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.

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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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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HomeGrid Forum and ZigBee Alliance Team to Establish Wired and Wireless Smart Home Applications

The HomeGrid Forum recently announced a new liaison agreement with the ZigBee Alliance to extend their collaboration on the ZigBee Smart Energy standard development. This work will pave the way for consumers and utilities to use ZigBee Smart Energy version 2.0 wireless or wired networks to further advance Smart Grid programs and deliver new energy, financial and environmental savings.

Both organizations will collaborate on ensuring ZigBee Smart Energy version 2 and HomeGrid Forum’s ITU-T G.hn and G.hnem standards can be utilized in a wide variety of smart grid usage models. When finalized, applications such as AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure), Demand Response (DR), Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEV) and any other Smart Grid application/service that needs a reliable Home Area Network (HAN) or distribution/access network will benefit.

Control4, NV Energy to begin EMS rollout in June

The first real-world smart grid rollout of home energy management systems will take place this year in Nevada, according to home control company Control4.

Control4 will provide Nevada’s NV Energy with 20,000 of its EMS 100 energy management systems, which consist of a 5-inch EC-100 touchscreen display and a WT-100 wireless thermostat. The rollouts will begin in June 2011, likely in southern Nevada, and continue through 2012.

NV Energy customers voluntarily participating in NV Energy’s programs will be able to access and use the data collected by smart meters to wisely manage energy in their homes. The EC-100 energy controller’s color touchscreen interface will provide up-to-the-minute feedback on their electricity consumption and costs. The system will analyze their electricity usage and accommodate additional energy management applications and load controllers on their home area network.

According to Control4, the EMS 100 can also directly control some lights, such as turning off outdoor lighting. The system contains radios to connect to the two-way smart meter, a ZigBee-based radio to communicate with smart appliances, and a Wi-Fi radio for the home network. Plug-in modules and other devices will allow control of a variety of home systems.

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Calico Energy Solution to Enable Chicago Suburb to Realize a City- wide, Energy-efficient Smart Grid

Calico Energy Services today announced it has executed contractual agreements with the City of Naperville, IL and its Department of Public Utility-Electric to deploy an advanced energy management platform.

As part of the City of Naperville’s smart grid deployment, Calico is providing their award-winning Energy Intelligence Suite™ (EIS) energy management platform and hardware from Schneider Electric. In addition, Calico’s platform connects to the city’s new Elster AMI meters.

Calico’s EIS™ platform gives Naperville’s Public Utility complete command-and-control over its smart grid data system, allowing the utility to manage demand, improve reliability, reduce costs, and quantify the impact of energy management programs through integrated analytics. The platform also gives utility customers the ability to view and control their energy use through energy management portals, on-premise displays, energy management devices, and electric vehicle charging (EV) systems.

Naperville’s smart grid program represents one of the broadest deployments of an integrated energy management platform at a municipality to date, and includes Calico’s EIS OpCenter™ for load control management, HomeSMART™ for home automation, BusinessSMART™ for small commercial automation, and EIS Mobile™ energy management module.

The combined solution helps automate the City’s electric, water, and natural gas systems, boost energy efficiency, and manage energy demand. In addition, residents will be able to purchase a variety of home automation devices through local retailers to manage their energy use, including: in-home displays, programmable/controllable thermostats, electricity load control devices, and on-premise electricity storage units. The complete smart grid solution is scheduled to be rolled out in Q3 2011.

The City’s smart grid project will empower customers with expanded choices about how they consume energy, education about how to conserve energy and automate savings, and the ability to view water, natural gas, and electricity usage and costs. The program will also ensure greater reliability of energy through demand response, and provide a variety of electricity rate structures that enable customer cost- savings. The combined technologies provided by Calico, Schneider Electric, and Elster will expand the City’s communications network by installing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and smart meters, automating its distribution grid, and implementing Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) to increase power quality.

Parks Associates reports 28% of U.S. households looking to adopt electricity usage displays

Rising energy costs and economic conditions are motivating consumer interest in energy management solutions but also setting high expectations for these technologies, according to Parks Associates, which will host Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer on January 24-26, 2011, in Austin, Texas.

The conference agenda features the session "Solutions that Deliver on the Promise," January 25 at 11 a.m., with executives from ecobee, Oncor Electric Delivery Company, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory discussing business strategies that align with user needs and expectations.

Over one-fourth of U.S. consumers are very interested in an in-home display that shows their current electricity usage, with 90% willing to pay $90-$100 for this solution. However, this level of interest comes only if it can help save 10-30% off their electric bill. Our Residential Energy Management project is finding, behind the high overall interest in energy-saving solutions, consumers have very specific expectations that must be met before they adopt.

Confirmed speakers for "Solutions that Deliver on the Promise":
• Stuart Lombard, President and CEO, ecobee
• Bill Muston, Manager, Research & Development, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC
• Steve Widergren, Principal Engineer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Smart Energy Summit is the premier event examining business opportunities and technical challenges as smart grid technologies move into the home. The agenda features keynote speakers from IBM, Grid Net, and the U.S. Department of Commerce and includes interactive panels and presentations focused on strategies to demonstrate the value proposition of new energy management products, services, and standards.

