A UK report says that nearly half of the electricity consumed by British businesses is wasted when employees are not at work.

In an analysis of more than 6,000 smart meters, British Gas found that 46 percent of electricity use occurs from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., when most businesses are typically closed. Common examples of unnecessary electricity use include the lighting of parking areas during weekends, keeping the lights on at retail stores even after shopping centers are closed, and running vending machines around the clock.

The UK utility also released a series of thermal images illustrating how much energy is lost from energy-inefficient buildings in London, Manchester, and Liverpool during the evening hours. According to British Gas, the average business could save £1,200 ($1,900) on its annual electricity bill by simply switching off the lights at parking lots during weekends.

A recent report by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute suggested that reducing energy waste will be a critical component of UK efforts to achieve its climate change targets.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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Utilities worry about a lot of things, such as keeping the lights on, earning a return for investors, and making regulators and customers happy with their service.

Now there is a new worry: How can they protect customers from what one utility refers to as “mental fatigue?”

In this particular case, the utility raises the issue as it prepares to invite homeowners and small businesses to select from among new and possibly complicated rate options made available because of smart meters. The new rates should lead to greater energy efficiency. But that won’t happen if customers become overwhelmed by their complexity, throw the bill insert into the trash, and turn to the next thing demanding their attention.

Mental fatigue is a big problem not only when it comes to homeowners, but also businesses and organizations faced with technical decisions required to green their facilities. Start with the basics. Do you pursue energy efficiency or renewable energy or both? And then, do you choose to make actual physical changes, such as installing combined heat and power systems or solar panels, or do you buy from among the more virtual products such as energy efficiency certificates or renewable energy credits (RECs). And to make it even more difficult there are now a growing number of RECs to choose from: solar RECs, zero emissions RECs, low emissions RECs and more. (See my article on US RECs in the December issue of Platts Energy Economist.)

Analysts Patrick Costello and Roshni Rathi recently prepared a report for RealEnergyWriters.com that sorts through the many options presented to companies trying to go green. The detailed analysis attempts to give direction to organizations by using examples drawn, interestingly, from information technology and telecommunication companies. These industries are known for their progressive, game-changing strategies and many have led the way in reducing energy usage and emissions in their data centers, according to Costello.

The report, “Data Center Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Carbon Offset Investment Best Practices,” points out that seven of the top ten organizations in Newsweek’s Green Rankings were IT or telecom companies with IBM, HP and Sprint Nextel in the lead. IBM won further kudos this week from the European Union, which bestowed its code of conduct recognition on 27 IBM data centers for their energy efficiency. IBM met a 2007 goal to double the IT capacity of its data centers within three years without increasing its electricity usage.

But not all data centers are run by firms the size of IBM. Many are small and don’t have the kind of resources of a large IT firm, so don’t even know where to begin when installing or purchasing energy efficiency or renewable energy. REC purchases, in particular, can confound the uninitiated. Two markets exist for RECs, one voluntary and the other regulated by states, and each state has its own way of defining what constitutes a legitimate REC. “It is really important to be careful about what you purchase and where you purchase it. People often don’t have an understanding of what they are buying,” Costello said.

They don’t understand and sometimes they wish they didn’t have to. Mental fatigue may be a new occupational hazard for the energy-consuming public.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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A new report predicts that 100 million new smart meters will be installed across Europe between now and the end of 2016 as nations continent-wide aim to achieve greater energy efficiency and increased reliance on renewable sources of energy.

According to GTM Research, European investment in smart grid improvements will reach €6.8 billion annually, with much of that money targeting advanced meter infrastructure, energy distribution automation, and electric vehicle technology.

Among those sectors, the report says, smart meters, which allow consumers to track their energy use in real time and relay that information to utilities, are currently the most developed technology.

According to the report, many European utilities hope to use smart meter technology to improve their relationships with customers.

