Pecan Street Project Goes Live with First Phase of Smart Grid Deployment

Pecan Street Project Inc. announced that it has completed systems installation and has gone live with the first phase of its smart grid demonstration project in Austin’s Mueller community.

Deployed by Austin-based Incenergy LLC, the home smart grid systems capture minute-to-minute energy usage for the whole home and six major appliances or systems. The project achieved an installed cost per home of $341 ($241 for equipment plus $100 for installation).

The systems are deployed in 100 homes at Mueller, all of which are green built and 11 of which have rooftop solar PV systems. This spring, Pecan Street Project will deploy Incenergy systems in a second group of 100 homes outside Mueller that are at least 10 years old. All participants in both groups are volunteers.

During the 12-month first phase, project researchers will learn about how homeowners use electricity, gas and specific appliances during the course of the day. This will mark only the second publicly-reported research on the daily energy profiles of Sunbelt homes (the other is a 1999 University of Central Florida study) and the first to incorporate data on output from rooftop solar panels and on the homes’ energy efficiency attributes.

For the complete article, please click here.

Panamax/Furman Becomes the Newest Smart Energy Summit Sponsor

Parks Associates wecomes Panamax/Furman as the newest sponsor of the 2011 Smart Energy Summit in Austin, TX.

Panamax/Furman’s BlueBOLT® technology provides an integrated hardware/cloud-based software solution for power and energy management of home electronics. With BlueBOLT, users can monitor energy usage, define budgets and alerts, control power to electronics in real time, and schedule conservation to eliminate energy waste when electronics are not in use.

For more information, visit www.mybluebolt.com.

Motorola Mobility's 4Home Solution Becomes the Newest Smart Energy Summit Sponsor

Parks Associates would like to introduce the newest sponsor for the Smart Energy Summit 2011, Motorola Mobility's 4Home Solution.

Motorola Mobility now offers the 4Home software platform, an exciting new way to expand your service offerings for Home Control, Home and Health Monitoring and Energy Management. With 4Home, your customers can now simplify their lives efficiently and affordably by:
• Analyzing and optimizing energy consumption
• Monitoring and securing their residence
• Managing personal health
• Controlling climate systems, lighting and appliances

To learn more about the 4Home Solution, please click here.

HomePlug Powerline Alliance Becomes The Newest Sponsor Of The Smart Energy Summit 2011

Parks Associates welcome HomePlug Powerline Alliance, a company that enables and promotes rapid availability, adoption and implementation of cost effective, interoperable and standards-based home powerline networks and products, as the newest sponsor for the 2011 Smart Energy Summit in Austin.

Founded in 2000, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, Inc. is an industry-led initiative with 70 member companies that creates specifications and certification logo programs for using the power lines for reliable home networking and Smart Grid applications.

The Alliance accelerates worldwide adoption for HomePlug technology by collaborating with international standards organizations such as the IEEE and through market development and user education programs. Sponsor members include Atheros Communications (ATHR); Cisco (CSCO); Comcast (CMCSK); Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK); GE Energy, an affiliate of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); Gigle Networks; Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723); SPiDCOM Technologies; and STMicroelectronics (STM). Contributor members include Arkados (OTCBB: AKDS) and Corporate Systems Engineering.

For more information, visit www.homeplug.org.

We thank you for your continued support!

Climate Talk Alliance Joins 2011 Smart Energy Summit Supporter List

Parks Associates welcome Climate Talk Alliance, an organization of companies committed to developing a common communication infrastructure, to the newest list of supporters for the 2011 Smart Energy Summit in Austin.

The ClimateTalk Alliance is an organization of industry-leading companies who are committed to developing a common communication infrastructure for HVAC and Smart Energy devices and enabling the interoperability of diverse systems. The ClimateTalk Alliance has been formed as an ecosystem to drive collaboration on standards to address fragmentation in the HVAC Communications market and provide interoperability for applications in the Smart Energy arena.

The ClimateTalk Alliance is open to companies committed to providing long term interoperability of communicating devices that provide reduction in energy consumption while improving comfort and end user experience.

For more information, visit www.ClimateTalk.org.

