Smart Grid Projects Get Ready to Roll in the U.S., UAE

October 5, 2009

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

Cisco, together with utility, technology and local government partners, are developing some of the nation’s first projects to create a smarter electric grid. General Electric is also testing how smart appliances can help lower power demand in a pilot program at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

Hoping for a piece of the $4.5 billion in funding set aside for smart-grid projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), IBM, Cisco Systems, Stanford University and the city of San Jose have applied to the U.S. Department of Energy for a $42.5 million grant to launch a state-of-the-art smart-grid project to help manage energy consumption by customers and the clean power they produce with solar panels, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

This energy management project will provide 75,000 business and residential consumers with on-premises energy monitors so that they can save money by shifting energy use to off-peak periods, when rates are lower, or by reducing consumption altogether, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

PG&E told the newspaper the project will also help the utility handle more renewable solar power generated by customers from rooftop or backyard panels. PG&E’s grid connects to nearly 40 percent of all customer solar panel capacity in the United States, including San Jose, which is one of the cities with the most solar panels in PG&E’s service area, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In addition, Cisco is working with partners such as Oracle to create the Cisco Smart Grid Ecosystem to drive the adoption of Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications standards for smart grids, which will help utility companies and their customers better manage and reduce energy consumption, improve smart grid security and reliability, and reduce overall energy costs, reports Renewable Energy Focus.

Cisco also is introducing grid security services and solutions for physical and cyber security, which include utility compliance assessment, physical site security vulnerability assessment, grid security architecture design, as well as physical and networking security design and deployment, according to Renewable Energy Focus.

Ecosystem members include technology vendors, power and utility integrators, service providers including Accenture, Capgemini, Echelon, EnergyHub, GE, Infosys, Verizon, Wipro.

GE, one of Cisco’s Smart Grid Ecosystem members, is also working on a first-of-its kind smart appliance pilot program in Masdar City, reports Dubai Chronicle.

The Masdar City and GE Consumer & Industrial program will test how GE smart (or Demand Response enabled) appliances and Home Energy Manager (HEM) can lower power demand in the home and across the city, reports Dubai Chronicle. Participants are some of the first residents of Masdar City, touted as the world’s first carbon neutral, zero waste city, which is being built in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital Abu Dhabi.

The information gained from the program will provide important early feedback in testing consumers’ energy-consumption behavior using the Demand-Response technology, and will assist Masdar City in planning and designing its smart power grid in order to achieve its carbon-neutral, zero-waste, 100 percent-renewable-energy-powered objectives, reports Dubai Chronicle.

The equipment, specifically designed and manufactured for this pilot, will be installed in early 2010 in the first building to be completed at Masdar City, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. Ten of the Masdar Institute’s 100 residences will participate in the two-year pilot project.

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

Advertisers

Make sustainability part of your strategy.

Get equipped at the SAP Sustainability Resource Center. >>

Unclear about the EPA's new GHG Rule?

Learn how it could affect your business. >>

EPA mandatory emissions reporting starts Jan 1st

CSA Standards can help your organization get ready for compliance. Find out how. >>

Product Environmental Compliance Best Practices

How to achieve compliance at a significantly lower cost. Download the full report. >>

Join the Discussion

Recent Daily News [ see all ]

11/20/2009
11/19/2009
11/18/2009

Charts [ see all ]

European Paper Industry Cuts CO2 Emissions by 42% since 1990

S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks

Nike Tops Annual Climate Action Scores

Oceans May Trap more Carbon than Forests

Jobs

View All Jobs >> Post a Job >>

Comments and Discussions

Trade Association on Trade Group on EPA Chemical Regs: ‘If Everything is a Priority, Then Nothing is a Priority’
"Seriously… that..."

Gary Markowitz on Supermarkets Tackle Emissions Reductions, Fuel Efficiency
"Supermarkets waste over 10 percent of their energy through improper..."

peter in ireland on Ontario May Follow California’s Lead on TV Energy Efficiency
"Governor Schwarzenegger is shooting himself in the foot! 1...."

Environmental Leader on S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks
"The survey respondents (the PDF report mentions 4,000 respondents in 38..."

Jake on UPS Trying New Hydraulic Hybrid Trucks
"A point of clarification: the Reuters press release referenced herein reports that 20 UPS will purchase..."

Custom Organic Shirts on S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks
"90% of North Americans believe it is urgent to get a global climate..."

peter dublin on California City’s Green Building Ordinance Applies to Commercial Buildings
"Why energy efficiebnt regulation on buildings –..."

Environmental Leader