Tag Archives: smart grid
In Focus: President Obama’s Next-Generation Energy System Plan
Tuesday’s State of the Union (SOTU) speech included much that was music to environmentalists’ ears. The headline, of course, is the commitment to take serious action to address the most significant challenge our generation faces – climate change. And, with it, the extreme weather and public health burdens that are already making life harder for [...]
Doubling U.S. Energy Productivity By 2030
The Alliance Commission on National Energy Efficiency Policy released a report today with recommendations that would put the U.S. on a path towards doubling its energy productivity by 2030. The Commission, which is chaired by U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) and National Grid U.S. President Tom King, is a diverse coalition of energy leaders that [...]
Technological Breakthroughs vs. A Carbon Diet
Over the weekend, The New Republic published an interview with President Obama, where he noted the following: “On climate change, it’s a daunting task. But we know what releases carbon into the atmosphere, and we have tools right now that would start scaling that back, although we’d still need some big technological breakthrough.” How accurate [...]
Why Power Utilities Love Data Analytics + Smart Grid
While power utilities like to claim that they employ data analytics, they really don’t. Utilities tend to have last-gen business intelligence (BI) reporting solutions that they call “analytics,” but that typically amount to not much more than reporting tools or descriptive analytics (primarily based on older database architectures running SQL), as opposed to the real-time and predictive software using complex [...]
Clean Energy Onsets vs. Carbon Offsets
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to work in Western Kenya for the summer. That summer gave me a new life perspective in many ways, but one way that it continues to influence me is in how I think about carbon offsets. Deforestation is a major issue in Kakamega, Kenya and the NGO [...]
6 False Smart Meter Myths
1. Smart meters are less accurate than analog meters. Public service commissions require meter manufacturers to supply independently certified testing results to prove that their smart meters provide accurate measurements. A smart / digital meter installed by Pepco on the author’s home in Maryland. CREDIT: The Energy Fix 2. Smart meters are a health threat [...]
How Gridquant Will Change the Smart Grid Game
The math being used to solve the electricity grid’s most complex power flow equations today is, well, kind of fuzzy. Gridquant, a startup created by Spanish software development firm Grupo AIA, says its new math for power flow modeling can make those grid calculations far more accurate. While the company was only recently incorporated in [...]
Smart Grid to See More American Investment than Electric Vehicles
Smart grid growth in Canada and the United States will likely encourage greater investment in renewable energy resources and electric vehicle adoption, according to a recent report. Global Data, a UK-based research and analyses firm, released a report about the increased speed of smart grid adoption in North America earlier this month. Incentive funds for [...]
In Focus: California Energy Use
Californians are poised for a more functional, data-driven model for setting the prices people pay for electricity. The new model will make the massive differences in costs of providing electricity during the course of a typical day more evident to us as energy users, thereby inspiring more efficient use of electricity resources. The California Public [...]