Andres Carvallo Speaks at Smart Energy International

Smart Energy International is a future focused, strategic event for utilities and new energy stakeholders in the US and across the globe to discuss the upcoming shifts in demand on their infrastructure, from regulations to emerging technology, and how they can implement business decisions today to be better prepared for tomorrow.

With intelligent buildings, home area networks, electric vehicles, energy storage, distributed generation, carbon reduction regulations, new customer demands and continued pressure to perform for communities, shareholders and the environment, 2012 is an incredibly exciting, dynamic year to be involved in the changing utility industry, with myriad opportunities to explore and new revenue streams to win.

Some of the key themes to be explored at this timely Summit include:

• Upcoming regulation in the US and international energy markets, and the impacts it may have on your business strategy
• Case studies of recent upgrades and emerging trends in the international energy distribution market
• Integration of renewables, advances in distributed generation, storage and complex distribution management
• Reducing demand: Energy efficiency programs, demand response, automated buildings, smarter homes, connecting it all with engaged customers.
• The next steps: Preparing for widespread EV adoption; leveraging the data for additional business value; connecting it all for Smart Cities.

Mr. Carvallo will give his speech titled “The Advance Smart Grid – A New Energy Paradigm”, where he shares his vision, expertise, and insights on the inevitable evolution of smart grids, the rationale for an advanced smart grid, his vision, planning, and initiatives, his design for smart grid 1.0: from power plant to meters, his summary on the national perspective on smart grid, the interfacing with distributed energy resources (DER), how smart grid 2.0 emerges: an integrated and advanced smart grid, the potential of advanced smart grids for a better world, and a vision of fast forward to smart grid 3.0

http://www.smartenergyinternational.com/en/index.php

Investment in Smart T&D Technologies in Asia Pacific to Total $123 Billion

http://www.electricenergyonline.com/?page=show_news&id=161203

By Pike Research

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Boulder, CO, October 14, 2011 - Seeking to lower the ratio of electricity consumption to economic output, reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions via demand management, and encourage energy efficiency, utilities and governments across the Asia Pacific region are investing heavily in smart grid technologies. Transitioning to a smart grid is seen as a key goal of national energy policy by governments in China, Japan, South Korea, India, and other APAC nations. While much of the market attention has focused on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), transmission upgrades and distribution automation (DA) systems actually represent the largest opportunities within APAC. According to a recent report from Pike Research, cumulative revenue from transmission upgrades alone will total $93 billion between 2010 and 2017. Cumulative revenue from smart transmission and distribution (T&D) systems will reach $123.3 billion, representing 72% of all APAC smart grid investment over that period.

AMI revenue in Asia Pacific will total $25.6 billion from 2010 to 2017, the cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts.

“Market potential for the smart grid in APAC is directly related to China’s huge investments in installing the essential components of power infrastructure over the next decade,” says senior analyst Andy Bae. “And China’s smart grid commitments are closely related to the country’s urgent power imbalance issues. China is attempting to solve these problems via the full completion of transmission capabilities.”

Indeed, smart grid strategies vary widely according to each country’s priorities and most urgent needs. In China, most investment priorities will target T&D upgrades, especially in ultra-high voltage and ultra-high voltage direct current construction. Japan, on the other hand, will take a much wider and systematic approach to creating world-leading green social systems by leveraging its existing leadership in IT and high-end technologies, while South Korea plans to form an advanced smart grid structure by leveraging its technology leadership in the IT and communications space.

Pike Research’s report, “Smart Grid in Asia Pacific”, provides an in-depth analysis of market drivers, business models and applications, and technology issues for the development of the smart grid in key markets within the Asia Pacific region. The study includes detailed forecasts by application area for China, Japan, Korea, Australia, India, and the ASEAN region. Profiles are also provided for more than 30 key industry players. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s website.

Pike Research is a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets. The company’s research methodology combines supply-side industry analysis, end-user primary research and demand assessment, and deep examination of technology trends to provide a comprehensive view of the Smart Energy, Smart Grid, Smart Transportation, Smart Industry, and Smart Buildings sectors.

