerge.
- Lowering costs and improving the accuracy and effectiveness of the field force are the main drivers for utilities to deploy mobile and wireless technologies. Mobile and location-aware technology spans hardware (such as ruggedized laptops, PDAs and smartphones), communication products (such as navigation, routing and tracking technologies like GPS) and services (such as cellular digital packet data and general packet radio service, using high-speed terrestrial data networks, Wi-Fi and satellites).
- Increasing use of in-memory computing (IMC) application infrastructure technologies as enablers inside multiple types of software and hardware products will result in rapid IMC adoption by mainstream, risk-averse IT organizations. The ability of IMC to support high-scale, high-throughput and low-latency use cases will make it possible for IT organizations to implement innovative scenarios, such as those addressing processing of the smart-grid-generated metering and real-time sensor data.
- Virtually all new technology projects in utilities will require a combination of IT and OT investment and planning, such as AMI or advanced distribution management systems (ADMSs). More than any industry, the utility sector faces the challenge of the separation between IT and OT management, coupled with the importance of hybrid projects that link IT and OT systems. The industry will benefit by aligning their OT support, standards and procedures with those used for IT, shortening the time to develop governance over OT. This will ensure that when integration of IT and OT is inevitably done there is already some alignment in standards.
For more:
- see this article Related Article:
California utilities rank IT/OT needs Read more about: social media, Gartner Research
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4. SEPA solar rankings show new utilities getting into the mix
The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) has named top 10 U.S. electric utilities that have added the most new solar power to their systems and the most solar on a watts-per-customer basis in 2012. Utilities ranking in this year's SEPA Top 10 by Solar Megawatt accounted for 73 percent of all capacity integrated in 2012, a slight increase from 2011. Among the top three in the megawatt rankings are Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison and Public Service Electric and Gas -- which often rank highly due to their expansive customer solar programs and utility purchasing programs. Rounding out the megawatt list are Arizona Public Service, NV Energy, Jersey Central Power & Light, Tucson Electric Power Co., Progress Energy Carolinas, Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Hawaiian Electric Co. All but Progress Energy Carolinas were ranked in 2011, which is in its first year on the list. This is the fifth year that PG&E has topped the list. The SEPA Top 10 Solar Watts-Per-Customer rankings take into account the number of customers each utility serves relative to their solar megawatts installed, giving small utilities a more competitive opportunity to measure their solar energy capacity. Leading the watts rankings are many municipal utilities including the City of St. Mary's, Ohio, Kauai Island Utility Co-op in Hawaii and Bryan Municipal Utilities in Ohio. Both Ohio utilities were not previously ranked and Kauai moved up from number 12 in the 2011 ratings. "Utility companies across the nation are embracing clean energy solutions and showing their commitment to a more diverse energy portfolio improving the environment," said Julia Hamm, president and CEO of SEPA. "We are impressed with the sheer number of new utilities that have moved into the Top 10 lists, particularly those who have never been ranked in the past and are now adopting solar as part of their energy mix, increasingly so as the price of solar power declines year-over-year." For more:
- see the rankings Related Articles:
SEPA awards TEP for utility innovation
SEPA names Top 10 utilities in solar rankings
Only 20 utilities out of 240 make SEPA's cut
SEPA names CEO of the Year Read more about: Solar electric Power Association, SEPA
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5. FL legislature considers killing jobs and local energy
This week, the Florida Legislature is considering HB 4001, which repeals the Renewable Fuels Standard set in 2008. It will also send a message to those who have invested more than $1 billion in six ethanol projects currently underway, specifically Floridians who have invested grants from tax money. "Just as our economy is starting to recover and just as Floridians are poised to have some home-grown energy products, and just as the Federal government prepares to move from 10 percent ethanol to 15, the Florida legislature considers action that will kill jobs, investment and local energy," said Brad Krohn, manager, Highlands U.S. Envirofuels, LLC, and board member of Florida Biofuels and Bioenergy Association. Florida spends about $1 billion annually importing transportation fuels. A growing biofuel industry makes it possible to keep those dollars in Florida. "We need Floridians to realize the potential risk of this legislation," said Honey Rand, Florida Bioenergy and Biofuels Board. "We might as well tell investors that virtually any other location is more desirable because Florida won't even support the industries that they've invested in. That's just crazy." For more:
- see the bill
- visit this website Related Article:
DOE's Bioenergy Research Centers drive biofuels industry forward Read more about: biofuel, bioenergy
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Also Noted SPOTLIGHT ON... Global clean energy investments hit five-year low Total investment in the global clean energy sector fell to $46.1 billion in the first quarter of 2013 -- a 35 percent decrease from the previous quarter -- and investment is now at its lowest quarterly level since the second quarter of 2009, according to Clean Energy Pipeline. Website Quick news from around the Web: > What can the "industrial internet" offer utilities? Article > How could smartphones take over some utility tasks? Article > The House has approved two federal cybersecurity bills. Article > The Equifax Big Picture Outlook on the US Economy- April 15th, 2pm ET / 11am PT Attend this webinar, and you'll gain a clearer understanding of current and future economic indicators along with a high-level analysis of the big issues facing markets today. Register today! > The IT/OT Integration Imperative - April 23, 2 pm ET/ 11 am PT Traditionally, IT and OT systems worked as separate entities; however, the smart grid requires a convergence of both. Join FierceEnergy and a panel of experts as they examine the effects on utilities that do not take steps to converge/integration their IT/OT systems. Register Today.
| > UTC TELECOM 2013 - May 15-17 - Houston, TX Gain critical knowledge through education, networking, and access to cutting-edge information and communication technologies and services from the industry’s leading technology experts. UTC TELECOM is the vehicle to deliver your future. Register online today. > The Smart Grid Customer Education Symposium - June 17 - Nashville, TN This year’s Symposium moves from meter awareness to communications strategies around pricing programs and in-home energy management technologies. Learn from smart grid experts how to build the most comprehensive, integrated communications programs. Register at www.smartgridcustomereducation.com.
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