Andres Carvallo Named 2009 CIO Hall of Fame Finalist by CIO Magazine

Andres Carvallo has been named as one of thirteen 2009 CIO Hall of Fame Finalists by CIO Magazine. The CIO Hall of Fame has only 44 inductees - http://www.cio.com/cio-awards/cio-hall-of-fame/index -. This year’s selection was made by fifteen judges and former honorees - http://www.cio.com/article/506230/2009_CIO_Hall_of_Fame_Finalists_Judges - The judges selected six CIOs to join the CIO Hall of Fame this year - http://www.cio.com/article/506214/2009_CIO_Hall_of_Fame_Honorees - The six accomplished IT executives to be inducted into the 2009 CIO Hall of Fame share more than an impressive history of business and technology achievements. What especially stands out among them is a sense of mission and imagination, coupled with a passion to understand and apply IT wherever it can shrink the distance between people and companies, speed commerce, advance health, improve product safety or create new ways to learn and work and live.

It is an honor to be considered for the CIO Hall of Fame. Being a finalist is quite humbling, given the talent and accomplishments by so many CIO peers across the nation. I look forward to my continued contribution toward a sustainable smart grid transformation in Austin, TX, the US and abroad, as Energy and Water creation, management and consumption get redefined for mankind.

Andres Carvallo Named CIO of the Year by Energy Central for 2009

I will be attending Knowledge 2009 to receive the 2009 CIO of the Year Award by Energy Central. It is quite an honor to be recognized by your own peers, who vote for the award along with the journalists from Energy Central, across the nation for the IT and Smart Grid work that I have been leading at Austin Energy and nationwide.

Knowledge CIO Summit 2009

The power industry is changing at a rapid pace. Nowhere is this more evident than the industry’s movement toward a smart grid and the Intelligent Utility™, which applies information to energy to maximize its reliability, affordability, and sustainability, from generation through end-use.

As an information technology executive, you’re tasked with building the business strategies for information-enabled energy. You realize the complexity of making smart grid a reality. An economic downturn, aging infrastructure, stimulus spending, grid security—the pressure to deliver has never been greater.

Knowing how and why other organizations are approaching your same challenges and opportunities is invaluable. Where can you turn to hear from and share with others who’ve walked in your shoes? Knowledge CIO Summit 2009.

Why The Knowledge CIO Summit is Important

Designed for CIOs by a program committee of CIOs, the Knowledge CIO Summit provides the industry’s only forum for you to speak candidly with other CIOs about the realities of the industry. This invitation-only gathering ensures you a low-key, hassle-free peer-to-peer learning environment. You’ll be able to:

· Engage in unique, off-record roundtables with your IT peers (no recordings or media)

· Gain insight from thought leaders (industry and non-industry perspectives) on emerging trends in technology and business

· Network in an open and friendly environment, with no point-of-sales pressure

· Technology Advisory Council (TAC) members can conveniently attend the co-located EEI/AGA Fall meeting

· Large Public Power Council (LPPC) CIO members can conveniently attend the co-located council meeting

http://www.knowledgesummits.com/

Andres Carvallo Speaks at UCLA's Smart Grid Forum

Join UCLA WINMEC (http://winmec.ucla.edu/) for its third Smart Grid Leadership Forum of the UCLA WINSmartGrid Connection - a partnership between universities, industry and government. On November 4th, 2009, we are planning a thought leadership forum at UCLA on the state of the Transmission and Distribution Power Grid in the United States and the direction the community is headed in the formation of the Future Smart Grid. We will be joined by several leaders from government, industry, and academia. New topics in this third Leadership Forum will include Carbon Cap and Trade and its affect on Smart Grid, Stimulus Fund Progress and how it is being invested, Smart Meter Implementations nationwide by utilities, Investments into new technologies to support the future Energy Grid, renewable energy sources and their link into the grid, upgrading the infrastructure and intellectual / knowledge base.

http://winmec.ucla.edu/smartgrid/2009-11/

http://winmec.ucla.edu/smartgrid/2009-11/program.asp

http://winmec.ucla.edu/smartgrid/2009-11/speaker-bio.asp#80015

Obama Administration Announces $3.4 Billion in Smart Grid Stimulus Awards

The Obama Administration this morning announced that 100 projects ( PDF) will receive $3.4 billion in federal smart grid investment grants made available by the Department of Energy as part of the economic stimulus package passed earlier this year. The $3.4 billion will be matched by $4.7 billion in private spending, raising the total amount of smart grid spending spurred by the grant program to $8.1 billion.

Due to the overwhelming response to the first funding authorization announcement issued by DOE this summer, this single round of funding replaces the previous plan to issue the grants in two or more rounds. In addition to the $3.4 billion in matching investment grants, the stimulus package also provided for smart grid demonstration project funding and loan incentives to federal power organizations.

The funding will flow to projects in 49 states (see PDF of state-by-state awards and PDF map), with DOE planning to disburse the funds within the next 60 days. The bulk of the awards involve deployment of smart meters, encompassing projects that call for the installation of 18 million new advanced meters, representing 13% of American homes.

In announcing the awards this morning, the Administration broke down the funding amounts according to the following policy goals:

· Empowering Consumers to Save Energy and Cut Utility Bills - $1 billion.

· Making Electricity Distribution and Transmission More Efficient - $400 million.

· Integrating and Crosscutting Across Different "Smart" Components of a Smart Grid - $2 billion.

· Building a Smart Grid Manufacturing Industry - $25 million.

In addition to the stepped-up smart meter deployments, which could ultimately expand to 40 million homes over the next several years, the administration says the investment grants will:

· Create tens of thousands of jobs across the country.

· Reduce power outage costs by $150 billion per year, about $500 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.

· Install more than 850 sensors, Phasor Measurement Units, that will cover 100 percent of the U.S. electric grid, making it easier for utilities to monitor grid conditions and minimize blackouts and other problems.

· Install more than 200,000 smart transformers, making it easier for companies to replace units before they fail.

· Install almost 700 automated substations, about 5 percent of the nation’s total, making it easier for utilities to respond to problems.

· Install more than 1 million in-home displays, 170,000 smart thermostats, and 175,000 other load control devices to enable consumers to reduce their energy use. Funding will also help expand the market for smart washers, dryers, and dishwashers, so that American consumers can further control their energy use and lower their electricity bills.

· Put the U.S. on a path to get 20 percent or more of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.

· Reduce peak electricity demand by more than 1400 MW, which is the equivalent of several larger power plants and can save ratepayers more than $1.5 billion in capital costs and help lower utility bills.

Oracle Customer Care and Billing System and IBM Managed Services Put Austin on Track to 'Smart Grid 2.0'

Smart Grid Today

October 14, 2009

IBM is set to install and manage a utility services billing system in the City of Austin, Texas, that Austin Energy CIO Andres Carvallo told us yesterday is “critical to get going on smart grid 2.0.” He's referring to the comprehensive approach to a “next-gen” smart grid he outlined when we interviewed him recently in his office just across Lady Bird Lake from downtown Austin. The municipal utility deployed about 410,000 smart meters from Elster, GE and AMI partner Landis & Gyr, covering its service footprint of a million consumers plus 43,000 businesses.

“Smart grid 1.0,” as he referred to Austin's initial smart grid plan, took the utility five years to deploy and cost over $100 million. The muni deployed its first 125,000 smart meters in 2003.

The city will spend over $58 million on the billing project, Jeff Smith, vice president of communications sector solutions at IBM, told us yesterday, declining to say how much IBM's eight-year billing system contract is worth.

The billing system contract may not come as a surprise considering IBM has been working on Austin's smart grid with Austin Energy, the City of Austin, its chamber, the University of Texas, Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, Freescale Semiconductor, GE, GridPoint, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, the consortium SeMaTech and the Environmental Defense Fund. That said, the deal is “important as a link in the chain for all the things Austin Energy's going to need to become a smart utility,” said Smith.

The billing system is the “last piece to enable smart grid 2.0,” since it will allow for real-time pricing and metering for solar systems or “any generation on the edge,” Carvallo noted. “The billing system we currently have doesn't handle these things.”

The system should be in place by April 2011, he added, noting that the choice of a vendor took about 18 months. The new system will involve the Oracle Customer Care & Billing software, IBM Websphere and Tivoli middleware software and will support the city's electric, water and waste-collection operations.

The contract is “important for IBM generally and specifically,” said Smith: “Generally speaking, we have a big play around smarter utilities…. This is a proof point in [our] journey to help utilities do something that makes people's lives better.”

Specifically, Austin Energy is something of “a showcase of us as an example of a company that has a great vision of how to transform itself into something that's smarter.”

The toughest part of getting the billing system in place will be making sure that the ideas IBM and the City of Austin hold about “how the system will behave when it's done” match up well enough, said Smith.

Austin Energy / City of Austin Selects IBM to Manage New Billing System

ARMONK, N.Y. - 13 Oct 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today it has signed an eight-year agreement to install and manage a new utility services billing system for Austin Energy / City of Austin that is designed to improve customer service while preparing the city for broader green energy initiatives.

The new billing system will support the city's electric, water and waste-collection operations and other city operational fees. It will have an open architecture, be compatible with other city systems, and be capable of providing real time access to information for customers and employees. The goal is to provide a single point of contact for customers through multiple communications channels for utility-based products and services.

More importantly, the billing system, when combined with new meters the city plans to deploy this fall, will allow the city to begin implementing a smart electric grid. By providing consumers with real-time information on their energy consumption, smart grids help customers better manage their energy usage and lower their monthly bills. For utilities like Austin Energy, smart grids make it easier to detect outages and integrate cleaner, renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.

"The City of Austin has long been at the forefront of green energy initiatives, so we are excited to work with the city on this new billing system, which will lay the groundwork for the development of a smart grid in Central Texas," said Jeff Smith, vice president, Communications Sector Solutions, IBM.

IBM and the City of Austin are members of the Pecan Street Project (www.pecanstreetproject.org), a consortium of public and private partners including Austin Energy, Austin Technology Incubator, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, The University of Texas at Austin, Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, Freescale Semiconductor, GE, GridPoint, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and SEMATECH. The group's goal is to design a clean energy infrastructure, business model and proving ground for tomorrow's energy technology.

The new billing system consists of the Oracle Customer Care and Billing application running on IBM WebSphere and IBM Tivoli middleware.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28612.wss

Hispanic Business 100 Influentials 2009: Andres Carvallo

Hispanic Business 100 Influentials 2009 : Andres Carvallo

On course to developing the country's first smart grid, Mr. Carvallo is leading the nation's ninth-largest utility's technology vision, planning and development. With a mechanical engineering degree earned at the University of Kansas, and the completion of executive management programs at the University of Idaho, Stanford University and The Wharton School, he translates the academic into the practical in applying technological solutions to energy innovation.

Witness this year's 100 Influentials list: 100 luminaries selected from the halls of power in Washington; the corporate world; information technology professionals; the health care sector; education; the media and other areas. This year's list even includes an astronaut. Click through for the full list, complete with profiles.

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/rankings/

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/

Andres Carvallo Speaks at Next Generation Utilities 2009

The Next Generation Utilities North America Summit 2009 will once again serve as an arena for senior level executives to engage in clear and focused dialogue with their peers and examine their management objectives in a relaxed and vibrant environment. I will review our Smart Grid 1.0 journey and get into the details of our Smart Grid 2.0 plans.

http://www.ngusummitna.com/

Seeking Energy Savings at the Heart of the Internet

Kate Galbraith

New York Times

October 12, 2009

NEW YORK — Digital-era icons like Google and Twitter have made life more efficient — and fun. But they also guzzle vast amounts of energy. Scattered around the world are scores of data centers that sift through the endless streams of information that keep the Internet and office computers running. In the United States alone, those data centers accounted for 1.5 percent of the country’s electricity use in 2006 — more than the entire state of Massachusetts. And their power use could nearly double over five years, according to government reports. Experts say that data centers present an obvious opportunity to improve efficiency. “It’s becoming a big deal,” said Dale Sartor, an energy efficiency expert at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory near San Francisco. He noted that in some cases, the energy costs of a server over its useful life of three or four years exceeded the initial cost of the server itself. Some of the largest opportunities lie in the way data centers are kept cool. The buildings — many of which are enormous — must typically be kept below 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.7 Celsius), so that the chips work at maximum efficiency. And that requires a great deal of energy. The cooling equipment alone can consume 25 percent of the power that goes into a data center, said Christian Belady, an efficiency specialist at Microsoft. “So if there’s anything we can do to eliminate that, right there we use 25 percent less power.” Companies are innovating in this area, not least by using a tool that is ancient and free: the weather. Last month, Microsoft opened a data storage center in Dublin, which it said would take advantage of the Irish chill to achieve greater efficiencies. The system brings in air via large, high-up ducts that are controlled by valves, so it works somewhat like an attic fan, Mr. Belady said. Nonetheless, he said, the company has backup systems in case the temperature spikes or the air is smoky. Other Internet giants are making similar moves. In June, Yahoo announced that it would locate a data center in Buffalo, New York, to take advantage of the “micro-climate” to cool the servers entirely with outside air. And Google has a data center in Belgium where, according to Niki Fenwick, a spokeswoman, “the local climate allows us to efficiently cool the data center without needing to use electricity to power chillers.” She noted, however, that “not all Google data centers can be located in cold climates, because we want our tools to be as fast as possible.” (In other words, the transmission of data can slow down over long distances.) A number of companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems, are also locating their data centers near hydroelectric plants, allowing them to play up the virtues of renewable power (though hydropower is often less expensive than conventional power, at least in the United States, so there is a bottom-line reason too). Traditionally, many data centers have been designed “like a vault,” according to Andres Carvallo, the chief information officer for Austin Energy, a utility in the heart of Texas’s high-tech “Silicon Hills” that runs a rebate program to encourage companies to buy more efficient data center equipment. In other words, he explained, they had no access to the outside air. That is changing. “There’s certainly a renaissance around designing a data center,” Mr. Carvallo said. Companies are indeed innovating. In Uitikon, Switzerland, I.B.M. is using the waste heat from a data center to keep a swimming pool warm. Mr. Belady of Microsoft said that his company was pushing its suppliers to build servers that could work in higher temperatures — up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) — allowing Microsoft to build systems that use the outside air closer to the Equator. Mr. Belady also emphasized the importance of pushing companies to measure the effectiveness of their power or energy usage, so that they could understand how much power or energy actually makes it to the number-crunching equipment, rather than going toward cooling or other auxiliary uses. Today, only about 10 percent of data center operators make such measurements, he estimated. There is also innovation surrounding the management of the power supply to the chips, which goes through a number of transformations, said Mr. Sartor of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For example, he said, interruptible power supplies can often be bypassed, thus avoiding losses associated with converting power from alternating current to direct current and back to alternating current. In this regard, “Europeans, like so many areas of efficiency, are typically ahead” of the United States, he said. Meanwhile, the need for more computations continues to grow. Mr. Sartor cited an example in his backyard: Whereas earlier this decade a supercomputer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory used a few hundred kilowatts of power, its needs are projected to grow to 17 megawatts over the coming years. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars to power our new supercomputer facility, and that starts catching management’s concern,” he said. “We are dramatically improving the efficiency of computation. The situation is that our appetite for computation is going up way faster than the efficiency is going up.” One piece of good news is that cooperation has increased in recent years among companies eager to tackle the data center efficiency problem. A number of cross-company consortiums, like the Green Grid, have sprung up (a symposium is being held this week in the Silicon Valley to discuss data center efficiency, with participation from several large multinational companies). “Everybody recognizes that we have to drive efficiency as an industry, not just as individuals,” said Mr. Belady of Microsoft. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/business/energy-environment/12iht-green.html?hpw

Enterprise Leadership Interviews Andres Carvallo

In this podcast, Carvallo goes into detail about building the enterprise architecture for the Smart Grid based on service-oriented architecture and cloud computing.

He also talks about his involvement in driving the IT Leadership and CTO Best Practices Collection, a 700-page document that describes essential IT processes, such as how to manage a data center to how to run a project management office. He also provides some takeaways for CIOs who might be interested in moving to Smart Grid technology. Despite the economy, Austin, Texas, has seen a spike in major businesses, such as google.com and Hewlett-Packard, moving into the area, as well as more people relocating there to find jobs. Meanwhile, Austin Energy, the nation’s ninth largest community-owned electric utility, is making sure it can meet the power demands of its one million residential customers and 41,000 businesses, and continues to return more than $1.5 billion in profits back to the community.

If all goes as planned, Austin Energy could become the country’s first electrical utility to deliver Smart Grid technology. A Smart Grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost, and increase reliability and transparency.

