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.

Grid Net and Oracle Join Forces to Deliver New Integrated Smart Grid Solutions for Utilities

Grid Net, a global leading provider of real-time, all-IP Smart Grid and Smart Home software platforms for any device and any broadband technology, announced it will work together with Oracle to deliver advanced distribution management systems and meter data management technology to support utilities’ Smart Grid deployments aimed to improve grid reliability and enable smarter energy choices.

Today’s emerging Smart Grid deployments will generate a vast amount of energy usage data and require near real-time, reliable, and secure communications for utilities to efficiently distribute energy and interact with a rapidly growing number of distributed devices. As a Gold level member of the Oracle Partner Network, Grid Net will work closely with Oracle to help deliver complete, open, and integrated Smart Grid solutions to the utilities industry.

Together, these solutions can help utilities efficiently, securely distribute power, improve network reliability and reduce outage durations. The combined solution will operate on a common data model and integrate easily with Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management and Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing providing utilities with a wealth of information that will help them improve network performance and customer satisfaction.

For the full press release, click here.

IBM Teams With Hildebrand to Bring Smart Metering to Homes Across Britain

IBM announced it is teaming with energy consultant Hildebrand to help consumers make more informed decisions about their energy consumption with IBM data management software. As part of this effort, citizens and companies are working together to make more efficient use of energy by collecting, storing and analyzing detailed energy usage information in real time from homes across the UK.

The Hildebrand monitoring system enables real-time analysis of electricity usage for households, or even for individual appliances, to help people make better decisions about energy efficiency in the home and minimize their environmental impact.

The Hildebrand project involves installing small, low-cost energy monitoring devices at groups of homes in five European cities: Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester in the UK, and Plovdiv and Ivanovo in Bulgaria. Each of these groups form a 'living lab,' giving the researchers access to real-world energy usage data, and allowing them to study the behavior of individuals and their attitudes towards energy management.

Homeowners can access this information online in a simple format that displays their electricity usage and perform analytics, such as calculating costs against the users' electricity tariff, or comparing their usage to the average for their group. The end result is that people can make more informed decisions about energy management and change their behavior in order to reduce electricity bills and minimize their environmental impact.

For more information about IBM's smart grid initiative, go to http://www.ibm.com/energy.

IBM Poland and WINUEL Develop the 1st Polish Smart Metering Software Package

IBM Poland and WINUEL SA, announced the first Polish Smart Metering software package to enable intelligent electricity use in more than 15 million households in Poland. The solution was developed jointly with the IBM Software Laboratory in Krakow.

Based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) using WINUEL's programming components and IBM WebSphere, the new solution allows both utility companies and clients to better manage their energy consumption by ensuring detailed, accurate and real-time monitoring at both sides. As a result, utility companies will be able to measure and bill their clients depending on actual energy use. Billing is currently based on rough estimations, which makes the process time consuming and impacts accuracy and income. The solution can be integrated into the platform of any utility company, which also makes it relevant outside of Poland.

The first Polish Smart Metering software package addresses a new 35 million dollar market.

Ventyx Acquisition positions ABB as a key player in energy management

ABB, the global power and automation technology group, has agreed to acquire Ventyx for more than $1 billion to become a leading provider of software solutions for managing energy networks.

ABB will combine its related network management business within the Power Systems division, with Ventyx to form a single unit for energy management software solutions. By providing ABB with broader access to the utility enterprise management market, the acquisition triples the energy management software market available to ABB.

One of Ventyx’s key software applications gives utilities and grid operators the information they need to better match electricity generation with consumption, even at the household level. By generating real-time information on electricity demand, pricing and availability, Ventyx’s software enables a practical business model for utilities to generate revenues from smart grids and carbon trading.