Meanwhile, U.S.-based Pike Research reports that 19.2 million smart meters were shipped worldwide during the third quarter of 2011, a 5.3 percent increase over the previous quarter; growth was particularly strong in North America and China, according to the Pike report.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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Electric utilities operated under a rarified business model for decades. Their customers were captive so they rarely had to think about what motivated them to buy. New government energy efficiency mandates have changed that, and done so with an ironic twist. Now utilities must figure how to get their customers to refrain from buying.

It’s not easy persuading people to stop using something they like as much as electricity. But behavioral science is coming to the rescue – or at least trying to – as was apparent at the Behavior, Energy & Climate Change conference held in Washington, DC, November 29 through December 2. About 650 people attended, many of them scientists, university researchers and college students, ready to tackle energy efficiency’s biggest hurdle: human nature.

“The challenge that we have is not just to fix the buildings; we have to fix the people who live work and play in those buildings. We have to fix us,” said Brian Keane, of SmartPower.

While behavioral scientists and economists have only begun their work, it’s already clear that utilities and government programs approach energy efficiency wrongheaded. They tend to talk about why energy efficiency is good for them, not the customer, why it makes the electricity grid function better or achieves government’s environmental goals.

The makers of Tide laundry detergent don’t tell customers they should buy the product because it makes the company lots of money, pointed out Lisa Skumatz, a Colorado-based economist. If the energy industry continues to sell energy efficiency as good for utilities, good for the environment, good for government, it will reach only a very narrow audience.

Utilities also must stop listening to what people say and instead focus on what they mean. But how do you do that? Jane Hummer of Navigant Consulting demonstrated how to analyze comments people post online to get at what they really think. “Consumers are increasingly narrating all aspects of their lives online,” creating “a free focus group that you can analyze at your leisure,” she said.

Don’t take what they say online at face value – after all many hide behind anonymity and therefore tend to speak in extremes – but “get at the underlying sentiment,” she said.

Using a spreadsheet and key word search, she analyzed comments posted from articles about smart meters in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. In some states, consumers oppose smart meters, fearing they harm health and impinge on a homeowner’s privacy. Funny thing about the privacy concerns…some of the people who write that they are worried about privacy in the same post reveal details of their lives on line: their political affiliation, where they live, what they do. So is privacy really their concern?

Hummer pointed out that utilities can use the information gleaned from analyzing online comments to hone media campaigns and pre-empt hyperbolic hysteria. If consumers say they worry that smart meters may subject their children to radiation, a utility might launch a campaign about the health dangers of coal-fired plants and explain how smart meters lead to plant retirements.

Sometimes achieving better energy efficiency is just a matter of explaining to people what they should do – in good, clear language. Alan Meier, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, analyzes what he calls “folk labels,” instructions on how to operate lighting and appliances, sometimes provided by the manufacturer and other times scribbled by well-meaning building occupants trying to explain light switches. What he has found is a mass of confusion. “We need to come up with some standardization soon,” he said.

Will the behavioral scientists succeed in a world where consumers rarely think about electricity? They are optimistic. Some point to the decline in cigarette smoking as an analogy; it’s no coincidence that smoking fell 20% from 1998 to 2005. The behavioral scientists were at work.

For more information on the frontier of energy and behavioral science, listen to Energy Efficiency Market’s free podcast, “What motivates consumers to use less energy,” with Susan Mazur-Stommen, director of the Behavior and Human Dimensions Program for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, which sponsored last week’s conference along with the California Institute for Energy and Environment at the University of California and the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center at Stanford University.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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Dynamic pricing for electricity has long been the holy grail of the smart grid, particularly for smart metering. The rationale is that if the retail price of electricity actually reflected the true time-based costs instead of a blurred monthly average, then consumers would become more efficient buyers, benefiting themselves, suppliers, the environment, and society. If we can choose to buy less during demand peaks when generation costs are highest, and buy more when the grid is underutilized, then overall electricity bills will go down, peak demand is reduced, and the associated environmental impacts are lessened. Everyone wins – so who’s to complain?

