Andres Carvallo Named to the Networked Grid 100

Published by GreenTech Media
Written By David J. Leeds and Rick Thompson

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Andres Carvallo, CIO, Austin Energy

When you coin the term that spawns an entire industry, as Andres did with “smart grid,” guess what? You automatically make GTM's Top 100 list. When not thinking up catchy new nomenclature, Andres serves as Chief Information Officer at Austin Energy, where he is responsible for the technology vision, planning, development and operations for one of the most advanced grids in the nation.

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http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-networked-grid-100/

Andres Carvallo Speaks at The University of Kansas

The KU Environmental Engineering Conference provides the latest information on relevant topics and projects in environmental engineering. Concurrent sessions will consist of technical presentations on water supply and wastewater treatment, water quality, and air and waste management.

http://www.continuinged.ku.edu/programs/environmental/index.php

Andres Carvallo Keynotes Smart Energy Summit

Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer, hosted by Parks Associates in association with Austin Energy, is the premier conference studying the market for residential energy management and Smart Grid technologies.

The event features a unique combination of market research, featuring results from Parks Associates' landmark Residential Energy Management service, and real-world expertise derived from Austin Energy's Smart Grid, the largest working Smart Grid in the U.S.

The agenda for Smart Energy Summit: Engaging the Consumer focuses on the roadmap for the emerging in-home energy management technology market, offering consumer and industry research and strategic insight:

· Current status of REM and Smart Grid technologies

· Consumer interest in REM solutions

· Engaging the consumer: Strategies and tactics to communicate benefits successfully

· Leveraging applications: Think energy ….and more

· Impact of government stimulus and green initiatives

· Technical and business requirements for succeeding in REM

· Business strategies for utilities, manufacturers, installers, and service providers

· Unit and revenue forecasts for Smart Meters and REM residential solutions

http://www.parksassociates.com/events/energysummit/index.html

NIST Issues First Release of Framework for Smart Grid Interoperability

January 19, 2010

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued today an initial list of standards, a preliminary cyber security strategy, and other elements of a framework to support transforming the nation’s aging electric power system into an interoperable Smart Grid, a key component of the Obama administration’s energy plan and its strategy for American innovation.

NIST Director Patrick Gallagher announced the publication of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0, to the some 700 engineers, scientists, and business and government executives attending the IEEE Innovative Smart Technologies Conference, which NIST is hosting.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) set development of the Smart Grid as a national policy goal, and it assigned NIST the “primary responsibility to coordinate development of a framework that includes protocols and model standards for information management to achieve interoperability of Smart Grid devices and systems …”

“This is an important milestone for NIST, for the entire community of Smart Grid stakeholders, and for the nation,” Gallagher said. “This first installment of the Smart Grid interoperability framework will pay dividends to our nation for decades to come. Just as Congress intended, we are building a foundation for sustainable growth and future prosperity.”

By integrating digital computing and communication technologies and services with the power-delivery infrastructure, the Smart Grid will enable bidirectional flows of energy and two-way communication and control capabilities. A range of new applications and capabilities will result. Anticipated benefits range from real-time consumer control over energy usage to significantly increased reliance on solar and other sources of clean renewable energy to greatly improve reliability, flexibility and efficiency of the entire grid.

The new report presents the first release of a Smart Grid interoperability framework and roadmap for its further development. It contains:

· a conceptual reference model to facilitate design of an architecture for the Smart Grid overall and for its networked domains;

· an initial set of 75 standards identified as applicable to the Smart Grid;

· priorities for additional standards—revised or new—to resolve important gaps;

· action plans under which designated standards-setting organizations will address these priorities; and

· an initial Smart Grid cyber security strategy and associated requirements.

A draft of today’s report was issued on Sept. 24, 2009, for public review and comments. More than 80 individuals and organizations submitted comments. A companion draft document, NISTIR 7628, Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements, also underwent public review. A subsequent draft of the cyber security strategy, which will include responses to comments received and will incorporate new information prepared by the almost 300-member cyber security working group, will be issued in February. NIST intends to finalize the Smart Grid cyber security in late spring.

Under EISA, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is charged with instituting rulemaking proceedings, and once sufficient consensus is achieved, adopting 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. However, some of the standards listed in the NIST report are still under development and some others, such as those already used voluntarily by industry, may not warrant adoption by FERC or other regulators.

“NIST is working closely with FERC and state utility regulators so that we can coordinate development of additional technical information on individual standards to support their evaluation and potential use for regulatory purposes,” said George Arnold, NIST’s national coordinator for Smart Grid interoperability.

In November 2009, NIST launched a Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) to assist NIST in carrying out its EISA-assigned responsibility, including working with regulatory bodies on evaluating and implementing standards in this and subsequent releases of the NIST interoperability framework.

A public-private partnership, the SGIP is designed to provide “a more permanent process” to support the evolution of the interoperability framework and further development of standards, according to the report. With NIST, the report explains, the panel will “identify and address additional gaps, assess changes in technology and associated requirements for standards, and provide ongoing coordination” of standards organizations’ efforts to support timely availability of needed Smart Grid standards.

Over the past two months, almost 500 organizations have joined the SGIP. A total of 1,350 individuals from membership organizations have signed up to participate in the panel’s technical activities.

A copy of the NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0, can be downloaded here: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_interoperability_final.pdf

Comments on the draft report can be found here: http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid/IKBFramework

To learn more about the SGIP, go to: http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid.SGIP

http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_011910.html

Andres Carvallo Speaks at World Future Energy Summit

The World Future Energy Summit has gained the support of some of the world’s leading businesses, who are joining Masdar and Abu Dhabi in demonstrating their commitment to developing a sustainable future energy supply, as Abu Dhabi’s position as a global hub for renewable energy grows.

Hosted by Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s multi-billion dollar cooperative future energy initiative, the Summit has attracted sponsorship from Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors, the principal sponsor for the 2010 event. Emirates Aluminium is Associate sponsor and additional sponsors include BP Alternative Energy, Standard Chartered, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Exxon Mobil, ABB, Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, Oxy, Abu Dhabi Department of Municipality Affairs and Terna.

The World Future Energy Summit has rapidly become one of the globe’s foremost meetings in the world of renewable energy. The event represents a platform for the global alternative energy industry to further new initiatives, technologies and policies, and reinforces Abu Dhabi’s contribution to the global renewable energy industry.

For the third year running, Standard Chartered Bank will host the Standard Chartered Future Theatre showcase, bringing together worldwide renewable energy experts to discuss the most recent and significant innovations of the sector. Discussions linked to the energy economy, cross-border M&A or solar in the Middle East will be a part of the program.

BP will host the Carbon Theatre which will be led by Katrina Landis, Group Vice President of BP Alternative Energy. Theatre audiences will hear leading experts from BP and high level speakers from around the world discussing the critical issues of carbon capture and storage and how it can reduce global carbon emissions. Speakers at the Carbon Theatre include Paul Bryant, Director of HPAD, Ernie Moniz, Director of MIT Energy Initiative, Graeme Sweeney Executive Vice President of Shell for future fuels and CO2 and Jeff Chapman, Chief Executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association.

http://www.worldfutureenergysummit.com/home.aspx

Governing Board of Smart Grid Standards Panel Announces Officers

January 15, 2010

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today that John D. McDonald, general manager of marketing for GE Energy’s transmission and distribution business and an IEEE Fellow, will serve as chair of the governing board of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, the organization launched by NIST in November to sustain and coordinate development of interoperability standards for a modernized electric power grid.

The unanimous choice of governing board members, McDonald will serve as the board’s chief spokesperson and will have primary responsibility for organizing its meetings and activities. As required by the SGIP bylaws, McDonald’s selection to lead the board was confirmed by George Arnold, NIST’s national coordinator for Smart Grid interoperability.