Perhaps, the credit for putting Austin Energy on its Smart Grid journey belongs to Andres Carvallo, the organization’s CIO. In fact, this year Computerworld Honors Program’s recognized the outstanding significance of Carvallo’s Smart Grid work in the energy field. Carvallo just could become the first CIO to deliver the country’s first Smart Grid for a public utility.

http://www.enterpriseleadership.org/blogs/podcasts/2009/09/02/andres-carvallo-austin-energy-s-cio-on-developing-smart-grid-technology-for-a-public-utility

Andres Carvallo to Keynote UTC Smart Grid Summit

Andres Carvallo, the father of smart grid, will keynote day two of the Utilities Telecom Council’s Smart Grid Summit. Andres will share the genesis of the smart grid and its journey at Austin Energy, the first smart grid in the US covering 1 million consumers and 43,000 businesses. Andres will review the transformation that he has been leading at Austin Energy since 2003. The steps to build the nation's first smart grid have been driven by the need to simplify infrastructure, improve decision making, adapt to faster changing business needs, improve disaster recovery and business continuity planning, improve regulatory compliance, increase quality standards, increase reliability, increase customer satisfaction and reduce operational costs.

Austin Energy's Smart Grid is powered by a pervasive network and Software Oriented Architecture that follows the principles of delivering presentation, process, and information as services to all stakeholders. From connecting and managing central power plants, distributed energy plants, the wholesale energy system, the transmission and distribution grid, the meters, distributed generation, storage, electric vehicles, smart appliances at customer sites, to the delivery of timely information and new services via portals, in-home displays, smart phones and TVs to all customer types.

The way to the smart grid is via a new technology governance that ensures centralization of information technology and communications groups, the purchasing process, and the decision making and business alignment, while remaining flexible and driven by the Line of Business Executives and Managers as sponsors of their projects and accountable to the enterprise for funding of the projects, business cases, ranking and alignment against the corporate strategic goals, and committed to delivering the benefits outlined in the business justification case for the investment.

Architect enterprise-wide but deliver one discrete project at a time to show success, adoption, and culture change. Remember that perfection is the enemy of good. And remember that building that smart grid is a journey and not a quick trip destination. The Architecture effort must drive improvements in your network, systems, data, and business process architecture layers. Doing one and not the others will cost you lots and take you longer. Start with mapping your top business processes as they are today. That exercise will give you a true insight into where you are as an enterprise. Then define the most ambitious end-goal possible. Follow that with mapping the gap from today vs. tomorrow and picking the quick win projects to attack first. Be surgical and stay the course. Celebrate every win and invest in marketing the journey for all to share. And don't forget to document your lessons learned.

Achieving success will require true top down commitment to business process innovation and managing and rewarding culture change that optimizes the reach of higher levels of efficiencies, higher levels of effectiveness, and better customer experiences. The smart grid can be delivered sooner that most people think. The technology is available today and the holding back is around risk management, business models, and politics. The path to success requires a new way of thinking about our challenges as a nation and the solutions to empower our total transformation by unleashing a new smart grid economy.

http://www.utc.org/node/1091

US Commerce Secretary Unveils Plan for Smart Grid Interoperability

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sept. 24, 2009

WASHINGTON – Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today unveiled an accelerated plan for developing standards to transform the U.S. power distribution system into a secure, more efficient and environmentally friendly Smart Grid and create clean-energy jobs.

The draft of the report is available at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_interoperability.pdf.

Produced by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the approximately 90-page document identifies about 80 initial standards that will enable the vast number of interconnected devices and systems that will make up the nationwide Smart Grid to communicate and work with each other. These standards will support interoperability of all the various pieces of the system—ranging from large utility companies down to individual homes and electronic devices. The report also lists a set of 14 “priority action plans” that address the most important gaps in the initial standard set.

“To use an analogy from the construction world, this report is like a designer’s first detailed drawing of a complex structure,” said Locke in prepared remarks. “It presents a high-level conceptual model to ensure that everyone is on the same page before moving forward to develop more detailed, formal Smart Grid architectures. This high-level model is critical to help plan where to go next.”

The draft will be posted for a 30-day period of public comment and review. According to George Arnold, NIST’s National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability, finalizing the standards will ensure that the grid transformation goes both smoothly and rapidly—a priority of the Obama Administration. About $4.5 billion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds to the Department of Energy also are slated for Smart Grid demonstration projects.

“Because of the urgent need to remake the grid into a modern power distribution system, we have set a timetable that is much swifter than usual for establishing these standards,” said Arnold. “But at the same time, we also want to be certain that the initial standards we establish will hold up in the future so that investments in the Smart Grid will not become prematurely obsolete.”

When completed, the Smart Grid will employ real-time, two-way digital information and communication technologies in the operation of the nation’s electricity grid. The system would allow consumers to better manage and control their energy use and costs, reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil and create clean-energy jobs.

The draft report, entitled NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0, incorporates input from more than 1,500 industry, government and other stakeholders who have participated in the NIST framework development process.

The Framework draft includes:

· a basic set of standards for interoperability and security, identifying roughly 80 specific standards and specifications to support the Smart Grid;

· the 14 “priority action plans” that describe what is being done immediately to fill important gaps where additional or revised standards are needed. These outline everything from plug-in electric vehicles, to home energy management systems, to distributed intelligence aimed at keeping the grid from developing problems before they arise. Each plan identifies standards organizations responsible for addressing them, a recommended approach and aggressive timelines to develop solutions to these needs; and

· a summary of a separate NIST cyber security strategy, which aims to protect the Smart Grid against the modern threat of cyber attack.

Following the 30-day public review and comment on the draft, NIST will finalize the Framework document, which is the culmination of the first phase of NIST’s three-phase approach to develop Smart Grid standards. Phase 1, the engagement of stakeholders in a participatory public process to identify applicable standards and gaps in currently available standards and priorities for new standardization activities, ends with the final publication of the Framework report after public comments have been incorporated.

Phase 2 will establish a private-public partnership and forum—a Smart Grid Interoperability Panel—to drive longer-term progress. NIST is using ARRA funds to establish the panel by the end of 2009. Phase 3 will develop and implement a framework for testing and certification of how standards are implemented in Smart Grid devices, systems and processes. NIST is consulting with industry, government and other stakeholders to develop a plan for a testing and certification framework by the end of 2009 and take steps toward implementation in 2010.

The results of NIST’s ongoing work on standards for the Smart Grid also provides input to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act is charged with instituting, once sufficient consensus is achieved, rulemaking proceedings to adopt the standards and protocols necessary to ensure Smart Grid functionality and interoperability in interstate transmission of electric power, and in regional and wholesale electricity markets.

For more information on NIST’s work with Smart Grid, visit http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/.

As a non-regulatory agency, NIST advances measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

Austin Energy Selects Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing to Support Smart Grid Initiatives

Redwood Shores, CA – September 17, 2009

News Facts

The City of Austin has selected Oracle® Utilities Customer Care and Billing to replace an outdated, legacy customer information system (CIS) and support the city’s smart grid initiatives. The City of Austin will roll the solution out to both Austin Energy – the nation’s ninth largest community-owned electric utility with 388,000 customers – and Austin Water. The application will provide Austin Energy with a complete view of customer data and streamline billing processes to enable more responsive customer service. Austin Energy plans to work with IBM on the implementation.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing will enable Austin Energy to implement innovative energy efficient and demand management programs by providing detailed energy usage data that will allow its customers to make more informed decisions to conserve energy. The application will also help Austin Energy create new rate structures to support the future needs of its customers.

Austin Energy is embarking on the Pecan Street Project, an effort to design a new, clean energy infrastructure business model and proving ground for future energy technology. The utility is working with Oracle, as well as Applied Materials, Dell, GE Energy, IBM, Intel, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor, The University of Texas’ Austin Technology Incubator, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) on this venture.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing will function as a critical foundational component of the Pecan Street Project. Austin Energy hopes to design a comprehensive system that delivers abundant, reliable and affordable energy to Austin’s growing population. Additional goals of the project include: responsible management of air and water, elimination of the need for more polluting power plants, and generation of a power plant’s worth of energy within the city limits with renewable resources.

Austin intends to share its initiative with cities across America and around the world. The project will help cities map out the creation of the infrastructure required to power their economies and preserve the environment.

A long-term Oracle customer, Austin Energy also uses Oracle® Utilities Mobile Workforce Management to help ensure service availability and automate field operations via dispatch, scheduling and routing. With the Oracle solution, Austin Energy is able to provide its field workers the optimal route with the least mileage and fewest truck rolls, which helps reduce fuel consumption, highway congestion and tailpipe emissions.

In the future, Austin Energy hopes to expand its mobile workforce management capabilities to improve workforce productivity and reduce operating expenses while minimizing missed appointments, service backlogs and overtime costs.

Supporting Quote

“For utilities to effectively move to the smart grid, it is imperative that they provide their customers with actionable information about their energy use and prepare to accept new renewable energy sources into the grid. With Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, Austin Energy will be able to provide its customers with a clear picture of the relationship between their consumption and environmental impact, and then offer service options to help change behavior. We believe the Pecan Street Project is a stepping stone for the future – helping guide other utilities around the world in choosing smart grid software and technology to minimize energy consumption,” said Quentin Grady, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Utilities.

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/032931

Andres Carvallo Speaks at Gridweek

Andres Carvallo has been invited to share the Smart Grid journey at Austin Energy, the first one fully built in the US, in a panel with Lisa Wood, Adrian Tuck, Tom Casey, and Anthony Star. The focus of the panel is to explore and discuss the actual value that customer are getting and/or will get soon from the smart grid.

http://www.gridweek.com/2009/#session_929

· GridWeek provides the opportunity for organizations and businesses focused on Smart Grid to hold meetings and participate in collaborative sessions and learn from leading experts on Smart Grid.

· The week will focus on the following key elements: Showing Smart Grid Implementation, Implementing EISA 2008 / ARRA, Integrating Renewable Energy, Understanding End-User Perspectives, Facilitating Efficiency/Carbon Reduction, Exploring New Business Models, Improving Operational Efficiencies, and Integrating Smart Appliances/Vehicles.

http://www.gridweek.com/2009/#home

Andres Carvallo and Austin Energy Named to InformationWeek 500 in 2009

My Smart Grid leadership and work at Austin Energy was recognized on September 2009 by InformationWeek at their InformationWeek 500 Awards Gala. Austin Energy was ranked among the top 250 Most Innovative Companies in the US. This is another great recognition of our world class planning and execution as a premier Electric Utility in the US.

http://www.informationweek.com/1241/index.jhtml;jsessionid=3CE3WZYEFI1WTQE1GHRSKHWATMY32JVN

Andres Carvallo Returns to KU and Shares Smart Grid genesis and journey

I have been invited by Dean Stuart Bell (School of Engineering) to come back to KU (Rock Chalk) to share about the genesis of Smart Grid (I coined the term, definition, and unveiled its framework on April 24, 2007), and my journey in building it at Austin Energy (first Smart Grid built in the US). Reading that letter was very rewarding. So, I will be going back on September 18th to meet with him, faculty, and students.

See, we all grow up and go to school to only hope that our skills and creativity will be able to make a difference in someone’s life and maybe more than that. My journey as a professional has been meteoric, exciting, challenging and filled with immense hard work. I was not the top student that my parents had hoped, and I was not as mature as I could have been. I was a bit of a late bloomer on maturity, dedication, discipline, and responsibility. Even though I was an Eagle Scout and a Black Belt in Tae-Kwon-Do with national championships to brag about by the time that I graduated from KU.

When I chose to go to KU, a great deal of that decision was the fact that KU was the place where Dr. James Naismith, who invented basketball, decided to coach. And were Phog Allen became a legend as a coach. And where Wilt Chamberlain played. And where so many other accomplishments and traditions had taken place. It was a choice of a school that had the possibility of teaching me how to make a difference. After graduating, I was hired by Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA. Right out of school, I found myself in a place that was hoping to change the world, and actually did it. I worked on Windows, MS-DOS, and Flight Simulator. That experience, plus years at SCO and Borland taught me lots about being customer driven, the customer lifecycle, product creation, eco-system creation, corporate politics, and managing dynamic complexity. From software, I went to hardware by joining Digital Equipment Corporation as a GM in the PC Company. Then on to communications, by joining Philips Electronics as a President/GM of the Consumer Communications Division making wired phones, wireless phones and pagers. Afterwards, I decided to do four start-ups (one was an ISP/CLEC, one was an Internet B2B exchange, and two were in wireless applications and services).

The reason that I share this is that the Smart Grid is the seamless integration of an Electric Grid, a Communications Network, Hardware and Software.

So, when I came to Austin Energy, in 2003, I was an expert in Communications, Hardware and Software. But I didn’t understand well the Electric Grid and its industry. So as we embarked on achieving my goal of helping free up capital and operating dollars to build a new business for the company, which we baptized Distributed Energy Services (focus on conservation, energy efficiency, alternate energy, storage and electric transportation), I realized that I was building something transformational that would change the industry. I had read about EPRI’s Intelligrid™ and IBM’s Intelligent Utility Network™. Both terms were trademarked and cost money to learn and use. I knew that I was building elements of what they preached, but my vision was larger in scope. My vision was certainly shaped by Roger Duncan’s own vision of combining the Utility industry, the Automotive industry and buildings in a new way. Roger Duncan is a visionary, a superstar and my boss at Austin Energy.

So, on April 24, 2007 in Chicago, IL at an IDC energy event, I coined the term as I made a presentation of our journey of building the utility of the future. I needed a term that didn’t infringe on any trademarks, that could be used freely, and that could help define our end-to-end encompassing vision of a new grid needed to connect and manage the merging of the Utility, Vehicles and Buildings. So, Smart Grid was born.

As I talk about Smart Grid, I break it into two distinct pieces. First, my rationalization of talking about Smart Grid 1.0 which goes from the central power plant, through the wires, to the meter and back. It is the focus of most utilities today. And second, the importance of taking about Smart Grid 2.0 which goes beyond the meter into the premise (e.g home, business, school, factory, hospital) to manage other distributed energy elements. Smart Grid 2.0 is about integration of the utility grid (Smart Grid 1.0) to distributed generation (solar PV, micro-wind, etc), energy storage (thermal, electric), electric vehicles, and smart appliances. Smart Grid 2.0 opens up a new future of opportunities for many and it empowers customers to become prosumers (producers as well as consumer of energy).

I am looking forward to the honor and opportunity of returning to KU and share with administrators, faculty and students.

Furthermore, I am also going to be unveiling what Smart Grid 3.0 will be at KU on September 18, 2009.

http://www.calendar.ku.edu/index2009.php?option=eventview&ce_id=26689

Andres Carvallo Speaks at CIO Summit US 2009

Join us at the CIO Summit US 2009, where CIOs from Coca-cola, JP Morgan Chase, Radio Shack, Jack In The Box, Bose, Crayola, Scholastic, Comcast, Wells Fargo, Barclaycard, Jet Blue, Red Roof, Panasonic, and Austin Energy share their best practices and experience on the hottest and most relevant topics for running IT as a business. Alongside these experts we will get an inside track on roadmaps from Microsoft, Sybase, CA, APC, Schneider Electric, Data Domain, and Cordys.

Especially, please join the CIOs of Panasonic, Austin Energy, JetBlue and Red Roof to hear their experiences on how to build a roadmap and prioritizing IT strategies, applications and tools in this demanding and tough times. They will cover virtualization, legacy applications, VOIP, IPTV, Web 2.0, Enterprise Content Management, Green IT, Identity and Access Management, Business Intelligence, Mobile Workforce, and GIS.

http://www.ciosummitus.com/

Andres Carvallo named to the HITEC 100 2009

For a second year in a row, I have been named to the prestigious HITEC 100 Award. An excerpt from the letter that I received follows.

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Dear Andres:

Felicitaciones! You have been selected as one of the HITEC 100 - Most Influential Hispanics in Information Technology sponsored by HITEC. Your dedication and successful examples of leadership have earned you the merit of a top leader in IT. The unprecedented response to the second edition of the HITEC 100 has been overwhelming. This year will be remembered as one of the most exciting years for Hispanics in this country as the first Latina was selected to the Supreme Court. It is once again a proof that Latinos continue to make a big difference in this country. It is with great honor that we congratulate and celebrate your achievements. Through your hard work and perseverance you have achieved this great milestone! The complete list of the HITEC 100 and Rising Stars will be released at the Annual Executive Summit in Washington, DC, October 30^th, 2009. Details will follow.

Sheena Heitzman, Managing Partner
Heitzman’s Communication Solutions

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For more information on the HITEC 100 and its program, please click http://www.hitecglobal.org/index.html

Smart Health Tools

Part 2

After writing a few words about Smart Health and publishing the key performance indicators (KPIs) to track for better health, I would be remiss not to share with you the coolest tools out there to achieve those KPIs.