Seven Auto Manufacturers Collaborate on Harmonized Electric Vehicle Fast Charging Solution

http://www.electricenergyonline.com/?page=show_news&id=161153

• Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen agreed to support a harmonized single-port fast charging approach for use on electric vehicles in Europe and the United States

• The system is a combined charging approach that integrates all charging scenarios into one vehicle inlet/charging connector and uses identical ways for the vehicle to communicate with the charging station

• The seven auto manufacturers also agreed to use HomePlug GreenPHY as the communication protocol. This approach will facilitate integration of the electric vehicle into future smart grid applications

• Agreeing upon a single, harmonized DC fast charging system, we believe will help infrastructure planning, reduce vehicle complexity and improve the ownership experience for electric vehicle customers

Recognizing the importance of a single international approach for DC fast charging, Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen have agreed on the combined charging system as an international standardized approach to charge electric vehicles (EV) in Europe and the United States.

The system is a combined charging approach integrating all charging scenarios into one vehicle inlet/charging connector and uses identical ways for the vehicle to communicate with the charging station. This allows electric vehicles from Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen can share the same fast charging stations.

The seven auto manufacturers believe the development of a common charging approach is good for customers, the industry and charging infrastructure providers. Standardization will reduce build complexity for manufacturers, accelerate the installation of common systems internationally and most importantly, improve the ownership experience for EV drivers.

The endorsement of the combined charging system was based on reviews and analysis of existing charging strategies, the ergonomics of the connector and the preferences of customers in both the United States and Europe. The harmonized approach – across both continents and all manufacturers - will provide a framework for future infrastructure planning as well as a communication protocol to assist in the integration of electric vehicles into the smart grids.

The seven auto manufacturers also agreed to use HomePlug GreenPHY as the communication protocol. This approach will also facilitate integration of the electric vehicle into future smart grid applications.

Automakers point to the success of Level 1 and Level 2 (for 220V charging in the U.S.) as an example of how standardization will increase the adoption of electric vehicles and increase customer satisfaction. The harmonized electric vehicle charging solution is backward compatible with the J1772 connector standard in the U.S. Backward compatibility also has been achieved in Europe where the system is based on the IEC 62196 Type 2. The approval of the J1772 standard has given electric vehicle owners the comfort of knowing they can charge at all Level 2 charging stations. Prior to standardization an EV owner had no way of knowing if the charge port they were pulling up to was compatible with their vehicle.

Metcalfe's Law--Interoperability and the Smart Grid

Several times during the past 18 months,  while I was speaking and participating at smart grid conferences, people in the audience have asked questions regarding standards and interoperability. In one particular event, our panel moderator was formulating an answer as he repeated the question, but before he had a chance to respond, another panelist chirped in, “Standards? That’s yesterday’s news. Now that NIST has published the 1.0 framework, everything is resolved.”

Ah, if only this were the case. While I congratulate my friend George Arnold, national coordinator of smart grid operability at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and his colleagues for their excellent, much needed efforts to architect the “NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0,” this is just the beginning—not the end—of the smart grid interoperability and standards journey. That’s because many questions remain unanswered:

•With this framework, what are the ramifications for how the smart grid gets designed?

•Which vendors will adopt any of these standards, and which of the standards will they adopt?

•How will this NIST framework change how smart grid technology is developed and deployed?

•Why do standards and interoperability matter so much anyway?

At Austin Energy as CIO, I led the build out of the first smart grid in the U.S. and worked closely with many interdisciplinary teams in selection, procurement, design, deployment, and operations, and I can assure you that:

1.Adopting standards-based technologies with the goal of deploying interoperable systems is easy to talk about but difficult to achieve,

2.Not all standards implementations behave equally, and not all play an equal role in the smart grid build out, and

3.It’s what standards enable via interoperability—what benefits they confer to the overall smart grid ecosystem—that really matters.