The board also chose John F. Caskey, senior director of the Power Equipment Division at the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, to be vice chair and George Bjelovuk, managing director for marketing, research, and program development at American Electric Power, to serve as secretary. All three officers will serve one-year terms.

NIST established the SGIP, which now has more than 450 participating and observing member organizations, to help it fulfill its Smart Grid responsibilities under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. The governing board manages and coordinates the technical efforts of the SGIP. In turn, the SGIP is both a forum for discussing Smart Grid technical issues and a vehicle for inter-organizational collaboration to respond to these issues and to address emerging requirements for Smart Grid standards.

On Jan. 19, NIST intends to issue its Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0. Incorporating responses to comments during public review of a draft document released on Sept. 24, 2009, this report identifies a group of standards applicable to the ongoing development of the Smart Grid, specifies an initial set of high-priority gaps requiring updated or entirely new standards, and describes progress in developing a cyber security strategy for the Smart Grid.

Under the guidance of the governing board, the SGIP will help NIST to extend this initial set of interoperability and cyber security standards. This set will make up a fraction of the total number of standards ultimately needed to build an advanced power grid that will integrate many varieties of digital computing and communication technologies and services with the power-delivery infrastructure.

“NIST is delighted that that these high-caliber individuals have volunteered to fill the leadership positions on the SGIP Governing Board,” Arnold said. “We are grateful to John McDonald and his fellow officers for investing their talent, time and energy to guide the SGIP in helping the nation transform its electricity infrastructure."

“I’m invigorated by the challenge of helping so many committed energy industry leaders work together to frame the infrastructure that will power our planet for generations to come,” McDonald said. “Defining our standards will hasten the development of ever-improving solutions and help American innovation set the worldwide standard for Smart Grid efficiency, reliability and performance.”

Now numbering 23 members, the SGIP Governing Board will grow to 27 members after an election to fill four open slots is held later this month. The governing board is elected by representatives of the SGIP’s more than 400 participating-member organizations, which are divided among 22 categories of Smart Grid stakeholders.

At its first meeting in December 2009, the board appointed Steve Widergren, a principal engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, as the SGIP’s plenary chair. In this capacity, Widergren will preside over meetings of the entire SGIP.

More information about the NIST Smart Grid program is available at www.nist.gov/smartgrid. For more information on the SGIP, go to http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid.SGIP.

http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/smartgrid_011510.html

Austin Energy Selected Top Smart Grid Company

GREEN STREET JOURNAL

Top Ten Select Smart Grid Firms

January 3, 2010
Written by Editor, in Green Business, Green News, Smart Grid

Smart Grid is on the rise, especially with governments and corporations trying to be more efficient and cut down on costs and create jobs.

1. Silver Spring Networks

2. Itron

3. Echelon

4. Tendril

5. General Electric

6. eMeter

7. EnerNOC

8. Austin Energy

9. IBM

10. NKG Insulators

http://www.gsjournal.com/2010/01/top-ten-select-smart-grid-firms/

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It is always a pleasant surprise to be listed as a top leader in our industry. As the first smart grid deployed in the US, it makes sense to be even listed with leading smart grid vendors. Our work on this industry has been pushing the innovation edge for many years.

Indiana Chosen for Electric Car Plant

Todd Woody

New York Times

January 5, 2010

PR Newswire An Indiana facility may become the American manufacturing hub for the Think City electric car. Think, the Norwegian electric carmaker, said on Tuesday that it will open its first American assembly plant in Elkhart, Ind. The Think City, a battery-powered, two-seat hatchback, is set to begin rolling off the Indiana assembly line in early 2011, ramping up to a potential annual production of 20,000 cars by 2013. Think said it will spend more than $43 million to upgrade the Elkhart factory, which is expected to eventually employ more than 400 workers. About 1,500 of the plastic-bodied cars are already on the street in Europe, and Think will begin selling the City in the United States later this year. The car will be imported from a Finland assembly plant until the Indiana factory opens in a former recreational vehicle factory. Think’s investment in the Indiana facility depends in part on securing a United States Department of Energy loan guarantee to finance the project, according to Richard Canny, Think’s chief executive. “Our plan is based around the D.O.E. loan,” Mr. Canny said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “If that didn’t happen we would be looking at a slower and shallower investment plan.” Think has not disclosed the amount of the loan it is seeking. Indiana was one of several states vying for the Think assembly plant. Tax incentives offered by Indiana and Elkhart’s proximity to automotive suppliers in neighboring Michigan helped clinch the deal, according Mr. Canny. “We thought they had a great vision for developing an industrial base around electric transport, of creating the Silicon Valley of electric transportation,” he said. It also helped that Ener1, Think’s biggest shareholder and battery supplier, is headquartered in Indiana. “The battery is the most significant cost of the car and you don’t want to have to ship it around the country,” said Mr. Canny. Think, which also counts General Electric and the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as investors, plans to sell the City in the United States for about $30,000 after incentives. The car has a range of about 112 miles and the American version of the City will have a top speed of at least 70 miles an hour, according to Think. Mr. Canny said Think will initially target about five markets in the United States, including the San Francisco Bay Area. The selection of the Indiana site comes as Think resumes production of the City in Europe after emerging from bankruptcy protection last August. The company subsequently shuttered its Norwegian assembly plant and contracted with Finland’s Valmet Automotive to produce the City.

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It is awesome to see the mid-west remake with clean tech at the center. The American Renaissance is in the making. Smart Grid, Electric Cars, Energy Storage, and Smart Devices everywhere. The electrification of our economy goes from 75% to 100% in the next 20 years. In that journey the US reinvents work and life paradigms while dominating the 21st century. May you live in exciting times.

How IT is Set Up to Fail

It's time to recognize the inherent CIO paradox and start fighting back.

By Martha Heller
December 23, 2009

Ten years ago, I started asking CIOs a question: When you walked into your job, what did you find? The answer, roughly 90 percent of the time: "I inherited a mess. The IT organization had major delivery problems and no credibility with the business." A decade later, I am getting the same answer. How can this be? Is every CIO I have ever spoken to an idiot? Or, more plausibly, is there something so inherently problematic about the CIO role that even the most talented and experienced leaders have trouble making it work?

Few would argue that your role suffers from inherent contradictions: business acumen versus technology skills, operational fixation versus strategic ambitions, innovation versus cost containment, enterprise responsibility versus siloed demands, and ultimately, accountability versus disempowerment. These contradiction form a "CIO paradox" that is deeply embedded in governance, staffing models, executive expectations, budgeting, even the titles that IT leaders hold.

The CIO paradox can be as profound as this: Bad technology can bring a company to its knees, yet corporate boards rarely employ CIOs as directors. It can be as pragmatic as the perennial conflict between risk mitigation and product innovation. Certainly it will take more than one column to tease out these elements and tap CIOs on how to attack, reverse or neutralize them. Watch this space over the coming year as I join forces with the CIO Executive Council and broader leadership community to help fight back against the CIO paradox and level the playing field for IT success and the positive evolution of the CIO role.

For now, I offer one element of the CIO paradox and an intriguing way to overcome it.

Move beyond enablement

Scott McKay, CIO of Genworth Financial, describes the paradox this way: "Many CIOs see their role as an enabler to their business peers," he says. "But precisely because they are enabling business results, rather than driving them, they are not perceived as highly strategic to the management team."

In fact, many CIOs regularly proclaim with great pride that they have no "IT" projects at all, only "business" projects. "The traditional CIO education includes a number of IT governance practices that instruct the CIO not to champion any initiatives and to always have a business sponsor," says McKay. "But unless CIOs get comfortable stepping beyond those traditional IT governance paradigms and take leadership of business initiatives, they will never have as much impact as a sales leader with accountability for a new product."