Nike +

It is a show sensor that measures that amount of time that your foot is on the ground via wireless with you iPod or iPod Touch. You sync the results in your iPod via iTunes to the Nike+ website where your running miles, time, and frequency (days). http://www.nike.com/

Garmin Forerunner 310XT

If you run, bike or swim, you can track it all with this GPS heart rate monitor. It accurately measures distance, pace, calories, and heart rate. http://www.garmin.com/

TrainingPeaks 3.0

It is a web program that works with any gadgets out there and reports back with visualization your heart rate, speed, distance, elevation, power output, and much more. It is a virtual trainer. http://www.trainingpeaks.com/

RunKeeper Pro

It is an iPhone 3G/3GS application that tracks your time, pace, calories , elevation, speed, distance, your route, and much more. View your workout history and share your success. http://www.runkeeper.com/

WeEndure

It is a social training log where you can track your progress in an number of sports (cycling, running, and swimming to name a few) and then compare that progress with others. http://www.weendure.com/

SMHeart Link

It is a fitness box and set of applications that communicates via your iPhone or iPod Touch to track your speed, ace, distance , and many other things. http://www.smheartlink.com/

Livestrong.com Calorie Traker

It is an iPhone application that helps you keep track of your calories during the day. It has a superb database of more than 525,000 foods with all nutritional information. http://www.livestrong.com/

Daytum

It is an amazing tool that helps you collect, categorize and communicate with your everyday data. It works with anything including health and exercise data. http://www.daytum.com/

Glucose Buddy

It is an iPhone application that makes taking control of diabetes a very easy task. It allows you to sync, organize, graph, and backup your data very easily. http://www.glucosebuddy.com/

Labpixies Calorie Calculator

It is a simple way to monitor your daily intake, to easily manage your diet and meals. It lets you sum up daily totals and has access to a rich database to help you manage weight easily. http://www.lappixies.com/

Tanita BC-590BT

It is a wireless body composition monitor that allowes you to track your weight, body fat, body water, daily calorie intake, bone mass, muscle mass, and much more. http://www.tanita.com/

Fitbit

It is an amazingly small monitor that lets you count calories, steps, time, distance, hours of sleep, and more. It is a simple way to track your routine and see how you are doing. http://www.fitbit.com/

Smart Health

As we smart our grids, buildings, homes, cars, roads, and appliances, it occurred to me to remind myself and you all of how easy it is to keep up with our health by tracking a few key performance indicators (KPIs) in our bodies. Some smart health won't hurt and will go a long ways.

Wouldn't it be great if we could get simple measurement of our vitals every day or as often as needed to learn to manage our health better. Here are some key health KPIs to track:

Blood Pressure
Optimal: 120 over 80 mmHg or lower
Borderline: From 120 over 80 to 140 over 90 mm Hg
High: Above 140 over 90 mm Hg

Bad Cholesterol (Low-density lipoprotein or LDL)
Optimal: Below 100 mg / dL
Normal: From 100 to 129 mg / dL
Borderline: From 129 to 159 mg / dL
High: 160 to 190 mg / dL
Very High: Over 190 mg / dL

Blood Sugar
Normal: Under 100 mg / dL
Prediabetes: From 100 to 125 mg / dL
Diabetes: Above 125 mg / dL

Body Mass Index
Obese: 30 kg / m2
Overweight: 25 to 30 kg / m2
Normal: 18.5 to 25 kg /m2

Lean : Below 18.5 kg / m2

Waist Circumference
Men: Risky if equal to or above 40 inches
Women: Risky if equal or above 35 inches

Osteoporosis (Bone mineral density, t-score)
Normal: 0 to 1
Low: -1 to -2.5
Osteoporosis: Below -2.5

I know that there are many gadgets out there to help with the task.

But don't just read my post, go see your doctor and stay healthy. Get some exams done. Start waking 5 miles per day, or start training to run a 5k or 10k, or start training to run a marathon. Whatever your level and fancy, get more active. We need to keep at it for another 50 years at least. So get healthy and recommit yourself to your own well being.

2009 UtiliQ Rankings: Austin Energy #2 Intelligent Utility in the US

2009 UtiliQ rankings
Top 25 intelligent Utilities
By Rick Nicholson and H. Christine Richards

Welcome to the inaugural UtiliQ ranking of U.S. electric utilities—a list of the top 25 intelligent utilities based on a detailed analysis by IDC Energy Insights and Intelligent Utility magazine. We developed this ranking in response to a number of issues and challenges in the rapidly evolving electric utility industry. First, we wanted to separate the smart grid hype from reality. As we have learned over the years, press releases alone do not make a company more intelligent. This magazine defines an intelligent utility as a company that applies information to energy, maximizing its reliability, affordability and sustainability from generation to end users. Becoming a more intelligent utility requires more than just technology investments; it requires a real investment in people and processes, too. Second, we wanted to provide a way for utilities to benchmark their intelligence and measure progress against their stated goals and objectives. We view the UtiliQ ranking as an ongoing effort that will evolve over time. For example, should we start to track the relationship between a company’s rank on the list and its share price? We welcome your input. Please give us your ideas for improving the ranking at crichards@energycentral.com.


The current ranking is based on a company’s performance using five quantifiable intelligence metrics:

Productivity: An intelligent utility is an efficient utility (measured by revenue per employee).

Renewable energy: An intelligent utility has a commitment to renewable energy as part of its resource portfolio (measured by renewable energy sales, renewable energy customers and renewable capacity).

Smart initiatives: An intelligent utility makes investments in developing smarter grids (measured by smart meter deployments and other smart grid projects).

Demand response/energy efficiency (DR/EE): An intelligent utility allows consumers to manage their energy usage and costs (measured by the availability of energy efficiency, demand response and load management programs).

IT investment: An intelligent utility invests in information technology to enable business process improvement (measured by IT spending as a percent of revenue and on a per-employee basis).

With the popularity of smart and intelligent themes, we couldn't resist providing the ranking in terms of a utility intelligence quotient (IQ). Taken together, the metrics are used to create a company’s intelligence quotient. Companies with IQs over 120, in our analysis, exhibit very superior intelligence compared with other U.S. electric utilities. We believe that the few companies with IQs over 140 are at near genius level compared with the rest of industry.


Looking ahead

As the utility industry begins to move from the current energy economy, characterized by heavy reliance on fossil fuels, lack of energy security, high environmental impact, aging infrastructure and passive consumers, toward a new energy economy that includes increased use of renewable energy resources, less reliance on foreign oil, lower environmental impact, a smarter grid and active consumers, we expect these top 25 companies to lead the transition. Companies that want to make the list or improve their position should focus on these strategies and investments:

Drive company cultural change:
Becoming a more intelligent utility has a lot to do with people. Your employees need to understand your company’s vision, your strategy for getting there, why it’s important to all major stakeholders—including customers and regulators—and what this all means to your employees on a day-to-day basis.

Improve processes for both “lean” and “green”:
For example, does a work order have to be 100 pages long and require a dozen approvals? Can waste energy be captured and used to create value? Efficient processes drive down the cost of maintaining the current environment and free up resources for innovation and growth.

Make intelligent technology investments:
Find ways to get the best return from your technology investments by ensuring that your spending on information, communications and energy technologies lines up with your enterprise strategies, enables process improvement, supports regulatory compliance and creates value for your customers.


UtiliQ ranking breakdown

Company - Overall IQ - Productivity – Renewable Energy – Smart Initiatives - DR /EE - IT investment

1) Sempra Energy 143 119 105 179 145 112
2) Austin Energy 141 118 110 179 150 135
3) Edison International 140 118 124 179 110 117
4) Oncor 139 117 100 179 130 119
5) PG&E Corporation 139 116 121 176 115 118
6) CenterPoint Energy, Inc. 137 130 100 176 110 118
7) FPL Group, Inc. 136 125 100 179 110 112
8) American Electric Power 135 115 110 179 103 118
9) Southern Company 133 114 100 176 108 118
10) Pepco Holdings, Inc. 132 146 100 179 100 122
11) Constellation Energy Group, Inc. 130 144 100 176 110 121
12) DTE Energy Company 130 121 100 176 100 118
13) IDACOR P, Inc. 130 111 102 176 128 132
14) Xcel Energy, Inc. 128 123 165 103 114 123
15) Alliant Energy Corporation 126 116 110 176 115 112
16) National Grid USA 126 120 101 104 131 115
17) Northeast Utilities 126 122 100 151 128 118
18) PPL Corporation 126 117 100 179 105 119
19) Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. 125 121 100 176 120 106
20) Puget Energy, Inc. 125 128 110 100 150 134
21) Salt River Project 125 114 100 124 110 140
22) Bonneville Power Administration 124 126 100 102 125 119
23) Exelon Corporation 124 122 108 125 110 118
24) Pinnacle West Capital Corporation 124 110 100 158 120 119
25) Portland General Electric Company 124 114 107 176 100 124

Ratings

90-109 Normal intelligence
110-119 Superior intelligence
120-140 Very superior intelligence
Over 140 Near genius

Note: Overall IQ is an average of the IQs for Productivity, Renewable energy, Smart initiatives, DR /EE and IT investment. Utilities participating in Top Knowledge Centers, like GridWise Alliance, (listed in the March/April issue) received a bump up in their Overall IQ.

What Drives Austin Energy Today?

Our popularity continues to amaze me. We get asked all the time, why are we so transformational? Why are we building the smart grid? Why are we selling so much green power? Why are we so focus on customer satisfaction? Etc., Etc.

Here are the current key drivers from our strategic plan and fiscal year 2009 operational plan:

What are the business drivers for Austin Energy?
- Get to 700 MW of energy efficiency by 2020
- Get to 15% energy efficiency by 2020
- Get to 30% mix of renewable energy in our generation by 2020
- Get to 100 MW of Solar generation by 2020
- Get AA bond rating by 2010
- Get to 83% in customer satisfaction index by 2010 (currently at 82%)
- Get SAIDI@60, SAIFI@0.8, and SATLPI@4.1 (currently at 48.29, 0.66, and 3.6 already)

What are our top 5 initiatives?
- Nodal Market Enablement
- Maximo for Power Production Business Unit
- Customer Information System Replacement (Smart Grid program)
- Smart Meter Deployment (Smart Grid program)
- Distribution Management System (Smart Grid program)

What services are we trying to improve for our customers?
- More choices for customers
- Faster service cycle times for customer work orders
- Better overall customer experience
- Increase workforce productivity

Andres Carvallo Chairs and Keynotes Smart Grid Conference

Marcus Evans asked me last year to help host a unique Smart Grid Conference here in Austin, Texas. They decided to produce the Smart Grid Initiatives for Utilities Conference. As a host utility and conference chairman, I am very proud and look forward to the opportunity of sharing the stage with industry colleagues from Bonneville, Direct Energy, CCET, Centerpoint, Sacramento Municipal Utility, Alabama Power, Southern California Edison, DTE Energy, PG&E, Baltimore Gas & Electric, and Texas-New Mexico Power. Additionally, you will also hear from US Modern Grid, Galvin Electricity, Intergraph, Ice Energy, and the Pacific Northwest National Lab.

The conference will take place September 1 – 3, 2009. It will be a great update on the smart grid journey from the very best. Don’t miss it.

http://www.marcusevans.com/html/eventdetail.asp?eventID=15122&SectorID=3&divisionID=

Austin Energy CIO Named Chairman of the LPPC Smart Grid Task Force

The Large Public Power Council (LPPC) Smart Grid Task Force is a group under the LPPC CIO Task Force with the focus of accelerating the deployment and optimization of Smart Grid technologies and best practices across the nation. The appointment was made during the 4th Annual LPPC CIO Roundtable meeting in May 27-28, 2009 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Andres is the former chairman of the LPPC CIO Task Force for 2008-2009 as well as the former vice-chairman for 2007-2008.

The LPPC is an organization comprising 23 of the nation's largest public owned and controlled power systems. The LPPC represents the public interest on national energy issues. From Sacramento to Seattle, from New York to Texas, LPPC members directly and indirectly provide reliable, high quality, low-cost electricity to most of the more than 40 million people served by publicly owned utilities. This includes serving tens of thousands of large and small businesses located in some of the fastest growing urban and rural residential and commercial markets in America.

The LPPC CIO Task Force was created in 2005 to help accelerate the sharing of IT best practices and knowledge transfer among its members as the industry evolves very quickly to adopt new business models, new clean energy sources, new levels of reliability, and new services to customers.

Andres Carvallo Speaks at LES' Smart Grid Educational Forum

Two of the country's most innovative leaders in Smart Grid technology will present at the forum. Andres Carvallo of Austin Energy and Robert Mack of Tacoma Public Utilities will join other national and international energy experts to speak about their experiences implementing Smart Grid technology. While the luncheon is sold out, seating remains for all of the morning and afternoon sessions.

http://www.les.com/your_les/smart_grid_forum.asp

http://www.les.com/your_les/smart_grid_forum_agenda.asp

http://www.les.com/your_les/smart_grid.asp

Smart Grid Today features Andres Carvallo

Austin Energy CIO Sees Back Office as Key to Success
Smart Grid Today
August 7, 2009

Austin Energy CIO Andres Carvallo expects a little chaos in the utility's efforts to organize the new business opportunities unfolding between the smart meter and the consumer, “I'm going from a world I control -- beautifully -- to a world that is, ‘Oh my God!” he said, laughing, to about 45 people gathered Wednesday night at a meeting of the Austin Clean Energy Group in the capital city of Texas.

Carvallo was speaking about “building the smart grid” and specifically on aspects that have yet to be figured out. “What will it look like? How do we charge for it? How do we provide the service?”

Back-office integration is the key to successfully orchestrate all the pieces of the smart grid, Carvallo urged.

The question of privacy was raised more often than any other topic during the 45 minute discussion following Carvallo's presentation. He was asked whether the utility knowing what devices people are plugging in creates a privacy issue and who is in charge of that?

“Some in the industry have said the utility needs to have control over all that,” Carvallo answered. “Southern Cal Edison tried to do a rollout in LA,” and advocacy groups quashed it. “They said, ‘No, no, no. You can't do this. We want to have choice.”

Austin Energy plans to follow its own example as set in an opt-in programmable thermostat program. “Somehow, we'll figure out in the next six months how we will provide more information to you in your house. Do we do it ourselves? Do we partner with third parties? Do we go partner with Google and Microsoft for PowerMeter and Hohm? We're exploring what's possible.”

“The customer must have the choice and must have control,” he added. “The key thing to resolve this is, if you're going to be using your electric vehicle and solar rooftop and exporting energy back to my grid, somehow you and I need to have a handshake. How do you make that handshake happen? The answer has not been created yet,” said Carvallo.

Is that metaphorical handshake really needed? Is it not enough to just tell the utility how much power you are using as opposed to itemizing what you're using in your house?

Some consumers will demand granularity and that will require the handshake, Carvallo predicted. “Today, we've built the system to read the meters every 15 minutes -- which is 100 terabytes. You guys in this room are going to want that data every five minutes and I go from 100 terabytes to 400 terabytes. So I just quadrupled the cost of the data center, which goes back to your bill.

“Now you want me to go from five minute to 1 minute. I quadruple again, which goes back to your bill. Then you say, ‘you know, I really want to manage my entire house in real time -- every 2 seconds…. We're going to get there. People like service and convenience,” Carvallo reminded.

Smart Grid Today features Austin Energy

Austin Energy Readies to Pioneer Next Level of Smart Grid
Smart Grid Today
August 6, 2009

Unlike any other utility applying for a DOE Smart Grid Investment Grant, whatever matching funds Austin Energy gets will be used for a comprehensive approach to a “next-gen” smart grid that Andres Carvallo calls smart grid 2.0. He's the municipal utility's CIO. Austin is asking DOE for about $100 million, he told us during an exclusive interview in his office just across Lady Bird Lake from downtown Austin.

Austin Energy will, by the end of this month, have deployed 410,000 smart meters from Elster, GE and AMI partner Landis & Gyr covering all of its service footprint -- a million consumers and 43,000 businesses.

“Most places have announced they're going to deploy smart meters or put some intelligence on their wires with sensors -- and they'll be done in 2012 or 2015. Boulder is closer. It will be done in 2010,” said Carvallo. “We're done now. And we'll start rolling out pilots for ‘smart grid 2.0' in the beginning of next year.”

“Smart grid 1.0,” as he referred to Austin's initial smart grid plan, took the utility five years to deploy and cost about $150 million. About $10 million of that came from DOE to improve energy efficiency. The muni deployed its first 125,000 smart meters in 2003. “It was all about the seamless integration of the electric grid itself plus all the electric assets we own including power plants -- with a communication network” that includes fiber optic throughout the infrastructure and out to the substation and wireless AMI technology from Landis & Gyr for the last mile, Carvallo reported.

The upshot is “a lot of hardware and software that leverages the gathering of a lot of information to make smarter decisions.”