Well, quite a few consumer interest groups are complaining, ranging from the AARP to utility watchdog groups. While some complaints fit within the ongoing smart metering paranoia, there are legitimate concerns as well, including:

- Low-income, elderly, and other disadvantaged groups may not be able to shift to off-peak use, and hence may face higher bills. Images of grandma turning off her oxygen, shivering in the cold or sweating out a heat wave because of smart meters are persuasive.

- There is a general assumption that consumers will happily make “comfort vs. cost” tradeoffs in energy use. This is counter to the trend toward flat rate pricing elsewhere, including the telecom industry, heretofore the master of time-of-use pricing.

- While there is little argument against “opt-in” dynamic pricing programs, most agree that dynamic pricing must be mandatory or implemented as an “opt-out” program to achieve the desired benefits. This muddles the message of enabling “consumer choice” via smart metering.

Underlying all these concerns is an assumption that for someone to win with dynamic pricing, someone else has to lose. The goal may be to reduce demand peaks and fill underutilized valleys, effectively lowering the average, but it is true that some will likely pay more with dynamic rates. The question is who?

Interestingly, opposition to dynamic pricing can be found on both ends of our politically polarized spectrum. Those toward the right fear Big Brother taking control of their thermostats and appliances (here, utilities = government). Those bent leftward see the social good of universal electricity being corrupted, leaving the vulnerable unprotected (here, utilities = big business). I am sure smart grid advocates would love to unite Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street folks, but not this way!

These complexities abounded last week when I attended the New England Restructuring Roundtable, a group that since 1995 has been meeting several times a year to discuss “revolutionary changes in the electric power industry in Massachusetts and throughout New England.” This meeting included a terrific panel of leading utilities, regulators, and consultants on the topic of smart grid and dynamic pricing. Among these were Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E), which has an impressive smart grid program underway, and Ahmad Faruqui of The Brattle Group, presenting evidence from a multitude of dynamic pricing pilots. The data show that not only does dynamic pricing work, but there are clear guidelines for how “dynamic” the pricing should be, and how consumer technology enhances the benefits.

Much of the Q&A centered on the “Who wins, who loses?” question. What I think has been missing from the broader debate, is the question, Who wins/loses in the status quo of average rates? Clearly heavy peak users are effectively being subsidized by everyone else. Efficient users are subsidizing inefficient users. Using class-bias stereotypes, McMansion-owning consumers running heavy-duty HVAC systems, pool filters, and hot tubs regardless of peak periods are being subsidized by other, less power-hungry ratepayers, including grandma just trying to stay warm (or cool).

In this context, consumer advocates should be clamoring for the “peakers” to “pay their fair share.” And more capitalistic types should welcome systems that make energy a free market with more consumer choice and effective pricing mechanisms. Of course, programs are likely needed for disadvantaged groups, but this is nothing new. And there is evidence that even low-income consumers are often able to respond to dynamic pricing incentives and share in the benefits.

Ultimately, regulators and legislators, armed with increasingly better data from pilots and carefully considered consumer protections, will need the courage to drive dynamic pricing implementation. With smart meter deployments now reaching critical mass, technology will no longer be an obstacle. And perhaps fairness and markets will converge toward the same goal.

Article by Bob Gohn, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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We hear a lot about the upcoming democratization of energy.  But with the average consumer thinking about energy only six minutes per year, it’s fair to wonder if anyone will show up to ‘vote.’

But this week an alliance that includes the intriguing combination of Opower and Facebook offers promise that this futuristic concept may not be so far off into the future.

The democratization of energy gives consumers the ability to take charge of their electricity production and use via new technologies, much the way they’ve gained control over information flow via the Internet. Think rooftop solar panels and plug-in electric vehicles, which together give you the ability to not only make your own energy, but also store it and sell it. Combine these technologies with smart meters, dynamic pricing, virtual net metering, solar gardens, home energy displays and Internet-enabled appliances and you have an electricity system that looks far different than today’s. Large energy producers and operators now control the electric grid, but a democratized grid distributes this control to the rest of us. You and I, in essence, become the power plant.

The democratization of energy, also called the energy internet, holds a lot of appeal in a world where we feel like victims of larger forces that control our economic fate. When oil prices spike, we helplessly take another financial hit.