HomeGrid Forum President Re-Elected to SmartGrid Interoperability Panel Governing Board

HomeGrid Forum, the non-profit trade group promoting the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union’s G.hn and G.hnem energy management technologies, announced in December that Matthew Theall, President of HomeGrid Forum and a Technology Strategist at Intel Corporation, was re-elected to another two-year term on the SmartGrid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) Governing Board.

The mission of the SGIP is to provide a strong framework for coordination of all stakeholders of the Smart Grid to accelerate standards harmonization and development. The SGIP does not write standards, instead it develops and reviews use cases, identifies requirements, lists approved standards, and proposes action plans for achieving Smart Grid interoperability and coexistence goals.

The SGIP is managed and guided by a Governing Board that approves and prioritizes work programs and arranges for the resources necessary to carry out finalized priority action plans. The Governing Board’s responsibilities include facilitating a dialogue with standards development organizations to ensure that the action plans can be implemented. The SGIP Governing Board provides guidance to the SGIP. This guidance includes a broad perspective of the NIST Interoperability Framework and Roadmap vision.

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GE Executive Reveals Promise of Energy Evolution for EU

The European Union can be a leader in the implementation of a 21st century energy infrastructure, according to the keynote address by GE’s Bob Gilligan at the IEEE Smart Grid World Forum in Brussels today. While outlining the challenges of growing electricity demand and its environmental impact, Gilligan showed how emerging energy solutions can enable Europe and the world to sustain and improve our energy-dependent lifestyles. The key, he said, is starting with a viable roadmap to guide measured improvement over the coming decades.

He sees tomorrow’s breakthroughs, like the European Union’s proposed “Energy Highways” for transporting remote wind and solar power to urban consumption centers, as an important element of an overall energy plan to meet our growing energy needs in a more sustainable way. We need clear government policy, with funding support, to drive the utility investments needed to assure reliable, clean power and improved energy efficiency from energy generation, through delivery, to consumption.

The European Parliament and Council’s 20/20/20 initiative to increase energy efficiency by 20 percent, produce 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent is a positive demonstration of the region’s commitment to responsible energy leadership, Gilligan said. He called on governments and regulators at the national level to provide the leadership, incentives and accommodations needed for the transformation to a low-carbon economy.

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Burbank Water and Power Selects Tropos Wireless Mesh Network for Smart Grid Communications

Tropos Networks, the leader in high reliability outdoor wireless IP networks, was selected by Burbank Water and Power (BWP) as a key element in their Smart Grid network of networks. To improve service and empower its 51,000 electricity customers to use energy wisely, BWP is implementing comprehensive Smart Grid systems across the utility’s entire coverage area. Tropos’ GridCom® architecture will be used as the high performance wireless distribution area network, providing secure connectivity for multiple utility Smart Grid applications.

Key goals of the Smart Grid initiative include enabling customer energy efficiency and demand response, improving operational efficiencies, reducing CO2 emissions, supporting Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PEVs), and integrating renewable energy sources to meet California’s mandate of 33 percent renewable power by 2020.

Upcoming Smart Grid program phases include full AMI deployment to all customers, distribution automation, demand response, thermal energy storage systems at select customer sites, and new control systems. Several retail services are planned that utilize the Smart Grid to enable energy efficiency, demand management and other programs that will give customers greater information and control over energy usage. BWP does not expect to raise rates to fund the program; instead, it will cover costs with the SGIG, cost reductions related to operational efficiency improvements, and selling services utilizing excess capacity on its communication systems.

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Investments supporting smart grid innovations

Investments in the smart grid and related technologies continue to grow. The latest was made last week by General Electric which announced the first round of winners of the GE ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid. The competition was launched in August, 2010 and is co-funded by venture capital firms Emerald Technology Ventures, Foundation Capital, KPCB and Rockport Capital. 3,500 applications from 150 countries were received by GE for the $200 million prize pot.

Last week’s announcement showed GE’s strong interest in supporting solar, EV charging stations, energy management software and grid optimization projects. $55 million have been awarded as part of the first round; GE plans to make more rounds of investments over the next 18 months. Included in the list of winners is North Carolina based Consert, which Parks Associates has profiled in our Residential Energy Management: Company, Alliance & Technology Profiles report and will also be covered in our latest Home Area Networks (HAN): Analysis & Forecast 2010 report scheduled to be published by the end of this month. According to the press release from GE, Consert’s load curtailment technology helps increase operations efficiency and act as a virtual power plant. The product complements GE Digital Energy’s existing solutions to meet the unique needs of these market segments.

Besides supporting the firms financially, GE will provide winners access to its engineers and sales staff. The fact that GE is also developing energy management technology in-house, such as the GE Nucleus, and investing in competing technologies along with other cleantech ventures, it is clear that GE wants to be involved in all facets of the new and improved power grid.

The government and academia have also continued their financial support for the smart grid with the DOE announcing investments of $19 million in five smart grid projects and Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy launching a $1.2 million fund for researchers focused on smart grid related studies. Investments in consumer focused solutions are still taking a backseat to grid and renewable energy related investments, but we expect this to change over the next 4-5 years. Based on our forecast, by the end of 2014 approximately 9 million residential energy management systems will be in use in U.S. households. This fact, coupled with a growing interest among consumers to have better insight into their consumption, is attracting interest from all smart grid participants.