Specifically, McKay says CIOs should step out of the enablement shadows and become the competitive capabilities expert. "Generally, a business needs only a few differentiating capabilities to be competitive," says McKay. "With his or her access to processes and data, the CIO has the unique ability to baseline business capabilities and to identify which of these need to outperform the competition." If CIOs can harness this powerful data and process perspective to become their company's competitive capabilities expert, they will be better positioned to drive strategy. "This is an incredible opportunity for CIOs," says McKay. "Some will take it and some won’t."

Over the years, we've called it many things: demonstrating IT value, business and IT alignment, and we've probably used a few phrases not appropriate for print. This year, let's call it the CIO paradox. But whatever we call it, it's hurting our enterprises, holding back our teams and threatening the Future-State CIO. If we are ever going to move past it, we need to get started.

http://www.cio.com/article/511568/How_IT_is_Set_Up_to_Fail

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My friend Martha Heller makes some great points in this article. And Scott McKay makes a good case for another CIO value label toward becoming a strategic partner in the company. “The Competitive Capabilities Expert”. I like it.

The key to all this is the fact that CIOs are operational experts that manage innovation via a creation, transition, operation, and optimization framework that requires a balance between affordability, convenience, speed and security. The CIO should never report to the CFO, CAO, nor to any-cost centric or shared services c-level. The CIO should only report to the CEO or in the very worst case to the COO. The CIO should drive the top-line while maintaining the bottom line from growing. The CIO manages data and processes around it. Data and the Processes around it are the ultimate competitive weapons in any business. That is the key.

Furthermore, you can only reduce your costs to zero from your starting point – a limited domain. On the other hand, you can increase revenues to infinity while containing costs; hence, increasing the bottom line as well consistently. That is the real issue, in my opinion and after 23 years of experience. So, is your CIO focus on growing the top line or just reducing costs? Or both?

Utility IT staffing likely to become increasingly competitive issue

By Warren Causey

It's somewhat counterintuitive in the midst of a recession and with 10 percent unemployment and 17 percent underemployment to mention that utility IT executives are beginning to become concerned about having enough qualified staff to do everything they're being asked to do in the current business environment. Despite the logical disconnect, that is, nonetheless, the case.

In the first place, utilities have been hurt by the recession in a number of ways, including declining electrical usage and the increased cost of credit. This has forced them to reduce budgets, and IT at many utilities still is viewed as a cost center rather than a strategic asset, as it should be. Thus many utility IT departments already are operating short-handed. At the same time, they are under great pressure to upgrade systems to deal with the ubiquitous smart grid pressure from the federal government and elsewhere.

There also is the problem that U.S. colleges and universities still aren't turning out as many engineers and IT professionals as are needed. They haven't been for a number of years.

"That is a serious problem," said Lynne Ellyn, senior vice president and CIO of DTE Energy, in a recent interview. "It was probably four or five years ago I read 'Workforce 2020' which was a study by the Hudson Institute on just exactly this issue -- that projecting out to 2020 what the workforce is going to look like," Ellyn continued. "And there's going to be critical shortages of medical personnel. They're already starting to see that; critical shortages of engineering and deep technical sorts of disciplines all across the board."

Becky Blalock, senior vice president and CIO at Southern Company added during the same interview: "We're definitely going to be challenged. We're challenged even in this economy on specialized skills. I mean Lynne knows, I've called her and asked for help, and she's pointed me where I could get people that have particular kinds of skills. Security skills are going to be in very hot demand. Just to give you all an idea, we hired a kid out of Georgia Tech, he worked for us for two years -- which means that we trained him -- and Homeland Security offered him a job making $250,000 a year. It's a contract, it's not a permanent job, but if you're 25 years old and right out of college what are you going to do? You're going to go take the job. Well, I can't afford to pay somebody that kind of money."

The issue is so serious -- or tempting -- depending on your viewpoint, that new companies are likely to spring up to help deal with it; one person's problem is another's opportunity. For example, Chris Hackett, former vice president at Sprint, has formed what he calls a "global staffing company" to help utilities and other businesses that are short of IT staff.

"When we see what's happening in the changing environment, the workforce is aging in a lot of areas," Hackett noted. "There are lots of different pieces of the puzzle. For one, some of the stimulus funding for healthcare was around electronic medical records. A typical doctor may have 8,000 pages of records that have to be digitized. A lot of people are going to have to get systems set up to deal with that."

Hackett also sees opportunities in utilities. "With smart grid, a lot of utilities are not going to have enough IT staff. Where utilities can identify needs within their own IT shops, we can participate with them in terms of a partnership and help them ultimately drive down the cost."

Of course, organizations like Hackett's, as well as larger groups like Capgemini and IBM, also are going to be looking for IT staff they can place at utilities on a contract basis.

Going forward, two things seem to be apparent. First, utilities are going to have to become increasingly creative in how they get IT work done. And, secondly, if you have a child about to enter college, now would be a good time to try to interest them in information technology/computer sciences. It's only going to get worse as all we old-timers (aka baby boomers) begin to retire -- assuming we have something left to retire on.

It's somewhat counterintuitive in the midst of a recession and with 10 percent unemployment and 17 percent underemployment to mention that utility IT executives are beginning to become concerned about having enough qualified staff to do everything they're being asked to do in the current business environment. Despite the logical disconnect, that is, nonetheless, the case.

http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/10/01/utility-it-staffing-likely-become-increasingly-competitive-issue

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I agree with this article published in Intelligent Utility and written by my friend Warren Causey. Warren is right on the money on the issue. Outsourcing needs or not, there is another bigger issue.

Utilities that do not understand the skill demand issues on their IT shops will suffer greatly.

But it is even worse for utilities that refuse to pay for the complexity of the new skills needed (e.g. SOA, Web Services Integration, Mobile Applications, Advanced Messaging Services, User Interface Design, Systems and Enterprise Architecture, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Process Business Analytics, Large Network Management, Cyber Security Auditing, NERC CIP Compliance, Project Management, Vendor Management, Computer Storage Management, Virtualization Management, etc, etc.). Many utilities' old titles and old pay structures will get in the way of their IT shops having an opportunity to succeed.

And the very last issue against utilities succeeding is the pervasive lack of pay for performance in the industry. That one might be the hardest challenge for utilities to fix, yet the most important to attract and maintain the right talent.

The answers are not hard: Right titles, right base pay, right performance bonus structure, right benefits, and the right culture, which should include the flexibility and appetite for change (more new titles, different org chart structures, new pay levels, creative performance bonus plans). The utility IT shop is today the logical center of expertise for change and innovation at the utility. However, I am not sure that utility executives across the nation believe that. Those that do and act on it will win big!

Top 10 Hot Technologies for 2010

As we finished the first decade of this century, we are positioned to see emerge and adopt great new technologies and finally push through some that have been evolving nicely. 2010 will be a breakthrough year. Acceleration and innovation will work together in a unique way and the market will jump in with both feet to adopt them aggressively. Here are my hot technologies for 2010 that will change everything about how we work, live, and play.