The energy internet promises to help us be more energy efficient, save money, in some cases make money, and enjoy more comfort and automation in our homes.

However, so far, consumers haven’t shown much interest in taking charge of their energy use, even in fundamental ways. Perhaps this is because the concept of energy democratization seems remote and speculative – to those who think about it at all.  I’m reminded of the nascent days of the Internet, when futurists made lofty claims that it would change banking, shopping and the workplace, and even revolutionize politics worldwide through an inexorable flow of information. At the time, most of us still saw the computer as little more than a difficult-to-use word processing machine.

Apple Computer changed that by making the computer more user-friendly.  Opower (and similar companies) is the Apple of the energy internet, in that it’s figuring out ways to give energy efficiency technologies consumer appeal. Opower does this by tapping into our social instincts and playing on our sense of community, camaraderie and even competition to incite us to pursue energy efficiency in our homes.

But the work is being done community by community, so it’s slow going.  So far Opower has sent its home energy report – a key ingredient of its method – to 3 million households. How to speed it up? That’s where Facebook comes into play, with its 800 million worldwide users all meeting and socializing in one big virtual spot.

Opower intends to use Facebook to set up friendly competitions among households. If yours is one of the 60 US utilities that already partners with Opower, you’ll be able to download your home’s actual energy use from Facebook, compare it against similar households and chart your progress with regular updates from your utility. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the third leg of the partnership, will provide environmental information.

Opower envisions social networking groups and communities forming around their new energy knowledge. These groups could have a significant impact on the success or defeat of energy efficiency products and businesses. Think about how fast video gets passed around Facebook of cats doing cute things. That could instead be word of a hot, new energy product. Or conversely news could go viral of the light bulb that burns out too quickly or the appliance that fails to live up to its promise. Energy efficiency companies will need to be on their toes.

The partnership plans to launch the new venture early next year in the Chicago area through Commonwealth Edison.  It’s fair to assume that many will ‘like’ it.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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SmartSynch is a Jackson, Mississippi, provider of smart grid solutions and one of the few such companies which leverage existing cellular networks.

SmartSynch owns at least 14 patents and pending patent applications, including at least two patent families relating to wireless data transmission and management technology.

The first dates back to an original filing date of 2001 and includes U.S. Patents Nos. 6,946,972 and 7,250,874, entitled “Systems and methods for wirelessly transmitting data from a utility meter” (collectively “Wireless Transmission Patents”)

The second patent family includes U.S. Patents No. 7,289,887 (’887 Patent), 7,349,766 and 7,451,019, originally filed in 2003 and entitled “Systems and methods for remote power management using IEEE 802 based wireless communication links” (collectively “IEEE 802 Patents”).

The Wireless Transmission Patents are directed to methods of transmitting and receiving utility meter data in which an interface board (18) obtains electrical usage data from a meter board (12) and packages it for transmission to a remote host computer (28) via a pager board (24) and a pager system (26).

The interface board (18) also monitors power quality data including average phase voltages and angles from the meter board (12), and when there are power quality events such as power outages and high/low voltage events, notifies the remote host computer (28).

Raw load profile data is read from the serial meter port (16) via an interface serial port (20) and stored in an input buffer by a microprocessor (32).

The microprocessor (32) performs a process called differential compression whereby it calculates the difference between two meter reading values and compresses the data if necessary for transmission. According to the Wireless Transmission Patents:

[C]ompression may be turned on and off as the stream of raw data words are read from the input buffer by examining the data value of the current word to determine whether the difference between it and the data value of the last data word read can be represented by a single byte.

In this way, streams of data which vary in size can be transmitted efficiently over a wireless network.

The IEEE 802 Patents are directed to methods for energy management wherein a host controller distributes energy data to an on-premise processor, which in turn uses 802.11 based wireless protocols to communicate with utility meters.

802.11 is a suite of wireless technical standards for local area networks (LAN). The 802.11 protocols are based on using TCP/IP protocols and were developed to facilitate interworking of existing hardware and software for use with wireless LAN equipment.