SmartSynch GridRouter Performs Successfully During Duke Energy Pilot Program

SmartSynch, a smart grid technology company utilizing standard IP communications via cellular networks, announced that its GridRouter™ universal communications solution has performed successfully in energy management pilot programs conducted by Duke Energy at businesses and universities.

With the aid of a custom software application developed by Duke Energy for this project, the GridRouter enables distribution of energy efficiency data, demand response and pricing information from Duke’s corporate information systems back to the customer’s building automation systems. Duke Energy designed the software application, which resides on the GridRouter, using a software development kit that SmartSynch built into the solution to allow utilities to design custom software applications to meet specific smart grid needs.

Launched in December 2009, SmartSynch’s GridRouter is one of the industry’s first universal smart grid communications solution. With the GridRouter, utilities can seamlessly and easily communicate with every possible device on the smart grid regardless of make, model or communication protocol.

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eMeter Announces Smart Grid Partnership with Convergys to Extend Next-Generation Rating and Billing Capabilities to Utilities

eMeter, a leader in Smart Grid management software, announced its partnership with Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), a global leader in relationship management, to provide proven real-time rating, billing and data management capabilities to utilities and their customers. The partnership is aimed at evolving current utility billing and customer care systems to enhance the time it takes for utilities and consumers to realize true Smart Grid value while reducing any potential risks which may arise during deployment.

With the introduction of the Smart Grid and the technology advancements made to date, utilities are facing challenges with data management and customer engagement – key elements to the success of any Smart Grid project. These challenges are not unlike those that the telecommunications industry addressed in its nascent years. Convergys and eMeter together deliver proven and responsive technologies designed to help address the needs of utilities while addressing the concerns of their customers by providing them with clear and relevant information about their personal energy use in a timely manner.

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Wi-Fi Alliance joins forces with HomePlug Powerline

The Wi-Fi Alliance and the HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced a recent agreement to collaborate on applications that allow smart energy grids to interoperate with "connected" homes.

The two alliances are part of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, a forum that coordinates smart grid standards. They plan to collaborate on wireless and wired network applications for what the forum calls its Smart Energy 2 Applications Profile.

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BRIDGE Energy Group Selected by Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) as the Smart Grid Integration Partner

BRIDGE Energy Group, the trusted advisor and implementation partner in Smart Grid Integration, today announced that OUC—The Reliable One has selected BRIDGE as the Smart Grid integration partner for its Smart Grid initiatives. OUC, which provides electric and water service to more than 313,000 metered accounts in Central Florida, will start integrating Meter Data Management (MDM), Customer Information System (CIS) and Outage Management System (OMS) applications as part of a broader Smart Grid initiative.

BRIDGE will leverage its proven eFAME™ Methodology to integrate OUC's newly acquired eMeter MDM application with OUC's existing CIS and OMS applications across distributed locations. eFAME is BRIDGE's comprehensive and integrated suite of methodologies and blueprints to perform strategic assessment, develop Smart Grid strategy, evaluate vendor products and implement application integration. BRIDGE's technology agnostic and vendor neutral approach will enable OUC to work with various application vendors under a uniform set of standards, thereby reducing risk and bringing transparency across all Smart Grid tracks.

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OPower waiting to add devices to its portfolio

Tendril's purchase of GroundedPower does not change OPower's strategy with respect to entering the smart grid devices space,according to Ogi Kavazovic, OPower senior director for marketing & strategy. The Tendril-GroundedPower deal is gratifying in some ways, he said, noting OPower has been preaching for some time that energy data is not enough to engage consumers.

The acquisition of GroundedPower made public last week will let privately held Tendril offer more management services in the energy-efficiency space. Tendril currently focuses such efforts on real-time energy use displayed on websites and in-home displays. GroundedPower helps consumers set energy-efficiency goals and provides reports on individual and community participation.

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Tendril and Lockheed Martin Collaborate to Deliver Integrated Demand Response Solutions

Tendril, a leading energy management technology provider and Lockheed Martin announced they will be working to integrate Lockheed Martin's SEEload™ Demand Response Management solution with Tendril's energy management platform. The integrated solution provides a comprehensive demand-side management solution that gives consumers greater control over their energy consumption and enables utilities to deploy comprehensive, secure and standards-based demand response (DR) programs.

The integration enables utilities to deploy Open ADR-based (automated demand response) programs across their residential, commercial and industrial customers. Demand response is increasingly viewed as an essential way to meet growing demand, comply with peak load and emissions reduction targets, and help customers control energy costs.

Lockheed Martin's Smart Energy Enterprise Suite, or SEEsuite Smart Grid Command and Control™ applications gives utilities and system operators unprecedented insight into enterprise operations and control of their smart grid assets.

The Tendril platform helps energy service providers gain insight and control over their energy load by utilizing products and applications that communicate directly with a Utility's existing infrastructure, and subsequently provide customers with the information they need to make good energy management choices day to day.

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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.

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