The 410,000 smart meters can deliver consumption data every 15 minutes -- and will start doing that as the plan moves forward. Austin Energy is testing the meters now and plans to, early next year, “come out with some programs that will allow customers to benefit from some of the investments we've made, in terms of information,” said Carvallo. Data-display partners are not in short supply, said Carvallo, and ongoing conversations on the topic include Microsoft and Google. Austin installed 86,000 remote-control thermostats from Honeywell and Comverge and 2,500 wireless distribution grid sensors from multiple vendors.

Austin Energy, the City of Austin, its chamber and the University of Texas teamed up to create Austin's next-generation smart grid implementation with these firms: Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, Freescale Semiconductor, GE, GridPoint, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, the consortium SEMATECH and the Environmental Defense Fund. Comverge, Landis & Gyr and others of that group take part in the next go round, said Carvallo.

Austin Energy began working on its second phase of the smart grid in December, he added. The team is focused now on this question: What happens to the smart grid beyond the meter and into the premises, the homes, factories and businesses?

“The driver of all this vision is that, if that home were to have some form of distributed generation -- like a solar rooftop -- and some kind of electric storage and smart appliances with an electric vehicle or two in it, how would you integrate those assets” owned by the owner of the premises into the grid in a way that you could still have balance on the grid? “Not only are they drawing energy, but they are putting energy back onto the grid,” he added.

The city picked the historic name Pecan Street Project to advertise its intentions: http://www.pecanstreetproject.org/. Sixth Street in Austin “is our Bourbon Street,” Carvallo explained, referring to the focal point of live music in New Orleans, La. Sixth Street, too, is a major artery of Austin's famous live music culture -- and its original name was Pecan Street. “The team that came up with the Pecan Street Project name chose it because we are aspiring to have in clean tech the same kind of leadership we have in live music.”

What if cars could talk?

South by Southwest, the enormous music and film festival Austin hosts each year, informs Carvallo's “vision of how the smart grid will be prepared for the future,” he explained, painting this day-in-the-life scenario:

“Imagine that, in 2015, people in 80,000 automobiles come from all over nation to enjoy South by Southwest -- from as far away as Seattle or Washington, DC. Let's imagine that those 80,000 cars are either plug-in hybrid electric vehicles or electric vehicles. As the drivers settle into their seats and enter into navigational systems the destination of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, “the cars themselves will communicate with the Austin Energy smart grid, identify the characteristics of the vehicles and their batteries and register accounts for the drivers. “With the accounts up and running, our smart grid will provide the vehicles with information around where drivers can charge their vehicle -- including fast or regular speed charging mechanisms at restaurants, hotels and homes.” Meanwhile, the grid will negotiate -- with the vehicles -- prices for those different spots that could take up to 10 hours to charge or as little as two.


Pioneering here is normal

The back-end Austin Energy creates will be able to handle that scenario, Carvallo assured.
“Now, what's really missing is the car having the ability to interact with us,” he said, noting that Austin Energy is working with Mercedes, Ford, GM, Chrysler and Toyota to remedy that situation.

Is that scenario possible by 2015? “Possible? Absolutely,” Carvallo said. “It's going to be a function of how many electric vehicles will be available,” he added. President Barack Obama wants something like 1 million electric vehicles roaming the US by 2015, he added. Folks in Austin are likely to lead by example and switch to electric vehicles, he added.

Austin's involvement in the semiconductor revolution of the ‘80s to some degree shows what can happen in this city, whose skyline is dominated by the Austonian, a 52-story condo tower now under construction and one of 30 downtown buildings connected to the underground chilling system Austin Energy uses to help it shave peak load.

Austin-based association SEMATech (Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology) -- the consortium started by IBM, Sony, Intel, Toshiba and others -- drove the development of the cell9 chip that led to the microprocessor chip that powers X-Box 360s, PlayStations and Nintendos. “Austin Energy is a reflection of a city that's a hotbed of new ideas and new thinking,” said Carvallo.

IBM sees machines helping

The municipal has its work cut out for it. The inevitable deluge of data from a fully operational smart grid, plus the challenge of continuing to provide safe, clean, reliable and affordable power while distributed renewable energy sources are added to the system, creates “immensely complex and difficult operation optimization problems,” Paul Williamson told us. He's energy & utilities solutions architect for IBM and spoke to us this week by phone from his Austin office.

In its proposal to be part of Austin's Pecan Street Project, IBM would help “build the network, define the software and standards and implement that,” around attaching the renewable energy sources and enabling the devices to communicate, said Williamson. IBM sees itself “optimizing businesses processes in the presence of the new distributed energy source,” he added, such as preventive maintenance and outage management, for example.


Low-hanging fruit is huge

Austin Energy is kicking around what's possible in harvesting mw from its service territory -- often referred to as the low-hanging fruit of the movement to manage the coming and continued explosion in electricity demand. “Some people have said it might be a power plant's worth” in Austin, Carvallo said, noting that guesses have gone as high as 300 mw.

That would call for the owners of homes and businesses in Austin to not only better manage energy use but also deploy DG equipment. Widespread adoption of electric vehicles plus the retail-level purchase of smart appliances should follow, Carvallo noted. The utility needs an internal platform that easily integrates what are sure to be scattered moves by its customers.

Electric cars left plugged in at airports for a week or so could become an energy source as the utility could charge them in the middle of the night and draw power from them in the day, Williamson explained. That would help optimize wind generation. “There are all sorts of very interesting business processes around renewable energy generation and storage” and IBM is working on them “very aggressively.”


PSP sees details next month

The Pecan Street Project plans, by the end of next month, to present a report to state regulators and Austin Energy's board of directors “for them to choose exactly how we will go forward,” said Carvallo. Decoupling of the cost of energy use and the cost of producing and delivering power to homes and business is one possibility on the table.

“The thought is you would move the utility from being based on volume of kw hours to really more a of an energy services fee structure,” with a separate charge for T&D, said Carvallo.
Austin Energy today generates, transmits and distributes energy and sells it to wholesale and retail customers. With the addition of decoupling, for starters, the muni's operating model is ripe for overhaul.

Austin Energy may well initiate a marketing campaign to teach its customers and anyone else that is watching about vampire -- or phantom load and how cutting it across the US could have a big impact. Vampire load is the continuous flow of power from generators to support the stand-by mode of electrical devices and appliances in homes and businesses. “With the smart grid concept, we'd want to turn off not only the smart appliances but everything connected to a ‘smart plug,'” Carvallo explained.

Austin Energy meanwhile wants to “accelerate how we take innovation from any third party into our system,” he added.

Ecologic Analytics MDMS chosen by Austin Energy

Austin Energy, known for its green initiatives, chooses the Ecologic MDMS over other solutions and completes the initial installation process

MINNEAPOLIS - July 29, 2009: Ecologic Analytics, a leading provider of meter data management systems (MDMS) for electric, natural gas and water utilities, announced today that its MDMS has been successfully installed at Austin Energy, a community-owned utility serving nearly 400,000 customers within Austin, Texas, broader Travis county and a portion of the adjacent Williamson county.

Austin Energy and the city of Austin are among the leaders in the United States for using technology to efficiently generate and distribute energy positively impacting the environment. To fully achieve the operational benefits from an Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) requires a single solution to translate the raw meter data into a common format that can be used for complex processing. Ecologic Analytics' validation, estimation and editing (VEE) engine for interval data, iWAVE™, will play a prominent role in providing accurate billing determinants as Austin Energy applies VEE rules to interval data in 15-minute increments to fuel future demand-side programs.

"We're excited to be working with Austin Energy," said Kristine Beck, co-founder and chief operations officer. "The utility has some of the most advanced demand-side management plans in place, and it's gratifying to know our MDMS will play a critical role in their plans."

Austin Energy has been a demand-side management leader for many years. Its energy efficiency and alternative fuel programs are two of the reasons the utility has been identified by the Department of Energy as the number one green power utility in the country six years running.

Since its inception, Ecologic Analytics has been the MDMS provider that utilities partner with to deliver on future requirements. As new Smart Grid technologies and applications come to market, the flexible architecture of the Ecologic MDMS enables utilities, like Austin Energy, to extend the core MDMS functionality to fully take advantage of the evolving technologies. "We're proud to be the MDMS provider for cutting edge utilities," Beck added.

http://www.ecologicanalytics.com/company_news_austin.html

Energy Today Features Austin Energy's Smart Grid 2.0

ENERGY TODAY MAGAZINE
Interesting Times

July 2009

Features
Written by Matt Bolch

Congress authorized $500 million in spending for smart grid development in 2007, and President Barack Obama made energy one of the planks in his winning campaign strategy. Now that the federal stimulus package has added more than $4 billion in spending for such projects, utilities across the country have begun to explore this technology in earnest.

Austin Energy has been traveling the smart grid path for nearly seven years. The project started as a way to streamline the business and find a new operating model for the future, explained Andres Carvallo, CIO. The utility generates, transmits, and distributes energy, as well as selling to wholesale and retail customers.

During the initial visioning process, utility executives discussed distributed energy, renewable energy sources, distributed generation such as solar PV and micro wind devices, and energy efficiency as ways to control costs and enhance value to customers. Investment in smart grid technology is a logical extension, allowing customers to monitor and optimize energy use.

Austin’s smart grid project will cover 100% of its service territory by August, encompassing 440 square miles, 500,000 devices, 100 terabytes of data, 1 million consumers, and 43,000 businesses. Phase one of the project focuses squarely on the utility side of the grid. It is all about systems integration, communications, safety and reliability of electric operations, better and new services, and improved customer service. It goes from the central power plant through the transmission and distribution systems, all the way to the meter, and back.

Smart grid technology might allow the extension of current energy supplies as new nuclear plants come on line and utilities investigate alternative energy sources such as geothermal, solar, wind, biofuels, and others.

Dire prediction
The North American Electric Reliability Corp, which oversees electrical-grid operators, predicts power outages in the Northeast, West, and in Texas within two years after the economy gets back on track. That dire prediction, coupled with consumer demand for alternative energy sources and the promise of stimulus funds, has spurred renewed interest in upgrading the power grid.

“We have a quite good transmission system, designed for a model where electricity is generated locally, with some interchange of power when plants are down for maintenance or unforeseen circumstances,” said Branko Terzic, the top executive for regulatory and policy issues involving the energy industry for Deloitte. He is a former commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and currently heads up a United Nations committee on cleaner energy.

Transmission grids can be more efficient if electricity flows are closely monitored through the use of smart meters and software. The distribution side, however, is under pressure to not only distribute power to the system but to accept power inputs from consumers and businesses that generate their own electricity and have excess capacity.

“Electricity now flows both ways when a building has more power than it needs and pushes that to the grid,” Terzic said. “That requires investments in telemetry, measurement, hardware for balancing, and a smarter distribution grid.”

A more intelligent grid system will increase access to lower cost and/or lower carbon energy sources and allow the transmission grid to handle loads more efficiently or shift distribution when problems arise without new investment in lines. A huge benefit to consumers will be fewer line losses and access to demand-side management. Smart meters will allow homeowners and businesses to make choices that have dollar-and-cents impacts, delaying running appliances or machines during peak hours, for example.

Overarching the interest in smart grid technology is a hodgepodge of state public service commissions that control transmission lines and distribution to users. Demand-side management, distributed generation, and the ability for a nonutility power producer to connect to the distribution grid are a few issues still under the purview of state governing bodies.

“Much of the authority to implement new technologies is still exclusively in the hands of the states,” Terzic said.

Beyond the meter
Even before Austin Energy’s smart grid project wrapped up, utility officials unveiled plans for what it calls Smart Grid 2.0, developed in conjunction with the Pecan Street Project. The project is a partnership among Austin Energy, the city of Austin, The University of Texas, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Environmental Defense Fund, Dell, GE, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor, Sematech, GridPoint, and several others.

Smart Grid 2.0 focuses on the grid beyond the meter and into the premise (e.g. home, office, store, mall, building) with integration back to the utility grid. “Our Smart Grid 2.0 is about managing and leveraging distributed generation (solar, micro wind, etc), storage, plug-in hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, and smart appliances on the customer side of the meter,” Carvallo writes on his blog, CIO Master (www.ciomaster.com).

The power and transportation sectors are the number one and number two users of energy in the US, combining for nearly 70% of the total. The vision of the Pecan Street Project is to solve the energy problem in Austin by reinventing the power sector via moving into new energy models, including interconnecting with the transportation sector.

The first phase will be complete by the end of August 2009 and will focus on developing an action plan for Austin Energy and identifying key barriers that must be overcome for success.

“We want to transform Austin Energy into the urban power system of the future while making the city of Austin and its local partners a local clean energy laboratory and hub for the world’s emerging cleantech sector,” Carvallo said.

“In doing so, we seek to prove that it is possible to remake the way we produce, use, store, and trade energy in a way that is simultaneously consistent with our economical, environmental, social, and security objectives.”

http://www.energytodaymagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6972&Itemid=109

Andres Carvallo Speaks at GE Smart Grid Technology Symposium 2009

I have been asked to speak on my vision and plans for Smart Grid 2.0 at the GE Smart Grid Technology Symposium 2009. We already designed and built our Smart Grid 1.0 in Austin, TX servicing 1 million consumers and 43,000 businesses. The questions is what is next? Our Smart Grid 2.0 vision is on Distributed Generation, Storage, Smart Appliances and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Electric Vehicles at the premise (home, Office, school, factory) and interconnected to the Utility grid.

The GE Smart Grid Technology Symposium deals with basic and in-depth Smart Grid concepts, plans, and lessons learned from deployments.

What's happening in the electricity sector is analogous to what already has happened in the telecommunications sector. It's becoming mobile, intelligent and all encompassing. In telecommunications, fixed telephone lines have given way to cell phones that allow us take pictures, watch TV, record video, correspond by e-mail, browse the web and of course, have mobile phone conversations from virtually anywhere. The electricity sector is evolving in much the same way. We're transitioning from a stationary, centralized, and fixed power distribution system to one that will be more mobile, more distributed and more diverse in where we get our power. In essence, it will become the future Smart Grid.

http://www.ge.com/smartgrid/

Top Ten Smart Grid Categories and Leaders

Thank you to Jeff St. John and Greentech Media for publishing the top ten smart grid categories and the leading players in each.

By Jeff St. John April 30, 2009

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/top-ten-smart-grid-3605/N10/

Top Ten Smart Grid

What companies are leading the charge toward a smart grid of the future? And, who are the utilities that are taking the lead in giving them a market? We’ve broken down the smart grid sector into a number of broad components areas – smart meter manufacturing, neighborhood-area meter networking and communication, in-home energy management, demand response, meter data management, other smart grid software and services, and the broader role of integrating these areas.

10. Utilities: Austin Energy

There are much larger utilities deploying aspects of smart grid developments – smart meter deployments, integrating renewable source of power, energy storage – but Austin, Texas-based municipal utility Austin Energy has something close to a complete smart grid up and running.

Austin's "Smart Grid 1.0" has deployed 410,000 smart meters, and expects to have all of its customers equipped with a smart meter by late summer, said Andres Carvallo, Austin Energy CIO. The utility has also installed 86,000 thermostats that it can control remotely to cycle off during peak load events, as well as about 2,500 distribution grid sensors across its service territory.

Now Austin Energy is preparing for the Pecan Street Project (www.pecanstreetproject.org), meant to incorporate renewable energy, energy storage, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and energy monitors and smart appliances for customers' homes. The project includes a who's who of high tech companies, including Dell, GE Energy, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor and GridPoint.

Of course, other much larger utilities are busy putting the pieces of the smart grid together. A well known example is Xcel Energy and its SmartGridCity pilot project – a $100 million project aimed at bringing smart meters, "smart" substations, and a host of support systems for distributed generation, plug-in vehicles and home energy use controls

And then there are other utilities pushing ahead with different pieces of the smart grid infrastructure in a big way.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has set a milestone for smart meter deployment, recently announcing that it had installed 2.3 million smart meters so far, more than any other utility in the nation.

And American Electric Power has been taking big steps in integrating energy storage into its grid, with plans to install 25 megawatts of storage by next year and 1 gigawatt by 2020, including large-scale and community-level storage (see Green Light post).

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/top-ten-smart-grid-3605/

Top Ten Smart Grid

What companies are leading the charge toward a smart grid of the future? And, who are the utilities that are taking the lead in giving them a market? We’ve broken down the smart grid sector into a number of broad components areas – smart meter manufacturing, neighborhood-area meter networking and communication, in-home energy management, demand response, meter data management, other smart grid software and services, and the broader role of integrating these areas.

1. Top Smart Meter Maker: Itron

When it comes to smart meters, Itron Inc. (NSDQ: ITRI) is top dog. The Spokane, Wash.-based smart meter manufacturer holds the top spot for market share in North America and worldwide, according to the company's most recent data. It got its early lead with so-called AMR (automatic meter reading) meters, which broadcast but do not receive data, and has leapt out to a lead with two-way communicating meters in the so-called AMI (advanced meter infrastructure) market as well.

