A recent study of Texas homeowners with smart meters found that respondents were most interested in hearing about ways that their individual households could benefit from smart meters and related technologies. Nearly three-quarters of the respondents said that the most compelling benefit of smart meters was the potential for money-saving pricing plans and the ability to manage their households more efficiently.

For homes with smart meters, the meter reports electrical usage in set increments throughout the day, allowing the homeowner to monitor total usage – and the associated cost – throughout the month. Darla Seible of Dallas, first prize winner of the Biggest Energy Saver.

Through the use of smart appliances, home energy management systems, apps and other easy-to-understand tools, customers can unlock the potential of their smart meters to make their homes run more efficiently, while saving money and maintaining comfort.

The winners of the Top Ten North American Utilities are (in alphabetical order):

          --  Arizona Public Service Co. (APS)
          --  Austin Energy
          --  Con Edison
          --  Duke Energy
          --  OG &E
          --  Oncor
          --  PG &E
          --  Reliant, an NRG company
          --  Souther California Edison
          --  SDG &E

The Networked Grid 2012 is Greentech Media’s 4th annual two-day smart grid summit covering today’s market realities and trends going forward, as they shape next generation smart grid infrastructure and applications. This year’s conference will feature our highest quality speaker line-up and audience to date, as we plan to cap the audience size and limit attendance to only the industry’s top executives and thought leaders from global utilities, innovative vendors and top press and analysts. Duke Energy is the conference’s Host Utility Sponsor and SAS is the signature sponsor of the event.

For more information visit Greentech Media website

STMicroelectronics  a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has begun advanced sampling of its newest single-chip wireless microcontroller featured for the next-generation of smart grid standards. The new microcontroller is aimed at reducing power outages and carbon emissions while also supporting future lifestyle choices including plug-in rechargeable electric vehicles.

The STM32W microcontroller, is among the first IEEE802.15.4 certified platforms that will support the new ZigBee® Smart Energy Profile version 2.0 (SEP 2.0), which defines smart grid scenarios for a “greener” world. The use of the latest Internet Protocol (IPv6)-based Stack (ZigBeeIP) extends interoperability between different manufacturers and their physical-layer implementations.. Among many other SEP 2.0 advances, the STM32W includes support for pre-pay services, load response, and energy-demand management; the microcontroller and its features enable energy conscious homes and buildings.

Smart grid products, comprising interconnected equipment such as appliances, energy meters and infrastructure monitors featuring microcontrollers like the STM32W, are conceived to reduce peak loads, improve network stability, encourage lower consumption and better manage a wider variety of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. The US Department of Energy reported that smart grid applications could help reduce carbon emissions from the US utility industry by as much as 12 percent; equivalent to closing 66 average coal-fired generating plants.

Major features of STM32W:

• Exceptional IEEE 802.15.4 radio performance
• ARM Cortex-M3 advanced power-management features
• Competitive price across the full STM32W family range
• Wide memory footprint range delivers best fit for a variety of application requirements
• Extensive support including:
  • License-free IEEE802.15.4 protocol stacks and libraries
  • Three complementary development kits
• True single-chip solution

For more information, visit STMicroelectronics website

Meanwhile, utilities and their vendors have struggled to identify the appropriate user experiences and business models for home energy management and smart energy devices. Most pilot programs in the United States have continued to operate at a small scale as stakeholders explore these issues, and a number of utilities are wrestling with the fundamental question of what their role will be in terms of providing energy services on the customer side of the meter.
In order to establish a framework for understanding consumer interest and attitudes related to a select group of smart grid concepts, Pike Research conducted a web-based survey of 1,050 U.S. consumers, based on a nationally representative and demographically balanced sample, in the fall of 2011.
This Pike Research report analyzes the dynamics of consumer demand, preferences, attitudes, and price sensitivity related to four key smart grid product and service categories: smart meters, home energy management, demand response, and smart appliances. The survey, which is based on a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, includes a detailed examination of demand dynamics, segmented by various demographic and behavioral characteristics.

for more information, visit ReportLinker website

The EnerNex staff have been furiously completing the build-out of the Smart Grid Labs (SGL) infrastructure. This infrastructure will support our six operational domains:

• Security
  Grid
  Metering
  Consumer
  Communications
  Command and Control

Overlaying all of the infrastructure is a commitment to security, both physical and cyber. The EnerNex security team has designed the cyber security to fit industry best practices as well as from our in-depth knowledge of what is needed beyond those practices. On the physical side, we have committed to practicing role-based access control, also in line with the industry. The security architecture will allow EnerNex staff to leverage the infrastructure in a manner that protects client confidentiality, our parallel corporate network, and our permanent and project equipment while offering on-site and virtual visitors the opportunity to “plug in” at the appropriate point and collaborate.