The IEEE 802 Patents generally relate to integrating energy data into wireless communications and include some rather broad claims, including claim 1 of the ’887 Patent:

1. A method for energy management comprising:

According to a recent SmartSynch press release, its technology “securely deliver[s] smart grid data on all major cellular networks, enabling quicker, easier, more scalable and strategic smart meter deployments for utilities.”

And the utilities are paying attention: SmartSynch recently announced that it was selected to provide the advanced metering system for Consumers Energy’s rollout of 1.8 million smart meters to the utility’s electricity customers in Michigan (see the Greentech Media article here).

The press release says Consumers is “the largest U.S. utility to choose a cellular-based communication system for the smart meter deployment phase of its grid modernization program.”

Eric Lane is a patent attorney at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego and the author of Green Patent Blog. Mr. Lane can be reached at elane@luce.com.

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U.S. utilities are getting smarter, and smart grids are making the difference. This theme permeated the recent Autovation 2011 conference in suburban Washington, D.C., which provided an overview of trends and recent developments.

How smart? No one from the utilities admitted to failing grades, of course, but various company representatives using smart technology report measurable progress:

- Pepco’s Bill Gausman, senior vice president of strategic initiatives, told the opening session that his utility’s smart grid outage-detection system came up big during Hurricane Irene. The system had 150,000 meters reporting in, and managers equipped with this data were able to eliminate 600 truck-rolls in Maryland alone (which, using a back-of-the-envelope calculation, works out to some $90,000 in savings).

- John Stafford, vice president of sales at Sensus, said he initially underestimated the benefits of smart grid technology for consumers. He told the audience his own projected bias was that only a “lunatic fringe” would be interested in modifying their usage once empowered with consumption data. However, consumers are interested in using Web-based reporting portals, he said; adoption is in the 20 percent range. He cautioned the audience to guard against personal bias, and allow the actual data to speak for itself.

- Portland General Electric’s project manager technology support, Eric Spack, said his utility’s installation of smart meters will bring an estimated return on investment (ROI) of $35 million (net present value) in operational cost savings.

Two other companies offered interesting updates on their efforts:

Craig Kuennen, business transformation and marketing administrator for Glendale (California) Water & Power, described how GWP has deployed smart meters across its system, and is in trials for the rollout of CEIVA photo frames early next year that will allow consumers to not only share pictures over a ZigBee-enabled home area network, but also engage them with a water and electric management dashboard. Pretty cool.

Echologics’ Marc Bracken, vice president and general manager, presented a fascinating case study of how his company’s non-invasive acoustics technology enabled the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) to detect and conserve thousands of gallons of lost water per day. The technology can accurately pinpoint leaks without the use of digging, and in one instance uncovered a significant leak underneath a sidewalk that was costing SWBNO an estimated $200,000 per year.

One of the more lively sessions at Autovation took place during a panel discussion among meter vendors. Aclara’s Paul Lekan, vice president of marketing (and one of the most entertaining personalities in the utility business, I might add) made a strong point about how great the new meters are, but that “it’s all about the data” – and how utilities manage the information they collect and leverage analytics to their advantage. He cited one utility his company has worked with that saw a dramatic change in customer service calls: before the new technology was installed, 90 percent of calls were inbound, and now that has been reversed by utilizing data to proactively reach out to customers.

The takeaway from Autovation: Deployments of smart technology may be longer-term bets, but for utilities that have deployed them already some of the payoffs are evident now.

Article by Neil Strother, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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There is general industry agreement that electric vehicle charging needs to be smart enough to respond to the changing conditions on the grid (to limit the impact on the grid) and to changing prices (to maximize the savings of driving electric). The looming question that will help to shape the ultimate success of EVs is, “Will that smart charging be enabled through smart meters, or through other devices?”

The investment in smart charging management hardware and software from utilities, EV charging companies and service parties will reach $111 million in the U.S. by 2015, as forecast by Pike Research’s Electric Vehicle Information Technology Systems report.