Big AMI contracts include Southern California Edison (about $480 million and 5.3 million meters), CenterPoint Energy (about $350 million and 3 million meters), DTE Energy (about $350 million and 3.3 million meters) and San Diego Gas & Electric (about $260 million and 2.3 meters).

Itron is also noteworthy for having pioneered the radio mesh technology that has emerged as the preferred way for smart meters to "talk to" one another in neighborhood area networks – though Itron's "OpenWay" RF mesh system isn't part of every deployment (Silver Spring Networks has been the chosen vendor for that function for many projects).

That's not to say that competitors aren't eager to take the top spot. Swiss-based Landis+Gyr and Silicon Valley-based Echelon are particularly strong in Europe, and fellow smart meter makers Sensus, Elster and General Electric are all competitors worldwide.

2. Smart Meter Networking and Communications Provider: Silver Spring Networks

In the field of giving smart meters new ways to talk to one another, Silver Spring Networks has captured the interest of investors and utilities alike. The Redwood City, Calif.-based startup has inked deals with utilities including Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Florida Power & Light, American Electric Power and others.

All are adding Silver Spring's RF mesh, IP-enabled networking technology to smart meters made by other companies, with the goal of allowing meters to send data from one another to collection points that connect with utility "backhaul" networks – up to 5,000 meters per collection node, the company says.

Silver Spring expects to see about two million meters with its technology deployed by the end of 2009 (see Green Light post), and as of this spring had about $500 million in backlogged orders, a figure that could quadruple by the end of this year, CEO Scott Lang said recently. To bring its technology to market, Silver Spring has raised about $167 million since 2007, including $90 million since October (see Silver Spring Grabs $75M and Green Light posts here and here).

But while Silver Spring has led in terms of mind share, another smart meter networking company has outpaced it in terms of deployments so far. That's fellow Redwood City, Calif.-based startup Trilliant, which announced its millionth device deployed in January. Using an altered version of the 802.15.4 wireless standard to allow meters to mesh with each other and with concentrator points, and fueled with investments including a $40 million round from MissionPoint Partners and zouk ventures, Trilliant has landed deals with more than 100 utilities, including a multimillion meter deployment underway by Ontario, Canada's Hydro One.

And then there's SmartSynch, the Jackson, Miss.-based company that deploys meters with devices that allow them to communicate over existing cellular networks. With a recent announcement that it would partner with AT&T to bring that technology – until now limited to commercial and industrial clients -- to the much larger residential market, SmartSynch could present a challenge to the dominant RF mesh paradigm.

3. In-Home Energy Management: Tendril Networks

The Boulder, Colo.-based startup Tendril has been an early backer of ZigBee, the 802.15.4 wireless standard that is emerging as a favorite for carrying data from smart meters to in-home devices. While it makes an array of devices – in home energy monitoring screens, wall sockets, it has also licensed its software out to third-party device makers, including smart meter manufacturers (see Tendril Targets Meter Makers).

An increasing number of startups making in-home energy monitoring devices are looking at a similar model, given the challenge they face in making their own gear. One startup that focused on software from the get-go is Greenbox Technology, the San Bruno, Calif.-based startup founded by the creators and designers behind Flash. Its web-based dashboard manages data from smart thermostats, appliances and household devices and has been tested with customers in a pilot project with Oklahoma Gas & Electric and Silver Spring Networks.

But all those startups have some heavyweights entering the field to contend with. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has unveiled a prototype home energy management platform called PowerMeter that it would like to see adopted on a wide scale, and Cisco Systems, fresh from its push to network offices for power savings, has joined forces with General Electric and others to help do the same in a residential smart meter project in Miami (see Google Gets Into Home Energy Management, Cisco Jumps Into Energy Management for Computers, Buildings and A Million Smart Meters for Miami).

4. Building Management and Networking: Echelon

It isn't easy to pick a clear leader in the business of networking commercial and industrial buildings to improve energy efficiency. Several huge players – Johnson Controls, Honeywell, Siemens – incorporate energy efficiency into their building automation offerings.

But among those giants – Johnson Controls being the top pick among analysts for market share – many share the use of a technology for building networking developed by Echelon Corp. And the San Jose-based company, which also has a smart meter business, is hoping its LonWorks platform will serve as the backbone for a new generation of building energy efficiency systems tied into upcoming smart grid deployments (see Echelon Beefs up LonWorks).

While almost all of Echelon's smart meter contracts are in Europe, it is working with Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy in a 60,000 smart meter project in Cincinnati and is hoping to play a role in multi-hundred thousand smart meter deployments the utility is seeking permission to start in Indiana and Ohio.

And Duke's Chief Technical Officer Dave Mohler has said that LonWorks could be a good platform to integrate into the utility's smart grid deployments, given that it's already in place in a lot of commercial buildings.

That being said, Echelon is more dependent on its LonWorks as a share of revenues than are any of the industrial giants that use it for their building automation lines of business – and those giants also offer their own proprietary systems for the task.

In the meantime, a host of startups – Sentilla, Arch Rock and Millennial Net among them – are emerging with wireless solutions (see Sentilla Raises $3.75M To Compete in Data Center Power Fray and Arch Rock's Wireless Energy Optimizers).

Others such as Cimetrics, Tririga, HID Laboratories and Optimum Energy are focusing on specific systems like lights, air conditioning or real estate energy use analysis (see Controlling Energy Consumption, A Million Square Feet at a Time).

And then there's the entry of Cisco Systems into the field, with its EnergyWise platform that will help cut energy use for phones, computers, building HVAC and lighting systems and other commercial office space energy wasters (see Cisco Jumps Into Energy Management for Computers, Buildings).

5. Meter Data Management: eMeter

Once utilities have millions of smart meters in place collecting data in near-to-real-time, the question of how to manage it will arise. To meet that need, utilities have turned to a number of companies offering meter data management services – software that can integrate the new flood of data with utility systems for billing, customer account management and a host of new uses that are expected to emerge.

San Mateo, Calif.-based eMeter has emerged as one of the favorite stand-alone meter data management companies (see eMeter: Data-Keeper for the Smart Grid). It has contracts with utilities including with CenterPoint Energy, Alliant Energy and Southern California Edison, which plans to install 5.3 million meters through 2012.

Others are competing for the market, including smart meter makers themselves. Bloomington, Minn.-based Ecologic Analytics is a startup that has received attention for landing the meter data management contract for Pacific Gas & Electric's multimillion smart meter deployment, among others. And Oracle Corp., with its 2007 purchase of meter data management company Lodestar Corp., could be a big contender in the future.

6. Demand Response: EnerNoc

EnerNoc (NSDQ: ENOC) has built a portfolio of more than 2,000 megawatts under management as of the end of last year – twice the size of its portfolio at the end of 2007 – and has since added another 310 more megawatts in contracts with utilities in Idaho and Maryland. Given that every megawatt that can be curtailed equals a megawatt of new generation capacity utilities don't need to build, that puts EnerNoc in the position of being a bit like a power generator of its own (see In New England, A Demand Response Company Gets Utility-Sized).

But EnerNoc, while a leader in the field, is far from alone in the scope of its business. New York-based CPower has about 2,200 megawatts under management, as does East Hanover, N.J.-based Comverge (NSDQ: COMV). Comverge has distinguished itself in another way – it has made large-scale inroads into residential demand response programs, with about two-fifths of its total megawatts under management coming from homes (see Demand Response: The Home vs. C&I Debate).

An honorable mention also has to go to Foundation Capital. The VC firm invested in EnerNoc, Silver Spring and eMeter, making it the firm with the strongest track record in the field.

7. Grid Automation Software: General Electric

Nobody should be surprised that General Electric is a major player in smart grid efforts – not to mention one with the cash on hand to run Super Bowl ads pointing out the fact. But beyond the smart meters GE is making, or the wide-area network WiMax radios it's deploying to support smart grid projects (see GE Offers WiMax Smart Meter Solution), the engineering giant is also a provider of a wide range of software aimed at helping utilities optimize grid operations, said Rick Nicholson, vice president of research for IDC company Energy Insights.

GE has been providing grid-management software to utilities for decades, with a most recent iteration deployed by utility American Electric Power in September. But the giant has been pushing into new smart grid fields, acquiring companies with software to manage field automation technologies, grid cybersecurity, and other aspects of smart grid operations.

GE is far from the only company looking to help make the grid smarter with software, of course, Oracle and IBM are providing similar services, and startup GridPoint has raised more than $200 million with the promise of providing a wide array of software to solve the smart grid's challenges of integrating home energy monitoring, distributed energy generation and plug-in vehicles into the grid. (see GridPoint Gets $120M, Buys V2Green and GridPoint to Manage Wind Power Battery Storage).

8. Smart Grid Integration: IBM

IBM's integration work starts with its Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition, a group of utilities working with the computing giant on smart grid efforts. As part of that, IBM has smart grid pilot projects with utilities including CenterPoint Energy, American Electric Power and Consumers Energy (see IBM Snags Another Smart Grid Deal), and is also part of the first nationwide smart grid project in the island nation of Malta (see IBM Brings Smart Meters to Malta).

IBM also is working on a wide range of research projects, including a collaboration with French utility EDF to develop modeling and optimization technology for integrating smart grid features (see IBM, EDF to Research Smart Grid Tech).

It also is testing new technologies for integrating intermittent energy sources like wind power into grids that are supporting large numbers of plug-in electric or hybrid vehicles (see IBM Tests Smart Charging in Denmark).

9. Energy Storage: NKG Insulators

Energy storage at the utility level is now accomplished almost entirely with the old-fashioned method of pumping water uphill at low electricity demand times, then letting it spin a turbine when demand is high. But there aren't too many more places to build new pumped hydroelectric projects – and integrating intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar power will require a lot more storage.

While solutions like compressed air energy storage are being promised at prices approaching those of pumped hydro – $250 to $500 per kilowatt-hour – it is limited to sites with power plants and underground caverns able to hold the air (see Startup ES&P to Store Electricity in the Air).

So for distributed storage so far, the largest-scale grid power storage projects underway have used sodium sulfur batteries - and so far, the leading maker of those high-temperature, high-volume batteries is NGK Insulators.

The Japanese company has installed its batteries in wind power storage projects with American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), Xcel Energy and Tokyo Electric Power Co., which had partnered with NGK to develop the batteries (see Batteries for the Grid and GridPoint to Manage Wind Power Battery Storage).

Sodium-sulfur batteries have high efficiencies and the ability to deliver energy at full power without reducing lifespan or reliability – important considerations for grid storage (see Green Light post). Their problem remains high price – about $4,000 per kilowatt-hour for AEP's project, and still about $3,000 per kilowatt-hour, according to Sam Jaffe, senior research analyst with IDC company Energy Insights.

That could open the way for lithium-ion batteries from companies like A123 Systems and Altair Nanotechnologies to compete in the grid storage field they've just begun to enter, Jaffe said. Altair has small storage projects underway with Indianapolis Light & Power and another with regional transmission operator PJM, and A123 has a project with power generation utility AES Corp., Jaffe said (see A123 Batteries to Help Stabilize Electric Grid).

The key for lithium-ion batteries will be economies of scale that come from meeting what is expected to be a boom in demand from electric and hybrid vehicles, he noted. With billions of federal stimulus dollars earmarked for helping lithium ion battery manufacturers expand in the United States, and President Barack Obama pledging to push for 1 million plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on America's roads by 2015, lithium ion batteries should become a lot less expensive soon, he said.

10. Utilities: Austin Energy

There are much larger utilities deploying aspects of smart grid developments – smart meter deployments, integrating renewable source of power, energy storage – but Austin, Texas-based municipal utility Austin Energy has something close to a complete smart grid up and running.

Austin's "Smart Grid 1.0" has deployed 410,000 smart meters, and expects to have all of its customers equipped with a smart meter by late summer, said Andres Carvallo, Austin Energy CIO. The utility has also installed 86,000 thermostats that it can control remotely to cycle off during peak load events, as well as about 2,500 distribution grid sensors across its service territory.

Now Austin Energy is preparing for the Pecan Street Project, meant to incorporate renewable energy, energy storage, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and energy monitors and smart appliances for customers' homes. The project includes a who's who of high tech companies, including Dell, GE Energy, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor and GridPoint.

Of course, other much larger utilities are busy putting the pieces of the smart grid together. A well known example is Xcel Energy and its SmartGridCity pilot project – a $100 million project aimed at bringing smart meters, "smart" substations, and a host of support systems for distributed generation, plug-in vehicles and home energy use controls

And then there are other utilities pushing ahead with different pieces of the smart grid infrastructure in a big way.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has set a milestone for smart meter deployment, recently announcing that it had installed 2.3 million smart meters so far, more than any other utility in the nation.

And American Electric Power has been taking big steps in integrating energy storage into its grid, with plans to install 25 megawatts of storage by next year and 1 gigawatt by 2020, including large-scale and community-level storage (see Green Light post).

Ephemeralization

Ephemeralization is a term coined by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1922. It refers to the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing." Fuller's vision was that ephemeralization will result in ever increasing standards of living for an ever growing population despite finite resources.

Fuller referred to Henry Ford's assembly line as an example of how ephemeralization can continuously lead to better products at lower cost with no upper bounds on productivity.

Fuller saw ephemeralization as an inevitable trend in human development. The progression was from "compression" to "tension" to "visual" to "abstract electrical" (i.e. non-sensorial radiation, such as radio waves, x-rays, etc.). Length measurement technologies in human development, for example, started with a compressive measure, such as a ruler. The compressive technique reached an upper limit with a rod. For longer measures, a tensive measure such as a string or rope was used. This reached an upper limit with sagging of the string. Next was surveyor's telescope, a visual measure. This reached the upper limits with curvature of the earth. Next was radio triangulation, an abstract electrical measure. Since then, our technological progression has constantly reached greater and greater length-measuring ability per pound of instrument, with no apparent upper limit.

Moore's Law is another example of ephemeralization. Moore's Law says that the number of transistors in a microprocessor doubles every eighteen months.

Metcalf's Law is another example of ephemeralization. Metcalf's Law says that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of the nodes connected.

NIST Releases Interim Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap

The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) released today a draft copy of its Interim Smart Grid Interoperability Roadmap, one of its tasks under the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 (EISA2007). The 291-page document, found at: www.nist.gov/smartgrid/InterimSmartGridRoadmapNISTRestructure.pdf

This Roadmap addresses a variety of issues, including governance and IP, going forward. In addition to outlining the project and describing the work done so far, the Roadmap defines a conceptual model for smart grid and its implementation, identifies the applications in different domains of the grid, discusses the security requirements for smart grid, and finally, recommends several near-term actions that NIST can take to advance the interoperability framework.

NIST will invite comment on the draft, developed by EPRI, within 30 days after the Federal Register notice is released. It will then publish a final draft before September, based on the comments that are received. NIST hopes to have a final Roadmap by the end of the year.

Many of us in the industry over the last two years have had the opportunity to contribute up to this point and look forward to finishing the standards with a final worldwide open stakeholder approach to get all the possible input in place to release the final standards that will drive America to deliver a nationwide smart grid.

Pecan Street Project Launches Website

The Pecan Street Project gets a website to start sharing with the world, after working quietly for six months. 12 teams and 150 professionals are defining what Smart Grid 2.0 is all about in Austin, TX. For Austin Energy, it is a great opportunity to take its success in deploying its Smart Grid 1.0 (first in the US) and work with world class organizations to build on it the next evolutionary step.

The Pecan Street Project was founded by Austin Energy, the City of Austin, The University of Texas, and The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and it became a partnership with The Environmental Defense Fund, Applied Materials, Dell, GE, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor, Sematech, GridPoint, and several others.

The Pecan Street Project will comprise three phases with several parallel efforts. The first phase will be complete by the end of August 2009, and will focus on developing an action plan for Austin Energy and identifying key barriers that must be overcome for success. These barriers will be organized into the following categories: technologies, workforce, markets and business models and policies. The technology section will be further organized into those that 1) are ready for implementation (for example motion sensors for hallway lights), 2) need to be tested and verified when integrated into the grid, and 3) need to be developed, as well as by generation, storage, efficiency, and low-tech options. The second phase will be the execution of the recommendations and pilots approved by the Austin Energy board of directors. And the third phase is a potential new research consortium.

http://www.pecanstreetproject.org/

Andres Carvallo to Keynote Digital Living Conference

Digital Living Conference features executives from controls, networking, entertainment, and CE companies

CONNECTIONS™ speakers address challenges and opportunities that come with converging products and services

Parks Associates has announced the speakers for CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase, including keynotes from Austin Energy, AT&T, Sony Pictures, and Verizon.

The 13th annual CONNECTIONS™, June 2-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, features interactive panels with over 80 speakers and consumer and industry research presented by Parks Associates’ expert analysts. This event attracts senior executives from industries associated with the digital home, new media and content distribution, and mobile applications and services.

