Microsoft has announced Hohm (Home + Ohm?) to compete with Google’s PowerMeter. Microsoft’s offering goes beyond Google’s by including all utilities, not just participating partners and by extending to natural gas. Neither are particularly useful yet for most retail consumers, but both are extremely significant precursors to profound changes in the way the electric utility business works. There are several important trends that these virtual meters signify.
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Written by Steve Collier | Jun 25, 2009
There is a thought provoking article on the microgrid and smart homes in the July / August issue of Fast Company magazine. You should take a look at “Why the Microgrid Could be the Answer to Our Energy Crisis” because it will stretch the limits of your thinking about the electric utility business.
This article has an interesting correlation with something that I saw last week while visiting Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative in Bastrop, Texas. Their CEO, Mark Rose, is proactively planning for a future in which the cooperative is “energy neutral.” That is, he wants and expects that his customers, both residential and commercial / industrial, will generate enough power and energy to that the annual net take by Bluebonnet from the grid is near zero. Why? Because Mark does not believe that the incumbent electric utilities, including their current wholesale supplier, the Lower Colorado River Authority, will be willing or able to provide enough generation capacity that is acceptably economical, reliable, sustainable or environmentally benign to meet Bluebonnet’s rapidly growing demand.
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Written by Steve Collier | Jun 24, 2009
Tom Casey, CEO of CURRENT Group LLC, addressed the Milsoft Utility Solutions 2009 User Conference this morning in San Antonio, Texas. CURRENT Group is a global leader in Smart Grid thinking and deployment with an emphasis is on utilizing electronics, telecommunications and information technologies to improve the monitoring and control of the electric distribution grid.
Tom suggested that the term “smart grid” means something different to every person who talks about it, but that everyone pretty much agrees that the electric grid is going to have to get “smarter.” He explained that meeting consumers’ demand for electric energy in the US is going to get progressively more difficult and expensive, making it increasingly important to improve efficiency both for electric utilities and their customers. His list of motivating factors included generation capacity shortages, governmental restrictions on carbon emissions, and increasing penetration of renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
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Written by Steve Collier | Jun 17, 2009
What is the “Smart Grid” and why is it getting so much attention? This is the first in a series of articles that will examine Smart Grid issues and Milsoft’s Smart Grid software solutions. This first installment will cover some foundational concepts and principles. These include:
- What is a grid?
- Is the grid smart?
The next installment will describe why a Smart Grid is necessary. The following installment will describe the characteristics of a Smart Grid and how it can be achieved.
For starters, what is a “grid?” It is a system of electrical generators connected by transmission and distribution lines and equipment to devices that consume electricity. The purpose of the grid is to supply consumers’ enough power and energy to meet consumers’ demands with acceptable economy, reliability and quality. All of the generators, transmission and distribution lines and energy consumption devices in the United States are often referred to as “the grid” although there is actually a collection of some 3,000 plus smaller grids connected together. In some cases the interconnections between and among the smaller grids are numerous and robust. In others the interconnections are few and weak. In every case, however, as further explained below, the grid is fixed, not fluid; ponderous, not agile; reactive, not pro-active; pre-programmed, not adaptable. The grid is not smart.
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Written by Steve Collier | Jun 14, 2009
