Mesh Comm is an Atlanta, Georgia, company and the owner of U.S. Patent No. 7,379,981 (’981 Patent) relating to a system for enabling wireless communication between meters so utilities can remotely monitor and control energy usage.

Entitled “Wireless communication enabled (more…)

The industry has been abuzz this past week over the announced acquisition (ahem – merger) of Progress Energy by Duke Energy. The combined entity will become the largest electric utility in the U.S. by revenue and generation capacity if approved by the various regulatory bodies, which is no sure thing. Like most mergers, the promised benefits, for shareholders and (more…)

We hear a great deal about partisan bickering in Washington, but according to a webinar I attended yesterday on power transmission, the governors of each state on the eastern seaboard of the US from Maine to Virginia are all in complete accord on the imperative to develop offshore wind. “There are a couple of extremely (more…)

Many of us are generally quite gung-ho on the amazing power of wireless technology. From convenience to efficiency and cost savings, there’s plenty to rave about.

Yet in the San Francisco Bay Area — and in particular in my Marin County home — citizens are up in arms, blockading trucks and opposing mandatory installation of (more…)

As we’ve written before, “consumer engagement” just might be today’s top smart grid buzzword. This is driven by fears that well publicized consumer push-back against smart metering will torpedo the industry’s smart grid vision. Many industry participants (including this one) have observed the frenzied scramble to “engage consumers” with a mix of amusement and (more…)

Energy Information Displays (EIDs) fall into three major categories:

1. Dedicated in-home display (IHD) units

2. Web-based dashboards

3. Mobile phone-based applications

Dedicated in-home display units span a huge range of interactivity and style. The (more…)

We think we know how smart grid technology will change the utility industry. But do we really?

Take a look at this documentary made in 1969. It’s a view of how the world perceived the coming Internet (It’s also a pretty amusing look at how sexist our society still was at that point.) (more…)

Of the 12 smart grid projects to win an award as part of the GE Ecomagination Challenge, one in particular caught my attention.

That is GE’s collaboration with Columbia University’s School for Engineering and Applied Science, FedEx Express and Con Edison to take Columbia’s patented (more…)

The cleantech industry, and more specifically the clean energy sector — firms in renewable energy, smart grids, clean energy finance, biofuels, and depending on your definition, natural gas — has a lot on its plate. Not only do these businesses, many of which are in their nascency, need to focus on standard business development operations like R&D, market research, (more…)

In a previous blog, I highlighted the embarrassing resignation of Pacific Gas & Electric’s manager of its SmartMeter program after it was revealed that he was eavesdropping on the online networking of grassroots activists that have been blockading the installation of smart grid infrastructure in northern California. Turns out, this was just a harbinger of things to (more…)