“CONNECTIONS™ speakers offer an array of expertise covering CE, digital media, content and access services, home controls, and energy management,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president, principal analyst, Parks Associates. “The number of broadband households worldwide will reach 650 million by 2013. These connections will have a ripple effect throughout multiple industries, impacting communications, entertainment, and home management. CONNECTIONS™ features an excellent lineup of speakers covering both the visionary and practical challenges in forging new business models for this changing consumer culture.”

Parks Associates reports the number of mobile TV subscribers worldwide exceeded 30 million in 2008, while more than 26 million U.S. consumers use the Internet at least monthly to catch up on TV programming. Both findings show the growing appeal of place- and time-shifting features and are early indicators of the future directions of the mobile and video markets.

Keynote Speakers:
Joseph Ambeault, Director, Product Development and Management, Video Services, Verizon
Andres E. Carvallo, Chief Information Officer, Austin Energy
Glenn Lurie, President of Emerging Devices and Resale, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets
Mitch Singer, CTO, Executive Vice President of New Media and Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.; President, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE)

Speakers and Panelists:
Sanket Amberkar, Marketing Manager, Network Systems Solutions, Cisco
Bruce Anderson, General Manager, Global Electronics Industry, IBM
Sean Besser, VP, Business Development, Macrovision
Stephen Blum, President, Tellus Venture Associates
Jeff Bonin, Vice President & GM, Alticast
Brandon Brown, CEO, Zodiac Interactive
Torey Bruno, Director of Business Development, Via Licensing Corporation
Geoff Burke, Senior Director, Corporate Marketing, Calix
Jon Burr, VP, Customer Experience and Operations, CrossLoop, Inc.
Duane Carvalho, Sales Director, North America, Jungo
Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer, Exceptional Innovation
Chenyi Chiu, Strategic Program Manager, HD-PLC Alliance
Paul Dawes, CEO, iControl Networks
Rolf De Vegt, Director, Technical Standards Qualcomm
Jim Denney, VP, Product Marketing, TiVo Inc.
Vijay Desai, Founder, CEO, Aceurity, Inc.
Christopher Deutschen, Senior Manager, Product & Business Development, Direct Energy
Chris Dobrec, Sr. Director Strategy & Business Development, Cisco Systems
Brian Donnelly, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Icron
Ajay Dugar, Executive Director, Paramount Digital Entertainment
Mike Ehlenberger, Vice President of Channel Sales, Actiontec Electronics, Inc.
Jaime Fink, Vice President of Technology and Strategy, 2Wire
Meir Friedlander, CEO, Eyecon Technologies, Inc.
Jonathan Gaines, Senior Vice President - Sales, Xeriton Corporation/BluePhone
Jackson Gates, Director of Business Development, Pandora
Ben Geller, Senior Director of Marketing, Motive Product Group, Alcatel-Lucent
Noam Geri, Co-founder, Vice President Marketing & Business Development, AMIMON
Andrea Goldsmith, Co-Founder and CTO, Quantenna Communications
Pankaj Gupta, Manager, Market Management - Service Providers, Cisco Systems
Mike Harris, CEO, AnySource
David Henry, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Home Products, NETGEAR
Chris Hock, Senior VP, Product Management, BlackArrow
Jim Hunter, CTO and Chief Architect, 4Home
Brent Hurley, Strategic Partner Development Manager, YouTube
Richard Irving, Managing Partner, Pond Venture Partners
Vipin Jain, President and CEO, Retrevo
Braxton Jarratt, CEO, Clearleap
Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Americas and Asia Pacific, mBlox, Inc.
Jason Johnson, Vice-President of Marketing & Business Development, Via Licensing Corporation
Jim Johnson, President & CEO, uControl
Scott Kelliher, Category Director, Telecommunications & Technology, Platform A/AOL
Fred King, VP, Sales & Marketing, PlumChoice, Inc.
Kazuhiro Kitagawa, Vice-Chairman, PUCC
Steve Koepp, Senior Manager, Business Development, Microsoft Corporation
Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo Broadband
Craig Lee, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Ortiva Wireless
Michelle Leyden Li, General Manager, Home Control Business Unit, Zilog
Sheung Li, Director of Product Development & Marketing, SiBEAM
Alex Limberis, COO, Syabas Technology, Inc.
Ken Lowe, Vice President, Strategic Marketing, Sigma Designs
Robert Malnati, Director, Business Development, Broadband Solutions Group, Home and Networks Mobility, Motorola, Inc.
Wilfred Martis, Director of Platform Strategy and Planning, Digital Home Group, Intel
Theodore May, VP, Content & Value-added Services, Synacor
Steve McKay, CEO, Entone Inc.
Travis Misterek, Technical Analyst, Best Buy
Seale Moorer, CEO, Exceptional Innovation
Mike Noonen, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, NXP Semiconductors
Bogdan Odulinski, Director - Product Management, Enterprise Services Group, SupportSoft, Inc.
Frank Ploumen, Director, Home Applications, Alcatel-Lucent
Mostafa Reza, Product Line Manager, IP Video Solutions Group, Motorola
Micha Risling, VP of Marketing, Valens Semiconductor
Anthony Rodio, Chief Operating Officer, support.com
Avner Ronen, CEO & Co-Founder, Boxee
Vibha Rustagi, CEO & President, itaas, Inc.
Russ Schafer, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Connected TV, Yahoo!
Rick Schwartz, Product Manager, TwonkyMedia Manager, PacketVideo
Loren Shade, VP Marketing, Allegro Software Development Corporation
Parag Sheth, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Hillcrest Labs
Eric Smith, CTO, Control4
Jason Spero, VP & Managing Director NA, AdMob
Kevin Spier, Director of Business Development, Bunchball
Singu Srinivas, VP, Sales and Marketing, Radialpoint
Bill Stanley, Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia
Jan Steenkamp, Founder Member, Head Market Development America, Irdeto
Rob Tobias, Director, Market Development, Silicon Image
Steve Tranter, VP Interactive and Broadband, NDS
Edgar Villalpando, SVP, Marketing, ActiveVideo Networks
Dr. Kenneth Wacks, Member, GridWise Architecture Council, U.S. Department of Energy
Ian Walsh, VP Business Development, ProVision Communications
Fred Wang, General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Lior Weiss, VP Marketing, Celeno
Stephen White, Director, Business Development, VIZIO
Ken Wirt, Vice President Consumer Marketing, Cisco Systems
Daniel Wong, Director of Product Management, D-Link
Steve Yum, Sr. Director of Marketing, Synerchip
Scot Zarkiewicz, CEO, SingleClick Systems
Eric Zimits, Managing Director, Granite Ventures


http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections/2009/index.html
http://www.parksassociates.com/events/connections/splash/index.htm

Andres Carvallo Receives Computerworld Honors Laureate Award

My Smart Grid leadership and work at Austin Energy was recognized on Monday June 1st, 2009 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC by the Computerworld Honors Program in a ceremony that started at 4pm and lasted until 10pm. 159 Laureates in ten categories were recognized and inducted into the program archives. From the 159 Laureates only 50 made it to Finalist (five from each category). And then to make it even more dramatic, the judges picked a single winner of each category to receive the 21st Century Achievement Award. 159 Laureates, 50 Finalists, and 10 (ten) 21st Century Achievement Award winners.

To my surprise, I walked out of the building with three awards and being the sole winner of the Environmental, Energy & Agriculture category in 2009 for the Utility of the Future work at Austin Energy that we have been executing like clockwork since 2003.

Established in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program brings together the principals of the world's foremost information technology companies to recognize and document the achievements of the men, women, organizations and institutions around the world, whose visionary applications of information technology promote positive social, economic and educational change.

Each year, members of the Computerworld Honors Chairmen's Committee, a group of 100 Chairmen/CEOs from leading global IT companies, submit nominations for organizations they feel demonstrated extraordinary use of information technology in 10 distinct categories of industry-related endeavor. The categories are: Business & Related Services; Education & Academia; Environment; Energy & Agriculture; Finance, Insurance and Real Estate; Government; Healthcare; Manufacturing; Media, Arts & Entertainment; Non-Profit Organizations; and Transportation.

Nominees are then asked to contribute a Case Study for submission to the Computerworld Honors Program Global Archives. Each Case Study includes a detailed description of the project, its benefits to society, the role played by information technology in furthering the project, and the ways in which this use of information technology is original or innovative. The Laureates may also submit accompanying digital photographs, video or other supporting materials. Once their documentation has been reviewed and accepted, the nominees become Program Laureates, and their Case Studies become part of the Program's Global Archives. The information becomes available to researchers, students and scholars through http://www.cwhonors.org/, and through digital records housed in national archives in over 100 universities, museums and research institutions throughout the world.

Laureates' achievements are recognized at two distinct events, which occur on the same day in June. During the Laureate Medal Ceremony, Case Studies are formally inducted into the Program's International Archives, and honorees are presented with a medallion inscribed with the Program's mission, "A Search for New Heroes." Later that day, Laureates join members of the Chairmen's Committee and other industry luminaries for the Gala Awards Evening. At that evening event, additional honors are given to 50 Finalists - 5 Laureates from each of the 10 categories, whose Case Studies were selected by Program Judges to be outstanding innovations within the information technology field. That field is narrowed further with the presentation of the 21st Century Achievement Awards. These awards are given to only one Finalist in each category, singled out for special recognition by the Program Judges to be the very best among their peers.

Austin Energy Launches Customer Outage Portal

We have launched our Customer Outage Portal, called "Austin Energy Storm Center" to further improve our customer services and help the media quickly and easily understand when and where there are outages in our service territory.

The Storm Center can be viewed via any Computer and Smart Phone (with a full HTML browser).

The Storm Center provides a “Summary” tab that will show the total number of outages in the utility’s service area and the total number of customers without power at any given time. Users can see the total number of customers currently without power by ZIP code as well as the total number of customers served within each ZIP code.

The Storm Center displays a map of our entire service area, with outages coded to illustrate a small outage (1-200 customers), medium outage (210-500 customers), and large outage (more than 500 customers). Other features include the time the outage began, the estimated restoration time, and total number of customers without power, all zoomable down to street level.

With the Storm Center, customers can see visually what is going on in the Austin Energy service territory, they can check for a specific outage, they can report an outage, and they can contact us.

This project was a great team effort from multiple divisions within Austin Energy. Congratulations to all !

http://my.austinenergy.com/outages/

Andres Carvallo named Technical Chair for NIST's Smart Grid Standards Process

The purpose of the Smart Grid Interoperability Workshop on May 19-20 2009 is to provide an opportunity for the industry stakeholders to meet face to face for a second time to continue the consensus building process for a Smart Grid Standards Interoperability Interim Roadmap.

The key objective of this exercise is to use this consensus based process to select a particular set of interoperable standards for each interface between adjacent Smart Grid environments that support certain high priority Smart Grid applications such as Demand Response, Wide Area Situational Awareness, Electric Storage, and Electric Transportation.

There will be six workshops to define standards for:

1.Demand Response & Consumer Energy Efficiency
2.Wide Area Situational Awareness
3.Electric Storage
4.Electric Transportation
5.Advanced Metering Infrastructure
6.Distribution grid management initiatives, including Distributed Energy Resource (DER) integration, distribution automation, volt/var control, and remote sensing that enables improvements in reliability and improves the efficiency of the distribution system.

In recognition for my industry experience and knowledge, I have been invited to play the role of Technical Moderator and Lead in the Wide Area Situational Awareness, Advanced Metering Infrastructure, and Distribution Grid Management workshops, and Technical Chair for the Application and Data Integration workshop of the Smart Grid Standards Interim Roadmap workshop next week.

Andres Carvallo to Speak at GE's Smart Grid Executive Summit

GE’s Smart Grid Executive Summit will explore the challenges and opportunities of smart grid deployments, as well as the necessary policy and regulatory measures needed to deliver on the promises of a more intelligent electrical network. The event will include the participation of executives from American Electric Power, Ameren, Austin Energy, CNT-Energy, Dominion, Duke Energy, EPRI, FERC, FPL, GE, Galvin Electricity Initiative, Georgia Power, Google, Harvard University, IBM, McKinsey & Company, PG&E, Salt River Project, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern Company, Xcel Energy, and World Resource Institute.

In addition to the Smart Grid Executive Summit, GE will host its first Smart Grid Advisory Board, to which Andres Carvallo has been named.

Andres will attend the Smart Grid Advisory Board meeting and speak at the first annual GE Smart Grid Executive Summit.

GE’s Smart Grid Advisory Board is comprised of executive representatives from five US utilities. The advice and perspectives shared by these board members will help guide GE’s technology development efforts, and these individuals will play a key role in defining the overall GE Smart Grid strategy.

NERC CEO Testifies at Senate Hearing on Cyber Security

Written Testimony of Rick Sergel, NERC President & CEO Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Hearing on Joint Staff Draft Related to Cybersecurity and Critical Electricity Infrastructure May 7, 2009

"The cyber security of the bulk power system in North America remains an important concern for our nation. When I last spoke in front of a Congressional committee in September 2008, my organization, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), had just launched a major initiative to improve its response to cyber security challenges. I am pleased to report significant progress on this front, which is a clear indication that the framework established under Section 215 of the Federal Power Act is producing results. But I remain firm in the message I communicated nine months ago: the Federal government should be given additional, carefully crafted, emergency authority to address specific, imminent cyber security threats.

"My testimony today will focus on the steps NERC has taken to enhance protection of the North American bulk power system from cyber security threats, and offer NERC’s views on the Joint Staff Draft, which would provide the needed federal authority."

Continue Reading >>


Note:

Rick Sergel and his team have done a great job to accelerate the NERC CIP adoption and verification processes. All utilities are hard at work to be fully compliant, if they are not already.

The real challenge is that we find ourselves balancing the forces of Functionality/Convenience vs. Security vs. Affordability. In the end, my second law of Information Technology says: "When balancing the forces of Functionality/Convenience vs. Security vs. Affordability, one must pick only two forces to drive the project and achieve compliant results." Trying to achieve the three forces at once does not deliver sustainable results. Some grid users feel that Security must trump everything else. While other grid users feel that Functionality/Convenience comes first. And yet other grid users want Affordability to be the focus.

My first law of Information Technology says: "When balancing the forces of Cheaper vs. Faster vs. Better, one must pick only two forces to drive the project and achieve sustainable results."

Austin Energy Plans Its Smart Grid 2.0

After defining, architecting and being almost done building our Smart Grid, which will be live and covering 100% of our service territory by August 2009 (yes this year!). Our Smart Grid covers 440 square miles, 500,000 devices, 100 terabytes of data, 1 million consumers and 43,000 businesses, and we are moving very fast to our next phase of evolution.

Our current Smart Grid Program, which we call Smart Grid 1.0, is focused on the utility side of the grid. It is all about systems integration, communications, safety and reliability of electric operations, better and new services, and even better customer service. It goes from the central power plant through the transmission and distribution systems and all the way to the meter and back.

Our Smart Grid 2.0, which will be defined by recommendations of the Pecan Street Project, will be done with its planning by September and will commence deployment soon thereafter. It focus is all about the grid beyond the meter and into the premise (e.g. home, office, store, mall, building) with integration back to our utility grid. Our Smart Grid 2.0 is about managing and leveraging Distributed Generation (Solar PV, Micro Wind, etc), Storage, Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles, Electric Vehicles and Smart Appliances on the customer side of the meter.

The Pecan Street Project is a partnership between Austin Energy, the City of Austin, The University of Texas, The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, The Environmental Defense Fund, Dell, GE, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Freescale Semiconductor, Sematech, GridPoint, and several others.

Why Smart Grid 2.0? Why the Pecan Street Project?

The power sector, which is responsible for 40 percent of annual energy use in the United States, is the single largest consumer of energy nationwide. The transportation sector, which is responsible for 29 percent of annual energy use in the United States, is the second largest consumer of energy nationwide. These two sectors also depend heavily on depleting resources, are prone to supply or delivery disruptions, and are the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

The vision of the Pecan Street Project is to solve the energy problem in Austin, Texas by reinventing the power sector via moving into new energy models, including interconnecting with the transportation sector.

We want to transform Austin Energy into the urban power system of the future while making the City of Austin and its local partners a local clean energy laboratory and hub for the world’s emerging cleantech sector. In doing so, we seek to prove that it is possible to remake the way we produce, use, store and trade energy in a way that is simultaneously consistent with our economical, environmental, social and security objectives. Implementing this vision will include the following types of innovations:

• Connected homes that incorporate smart end points such as meters, appliances, and local generation, integrated with smart markets and distributed smart grids to enable two-way electricity flow

• Smart home energy control systems/portals that provide citizens with more information, alternatives, and decision support

• Smart appliances and devices that can turn off during times of peak demand or high price, either driven by the energy services provider ’s policies or citizens preferences

• Smart markets that have a price built on supply and demand and therefore varies during the time of day and day of year

• Smart policies and government stimulus approaches that foster the innovation and implementation of these technologies and markets

• Green economy workforce members that can build, design, test, install, maintain, operate, and continually improve and invent sustainable capabilities

• Smart business plans that enable Austin Energy to lead on this reinvention of the energy system without compromising its sound financial footing

• Smart political leadership and popular will that shares the vision to make this project a reality

• Innovative laboratory environments supported by public, educational, private and Non-Government Organization partnerships

• Energy communities and networked information platforms that enable social network community development, markets and open society sustainable economic improvements

• Smart transportation systems that incorporate two-way distributed approaches to information flows, energy flows, and unified information and energy storage

• Smart working alternatives that provide more green options to citizens, from smart working centers with virtual life size video alternatives to alternative mass transportation to alternative routes to stay at home options.