1 – Virtualization (Server, Storage, Desktop, Mobile)
2 – Mobile Computing (iPhone, Android, others)
3 – Smart Grid
4 – Energy Storage
5 – Electric Vehicles
6 – Cyber Security
7 – Videoconferencing
8 – VOIP plus Unified Messaging
9 – SOA plus Business Intelligence
10 – Cloud Computing (Public, Private, Hybrid)

Get ready to virtualize every piece of your infrastructure unlike never before to achieve higher productivity and reduce costs, to embrace the new mobile platforms and their applications while re-defining your business processes at work and how you live, to be blown away by a new smart grid that delivers electricity with the efficiency and effectiveness that Edison and Tesla intended from the very beginning, to learn to use and manage energy storage while becoming energy producers for the very first time, to enjoy electric vehicles with their low carbon foot print and help re-shape our energy ecosystem, to get super serious about protecting your cyber assets as threads increase and spread at an alarming pace, to empower videoconferencing and change our workforce habits and location selections, to finally enjoy a 100% IP unified communications network and applications, to unleash the power of your investments in Service-Oriented Architecture and Business Intelligence to take hard on the competition and ensure the ultimate customer experience, and to scale to infinity all key capabilities that will benefit from the transformational impacts of cloud computing.

Enjoy the holidays and rest, because 2010 will be the most transformational year ever.

Andres Carvallo Named to GE Energy's Smart Grid Advisory Board

Andres Carvallo has been named to GE Energy’s Advisory Board for a third year.

From the beginning, GE research and development efforts have focused on products and services with the customer in mind. GE continues to focus on customer solutions, and Thomas Edison's words have remained a part of GE's tradition of constant innovation:

"I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it would give others."
- Thomas Alva Edison, GE Founder

GE Energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies - providing a broad array of solutions for traditionally fueled plants as well as those driven by renewable resources such as wind, solar and biogas. As part of GE Infrastructure - which also includes the Water, Rail, Aviation and Oil & Gas businesses - GE has the worldwide resources and experience to help customers meet their needs for cleaner, more reliable and efficient energy.

More people around the world turn to GE for advanced power systems and around-the-clock energy services than any other company. Since GE installed its first steam turbine in 1901, its installed base of steam and heavy-duty gas turbines has grown to over 10,000 units, representing over a million Megawatts (MW) of installed capacity in more than 120 countries. With over 5,500 wind and 3,600 hydro turbines, the installed capacity of renewable energy exceeds 160,000 MW.

http://www.gepower.com/home/index.htm

ERCOT Launches Financial Settlement Process for Smart Meters

AUSTIN, Dec. 10, 2009 – The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) began a major step toward implementation of the “smart grid” this month by launching a new system of wholesale settlement for advanced metered customers based on their 15-minute electricity usage.

“Wholesale settlement using 15-minute interval data for retail customers is a major step in connecting the retail electric market with the wholesale market,” said Betty Day, ERCOT director of markets. “This is an important piece of the smart grid of the future. By creating a platform for the interaction of electricity supply and demand at the retail level, this helps to realize the full potential of advanced metering.”

ERCOT performed the first wholesale settlements using actual advanced metering data on Monday, Dec. 7. As of Wednesday’s settlements processes, more than 26,000 accounts had been successfully settled using advanced meter data. The total is expected to surpass 50,000 by next week.

ERCOT, grid operator for most of the state of Texas and administrator of the wholesale and retail power markets, was charged by the Public Utility Commission of Texas with developing a system of wholesale settlement for customers who are receiving new meters under the PUC-approved advanced metering infrastructure deployment.

Advanced metering deployments are underway in the service territories of Texas’s three largest investor-owned transmission and distribution utilities: Oncor, CenterPoint and American Electric Power. A fourth utility Texas-New Mexico Power is developing its deployment strategy now. By 2014, nearly 7 million retail customers in Texas will have advanced meters installed that will record their energy usage every 15 minutes around the clock.

“Making 15-minute data available to customers is a powerful tool for understanding how we use electricity,” said Day. “But actually settling the customer on that usage at the wholesale level is the catalyst for retailers to provide incentives and tools for those customers to use their energy more efficiently and lower their electric bills.”

Wholesale energy settlement is the process of matching financial debits for retailers’ purchases of wholesale power to credits for the generators who sell that power through the ERCOT energy market. Since the ERCOT market opened in 2002, all residential and small commercial customers have been settled on statistical estimates of their usage – called load profiles.

Over time as the meters are deployed, 15-minute settlement will replace the use of load profiles in the ERCOT retail market — effectively taking the estimation out of the equation. This will allow both customers and retailers to benefit financially from lowering energy usage during high-price periods. Retail products that take advantage of this new technology may include time-of-use, critical peak, or real-time price options, and load-control devices that allow customers to reduce energy consumption remotely or automatically based on price signals.

http://www.ercot.com/

Andres Carvallo Named to AT&T's Utilities and Field Services Advisory Board

Andres Carvallo has been chosen by AT&T to join its Utilities and Field Services Advisory Board.

Over one hundred years ago, Alexander Graham Bell's historic phone call to Watson launched a rapidly growing voice communications era. The Bell Systems' founders understood that for technology to truly succeed, they needed to develop a sustained research and development organization dedicated to fostering continued innovation. Thus, AT&T Bell Labs s (first known as Bell Telephone Laboratories) was created in 1925.

Throughout the next seven decades, AT&T Bell Labs was responsible for some of the world's major inventions across a broad spectrum of technologies, including the transistor, cellular communications, the field of Information Theory, the solar cell and the communications satellite.

In 1996, AT&T incorporated the divisions of AT&T Bell Labs that focused on computing, information, and communication science, and renamed the merged group AT&T Labs. Since that time, AT&T Labs has grown, adding engineers and scientists from SBC Labs, Bell South, and Cingular Wireless. While the name may have changed, AT&T Labs' commitment remains: to create the innovations that drive the AT&T global network and the cutting edge and technologies that will transform AT&T and the industry.

In order to help accelerate the adoption and shape the innovation from AT&T Labs, the company has created a Utilities and Field Service Advisory Board.

Charter: Using the voice of the customer, AT&T’s Utilities and Field Services Advisory Board serve as it’s “headlights” into the future trends and business needs of its Fortune 500 enterprise clients.

Mission: To better meet the needs of the Utilities and Field Services community, by providing AT&T with professional insight and guidance to develop innovative solutions to meeting the information and telecommunication needs for this sector.

http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=14209

Andres Carvallo Named to the Industry Advisory Board of KU's ITTC

Andres Carvallo named to the Industry Advisory Board of the University of Kansas' Information and Telecommunication Technology Center.

The ITTC Vision
To be a global leader and strategic partner in the creation and commercialization of innovative technologies in telecommunications, information systems, bioinformatics, and radar.

ITTC Mission Statement
· To advance knowledge and create innovative technologies in telecommunications, information systems, bioinformatics, and radar;
· To educate and train students for technology leadership;
· To transfer knowledge and innovative technologies to Kansas companies and national industries—by providing an excellent interdisciplinary research and development environment.

The Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC) advances knowledge and creates innovative technologies in telecommunications, information systems, bioinformatics, and radar. We are one of the largest research centers at the University of Kansas, with our resources and state-of-the-art facilities supporting various multidisciplinary inquiries. ITTC-affiliated faculty members have served as federal program directors at NSF, DARPA, and NASA.

ITTC researchers are helping shape not only national policy but also the technology leaders of tomorrow. ITTC, the only KTEC Center of Excellence focused on the core technologies below, is committed to the continued growth and diversity of the State's economy. Under faculty guidance, our students conduct fundamental research and develop strategic solutions for Kansas companies and national industries.

