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Silver Spring expands Partnership with OG&E on Customer Engagement and Demand Response

Silver Spring Networks is leading provider of smart grid platforms. Recently, they announced that their company is expanding its partnership with Oklahoma’s largest electric company, OG&E. The electric company is expanding its work with Silver Spring as they begin their second year of its demand response study, which currently serves 6,000 OG&E customers. OG&E will leverage Silver Spring for installation, demand management software, in-home energy management technologies, online enrollment services, and program management for the study.

By providing the Silver Spring’s CustomerIQ web portal to its entire smart meter customer base, OG&E has dramatically increased its smart grid leadership in consumer engagement, delivering customer participation, outreach, research and the economic benefits of deploying smart grid technology. Efficiencies created by the Positive Energy Together® program, OG&E estimates it could avoid building two new peaking generation plants between now and 2016.

OG&E is the first utility to offer the recently enhanced and expanded version of the CustomerIQ web portal to all 775,000 of its customers. CustomerIQ enables utilities to directly engage customers to reduce support costs and deliver energy efficiency improvements in meeting overall demand reduction goals.

Silver Spring is leading OG&E’s implementation of a fully integrated demand response solution this summer, to an additional 3,000 residential and business customers. OG&E uses the Silver Spring UtilityIQTM Demand Response Manager back-office software, because the software leverages the Silver Spring IP-based network, which supports multiple smart grid applications on common infrastructure.

For the summer of 2011, participants who volunteer for the second phase of the study will have the opportunity to manage their electricity use and costs with Control4® EC-100 in-home energy displays and the Energate Pioneer PCT. OG&E will use study results from 2010 and 2011 to determine how customers respond to price signals and information delivered via smart technology to reduce energy consumption during peak demand and price periods.

Tendril Partners with UISOL to Provide Smart Grid Technology

Tendril, an Energy Platform company, is partnering with Utility Integration Solutions, Inc. (UISOL), the leading provider of demand response management and automation systems, on a Price Response Demand demonstration project for PJM Interconnection. This project will show how Locational Marginal Price, paired with distributed intelligence, can drive automated residential Demand Response in the home.

The project will also allow PJM to test the end-to-end integration of a near real-time Price Response Demand program, in order to better manage electricity demand. There are two fairly obvious benefits to utilities and other Demand Response providers. The first, by adjusting temperatures on thermostats by one or two degrees throughout the day, utilities can lower overall demand in their service area, which will ultimately result in cost savings for consumers. The second main benefit is that lower level consumption, could also lead to better integration of renewable energy into the grid, which will minimize utilities' need to purchase high-priced energy on the wholesale markets, which in turn, ends up putting savings back in consumers' pockets.

Additionally, a price-responsive demand program can provide significant environmental benefits, as well. By trying to conserve our energy, a price responsive demand program can help reduce consumer reliance on peaking combustion turbines and diesel energy generators, thus allowing for a cleaner environment.

GE, Fuji Electric Joint Venture to Provide Smart Grid Technology in Japan

GE and Fuji Electric Holdings Co., Ltd. has announced a joint venture to design, build, market and service a new generation of electric meters. The joint venture was finalized February 1, 2011. The company has been named GE Fuji Meter Co., Ltd.

These electric meters will be supporting Japan’s advancement towards a smart grid infrastructure. The newly formed joint venture will build upon GE’s proven smart meter technology, as well as, Fuji Electric’s Japan-based manufacturing and sales network, to provide quality, cost-effective meters.

Smart grid advances include easier integration of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, as well as, efficiency and reliability gains. With these advances, Japan will be better equipped to use more zero-emission energy and shrink its carbon footprint.

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Entergy Selects Sensus Technologies for Home Area Network Pilot

Entergy New Orleans, Inc. has selected Sensus to provide its FlexNet™ Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system, electric AMI meters, in-home displays and programmable thermostats to support a Home Area Networking pilot program. The pilot program is partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, and is designed to encourage energy conservation by providing information to consumers about their electricity usage and their associated costs.

Starting in June, for a period of 24 months, Entergy New Orleans will track and analyze the consumption behaviors of four specific customer control groups within the city of New Orleans. Customers in the first group will receive a smart meter; the second group will receive a smart meter and an in-home display; the third group will receive a smart meter and programmable thermostat, and they will also be offered a rebate if they participate in a program to minimize their air conditioning usage during summer peak periods; and the fourth group will have access to an Internet portal that will show close to real-time information about electricity usage and associated costs.

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Tendril Teams with Whirlpool Corporation to Usher in New Era of Smart Appliances

Tendril, a leading energy platform company, and Whirlpool Corporation, the world's leading appliance maker, unveiled a relationship that sets the stage for the rollout of smart home appliances in the U.S. The Tendril platform has the capability to support millions of smart appliances in homes across America.

Tendril will provide the back-end technology infrastructure to support the commercial deployment of smart appliances, including a range of connectivity-enabled services and applications. Whirlpool Corporation will integrate its smart appliances with the Smart Grid infrastructure by extending Tendril’s open standards-based, scalable and secure technology platform. This integrated platform will enable a dialogue between appliances, consumers and energy providers — making the connected home and home energy management a reality. For example, for a refrigerator to actively manage its energy consumption, it must be able to quickly, reliably and seamlessly communicate with the electric utility company.

In this case, the refrigerator will automatically move its defrost cycle to a non-peak time without impacting the performance of the appliance.

Smart appliances can have an even more profound impact on reducing expensive peak demand as well as supporting renewables (e.g., solar and wind) on the Grid. Consumers will also be excited by the new convenience features enabled by a smart appliance.

HAI, Entergy New Orleans join forces on energy management

HAI Smart Grid Solutions has been selected for a partnership with Entergy New Orleans to facilitate the SmartView Energy Management program. HAI will provide nearly 5,000 Home Area Network (HAN) devices for demand response, energy display and comfort control.

Co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Entergy New Orleans, homeowners receive tools and training from Entergy that assists with tracking electricity usage, assists with reducing costs, and in some cases, provides credits on electrical bills. HAI devices are being provided at no cost to users thanks to a Smart Grid Investment Grant program. Enrollment begins now and the official rollout is April 1, 2011.

All 7,000 participants receive a smart meter installed at no charge. A total of 4,400 homes will receive HAI's In-Home Energy Display and 400 homes will receive HAI's Omnistat2 programmable communicating thermostats. On both devices, homeowners can view exact bill to date, projected monthly bill, and see the instantaneous demand plus energy trend of the past hour.

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