| This week's sponsor is Silver Spring Networks. | | 
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Publisher's Note: Are you an Energy Industry Innovator? Also Noted: Independent panel: NSA surveillance program targeting foreigners is lawful; DHS raises alarms over malware targeting power operations and much more... OpenADR not just a "California technology"
For more than a decade utilities have been using Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) as the basis of their demand response (DR) programs. OpenADR is an initiative of the OpenADR Alliance whose ecosystem of more than 100 system operators, utilities, energy aggregators, and hardware and software companies support the standard. Article
PSEG betting on the future of EVs
Public Service Electric and Gas (PSEG) is using innovation to encourage New Jersey businesses to provide employees with electric car charging at work, and foster greater adoption of electric cars, which would help to improve the state's air quality, help companies achieve sustainability targets, reduce costs for employees, and foster the country's energy independence. Article
EEI: Utilities should spend 5 percent a year on EVs
To speed adoption by utilities, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has released a roadmap for a long-term, coordinated effort to further drive the development of electric vehicle (EV) technologies in the electric transportation market written by utility fleet directors from across the country. Article
News From Across the Energy Industry:
1. Solar reaching mainstream for utilities
2. PA earns international energy recognition
3. San Bruno calling for removal of CPUC president
More headlines...
Publisher's Note Are you an Energy Industry Innovator?
Increasing pressure to address climate change and environmental sustainability, along with rapid advances in technology, are forcing electric utilities to reinvent themselves. Utility companies rely on technology partners to help them solve the challenges they face, but the marketplace is crowded and it's difficult to wade through all of the options. The Fierce Innovation Awards 2014: Energy Edition are an important vehicle for technology companies to have their product, solution or service stand out from the crowd.  | | We are looking for advanced solutions that solve these critical issues for utility companies, giving them the best opportunity to cut costs, grow revenue, and have the highest potential for easy, rapid and widespread adoption. The Fierce Innovation Awards provide a platform for you to showcase the innovative products and services you have created, not just to our distinguished panel of third-party executives from major North American utilities, but also to our 30,000 industry readers in our Innovation Report. This unparalleled program features 18 distinct categories in the following areas of innovation: Business Side; Transmission & Distribution; End Use; and Technologies. Submissions will be judged on six sets criteria: technology innovation, financial impact, market validation, compatibility with existing networks, end-user customer experience, and overall innovation. All of our winners will receive industry-wide recognition during a live Webcast. Don't wait to apply -- the application deadline is Friday, August 22. Jason Nelson
Publisher, FierceEnergy & FierceSmartGrid Read more about: Fierce Innovation Awards
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Today's Top News 1. New Jersey Energy Resilience Bank to focus on distributed energy resources
As part of its continuing efforts to increase its energy system resiliency and minimize the impact of power outages, New Jersey is investing in developing its Energy Resilience Bank (ERB) -- the first public infrastructure bank in the nation to focus on energy resilience. Utilizing $200 million through New Jersey's second Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) allocation, the ERB will support the development of distributed energy resources at critical facilities throughout the state.  | | Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Mrs. Gemstone | Throughout Superstorm Sandy, distributed energy resources -- including combined heat and power, fuel cells and off-grid solar inverters with battery storage -- allowed some critical facilities, such as hospitals, wastewater treatment plants and universities, to remain operational while the electric grid was down. The launch of the ERB will enable many more such facilities to remain operational during future outages through the benefits of distributed energy resources like lower and more stable energy costs, a cleaner environment through reduced emissions, and increased overall efficiency. "Distributed energy resources proved extremely effective following Superstorm Sandy; unfortunately, due to high initial costs, many critical facilities do not have these energy resilience solutions in place," said Michele Brown, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. "The ERB will help address this unmet need by providing technical and financial support to critical facilities across New Jersey to ensure they have a path for building energy resilience." The ERB will be focused on providing capital, both low interest loans and grants, to critical facilities that offer the greatest resilience benefits for the residents of the state, including water and wastewater treatment plants and hospitals -- with subsequent funding directed toward other critical facilities, such as transportation networks, emergency response facilities including police, fire, and EMS, and schools that can function as shelters in case of emergency. For more:
- see the action plan Related Articles:
NYSSGC: Governor's energy strategy shows leadership, vision