• Connected and sustainable buildings for management of commercial and personal real estate, either by tenants, owners, and energy services providers

• We are hoping for 300MWs of alternative, distributed generation through distributed wind and solar

The Pecan Street Project will comprise three phases with several parallel efforts. Only the first two phases will be described here. The third phase is a potential new research consortium. The first phase will be complete by the end of August 2009, and will focus on developing an action plan for Austin Energy and identifying key barriers that must be overcome for success. These barriers will be organized into the following categories: technologies, workforce, markets and business models and policies. The technology section will be further organized into those that 1) are ready for implementation (for example motion sensors for hallway lights), 2) need to be tested and verified when integrated into the grid, and 3) need to be developed, as well as by generation, storage, efficiency, and low-tech options.

As technologies are verified over the first few years, they will be moved into implementation. As technologies are developed from research, they will be re-categorized as ready for testing and verification. Policies will also be organized into several additional categories that accelerate adoption with incentive approaches for citizens, energy services providers, the city, and private sector. Stimulus approaches from investments through bonds to taxes incentives to R&D partnership are just some of the methods to build out the desired impact of green economy and Information Communication and Technology (ICT) economy jobs. Some policies will be readily identified for implementation (for example, removing the ability for homeowner’s associations or others to prohibit the installation of solar panels), while others be identified, developed, and worked through the appropriate regulatory, policy, and citizen acceptance models. It is recognized to change behaviors toward the positive opportunities Pecan Street project strives for collaboration between city, state, and federal authorities is critical to ensure higher levels of citizen will power, satisfaction, and desire to contribute to a sustainable economy in Austin.

Just as it took a century to invent today’s energy system, the Pecan Street Project will require many years to reinvent it. Consequently, the cycle of technological innovation and implementation is expected to take place continuously. The inflection point of these two aspects will cause a disruption and accelerate the cycles from multiple decades to a decade or less.

Our better days are still ahead!

Smart Grid Stimulus Money Plans Announced

The Obama administration offered more details yesterday on how it plans to distribute $4.5 billion in grants to speed the development of smart grid technologies across the nation's electric power system, from transmission monitors to digital household electric meters.

The administration also announced a top-level meeting in early May with smart grid industry leaders intended to speed up the pace of developing technology standards that will enable smart grid devices and software to work together.

Vice President Joe Biden used a visit to Jefferson City, Mo., to update plans for the grants, authorized by the 2009 stimulus bill. The Energy Department said it is beginning a 20-day comment period on a draft process for issuing $3.375 billion in grants for smart grid technology installations by power companies. The grants, ranging from $500,000 to $20 million, must be matched by the recipients. The agency is also seeking comments on its plans to award grants of $100,000 to $5 million for grid monitoring devices.

Another $615 million in stimulus funds will go to smart grid demonstration projects focusing on regional programs, storage technologies and advance monitoring devices called phasor measurement units that give grid control room operators instantaneous data on power flows. Phasor controls could allow more power to move over the grid without overloading lines and equipment.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said he and Energy Secretary Steven Chu will chair a meeting with grid technology leaders in early May to seek agreements on smart grid standards.
"Industry leaders at the meeting will be expected to pledge to harmonize industry standards critical to developing the smart grid, commit to a timetable to reach standards agreement and abide by the standards devised," Biden's office said in a statement. This session will precede a previously scheduled May 19-20 meeting on smart grid technical standards.

Laying down rules for the energy revolution

The meetings represent the administration's attempt to accelerate a smart grid standards regime, called for in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. The standards would cover equipment, software and communications protocols.

The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been under pressure from Congress to complete the standards. NIST Deputy Director Patrick Gallagher acknowledged last month that the process is so complex it has created "a bit of a jam" in setting priorities for the standards. "Right now, what is desperately needed is an overall road map," Gallagher said.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners have collaborated on a set of criteria that they say DOE should use in funding smart grid demonstration projects. Grant applicants should show how their technology will support the reliability of grid operations while protecting the network from cyber-attack, the organizations said.

On the one hand, smart grid advocates are pushing for a common architecture of communications and software protocols to link the parts of the smart grid together. On the other hand, the more open the network is, the more potentially vulnerable it may be, experts say.
"A smart electricity grid will revolutionize the way we use energy, but we need standards in place to ensure that all this new technology is compatible and operating at the highest cybersecurity standards to protect the smart grid from hackers and natural disasters," Locke said.

Grant process moving forward

NIST says it expects to issue an initial set of standards and priorities in early fall, followed by testing and certification that it wants to complete by the end of the year.
Whether smart grid grants can move far in advance of the standard setting was not immediately clear. Yesterday's action "kicks off the process of taking in applications," said DOE spokesman Tom Reynolds.

Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, said there need not be a holdup. "I don't think the NIST process will be a significant barrier at this point," he said. Pilot projects funded by the stimulus grants can help expedite standards development, he added.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/biden-launches-doe-stimulus-program-for-the-smart-grid.ars

NREL Ranks Austin Energy #1 in US Green Power Sales

Annual assessment shows more consumers making clean power choices

April 13, 2009 -- GOLDEN, CO. - The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) today released its annual assessment of leading utility green power programs. Under these voluntary programs, consumers can choose to help support additional electricity production from renewable resources such as wind and solar.

According to the NREL analysis, more than 850 utilities across the United States now offer green power programs. Green power sales in 2008 increased by about 20 percent over 2007, and they represent more than 5 percent of total electricity sales for some of the most popular programs. Wind is the primary source of electricity generated for green energy programs nationwide.

“Despite the economic downturn, utility green power sales continued to expand nationally last year,” said NREL senior energy analyst Lori Bird. “These utilities are the national leaders.”
Using information provided by utilities, NREL developed “Top 10” rankings of utility programs for 2008 in the following categories: total sales of renewable energy to program participants, total number of customer participants, the percentage of customer participation, green power sales as a percentage of total utility retail electricity sales, and the lowest price premium charged for a green power program using new renewable resources.

Ranked by renewable energy sales (kWh/year), the green power program of Austin Energy (Texas) is first in the nation. Rounding out the top five are Portland General Electric (Ore.), PacifiCorp (Oregon and five other states), Xcel Energy (Minnesota and seven other states), and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (Calif.).

Ranked by the percentage of customer participation, the top utilities are City of Palo Alto Utilities (Calif.), Lenox Municipal Utilities (Iowa), Portland General Electric, Madison Gas and Electric Company (Wis.), and Silicon Valley Power (Calif.). (See attached tables for additional rankings).

Customer choice programs are proving to be a powerful stimulus for growth in renewable energy supply. “Participating in green power programs is one way that consumers can reduce their environmental footprint,” NREL analyst Claire Kreycik, who co-authored the report. In 2008, total utility green power sales exceeded 5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), about a 20% increase over 2007. More than 600,000 customers are participating in utility programs nationwide.

Utility green pricing programs are one segment of a larger green power marketing industry that counts Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and colleges and universities among its customers, and helps support about 5,000 MW of new renewable electricity
generation capacity.

NREL analysts attribute the success of many programs to persistent marketing and creative marketing strategies, including some utility partnerships with independent green power marketers. In addition, the rate premium that customers pay for green power continues to drop.

The Green Power study was performed by NREL's Strategic Energy Analysis and Applications Center (SEAAC), which integrates technical and economic analyses and leads NREL's efforts in applying clean energy technologies to both national and international markets.

NREL released its first annual Green Power study in 2000.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Visit NREL online at http://www.nrel.gov/

Source: NREL

http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/nrel/48751100-nrel-highlights-utility-green-power-leaders

South Texas Project Selects PricewaterhouseCoopers for SAP-Enabled Business Transformation Project

Project Will Leverage PwC's Proprietary Nuclear Generation Template to Help Accelerate the Project and Enable Focus On Performance Improvement

NEW YORK and HOUSTON, April 9, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has been awarded the initial planning and design phase of a major SAP-enabled business transformation project by the STP Nuclear Operating Company. PwC Advisory professionals will assist STP to plan and blueprint the replacement of more than 60 mission-critical, enterprise-wide legacy applications with the SAP ECC 6.0 platform and applications while improving and sustaining business performance. The scope of work includes replacement of virtually all of STP's current business applications including Financials, Human Resource Management, Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM), along with a number of specialized nuclear plant applications.

To help achieve this business and IT transformation, PwC will leverage their proprietary nuclear generation template and accelerators, based on over 11 years of experience implementing SAP in the nuclear industry. PwC's consulting professionals in the utilities industry have a proven track record of successful SAP implementations into nuclear plants and helping to accelerate the realization of performance improvement benefits at nuclear facilities across North America.

"Replacing the legacy systems of STP with a process-driven SAP-based solution will help STP achieve a transformation in business process and performance that will support the company and provide a scalable platform for planned future units,'' said David Etheridge, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and U.S. Industry Leader - Utilities and Power Generation. "Our PwC consulting professionals are excited to team with STP and we look forward to working together to help plan and blueprint the transformation.''

The STP Nuclear Operating Company manages the South Texas Project nuclear power plant, a facility that has earned more honors than any other U.S. nuclear power plant. STP is a two-unit nuclear power plant that federal and industry officials have commended as a state-of-the-art and model facility. Its two reactors produce 2,500 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than one million homes and businesses in south central Texas.

"We selected PricewaterhouseCoopers to help us plan this important business transformation because they were uniquely qualified to deliver a team with experience in the nuclear power industry, equipped with a proven nuclear template for SAP and backed by PwC's depth in risk management, change management and IT implementation and design,'' said Mike Meier, STP Vice President, Shared Services. "We are confident that PwC will team with us to put quality and excellence at the forefront of this project.''

Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

About South Texas Project
STP supplies approximately 7.5 percent of the electricity used in Texas. The plant is managed by the STP Nuclear Operating Company and owned by Austin Energy, CPS Energy and NRG Texas. STP's twin reactors produce 2,700 megawatts of carbon-free energy, powering more than two million homes and businesses throughout Texas. To learn more about STP, visit http://www.stpnoc.com/.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers' Advisory Practice
PricewaterhouseCoopers' business advisory professionals provide clients with the confidence to succeed by helping them anticipate, create and manage change. Whether clients are proactively implementing change or reacting to an unplanned event, we leverage our network's resources, deep industry experience, and functional acumen across the areas of operations, finance, organizational strategy and structure, process improvement, human resources effectiveness, technology integration and implementation, risk mitigation and crisis management to help organizations effect sustainable change.

About PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers (http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AqQpXahcMYwV1xQuVPackh7xGZEB/SIG=10o0sir3q/**http%3A//www.pwc.com/) provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 154,000 people in 153 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice. "PricewaterhouseCoopers'' refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP or as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network of other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/South-Texas-Project-Selects-pz-14890604.html

Landis+Gyr Technology Enables Austin Energy's Full Service Smart Grid Coverage

Gridstream deployment within Austin Energy’s territory to be completed this year


ATLANTA, Georgia, USA – March 31, 2009 – Landis+Gyr, which began deploying a Gridstream™ two-way smart grid communications network at Austin Energy in 2008, announced it is on schedule to complete the 280,000 meter project by August 2009.

Landis+Gyr is providing support services for the deployment of advanced meters and a turn-key network hardware upgrade as part of its managed services agreement with Austin Energy. The company began deploying the Gridstream two-way RF mesh network as part of an expanded management contract with Austin Energy that was signed last year.

More than 165,000 two-way meters have been installed so far, and integration with the utility’s meter data management system is underway. Landis+Gyr and Austin Energy are testing access to interval usage and metering data, and will soon begin testing other advanced features, such as remote disconnect and load management.

Austin Energy’s deployment will enable the utility to leverage its network for smart grid and demand response applications, including in-home networking, and distributed generation and automation.

“As the deployment proceeds we continue to identify ways in which the Gridstream network will provide value for Austin Energy’s aggressive smart grid initiatives,” said Tracy Moore, Senior Vice President of Services at Landis+Gyr. “Austin Energy is one of the leaders in promoting conservation and alternative energy applications for its consumers. Its smart grid initiatives are supporting those efforts.”

Austin Energy is the ninth largest community-owned electric utility in the nation, serving nearly 400,000 electricity customers in and around Austin, Texas. The utility has used a Landis+Gyr fixed-network advanced metering solution for approximately a third of its customers since 2002.

The Landis+Gyr Gridstream solution combines industry-leading communication technologies for advanced metering, distribution automation and personal energy management with interoperable tools for monitoring and controlling energy delivery to help utilities and consumers manage energy better.

http://www.landisgyr.com/en/pub/media/press_releases.cfm?news_ID=2537

Jeff Han's Multi Touch User Interface Research

I just wanted to share the powerful break through that Jeff Han at his team at NYU has been working on for a long while. His first demo was in 2006. Since then his work has inspired Microsoft and many others to find the new user interface of the future.

You be the judge if Jeff Han's research is going to change the world or not.

Jeff Han's first demo at TED.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLhMVNdplJc

Microsoft announces Surface

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKgU6ubBgJA

Microsoft Surface demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0

iBar - Largest Multi Touch Screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKehq6qsdY

Austin Energy Launched First Utility Generation Mix Online Game Ever

On Monday, we introduced and launched our "Change Your Generation" game to continue to grow our global leadership in the industry. This is the very first of its kind generation mix simulation game by any electric utility to help stakeholders, partners, professionals, teachers, students and citizens at large to understand and learn the details of our generation mix challenges as an industry and society. The game is open to anyone in the world.

To play the game click here http://changeyourgeneration.austinenergy.com/

Below is an article posted by KEYETV on their website about our game.

---------------------------------------------

Austin Energy launches online game

Monday March 30, 2009

The Who aren’t the only ones talking about their generation.

Austin Energy launched its new program “Change Your Generation” which is designed to help educate energy rate payers and get feedback as to what energy resources people want to use in the future.

This is not your typical website game – there are no levels, enemies or bonus points. Instead, players are given 100 megawatts of energy to distribute among a variety of energy resources in order to determine what combination will help the community.

As participants select options on the screen it shows the consequences or benefits of using or depleting some energy resources such as coal, natural gas, solar power and wind. The goal of the game is to meet the projected electric demand in the Austin area over the next 11 years.

The game is part of a public participation process which began in November to survey community preferences on how to power the Austin area in upcoming years.

http://www.keyetv.com/news/local/story/Austin-Energy-launches-online-game/9dTdZGZshE6sQhzhhggKlw.cspx?rss=909

Austin Energy named Top Tier Smart Grid Utility in the US

Thank you to Jesse Berst for publishing the article below and acknowledging that Texas is a top tier Smart Grid state in the US. Furthermore, I want to thank him for naming Austin Energy the top tear Smart Grid Public Power Utility in the nation and one of the six top tier Smart Grid Utilities in the US.

Austin Energy has been on the Smart Grid journey since 2003. We are currently managing 200,000 devices real-time (smart meters, smart thermostats, computers, sensors, network elements) covering 1/3 of our service territory. By July 2009 (yes, this year), we will grow that capacity to managing 500,000 devices real-time and be servicing 100% our service territory. Effectively, by July 2009, Austin Energy will have the first full service territory Smart Grid ever built by any utility in the US.

Once again, our Smart Grid includes smart meters, smart thermostats, sensors, computers, and network elements across our entire service territory and covering 100% of all our customers (1 million consumers and 43,000 businesses).

Jesse's article follows. And I have included a link to get you there as well.

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Smart Grid Leadership: The Top Ten “Smartest” States in 2009
March 24, 2009 by Jesse Berst

With over $4 billion in Washington DC’s stimulus money now available for Smart Grid improvements and innovations, the burden now falls on the states to use these funds effectively and efficiently. The goal, as Smart Grid News’ Stimulus Scorecard makes clear, is to help consumers, utilities, the nation and the planet win.

Given that the world is moving to an Electricity Economy, modernizing the grid is one of the smartest things any state can do to ensure it will remain globally competitive. But which states have made the most progress? And which are now in the best position to deploy recently released stimulus dollars productively?