The Information and Telecommunication Technology Center contains six laboratories on the University of Kansas campus. Five laboratories are located in Nichols Hall on West Campus, with the sixth, the e-Learning Design Laboratory, housed in the Dole Human Development Center. The e-Learning Design Lab is a joint creation between ITTC and KU's Center for Research on Learning, which is also in Dole. ITTC has more than 45 faculty and staff researchers and 135 students who develop technologies and advance knowledge in the areas of bioinformatics, information technology, telecommunications, radar systems and remote sensing.

http://ittc.ku.edu/

LIGHTS ON: Austin Energy Delivers First Smart Grid in the US

Many utilities around the country have announced plans to deploy smart meters (or will at least add some level of intelligence to their wires over the next few years) with many of those projects scheduled for completion between 2012 and 2015. Xcel Energy’s Smart Grid City project in Boulder, Colorado is well under way and will be completed next year. But in Austin – where things are routinely done in that uniquely Texas way – their initial smart grid project has already been completed – now, in 2009 – while a lot of other utilities are just getting started.

Moreover, a newer and even more aggressive phase of Austin Energy’s smart grid plan (designated Smart Grid 2.0) was already getting started as early as December 2008. Now, as AE rolls out its pilots for its The Pecan Street Project – a unique and exceedingly innovative vision for what can legitimately be called the Smart Grid of the Future – the enabling technology for even more advanced stages of their Smart Grid blueprint is already in place. Here’s the rest of the story from Austin Energy’s dynamic, forward-thinking CIO, Andres Carvallo.

Smart Grid 1.0
By the end of this year, Austin Energy will have deployed 500,000 devices (86,000 smart thermostats; 410,000 smart meters from Elster, GE and AMI partner Landis + Gyr, covering all of our service footprint; 2,500 sensors; and 3,000 computers, servers and network gear), gathering 100 terabytes of data and servicing a million consumers and 43,000 businesses throughout the Austin metro area.

Our initial Smart Grid 1.0 deployment was completed in October 2009 - the first fully operational Smart Grid deployment in the U.S. This landmark project comprises the seamless integration of our electric grid; a communications network; and the hardware and software needed to monitor, control and manage the creation, delivery and consumption of energy by every one of our customers. Smart Grid 1.0 goes from the central power plant, through the transmission and distribution wires, to the meter and back. It took us five years to deploy the full solution set at a cost of approximately $150 million. Smart Grid 2.0 will carry our Smart Grid plans even farther, providing the enabling technology for the advanced Smart Grid initiatives envisioned by our Pecan Street Project.

We began deploying our first 127,000 smart meters in January 2003. Today, five years later, the 410,000 smart meters we now have installed can deliver consumption data every 15 minutes. Austin Energy is testing the meters for the next phase of deployments now and plans to introduce some innovative new programs early next year that will allow customers to start seeing tangible benefits from those substantial investments in our future. The benefits will come primarily in the form of more efficient and less costly data acquisition and faster and more accurate information about how energy is being consumed.

The Pecan Street Project defines Austin Energy’s smart grid initiative – a collaboration like no other. It all began in December 2008 when Austin Energy, the City of Austin, its Chamber of Commerce and the University of Texas teamed up to create Austin’s next-generation smart grid implementation. But this ambitious project involves several other important organizations as well; these include: Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, Freescale Semiconductor, GE, GridPoint, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, the SEMATECH consortium and the Environmental Defense Fund, all of which have a role in our smart grid vision.

Why “The Pecan Street Project”?
The city picked the historic name “Pecan Street Project1” to advertise its ideas and concepts around energy efficiency, conservation, renewables and smart grid initiatives to the public – and indeed, the world – to allow all interested parties follow, evaluate and better understand our intentions.

Sixth Street in Austin is our New Orleans Bourbon Street, and as such, it is a major artery of Austin’s famous live music culture. But you’re no doubt wondering, why Pecan Street instead of Sixth Street? Well first, the original name of Sixth Street was Pecan Street. But more importantly, the team that came up with the Pecan Street Project name chose it because we are aspiring to achieve in clean tech that same kind of leadership position that is associated with the live music Austin represents to people of all geographical regions and walks of life the world over.

Next: Smart Grid 2.0
Austin Energy started working on this second phase of the project – Smart Grid 2.0 – in December of 2008. Since then, the team has been laser-focused on finding the answers to one vitally important question: What happens to the smart grid beyond the meter and into the premises, the homes, factories and businesses?

Smart Grid 2.0 is being driven by a growing vision of how homes and businesses will be different when they have access to some form of distributed generation – perhaps a solar rooftop, for example – connected to electric storage and smart appliances with an electric vehicle or two. And perhaps more important: How could those consumer assets be integrated into the grid in a way that you would preserve balance on the grid? That is, once distributed generation is feasible, not only will those consumers be using energy, but they will also be putting energy back into the grid.

Let’s imagine for a moment that in 2015, 80,000 automobiles come from all over the continent to enjoy South by Southwest – our famous music and film festival – filled with people from the North, South, East and West. And let’s imagine that those 80,000 vehicles are either plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) or some other type of electric cars, trucks or SUVs.

As those drivers ease into their seats they will set their in-vehicle navigation systems for South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The cars themselves will communicate with the Austin Energy smart grid, identify the characteristics of the vehicles (and also their batteries) and initiate a whole new kind of “charge accounts” for their drivers. With these new accounts – and their corresponding charging station networks – up and running, our smart grid will provide the vehicles with information about where drivers can charge their vehicles, including a choice of high-speed or regular charging mechanisms at restaurants, hotels homes or other convenient locations in and around the city.

Meanwhile, the grid will negotiate directly with the vehicles – wirelessly – and communicate price options for variable charging locations, which feature charging points that could take up to 10 hours to charge – or as little as two hours – depending on cost, urgency and other factors.

The “back-end” of the system Austin Energy creates will be able to handle that scenario and more. Yet what’s really missing is the car having the ability to interact with us as human drivers. To address and solve that challenge, we’re already working with Mercedes, Ford, GM, Chrysler and Toyota to create as seamless and transparent an experience as possible for driver and vehicle alike.

More Than Just Another Smart Grid Project
The main goal of the Pecan Street Project is to transform Austin Energy into the urban power system of the future while making the City of Austin and its local partners a model clean energy laboratory and hub for the world’s emerging clean tech sector. In doing so, we seek to prove that it is possible to transform the way we traditionally produce, use, store and trade energy into a new behavior that is simultaneously consistent with our economical, environmental, social and security objectives and responsibilities.

Implementing this vision will likely 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 consumers with more information, alternatives, and decision support
· Smart appliances and devices that can turn off during times of peak demand or high energy prices, driven either by the energy services provider’s policies or by consumer preferences
· Smart markets that feature pricing built on supply and demand models and that vary according to the time of day, day of year, etc. when the enegrgy is actualy consumed
· Smart policies and government stimulus approaches that foster the innovation and implementation of these technologies and markets
· A “green economy” workforce that can build, design, test, install, maintain, operate and continually improve and invent sustainable energy resources and innovative demand response capabilities
· Smart business plans that enable Austin Energy to continue to lead in this reinvention of the energy system without compromising its sound financial foundation
· Smart political leadership and popular will that shares the vision to make this project – and future projects – a reality
· Innovative laboratory environments supported by public, educational, private and NGO (Non-governmental Organization) partnerships
· Energy communities and networked information platforms that enable social network community development, community energy markets and 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, alternative routes, and stay-at-home options
· Connected and sustainable buildings for management of commercial and personal real estate; whether by tenants, owners, or energy services providers
· At least, 300MW of alternative, distributed generation through distributed wind and solar

The Pecan Street Project comprises three distinct phases along with several parallel efforts. Although only the first two phases are described here in any detail, the third phase involves a potentially new research consortium and is even more creative and ambitious than the prior phases.

As previously mentioned, Smart Grid 1.0 was completed in October (2009) and focused on developing an action plan for Austin Energy and identifying key barriers that had to be overcome for long-term success. At the outset of Smart Grid 2.0, these barriers were organized into the following categories: Technology, Workforce, Markets & Business Models, and Policies.