We thank you for your continued support!

Smart Energy Summit 2011, agenda and keynotes announced

Parks Associates announced the agenda and confirmed keynotes for the Smart Energy Summit, the premier executive conference focused on new energy management solutions, opportunities for multiple industries, and consumer demand.

The agenda for Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, January 24-26, 2011, in Austin, Texas, features presentations and in-depth discussion with experts in energy management and related industries. Sessions provide attendees with the knowledge and insight, research data, and perspective necessary to succeed in this space. The 2010 event hosted over 225 executives, including CEOs and vice presidents from major U.S. and international energy players.

Keynote Speakers:

George W. Arnold, Eng.Sc.D., National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce

Andres Carvallo, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer, Grid Net

Preliminary List of Sessions:

• 2011 Landscape for Energy Management Solutions

• Smart Grid Deployments: Balancing Benefits and Costs

• Solutions that Deliver on the Promise

• Perspectives on Europe and Asia

• Translating Lessons Learned: Europe and Asia to U.S.

• Energy as a Service

• Opportunities Ahead of the HAN

• Partners in Progress: The Ecosystem Continues to Grow

• Perspectives from the Ecosystem

• Opportunities beyond the HAN

• Gateways into the Home

For more information or to submit to speak, visit www.smartenergysummit2011.com .

Austin Energy Smart Grid to Get Smarter

Austin Energy is purchasing software that will enable the Utility to get signals from the meters indicating when a customer has lost power, when the power has come back on, and to verify that the customer in fact has electricity. The Austin City Council this week approved purchase of the software up to $330,369.

The software will help enhance the efficiency and speed of outage restoration and is one of the first steps toward testing and developing a self-reporting grid that will one day eliminate the need for customers to report power outages by phone as the technology matures.

Currently, just 20 percent of customers report their outage, slowing the identification of the cause of the outage and the speed of restoration. In combination with the software and customer calls, Austin Energy will be able to diagnose an outage quicker and dispatch crews based on the information.

The software is expected to be installed and operational within a year.

Smart Energy Summit Speakers Announced

International research firm Parks Associates announced the speakers for the Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer. This conference, hosted in cooperation with Austin Energy, takes place January 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Tex.

Keynote speakers include Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy; Dr. George W. Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce; and Bob Heffron, Utility Market Manager, Verizon.

Confirmed Speakers:

Didier Boivin, SVP, Marketing, Watteco

Kris Bowring, Sr. Director, Emerging Business, Best Buy

Susan Cashen, VP, Marketing, Control4

Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer, Exceptional Innovation

Luke Clemente, General Manager, Smart Grid, GE Energy

Mike Coop, Director, Smart Grid Strategy, HomeGrid Forum

Reid Cram, Product Manager, Vantage Controls

Joe Dada, President & CEO, SmartLabs

Aaron Deyonker, Dir., Product Management, eMeter

David Dollihite, VP, Product & Bus. Dev., Mass Markets Energy, Direct Energy

Greg Ennis, Technical Dir., Wi-Fi Alliance

David Friedman, Senior Dir., Strategic Marketing, ZeroG Wireless, Inc.

Dan Gittleman, Chairman & CEO, OpenPeak

Vince Groff, Executive Dir.r, Cox Communications

Brent Hodges, Dir., Smart Energy Partnerships, Reliant Energy

Scott Hublou, SVP, Products, Co-Founder, EcoFactor

Jim Johnson, President & CEO, uControl

Stephen R. Johnson, Jr., Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Itron

Ogi Kavazovic, Sr. Director, Marketing & Strategy, Opower

Michael Kuhlmann, President, RCS

Brewster McCracken, Executive Dir., Pecan Street Project

Letha McLaren, VP, Energy Products, iControl Networks

Kevin Meagher, CEO, Intamac Systems

Roy Perry, Dir., Technology Integration, CableLabs

Thomas Pickral, Dir., Business Development, HAI

Carol Priefert, Sr. Mgr, Global Consumer Insights & Tech., Global Product Org., Whirlpool

Jon Rappaport, Chairman, USNAP; Product Mgr, Sensus Metering Systems

Bill Scheffler, Director, North American Sales, Z-Wave

Bill Simpson, Sr. Energy Efficiency Program Manager, Progress Energy

Michael Smith, VP Energy Solutions, Lutron Electronics Co.