Energy Strong system hardening begins too late for 2014 hurricane season Read more about: Energy Resiliency Bank, Superstorm Sandy
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| This week's sponsor is Kony. | 
| Webinar: Capitalizing on the digital transformation: Providing mobile value for customers and utilities
Did you miss it? | Now available on-demand
This Kony webinar will address how utilities can provide mobile value to their customers while increasing customer engagement and trust in the utility brand. Register Today! |
2. Why smart grid investments fail
The Smart Grid Research Consortium (SGRC) has released a report identifying the main reasons why investment returns at cooperative and public utilities fail to meet utility expectations. "Smart grid investments seem like the perfect new technology application -- transforming utility business practices, [as well as to] provide grid control capabilities that improve efficiency, provide enough cash flow to cover interest and principal payments and even give some rate relief," said Dr. Jerry Jackson, research director of the Smart Grid Research Consortium. "Those results can often be achieved if utility and customer characteristics are right, if smart grid investment strategies are designed appropriately and if implementation proceeds as planned." However, in its review of co-op and public utility investment outcomes, SGRC found that at a growing number of utilities these and other conditions are often not met, requiring unanticipated rate increases to make up for shortfalls in realized savings. The report identifies seven important reasons for these outcomes, including vendor/integrator business case analysis; absence of risk analysis; failure to quantify unique utility and customer characteristics; subjective system integrator/prime contractor selection; software performance failure; inadequate post-AMI implementation strategies; and insufficient utility due diligence. "One of the interesting findings in our study was that many utilities who fail to achieve ROI targets are also failing to take advantage of opportunities to significantly improve smart grid investment returns," Jackson said. "Traditional cautious utility approaches are unnecessary and detrimental to financial outcomes for certain smart grid initiatives." Jackson cites an example of the EPRI Guidebook for Cost/Benefit Analysis of Smart Grid Demonstration Projects which suggests that "after the VVO/CVR system is installed and tested, the efficacy of CVR will be examined through two years of day-on/day-off operation that will provide data to feed a regression analysis." Jackson explains, however, that information from smart meters can be used in day-ahead experiments and real-time applications to fine-tune CVR applications as soon as smart meters begin transmitting information, two years in advance of the EPRI recommendation. Two years of CVR savings can be enough in some cases to pay one-third to one-half the cost of the AMI system that is providing this information -- and delayed implementation of customer engagement programs dilute savings while these benefits remain unrealized, Jackson concludes. Jackson advises that utilities who have embarked on smart grid projects reassess post AMI project development and implementation plans as projects proceed. For more:
- see the report Read more about: Electric Power Research Institute
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3. IHS makes very specific prediction about smart cities
The number of smart cities worldwide will quadruple within a 12-year period -- with at least 88 by 2025 -- proliferating as local governments work with the private sector to cope with a multitude of challenges confronting urban centers, according to IHS Technology. Further, IHS expects annual investments in smart city projects to surpass $12 billion in 2025 -- up from just more than $1 billion in 2013.  | | Credit: IHS | In 2013, there were 21 smart cities globally -- defined by IHS as cities that have deployed or are currently piloting the integration of information, communications and technology (ICT) solutions across three or more different functional areas of a city, including mobile and transport, energy and sustainability, physical infrastructure, governance, and safety and security. The combined Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region represented the largest number of smart cities in 2013, but IHS predicts Asia-Pacific will take the lead in 2025 with Asia-Pacific accounting for 32 smart cities, Europe having 31, and the Americas contributing 25. Smart cities are emerging in response to an increasingly urbanized world dealing with scarce resources and the need to increase energy efficiency. London, for example, is retrofitting both residential and commercial buildings to lessen carbon dioxide emissions, as well as adopting charging infrastructure to support the introduction of 100,000 electric vehicles -- in order to meet environmental and energy efficiency targets. Smart cities can deal with issues such as congestion and energy waste, while also allocating stressed resources more efficiently and helping to improve quality of life. Where water is a scarce commodity, smart cities can allocate it using sensors to manage water use or provide critical information on water-storage levels. In Spain, for example, soil-humidity sensors detect when land requires irrigating for more sustainable water use. Cities across the United States are discovering the benefits of light-emitting diodes (LED) in street lighting -- an area that can take up as much as 40 percent of a city's energy budget. For more:
- see this guide Related Articles:
North American smart water management growing
Global leaders embracing smart cities
Smart Cities: Choice or necessity? Read more about: smart cities