The Technology section will then be divided into three sub-categories; namely: 1) Projects ready for implementation (for example, motion sensors for hallway lights); 2) projects that need to be tested and verified when integrated into the grid; and 3) projects that need to be developed. Some projects will be further categorized as generation, storage, efficiency, and low-tech options.

As technologies are verified over the first few years, they will be moved into implementation phase. And, as technologies emerge from the initial research process, they will be re-categorized as ready for testing and verification.

Policies will also be organized into several additional categories that accelerate adoption with incentives for consumers, energy services providers, the City, and also the private sector. Various economic stimulus approaches will also be examined and deployed, ranging from investments, bonds and tax incentives to R&D partnerships – just a few of the methods we will carefully explore, evaluate and select to build out the desired impact of green economy and Clean Tech Economy jobs.

Some policies can be readily identified for implementation. For example, removing the ability of homeowner’s associations or others to prohibit the installation of solar panels, while others will be identified, developed and worked through the appropriate regulatory, policy, and consumer acceptance models.

Conclusion
It is recognized that in order to change behaviors toward these positive opportunities, the Pecan Street project must strive for an unprecedented level of collaboration among city, state, and federal authorities will be required to ensure higher levels of consumer acceptance, satisfaction and a commitment 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 transformation cycles from what would ordinarily have been decades, to a decade or less.

http://www.electricenergyonline.com/?page=show_article&mag=60&article=451

Austin Energy Smart Grid Program: First Smart Grid Built in the US

It is official now. Austin Energy has built the very first Smart Grid in the US. Covering 1 million consumers and 43,000 businesses. Managing 500,000 devices and 100 terabytes of data. 22% of residential thermostats under management. And much more……

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

Austin Energy Smart Grid Program

What is a Smart Grid?
A Smart Grid is the seamless integration of many parts: an electric grid; a communications network; and hardware and software to monitor, control, and manage the creation, distribution, storage, and consumption of energy. The Smart Grid of the future will be distributed, interactive, self-healing, and capable of reaching every device.

A Smart Grid uses the latest technologies to increase energy dependability and customer service by:
· Managing supply and demand
· Controlling use
· Monitoring outages

It helps operators “see the system” in its entirety. It allows them to avert trouble spots and re-route power as necessary. If sections of the electric system approach overloading, the Smart Grid automatically redirects load to restore balance.

Austin Energy’s "Smart Grid 1.0"
Austin Energy has been preparing our "Smart Grid 1.0" for several years. In addition to existing power sources and transmission lines, its building blocks include:
· A telecommunications network—combining fiber and wireless.
· Hardware—meters, sensors, network gear, computers, servers, and storage
· Software—applications, databases, and integration and management tools

Now Austin Energy’s Smart Grid is ready for primetime. It runs from power plant, through transmission and distribution systems, to the meter, and back. It:
· Encompasses 1 million consumers and 43,000 businesses
· Covers 440 square miles
· Includes 500,000 devices
· Involves 100 terabytes of data

A fully integrated Smart Grid is about helping us serve you better. It focuses on:
· Systems integration
· Communication
· Safety and reliability
· Improved customer service


The future—Smart Grid 2.0
Austin Energy’s Smart Grid 2.0 is already in the works. We already manage 86,000 smart thermostats in homes and businesses, which at peak times can aggregate to about 90 MW of load. It will be interactive and “self-healing,” and will:
· Manage distributed generation—for example, solar photovoltaic and micro wind
· Build and manage energy storage
· Power and communicate with smart consumer appliances
· Charge plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles

Smart Grid 2.0 will offer improved customer services, including:
· By phone or online real-time meter reads
· Web-based management of smart consumer appliances
· Remote service turn-on and shut-off

For our customers, it will mean:
· Quicker outage restoration
· Greater convenience—no more unlocking gates and tying up dogs for meter reads
· Better control over how much energy you use and when you use it
· Timelier, clearer, and more accurate and easily managed bills
· Easier participation in energy efficiency programs


For Austin Energy and the City of Austin, Smart Grid 2.0 will mean:
· Improved operations and procurement—lower costs
· Less energy theft
· Better planning and management of load distribution
· Reduced need for extra generation and transmission capacity

The way forward
Austin Energy partners in the Pecan Street Project to help plan Smart Grid 2.0. The Project helps us define, test, and implement strategies to keep Austin at the forefront of clean technology innovation and job creation.

Learn about the Pecan Street Project.

http://www.austinenergy.com/About%20Us/Company%20Profile/smartGrid/index.htm

Andres Carvallo Trades his Blackberry for an iPhone 3GS

Ok………So I finally traded my Blackberry for an iPhone 3GS with 32 gigabytes. There is very little that I can say that the press and reviews have not said already. But let me add that for me the iPhone 3GS rocks!

And I did try the Blackberry Storm 2 a few times before my final decision. Verizon is faster in my city.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/

The majority of the key enterprise issues that I had highlighted over and over since the iPhone came to market can be now resolved with third party software ala BES. Still BES is the better product.

1 - Security encryption on the device
2 - Remote access for data locking or data wipe out
3 - Deliver native push email support for POP3 and MS Exchange
4 - Deliver over-the-air sync

The last two issues still remain, but I have to say that they are not as big of a deal. BTW, I cannot imagine the market cap of apple if the iPhone sold on any carrier worldwide.

5 - Removable battery
6 - Make available to all carriers


The third party solutions that I suggest are:

Sybase is committed to offering device-agnostic solutions that support a broad range of operating systems, including iPhone. By providing a mobile platform that offers capabilities for device management, security, applications, messaging and development, Sybase enables enterprises to further adopt the iPhone. This platform approach provides a solid foundation to mobilize your business and provides the tools for a long term strategy that helps to protect your valuable IT budget. http://www.sybase.com/products/mobileenterprise/iphone

Good for Enterprise is a powerful, secure and easy-to-use enterprise mobility suite that provides IT with the mobile security and control it needs and users with a great experience for mobile collaboration and connectivity on devices they want like iPhone and Android. Good for Enterprise combines Good Mobile Control, Good Mobile Messaging, and Good Mobile Access to provide IT and users with a secure and flexible enterprise mobility solution that will evolve to meet your needs for years to come. http://www.good.com/enterprise

Of these two, Good for Enterpise is faster, more matured, and better integrated with the iPhone native features and capabilities.

The iPhone is finally ready for the Enterprise. Enjoy!

Secretary Chu Announces $620 Million for Smart Grid Demonstration and Energy Storage Projects

Recovery Act funding will upgrade the electrical grid, save energy and create jobs

COLUMBUS, OHIO – At an event in Columbus, Ohio this afternoon, Secretary Chu announced that the Department of Energy is awarding $620 million for projects around the country to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid. These 32 demonstration projects, which include large-scale energy storage, smart meters, distribution and transmission system monitoring devices, and a range of other smart technologies, will act as models for deploying integrated Smart Grid systems on a broader scale. This funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be leveraged with $1 billion in funds from the private sector to support more than $1.6 billion in total Smart Grid projects nationally.

Secretary Chu also released a video today on YouTube, which explains what investments in the Smart Grid can mean for American consumers. View the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/v/9RJiElIhBz4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

“These demonstration projects will further our knowledge and understanding of what works best and delivers the best results for the Smart Grid, setting the course for a modern grid that is critical to achieving our energy goals,” said Secretary Chu. “This funding will be used to show how Smart Grid technologies can be applied to whole systems to promote energy savings for consumers, increase energy efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.”

These efforts will provide invaluable data on the benefits and cost-effectiveness of the Smart Grid, including energy and cost savings. An analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute estimates that implementing Smart Grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than 4 percent by 2030. That would mean a savings of $20.4 billion for businesses and consumers around the country, and $700 million for Ohio alone -- or $61 in utility savings for every man, woman and child in Ohio.