Dr. Kenneth Wacks, Member, GridWise Architecture Council, U.S. Department of Energy

Gene Wang, CEO, People Power

Nate Williams, CMO, 4Home

Tim Woods, Founding Partner, POCO Labs

Visit www.smartenergysummit2010.com for more information or to register for the event.

Pecan Street Project Director to discuss Austin’s smart-grid demonstration and Energy Internet project at Smart Energy Summit

Parks Associates announced the Smart Energy Summit will feature a special session focusing on the Pecan Street Project, with a presentation from the project’s executive director Brewster McCracken on January 27, 3:30 p.m. Mr. McCracken will discuss the activities of the Pecan Street Project, which was awarded $10.4 million in federal stimulus money in November 2009 for its proposed Energy Internet project.

Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted by Parks Associates in cooperation with Austin Energy on January 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency, Austin, Tex., focuses on the opportunities and challenges in residential energy technologies.

The Pecan Street Project in Austin, Texas, is a city-wide laboratory devoted to revolutionizing the delivery, use, and generation of energy. It provides a place where researchers and entrepreneurs can develop, test, and implement the urban power system of the future.

George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability at NIST, to keynote Parks Associates’ Smart Energy Summit

Parks Associates announced today that George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce, will deliver the afternoon keynote “NIST Smart Grid Interoperability Standards and the Home Area Network” at Smart Energy Summit.

Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted by Parks Associates in cooperation with Austin Energy on January 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency, Austin, Tex., focuses on the opportunities and challenges in residential energy technologies and identifies business strategies for in-home energy monitoring and management systems.

Sessions will include research from Parks Associates’ Residential Energy Management project, which features nationwide consumer surveys and industry profiles to assess the market for energy-related digital systems and services. The most recent consumer survey reports 80-85% of U.S. households are willing to pay for in-home energy monitors if these solutions can lower their electric bills.

In his keynote on January 26, 1:45 p.m., Dr. Arnold will discuss the challenges that need to be addressed in developing the interface between the Smart Grid and the Home Area Network. NIST is coordinating the development of a robust, interoperable framework of technical standards that will help transform the nation’s electric infrastructure into an “energy internet.”

Dr. Arnold was appointed National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability at the NIST in April 2009. He is responsible for leading the development of standards underpinning the nation’s Smart Grid. He joined NIST in September 2006 after a 33-year career in the telecommunications and information technology industry.

For the full press release, click here.

Landmark “Pecan Street Project” Brings Together City of Austin To Design Energy System of the Future

Representatives from the City of Austin, Austin Energy, The University of Texas’ Austin Technology Incubator, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) unveiled details of the Pecan Street Project, a bold effort to design a new, clean energy infrastructure, business model and proving ground for tomorrow’s energy technology. Corporate partnerships with Dell, GE Energy, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor and GridPoint were also announced.

Austin is not the only city embarking on a “utility redesign” or “smart grid” project. But because Texas has its own grid, modifications to the power system do not require federal approval. And because the City Council is Austin Energy’s board of directors, Austin is in a unique position to implement technology changes more quickly and offer its electric grid as a real-world proving ground for tomorrow’s clean energy technology.

The project scope includes designing a system that: delivers plentiful, reliable and affordable energy to Austin’s growing citizenry; is responsible with Texas’ most precious natural resources, like air and water; can eliminate the need for more polluting power plants; produces a power plant’s worth of energy, generated within the city limits via renewable resources, and that;
Austin intends to share with cities across America and around the world. This project will help cities map out the creation of the infrastructure it will take to power their economies and preserve the environment.

Corporate partners will assist the project team by providing staff resources and strategic guidance within their areas of expertise. Partners will also help the project team identify technologies that can be pilot-tested on the local electrical grid once the initial phase of the project is completed.

For more information about the Pecan Street Project, visit www.pecanstreetproject.org.