I’ll start by elaborating on my first and last points: what standards enable in the smart grid, and why it’s so devilishly difficult to implement interoperable, standards-based technologies. In the past year, I’ve been exhorting my industry friends and colleagues to think about the smart grid more as a collection of networks; after all, lots of networks already exist in the grid. The smart grid challenge is about connecting these networks (and, in the case of the last mile of meters, connecting devices for the first time) into a scalable, reliable, real-time network of networks. I think it also must be an all-Internet Protocol (IP) network, too. Without standards and interoperability, this level of connectivity isn’t cost-effectively possible. At Austin Energy, our chosen standards to integrate our smart grid were based on application integration—layer 7 at the Open System Interconnection (OSI) Model. So we chose Web Services (SOAP, WSDL and XML) as core standards to leverage and ensure the most interoperability possible among applications and middleware. I wish that instead of integrating at the application layer only, we also could have integrated at the networking management layers (OSI layers 2, 3 and 4) with a standards-based network management system for smart grid devices.

But the potential payoff of a network of networks is mighty enticing. A fully connected, real-time, interoperable smart grid network would offer utilities (and their customers) many powerful benefits, such as:

•A unified view into grid operations and activities (e.g., true electric device interoperability and data integration),

•A means to respond more quickly and efficiently to unplanned events, such as outages, and restoration via self-healing technologies,

•With insights from experience and analysis, the ability to proactively manage and predict usage and load (e.g., predictive conditioning and management),

•More effective, targeted interactions with end customers regarding their energy consumption and preferences (e.g., time-of-use pricing, dynamic demand management programs, etc.), and

•A means to incorporate centrally generated renewables such as wind, solar and biomass and distributed energy such as electric vehicles and solar photovoltaics into the existing grid.

So why is it so hard to implement interoperable technologies? This gets to my second point: Not all standards behave equally. Standards are like architectural blueprints; they’re important guidelines, but contractors build the houses. So, too, it is with standards. How they are instantiated into technology will depend on the preferences, inclinations and limitations of the builders or vendors. NIST has laid down important, specific and pragmatic smart grid interoperability guidelines. It’s time for vendors to respond with equally thoughtful guideline interpretations in proven, tested, interoperable products.

How can my utility industry friends and colleagues be sure they’ve selected the right smart grid build out contractors? Consider that:

•Metcalfe’s Law applies when it comes to the smart grid. Pay attention to the network effect of key standards and their implementations. Look at how and where customers and vendors are coalescing because they signal a proven, interoperable technology. Networking giant Cisco Systems, for example, built its multibillion-dollar Internet business based on steadfast support of all-IP technology. It pledges to do the same in the smart grid, so choosing products and technologies that are part of Cisco’s partner ecosystem and investments is probably safe.

•The best, most important standards have been formed with significant utility input. IEC CIM 61968-9, the interoperability standard for distribution management interfaces (including meter reading), was developed and vetted in a multiyear process through the governance of the International Electromechanical Commission (IEC) and with ample contributions and oversight by participating utilities. This standard is essential in enabling application integration across vendors and technologies. Vendors that have implemented this standard with active deployments also are likely to be safe for utilities.

•Selective deployment of standards doesn’t deliver pervasive interoperability. If a vendor has implemented standards in only a portion of its solution, in only a finite number of devices or in only certain applications, then buyer beware. This vendor is merely paying lip service to standards adherence. Building standards into a diversity of devices, networks and software applications is difficult and time-consuming, but unless products are engineered this way, they won’t deliver necessary return on investment to end customers. IP-based isn’t the same as all-IP; the former refers to a proprietary networking technology, and the latter refers to the ubiquitous standard used throughout the Internet backbone.

To borrow a baseball metaphor, when it comes to smart grid standards, we still are in the early innings. Because the pace of innovation keeps accelerating, we are all likely to see many new, exciting smart grid developments.

That’s great because the utility industry needs the choice, rapid innovation and cost-effective price competition that result from a standards-based vendor ecosystem. It’s not so good because such rapid innovation puts utilities on a steep, ever-changing learning curve. In this industry, cooperation is the norm, not the exception. We all can learn from each other’s experiences. Here’s to a great ball game.