The demonstration projects announced today will also help verify the technological and business viability of new smart technologies and show how fully integrated Smart Grid systems can be readily adapted and copied around the country. Applicants say this investment will create thousands of new job opportunities that will include manufacturing workers, engineers, electricians, equipment installers, IT system designers, cyber security specialists, and business and power system analysts.

The funding awards are divided into two topic areas. In the first group, 16 awards totaling $435 million will support fully integrated, regional Smart Grid demonstrations in 21 states, representing over 50 utilities and electricity organizations with a combined customer base of almost 100 million consumers. The projects include streamlined communication technologies that will allow different parts of the grid to “talk” to each other in real time; sensing and control devices that help grid operators monitor and control the flow of electricity to avoid disruptions and outages; smart meters and in-home systems that empower consumers to reduce their energy use and save money; energy storage options; and on-site and renewable energy sources that can be integrated onto the electrical grid.

In the second group, an additional 16 awards for a total of $185 million will help fund utility-scale energy storage projects that will enhance the reliability and efficiency of the grid, while reducing the need for new electricity plants. Improved energy storage technologies will allow for expanded integration of renewable energy resources like wind and photovoltaic systems and will improve frequency regulation and peak energy management. The selected projects include advanced battery systems (including flow batteries), flywheels, and compressed air energy systems.

http://www.energy.gov/news2009/8305.htm

Andres Carvallo Speaks at GreenBeat 2009

GreenBeat 2009 will bring together leading entrepreneurs, investors, utilities, technology executives, and policymakers to accelerate the development of a leaner, more efficient electrical grid. With a laser focus on new technology offerings, GreenBeat 2009 is the must-attend event in the space for discussion, debate and power networking on November 18 and 19 in San Mateo, CA.

Energy used to be a one-way street. Today, it’s becoming a bi-directional superhighway with utility customers finally taking charge of their power use and how much they pay for it. Instead of drilling into short-term IT issues and arcane arm-chair politicking involved in this shift, GreenBeat 2009 will map out the hottest business and technology opportunities the Smart Grid has to offer.

Join me and my two co-panelists Paul De Martini from Southern California Edison and Josh Gerber from San Diego Gas and Electric. The Panel moderator will be Jesse Berst of Smart Grid News and the format of the panel is that each of us will give a 5-7 minute presentation and then Jesse will follow up with discussion. Some of the topics that we plan to cover include:

• Bringing the Customers Along. Early pilots have largely imposed themselves upon customers. As mass deployments roll out, utilities are starting to get a) passive disinterest or b) active opposition from customers. What does this mean for existing suppliers (will customer disinterest slow things such as demand response) and for new companies (are there gaps in the market in this space)?

• Standards: Should we start now or wait for them to mature?

• Managing the Data Explosion. Smart metering deployments can easily generate more than 2,000 times (yes -- 2,000) the data utilities currently manage. Most utilities don't have the experience to validate, normalize and archive this much data, much less to mine it, analyze it and share it with other applications. Will they hire to bring these skills in-house, use consulting firms or out-source it altogether?

As a reader of my blog, you get a special discount code for $175 off the ticket price. http://greenbeat2009.eventbrite.com/?discount=SPEAKERVIP.

http://events.venturebeat.com/greenbeat2009/

Freescale's Smart Meter on a Chip

Freescale Semiconductor has a new chipset that incorporates all the primary functions of a smart meter. Similar ‘systems-on-a-chip’ have seen mixed success to date.

Freescale Semiconductor has a proposition for smart meter makers – take its new "smart meter on a chip" as a template, and have smart meters rolling off the manufacturing line within months.

That's one promise of Freescale's new "system-on-a-chip" metering reference design announced Tuesday, which integrates many smart meter functions now performed by discrete components, as well as a few features hard to find in today's meters.

That's according to Jeff Bock, global marketing manager for Freescale's industrial microcontroller division. With pretty much every smart meter function integrated except for the choice of communications - wireless mesh, powerline carrier, cellular, etc. - the new system is "functionally a productized meter [with] all the software and hardware necessary for someone to go build a state of the art system," he said.

The chipset will sell for $3.60 to $4.22 apiece for orders of 10,000 or more, depending mainly on how much flash memory and SRAM the customer wants and whether they're meant for single-phase residential and small commercial meters or heavier three-phase industrial meters, the company said.

Smart meters represent a small but growing market for chipmakers like Freescale, Texas Instruments, NEC and Analog Devices as they look for growth amidst an economic downturn that's hurt sales in their traditional markets. Smart meters could be a $2 billion opportunity for semiconductor companies through 2012, according to a report from Gartner.

But for the most part, that business has been in sales of discrete products that meter makers integrate themselves. Which companies might be customers for an integrated meter-on-a-chip system?

Well, the big established North American and European meter makers – that's General Electric, Landis+Gyr, Itron, Sensus and Elster, for the most part – "may choose to use pieces, or in some cases, large portions of the design in their own designs," Bock said (see 8.3M Smart Meters and Counting in U.S.).

But in emerging markets like India, China and Latin America, "Their first intent may be to do as little to modify it as possible," he said. "They may even consider taking our design" and branding it as their own, he said.

That may be a clarion call to the developing world's more fragmented smart meter industry.

Bock notes that the new chipset is aimed at the medium to high-end meter manufacturer, with features including high-accuracy electricity measurement and a system to keep the meter running while new software is being uploaded.

But Freescale - formerly Motorola Semiconductor - also has incorporated some key features that, while useful for all smart meters, do sound as if they're targeted for problems mainly faced in emerging markets.

For example, the chipset includes an anti-tamper device and real-time clock to fend off attempts to hack into meters to steal electricity, as well as lower power usage in general to allow meters to run off batteries longer on a grid that sees a lot of brownouts and blackouts. Those are all problems that are far more common in markets like India and Latin America than in the United States and Europe.

Another key challenge facing such emerging markets is cost - that is, as low a cost as possible. Freescale has been targeting low-cost solutions for China's smart grid needs, for example (see Cutting the Cost of Smart Grid in China).

"The overwhelming trend is a drive for integration... and a drive for cost," Bock said. Freescale isn't the only one picking up on those trends, of course.

Teridian Semiconductor Corp., for example, makes chips to measure voltage, current, power factor and other features of electricity that are now found in smart meters from about 52 manufacturers, including big ones like General Electric, Landis+Gyr and Elster, said Jerry Fitch, Teridian's CEO and president.

Teridian also incorporates time of use, anti-tampering and display functions, as well as software, into complete systems, said Jerry Fitch, president and CEO. The Irvine, Calif.-based company sells its chips at prices ranging from about $1.25 to about $4, depending on the functionality demanded, Fitch said.

While North America and Europe have been and continue to be Teridian's biggest market, China and India "are becoming much bigger parts of our business than they've historically been," he said.

China could see 30 million to 40 million meters per year deployed under a new government smart grid push, and India is probably deploying about 10 million meters a year, about 3 million of which will contain Teridian chips, he said.

But so far, meter makers haven't taken to systems-on-a-chip as quickly as chip developers would have hoped. At least, that's the experience of Analog Devices, which launched just such an integrated system last year. While it supplies discrete components to at least one of the big five smart meter makers, as well as Siemens and several Chinese smart meter makers, it hasn't seen much uptake of those "SOC's," said Ronn Kliger, Analog Devices' product line director.

"Most of the world still does designs using discrete components," he said. "The reasons are, the flexibility it gives them, the uncertainty of future requirements, and frankly, the ability to get suppliers to compete with each other on price."