EnerNex, established in 2003 and located in Tennessee’s Innovation Valley, provides research, engineering and consulting services, for the electric power industry. EnerNex focuses on providing services around the development and application of new and emerging electric power technologies to engineer a cleaner, smarter energy system of the future. The firm serves as the SGIP Administrator under a NIST-awarded contract; for more information on the project, click here.

The company’s recently announced OpenTablet 7 is an ultra-sleek, portable, touch-screen device that combines high quality telephony with advanced multimedia communications services and applications to deliver an engaging, interactive experience designed for in-home, office and hospitality use. With the addition of OpenPeak’s available energy management solution, the OpenTablet becomes a full-service home or office communications and energy system command center.

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to a new market research report “Smart Grid Technology Market – Analysis & Global Forecast By Hardware, Software & Communication Network Technologies (2011 – 2016)” published by MarketsandMarkets the total smart grid technology and related application market is expected to reach $80.6 billion by 2016.

This research report categorizes the global smart grid technology market and its related applications market on the basis of different kinds of software’s that are being used for the smart grid network, smart meter, various smart sensor, communication network and geographical analysis; forecasting revenue, and analyzing trends in the market.

On the basis of geography

North America
U.S.
Canada
Mexico
Europe
Germany
UK
France
Spain
Italy
Others
Asia-Pacific
Australia
China
Japan
Korea
India
Others
ROW
Middle East
Africa
Others

A smart grid is not just about installing smart meters across residential and commercial areas, but also about the ability to control the entire energy network. Setting up a communications network is equally essential for the smart grid network.

Countries like Australia, UK, France, Italy, and U.S. have the highest potential across all the geographies. The communication networks have high growth potential and the smart grid technology market size is expected to increase in the next five years.

For more information please, visit MarketsandMarkets

• electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and storage
• water infrastructure operations and management
• home and building energy management
• electric vehicles and charging stations
• telecommunications and networks
• sensorsenergy efficiency
• cybersecurity
• standards and more

The Smart Grid Dictionary lists website addresses to important organizations to give you convenient access to additional, in-depth information.

For more information visit Smart Grid Library website

See larger image Smart Grid Dictionary: First Edition (Paperback) By (author) Christine Hertzog List Price: $34.95 USD

President Obama has outlined a vision for doubling America’s use of clean energy by 2035 and achieving the goal of putting one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Having a modernized, smarter electric system is an important step to meeting these goals. Building the necessary transmission infrastructure and utilizing smart grid technologies will facilitate the integration of renewable resources
into the grid, accommodate a growing number of electric vehicles, help avoid blackouts, restore power more quickly when outages occur, and reduce the need for new power plants. Smart grid technologies also provide a foundation for innovation by entrepreneurs and others who can develop tools to empower consumers and help them make informed decisions about energy usage.

To lay out a path forward, the Federal government, in June 2011, released A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid: Enabling Our Secure Energy Future.11 This framework features four pillars, which are supported by Administration actions, and includes further policy recommendations to promote investment, innovation, and job growth:

1. Enabling cost‐effective smart grid investments by disseminating lessons learned from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investments.

4. Securing the grid from cyber attacks and improving its recover ability in the event of such an attack.

For more information visit NIST Home

Or you can download the U.S. Department of commerce Report

provides equipment and services for electric power. One Alstom smart grid challenge is equipment sales in North America. Although highly successful in Europe and the Middle East, Alstom smart grid hardware does not enjoy the same success in the U.S. and Canada. By contrast, Alstom’s smart grid software for control rooms is a market leader in North America.

Alstom smart grid sales in 2009 were just under $8 billion. In addition to selling gear and software, Alstom also performs project management and engineering.

The Alstom offering for on-line grid stability solutions consists of GPS synchronized Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) which provide a real-time image of the grid status that can be employed for better situation awareness on SCADA level or for fast Wide Area Monitoring Protection and Control Schemes (WAMPCS). We provide the full solution starting from the PMU devices, Phasor Data Concentrators (PDC), communication infrastructure and state-of-the-art energy management systems (EMS).

for more info visit Alstom website