GreenTech Media
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 (http://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 –