India has been an exception to that rule, Kliger said. In India, Texas Instruments has seen more widespread success for its system-on-a-chip that includes a microcontroller and analog-to-digital converter to read electricity and convert it to digital format, but doesn't include software for doing that.

That's cheaper than including the software, and in India, "it just so happens that they have a lot of software expertise" to fill the gap with homemade code, so to speak. That helps drive down cost in a market Kliger sees as "the most cost-sensitive" in the world.

Still, the course of the semiconductor business has favored integration, and smart meters are no exception, he said. It's all a matter of timing.

"There may very well be market niches where customers have kind of standardized on what they need, and are perfectly open to system on chip solutions," Kliger said. "That's just not in the mainstream" today.

Ben Schuman, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, agreed that "the industry isn't really standardized enough, or set on one type of architecture, so that those cost savings would outweigh what you'd give up in the way of flexibility."

And, of course, integration is the "bread and butter" of meter makers, a role they might not want to give up, he added.

Perhaps Freescale will break through with its chipset. While Bock wouldn't name which smart meter makers Freescale is working with, or what its market share in the industry might be, he said the company is already working with "significant large alpha customers here and around the world, many of those in the millions of units."

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=APLMETERING&fsrch=1

Andres Carvallo Named as a UCLA WINSmartGrid Advisor

WINSmartGrid – A UCLA-based Initiative for Green Energy

The UCLA Wireless Internet Smart Grid (WINSmartGrid http://winmec.ucla.edu/smartgrid) project announces the formation of the UCLA WINSmartGrid Connection (UCLA Wireless Internet Smart Grid Connection), which is a partnership between universities, industry and government.

What is the UCLA WINSmartGrid?
The UCLA WINSmartGrid is a network platform technology that allows electricity operated appliances such as plug-in automobile, washer, dryer, or, air conditioner to be wirelessly monitored, connected and controlled via a Smart Wireless hub. The WINSmartGrid technology connects home appliances and smart meters to the WINSmartGrid web service that receives live feeds from utilities and external sources on information such as instantaneous price of power, future prices, etc., and sends control signals to the WINSmartGrid which in turn dynamically controls various appliances in real time. Important aspects of this system include low-power capabilities, generic/flexible/reconfigurable technology, two-way communication capability, open-architecture for integration with sensors, devices, networks and appliances, and, standards-based interfaces.

This technology allows utilities - at the edge of the network - enabling technology to provide consumers incentive-based consumption of electrical power during off-peak hours, to store this power in millions of battery-operated Plug-In automobiles, which can subsequently utilize the stored power during the peak hours for transportation thereby helping utilize the off peak-time capacity. By intelligently operating appliances via a wireless open architecture approach within the home with WINSmartGrid, the utilities can simultaneously reduce peak power requirements during the daytime.

The WINSmartGrid system is based on the advanced technology called the ReWINS (Reconfigurable Wireless Interface for Networking of Sensors http://winmec.ucla.edu/rewins) that was developed in the Wireless Media Lab and WINMEC in UCLA over the past six years. Its architecture is a tri-layered architecture (that derives from the WINRFID Middleware and Edgeware research - http://winmec.ucla.edu/winrfid) that separates the hardware via Edgeware, the control, setup and data functions in the Middleware and the decision making in the Centralware.

National Priority
According to DOE, its vision for the Modern Grid Strategy as follows (source http://www.netl.doe.gov/moderngrid/opportunity/vision.html) - "Before we can begin to modernize today's grid, we first need a clear vision of the power system required for the future. Given that vision, we can create the alignment necessary to inspire passion, investment, and progress toward an advanced U.S. grid for the 21st century. A modernized grid is a necessary enabler for a successful society in the future. Modernizing today's grid will require a unified effort by all stakeholders rallying around a common vision".

The UCLA Wireless Smart Grid project using the WINSmartGrid technology provides an enabling Wireless Technology for achieving the goals of the electricity smart grid by allowing power consumption within households to be smoothened out, thereby resulting in a flatter demand curve and more efficient production.

Technology
The WINSmartGrid Technology brings together ReWINS technology within a three-layered Serviceware architecture that is composed of the EdgeWare, Middleware and Centralware.

The Edgeware is a combination of software and firmware that connects to and controls devices such as the temperature monitors, humidity RFID tags, motion detectors or X10 controllers on refrigerators. A variety of monitors/sensors are supported within WINSmartGrid including temperature, humidity, current, voltage, power, shock, motion, and, chemical sensors. The Edgeware controls and utilizes the wireless networks that connect to the WINSmartGrid hub. The WINSmartGrid hub supports wireless protocols such as Zigbee, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPRS and RFID, and it is increasingly clear that the 802.15.4-based low-power protocol (that includes Zigbee) appear to hold strong promise. Other protocols such as WiMax and Rubee are being added. The Edgeware allows the creation, setup, management, control and utilization of a two-way hierarchical and low-power network.

The Middleware sits between the Edgeware and the decision-making web service or Centralware. The Middleware provides functionality such as data filtration, aggregation and messaging on the raw data from the Edgeware, extract meaningful information, and route it appropriately to the correct destination / web service.

The Centralware receives real-time price feeds and other data from the utilities, has a basic set of knowledge-based rules on control decisions, and makes the control decisions that need to be executed. The WINSmartGrid Centralware also has the capability to connect to other Intelligent Web services to collaborate on decision making about the control decisions - currently it is a structural interface, with a basic set of rules only. This structural web service will eventually be connected to the external intelligent services as they come on-line.

Once the Centralware makes the decisions, the Middleware is informed about the control decisions via actions, which then maps and routes these control decisions to the Edgeware, which in turn converts those decisions to low-level control signals for the appropriate controller (e.g. X10 controller connected to a Plug-In car).

Characteristics of UCLA Wireless Smart Grid (WINSmartGrid) include:

• Low Power technology


• Standards-based hardware adapted to fit the problem resulting in lower overall cost


• Wireless infrastructure for monitoring


• Wireless infrastructure for control


• Service architecture with three layers - Edgeware, Middleware and Centralware


• Open architecture for easy integration


• Plug-and-Play approach to network installation


• Reconfigurability - The capability of the technology to be reconfigurable allows OTA (over the air) upgrade of the firmware to be able to handle different devices, applications, sensors, controllers, thermostats, etc.

Benefits of WINSmartGrid to the Utilities

• Integration of home-based Wireless network to their smart meter architecture


• Low cost connectivity to achieve the vision of the National Smart Grid


• Low power technology that provides connectivity.


• Two way connectivity for monitoring and control of the last mile of the Global SmartGrid (homes, offices, factories).

Other Research Projects using WINSmartGrid and related technology that is relevant to Utility Industry

• Monitoring of infrastructure to report to control center for rapid decision making


• Minimal delay wireless networks for the field


• Quick reporting of Use of RFID to track smart meters for asset management


• Use of Wireless-integrated temperature monitors for field applications


• Remote / wireless reporting of distance between cables and trees in the field.


• Bring intelligence to condition of equipment by wirelessly monitoring temperature.


• Monitoring sparking wirelessly and bring this information to the Central station


• Wirelessly monitor condition of remote underground power lines where oil line is in close proximity of the power line to prevent explosions


• Remote monitoring of conductor temperature

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

Andres Carvallo Named to the Hispanic Business 100 Influentials 2009

Andres Carvallo Named to the Hispanic Business 100 Influentials 2009

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

Carvallo shares vision, gaps with clean energy folks

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 (SGT, Aug-06), "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.

This story has been reproduced from the August 7, 2009 issue of Smart Grid Today with the permission of the publisher, MMI Inc. To view the full story on Smart Grid Today's website, please visit http://www.smartgridtoday.com/public/595.cfm?sd=31.

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

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 –