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4. Large-scale renewables driving flexible AC transmission systems
Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS), which mitigate voltage drops on the power grid, have evolved significantly during the past 40 years. With the rapid growth of large-scale renewable energy projects, which often supply intermittent power, demand is driving the need for FACTS, according to Navigant Research. Complex engineered solutions such as static VAR compensators (SVC) and static synchronous compensators (STATCOM) have been developed to address emerging local transmission grid conditions and improve the reliability and stability of the high-voltage (HV) transmission grid. Since AC transmission systems are prevalent in the transmission industry, the installation of FACTS solutions will continue, both to replace existing aging infrastructure and to support the trouble-free interconnection of wind and renewable generation. In fact, Navigant predicts cumulative FACTS investments by utilities and power grid operators will total $42.3 billion from 2014 through 2022. "The majority of electricity transmission systems in service today rely on many of the same technologies that existed at their conception more than a century ago," said James McCray, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. "Sophisticated FACTS technologies demonstrate tremendous potential to provide solutions to problems -- such as localized voltage sag, power factor fluctuations, and flicker -- that are caused by renewables intermittency, increasing industrial loads, and power plant retirements." The capital costs and uncertainty associated with new transmission grid and high-voltage substation construction are very high, especially in an era of distributed renewable energy resources, according to the report, resulting in transmission grid operators and utilities seeking to mitigate voltage drops over long-haul transmission lines -- driving the requirement for new, large-scale FACTS deployments. For more:
- see this article Related Articles:
NREL: FPGA is clear path for smart grid power conversion
Understanding and designing the smart grid Read more about: Navigant Research
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5. A global view of large-scale EV deployment
The Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) -- comprised of national smart grid organizations from 15 countries and the European Union -- makes several observations and recommendations concerning the large-scale rollout of electric vehicles (EV) and their impact on the grid in its recently released report on international developments in electric vehicles.  | | Credit: Wikimedia Commons/J. Hammerschmidt | While the technology as a whole -- and batteries in particular -- is evolving very quickly, one of the biggest obstacles is range anxiety. The key, according to GSGF, is to increase the number of publicly-available charging stations. The reason: With few electric vehicles, there is no real business incentive for commercial companies to build infrastructure; without charging stations, consumers hold off buying an electric vehicles, the report explains. Therefore, GSGF contends, public infrastructure should be installed before the rollout of vehicles, at least to a certain extent, in order to relieve anxiety. In order to prepare for future large-scale EV deployment, it is imperative to focus on sustainable policies to support both infrastructure and vehicle deployment, the report says, citing several countries where promotion for alternative fuel vehicles failed because incentives phased out too early -- before successful introduction and before the market could stand on its own. On the other hand, the report notes that countries that succeeded in promoting alternative fuel vehicles also succeeded in supporting infrastructure for the new fuel. Interoperability and standardization are also important; however, evolutions resulting from the interaction between technology producers and the safety restrictions of different power grids have resulted in the development of different standards for different countries and different brands. Many countries have been, or are currently, testing EV to grid integration and have successfully demonstrated that EVs are geared up and ready to go, and the GSFG report's recommendation is sharing the outcomes of those experiences and grid analyses in order to enhance the value of electric vehicles and hopefully lead to more consistent standards across countries. For more:
- see the report Related Articles:
U.S. EVs maturing, expanding
Global governments supporting EVs
EEI: Utilities should spend 5 percent a year on EVs
Electric utilities driving EVs with tariff, rate structures Read more about: Electric Vehicles
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Also Noted > Independent panel: NSA surveillance program targeting foreigners is lawful. Article (WaPo)
> DHS raises alarms over malware targeting power operations. Article (Nextgov via Global Security Newswire)
> A computer to watch over federal watch guards. Article (Nextgov)
> Rising use of encryption foiled the cops a record 9 times in 2013. Article (Wired)
> 'Enhanced Security Measures' ordered for some foreign airports. Article (Roll Call) And Finally... What a lightning storm looks like from space. Video (Neatorama) News From Across the Energy Industry:
> Keeping nuclear as part of a diverse energy mix Post
> NREL CIP to drive down cost of wind Post
> Energy constraints driving energy efficiency globally Post
> NV Water Authority turning to solar for energy, water savings Post
> Solar energy needs copper Post
> Anomaly? Global wind market slowed in 2013 Post
> LASER pinpoints LA solar shortfalls Post
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