I asked a cross section of the brightest Smart Grid experts around the country for the ten “smartest” states in America. To my surprise, there was a strong consensus about who’s leading the charge toward a modernized electricity system. So, without further hesitation, here are the top ten smart grid states, as measured by their progress in policy, planning and implementation:

Tier 1

California: The Golden State is at the top of everyone’s list. On the policy side, regulators are out in front, pushing new Smart Grid practices. For their part, the state’s three big utilities – SCE, SDGE, and PG&E – have each developed best practice studies and frameworks that can help the rest of the country grasp the benefits of Smart Grid improvements. The three utilities are also rolling out smart meters to all of their customers. And, in terms of stimulus readiness, the state’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has vowed to get more stimulus money than any other state in the nation.

Texas: The Lone Star State is just behind California as the current Smart Grid leader. From a policy perspective, however, Texas is not quite as proactive as California. But three of its utilities – CenterPoint Energy, Oncor, and Austin Energy – are as progressive as any in the country, and they are well under way with smart meter rollouts. The next breakthrough here will be integrating a host of digital tools for the Smart Grid.

Tier 2

Florida: The Sunshine State has established a strong build out for the Smart Grid – especially in the area of load control and communications infrastructure. A major utility, FP&L, has many substantive programs and is planning a number of new rollouts that will advance Smart Grid efforts.

Illinois: The Prairie State has been cited for its collaborative approach to the Smart Grid. This involves and engages communities up and down and all across the state. Tight community linkage is crucial for optimal Smart Grid success.

Pennsylvania: The Keystone State is the nation’s leader when it comes to smart meter installation; a 2008 report from FERC indicates that advanced metering penetration has reached nearly 25 percent in Pennsylvania.

West Virginia: The Mountain State is about to unveil a fully integrated statewide Smart Grid plan. Experts are impressed by this comprehensive approach at such an early stage.

Ohio: The Buckeye State has a group of enlightened policy makers who have stressed smart grid education.

Tier 3

New Jersey: The Garden State’s guiding light on the Smart Grid, Commissioner Fred Butler, is a progressive pragmatist who also serves as the Chairman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), where he is spearheading studies on standards and best practices for the Smart Grid.

Connecticut: The Constitution State is considered a Smart Grid policy and build-out leader. A supporter of Energy Improvement Districts, Connecticut has begun to increase use of distributed generation and demand response programs.

Colorado: The Centennial State has lots going for it in the Smart Grid world: First, Xcel's 100,000-person Smart Grid city; second, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder; and finally, Governor Bill Ritter, who is a big believer in Colorado’s new energy economy.

States to Watch

Michigan: DTE Energy is a forward-thinking utility that will enhance Smart Grid upgrades.

New York: Utilities in the state have done innovative research on the Smart Grid and how it would fare in dense urban areas.

Hawaii: The Department of Energy has selected Hawaii as a Smart Grid test case because of fossil-fuel dependence.

Indiana: Duke Energy’s plan for smart meter installation is currently under consideration by the state.

These informal Smart Grid rankings are a snapshot in time. Our electricity system is about to undergo major changes, thanks – in part – to federal stimulus funding.

In such a dynamic environment, it’s unclear who will be the Smart Grid leaders and followers in 2010. It’s also hard to say which states will be able to stay ahead in all three major smart grid categories – policy-making, planning, and implementation.

That said, there are already many lessons to learn right now – in how to plan, how to set policy, and even how to pursue stimulus dollars – from regulators and utilities in states like California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut and Colorado. These lessons will be invaluable if we are to keep pace with China, Europe and the Middle East, all of which are aggressively upgrading their electricity grids.

So, as we close the first quarter of a very eventful 2009, these are the country’s “smartest” states.

A version of this article previously appeared in GreenTech Media.

http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/commentary/Smart_Grid_Leadership_The_Top_Ten_Smartest_States_in_2009-546.html

Andres Carvallo to Deliver Opening Keynote at Storage Networking World

I have been asked by Ron Milton to deliver the opening visionary keynote for Computerworld's Storage Networking World (SNW).

SNW is the world’s largest event for IT end-users, vendors, channel partners, press and analysts involved in storage, data center, infrastructure, and business continuity.

At SNW, you can choose from over 190 educational sessions and network with peers from around the globe-plus visit with top solutions providers in the world's largest Expo devoted to storage and related technologies. This is your opportunity to amass reliable, firsthand, practical knowledge in only a few days, set at a luxurious resort environment.

http://www.snwusa.com/

SXSW Interactive 22nd Year Kicks-Off in Austin, TX

SXSW Interactive daily picks: parties, panels and more
What to do and where to go at South by Southwest Interactive? The choices can be overwhelming and you always feel like you’re missing something.

Friday, March 13
Thom Singer writes and speaks about networking, and today he discusses how to make connections at SXSW Interactive during “Core Conversation: The Conference Networking Catalyst” (2 p.m., Room 19B). To read some of Singer’s advice, visit statesman.com/lifeguide. You can also get ready for the rest of the conference at “How to Rock SXSW: The Basics” (3:30 p.m., Room 18BCD).
“The Ecosystem of News” is the first of several panels on the future of the news business (3:30 p.m., Room 12AB).
If you’re facing career transition (and who isn’t these days?), Jonathan Fields reads from his book “Career Renegade” (4:30 p.m., Day Stage).
More panel picks: “Everything You Know About Web Design Is Wrong” (2 p.m., Room A); “Social Engineering: Scam Your Way Into Anything or From Anybody” (5 p.m., Room 18BCD); “Try Making Yourself More Interesting” (5 p.m., Room A).Nighttime events: “Pastries and Pasties! A Burlesque Cupcake Cookoff!” 9 p.m., Emos, 603 Red River St. Free to badge-holders.

Saturday, March 14
Last year’s panel by the staff of The Onion News Network was a hit. This year’s must-see panel for comedy fans is “Comedy on Television and the Web” (5 p.m., Room A) featuring Ricky Van Veen of CollegeHumor.com and B.J. Novak, producer and Ryan Howard on “The Office.”
Tony Hsieh, the popular CEO of online shoe seller Zappos.com, presents the opening remarks (2 p.m., Room A) on how to build a massive audience for a brand.
Where is old media going in a new-media world? Call us curious. Designers at the Gray Lady explain “Designing the Future of the New York Times” (5 p.m, Hilton C).
Last year’s sudden video-game celebrity Jonathan Blow, who made the breakout downloadable game “Braid,” speaks on “Being Indie and Successful in the Video Game Industry” (3:30 p.m., Room 6). The panel also includes Ron Carmel of 2D Boy, the company that made fan fave “World of Goo.”
More panel picks:“Curating the Crowd-Sourced World” (11:30 a.m., Room C), “What Your Startup Can Learn from Barack Obama and Howard Dean” (11:30 a.m., Room 9), “Feed Me: Bite Size Info for a Hungry Internet” (3:30, Room B), “HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility!” (3:30 p.m., Room 18BCD).Nighttime events: Dorkbot (6 p.m., East Tent, Brush Square Park across from Convention Center) is always a mix of cool gadgets and extreme geek culture. The legendary Frog Design Opening Party (8 p.m., Mexican American Cultural Center) never disappoints. Last year, it featured fire dancers and Grupo Fantasma. Free drinks for badge-holders at both events.

Sunday, March 15
Nate Silver, the numbers wiz at fivethirtyeight.com who correctly predicted much of what went down in the 2008 presidential election, is the Sunday keynote interview. (2 p.m. Room A)
Several day events deal with tech and women’s issues including “That’s Not My Name: Beating Down Online Misogyny” (10 a.m. Room 8), “Moms Who Tech” (11:30 a.m. Room 19B) and an interview with Blogher founder Elisa Camahort (3 p.m. Studio SX) by Time Out NY columnist Julia Allison.
Joss Whedon company player Felicia Day (“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”) is on the “No Budget to Low Budget” Web video panel. (10 a.m. Room 12AB).
Singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Burnie Burns of Austin’s Rooster Teeth Productions lead a star-studded panel, “Marketing Meets New Media: Building Your Audience Online” (3:30 p.m. Room 12AB).
More panel picks: “From Flickr and Beyond: Lessons in Community Management” (3:30 p.m. Room A), “Your Personal Blog is Dead” (3:30 p.m., Room 5A), “Video Blogging: Turning Wine Into Gold” (5 p.m. Room A).Nighttime events: Adobe’s 12th-Annual SXSW Web Awards Ceremony (7:30 p.m. Hilton Austin, 500 E. Fourth St.) celebrates the best of the Web, and the Facebook Friends.Get Party hits downtown. (9:30 p.m. Pangaea, 409 Colorado St.) The American-Statesman’s Texas Social Media Awards holds its first party to celebrate social media and award an overall winner. (6 p.m., Ballet Austin, Tickets $15).

Monday, March 16
This year’s lineup boasts some interesting panels about women and the Web, including “Grokking Bloggers: It’s About Love and Underpants” (10 a.m., Room C). Elisa Camahort of BlogHer talks about women’s avid adoption of Web 2.0 tools. It’s followed by “Are Women Taken More Seriously on the Web?” (11:30 a.m., Room C).
Get a double dose of perennial SXSW favorite Kathy Sierra today: She’s part of the “Presenting Straight to the Brain” panel (10 a.m., Room A), and later she presents “Change Your World in 50 Minutes: Making Breakthroughs Happen” (3:30 p.m., Room A).
The best-selling authors of “The Power of Nice” are now talking about “The Power of Small” (10 a.m., Room 10).
Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times talks with artist James Powderly in today’s keynote interview (2 p.m., Room A).
Bruce Sterling’s pronouncements are a SXSW mainstay (5 p.m., Room A).
More panel picks: “Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content” (10 a.m., Hilton Room A); “Shift Happens: Moving From Words to Pictures” (10 a.m., Hilton Room C); “WhiteHouse.gov 2.0: Upgrading to Open Source Government” (3:30 p.m., Hilton Room D). Nighttime events: “Interactive at the Movies: The Two Bobs.” (7 p.m., Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Ave.). The gaming-themed movie by Tim McCanlies (“Iron Giant” screenplay) plays for Interactive badge-holders.

Tuesday, March 17
“Ur Blog Sux and Print Is Dead” features a lineup of blogging all-stars (Ben Huh of I Can Has Cheezburger?, Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like, Kerry Miller of Passive-Aggressive Notes, Heather “Dooce” Armstrong and ex-Wonkette Ana Marie Cox) talking about, appropriately enough, blogging success (11:30 a.m. Room 18BCD).
We were charmed when the 1960s characters from “Mad Men” showed up talking with each other on Twitter. The perpetrators of it all explain how it happened at “Behind the Scenes with Mad Men on Twitter” (2 p.m. Room 18BCD).
Leaders at popular Web destinations Fark.com, Ars Technica and BlogHer talk about “Building Strong Online Communities” (11:30 a.m. Room A).
Today’s keynote interview features former Apple Fellow and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki interviewing Chris Anderson (“The Long Tail”) about “the power of free” (2 p.m. Room A).
More panel picks: “The State of the Internet Memescape: 2008-10” (10 a.m. Room 18BCD); “Photojournalism in 2009 and The Big Picture” (10 a.m. Room 10); “Digital Tsunami: Breaking News at Breakneck Speed” (11:30 a.m. Room B); “Designing Change in America”(3:30 p.m. Room 8).Nighttime events: Media Temple Closing Party (7 p.m. La Zona Rosa, 612 W. Fourth St

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/digitalsavant/entries/sxsw_2009/

Andres Carvallo to Keynote CIO Global Forum

I have been invited to deliver a visionary keynote in day two of the event. I will be delivering my vision of "The New Energy Ecosystem" in which I recount the transformation of the electric industry business models and technologies and possible future scenarios that will create a new powerful worldwide economy.

The CIO Global Forum is an invitation only private conference for the top leading Global CIOs. The Forum is run by an advisory board made of Global CIOs. Prior advisory board members include the CIOs from DirecTV, MaterCard, Kroger, WebMD, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Northrop Gruman, and many others.

The Forum is focus on solving the most pressing issues and forecasting the most relevant new technologies and trends in the hi-tech industry with business value.

http://www.cxogf.com/

Andres Carvallo to Speak at APPA on Smart Grid

I have been invited by the American Public Power Association to deliver my "Building the Smart Grid" presentation, in which I recount the strategy and journey of the nation's very first Smart Grid to be built here in Austin, TX by Summer 2009.

The American Public Power Association has been hosting their annual Engineering & Operations Technical Conference for 53 years in a row. The Engineering & Operations Conference was founded to meet the unique needs of professionals charged with designing, developing and maintaining the electric systems across the country.

http://www.appanet.org/events/index.cfm?ItemNumber=21725

Putting a Jolt in the National Grid

BusinessWeek published an article Feb 19, 2009 in its Smart Infrastructure section, written by Steve Hamm.

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Utilities such as Dominion Virginia, Austin Energy, and Xcel Energy are spending big on cost-saving "smart-grid" technology

When it comes to business opportunities in smart infrastructure, one of the largest is in upgrading America's electricity network. U.S. utilities already spend about $20 billion a year on information technology, and as part of the federal stimulus bill, the government plans to spend another $11 billion over the next 20 months to help modernize the national grid. So it's little wonder that everyone from giants like Accenture (ACN) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to hot startups like Silver Spring Networks are angling for a piece of the action.

The idea is that "smart grid" technology will lower energy consumption and save utilities and consumers money. With smart meters and other technologies that provide power usage information in real time, consumers could make intelligent choices about cutting back. If prices spike early in the evening, they could wait to wash the dishes. Dominion Virginia Power says that in trials, customers with wireless monitors that give them real-time information about their electricity use have cut their usage by as much as 30%.

Utilities don't do this just to be good citizens. If smart technologies get corporate customers or consumers to reduce their electricity usage at peak times, the utilities don't have to build as much generating capacity. By not building new plants or rehabbing old ones, utilities can save billions.

One company in the vanguard of this movement is Austin Energy, which serves Austin, Tex. It started rolling out wireless thermostats for homes and businesses in 2004 and expects to complete its first-generation smart grid this year. The effort has made Austin Energy more efficient because it increasingly uses smart meters and sensors to monitor equipment rather than sending out employees in trucks. "Everybody should come see what we're doing," says Andres E. Carvallo, Austin Energy's chief information officer and architect of its smart grid.

But even the most supportive utilities caution that these are early days for this kind of technology. Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy (XEL) is upgrading its system in Boulder, Colo., to create what it calls the first smart city in the nation. It will include everything from smart meters to solar generators to a system for electric-car owners to sell charges from their vehicles' batteries back to the utility when power demand is high. But the company doesn't know which technologies will pay off and which won't. "That's what we're trying to figure out," says Roy Palmer, vice-president for federal and state affairs.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_09/b4121046675316.htm

Andres Carvallo to Receive 2009 Dewey Award for Community Service

I was informed by Hugh Forrest, Event Director of South by Southwest Interactive, that I had been selected as a recipient of the 2009 Dewey Award. I am humbled and honored to receive such recognition.

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The Dewey Winburne Community Service Award celebrates the vision that technology is society's most effective tool to level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots. Like the man whom it honors, the criteria for judging this prize is somewhat open-ended and fluid: candidates need to primarily live in the Central Texas area and be involved with a grass-roots effort to use convergent media to better the lives of this community's less fortunate citizens. Beyond these two stipulations, qualifications for this award are largely dependent on the skill sets of the nominees.

The awards ceremony will take place during the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival on Monday March 16, 2009.

http://2009.sxsw.com/interactive/

Andres is a Knowbility board member and the Chair of its Air Austin Program since 2007.

Knowbility's mission is to ensure barrier-free I.T. - supporting the independence of people with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology. Access to web-based information and activities has never been more important. Knowbility is working hard every day to improve technology access for all.

http://www.knowbility.org/main/?content=home

The Accessibility Internet Rally in Austin (AIR-Austin) is a unique, award-winning local program that has received national media coverage. AIR-Austin matches teams of Web designers and developers with non-profit organizations to build Web sites that are accessible for people with disabilities. This year, more than 100 professionals teamed up to create 15 accessible non-profit Web sites in one day of friendly competition. Many elements of design make a Web site more accessible to people with disabilities, while at the same time enhancing functionality and visual elegance. The same techniques that help disabled users (including those who use assistive technology) also aid handheld and mobile users. Thanks to those of you who helped to prove this by participating this year.

http://www.knowbility.org/air-austin/

Andres Carvallo to Speak at Carnegie Mellon's Smart Grid Conference

As Carnegie Mellon University prepares for its 5th Annual Electrical Engineering Conference with a focus on Smart Grids, Andres Carvallo has been invited to give his "Building the Smart Grid" presentation, where he shares his insights on how the first Smart Grid in the US is being built. This is a key opportunity to understand Austin Energy's Smart Grid journey and share with other speakers and participants from Carnegie Mellon, EPRI, Duke Energy, A123 Systems, PJM, Navigant Consulting, KEMA Consulting, UC Berkeley, Texas A&M, Cornell University, and MIT.

http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~electricityconference/

The Utility of the Future