EV IT Investment by Segment, United States: 2010-2015 Automakers and third-party services companies are developing alternative technologies to smart meters, such as leveraging the EV charging equipment and connecting via the web or wireless communications. For the self-interested reason of having a role in the communications (and revenue) streams, as well as to not be dependent on utilities’ smart grid infrastructure deployments, this option makes much sense. For example, companies such as Coulomb Technologies are including smart meters in their EV charging equipment so that vehicle charging can be metered separately if a smart meter doesn’t exist in the home or office.

But many utilities want to leverage their huge investment in smart (AMI) meters and make them the hub for all electricity consumption, including EVs. Recent announcements reinforce that there is no clear winner today – and may never be.

For example, British Gas is taking a prominent role in EV charging infrastructure and marrying it to the company’s smart meters. The company, which serves as a utility, has become Renault’s charging equipment partner for its EV models, which follows on a similar deal with Nissan. The smart meters will be used to provide the time of use tariffs and communications between the grid and British Gas’ charging equipment.

Taking a different approach is Siemens, which partnered with Tendril Networks to market the Tendril Connect home energy management platform to utilities. Siemens is developing commercial and residential EV charging equipment, and it is likely that Siemens would add interoperability with Tendril’s platform to enable data sharing and interaction with smart grid equipment. Tendril’s platform is agnostic on how the data gets moved, as it is open to using smart meters or a broadband connection.

As EVs themselves gain more intelligence and can communicate with utilities through smart meters, the need for the intelligence in the charging equipment is greatly reduced. This isn’t a good trend for EV equipment vendors, who may see a portion of the business opportunity quickly dwindle. The integration of EVs into the smart grid will be one of many topics around EVs and infrastructure that will be discussed during the Plug-in 2011 conference which begins on July 19 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Article by John Gartner, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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Recent advances in the complexity of microgrids currently being installed are stimulating a rush to increase the versatility and function of a technology platform originally conceived around the notion of hyper-reliability. This is why the Department of Defense (DOD) is so enamored by the prospects of microgrids, since they can protect mission critical functions during times of emergencies, including war, by creating islands of energy self-sufficiency.

In many ways, the ultimate application for DOD is forward-operating mobile microgrids that can be deployed during combat missions, especially those powered by modular solar photovoltaic (PV) units that could be carried in backpacks.

Even with mobile microgrids burning fossil fuels, fuel consumption could be cut in half by simply networking diesel gen-sets together instead of relying upon each generator to operate as stand-alone systems. Prototypes of such microgrids, being tested out in actual combat missions in Afghanistan, are currently validating such applications, which epitomize the simplicity of microgrid technology, albeit serving a very important service for troops in combat.

In a recent Pike Research forecast, it becomes clear that while renewable energy will be a major emphasis at DOD over the next two years, federal investments in microgrids outpace both smart meters and conservation.

On the other end of the spectrum are highly complex and revenue maximizing microgrids such as the one at University of California-San Diego, a 42 MW state-of-the-art facility that is actually up and running today. This microgrid features two of the most sophisticated microgrid offerings on the market today. The first comes from Power Analytics and represents a models-based management continually updated according to external fuel factors (such as levels of sunlight) and internal factors (shifts in demand). Layered on top of this sophisticated scheduling platform is Viridity Energy’s software, designed to extract the greatest value for the microgrid owner according to real-time market conditions.

At present, the Viridity Energy wholesale market optimization features have yet to go live, but they will shortly. (The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) does not yet offer a “plug and play” transmission market.)

Just within the last year or two, an important insight has emerged among microgrid advocates. Lessons learned from both military and campus-based microgrids has underscored the importance of integrating load shedding systems – such as demand response — with critical control of the generation assets. By incorporating dynamic and interrelated supply side generation with dynamic load shedding schemes, a more stable, robust, and efficient balance may be maintained to optimize energy surety and overall microgrid and macro-grid system stability.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) recent ruling mandating a demand response (DR) market by authorizing Independent System Operators (ISO) to compensate these distributed resources on par with generators is a game changer and will only accelerate the growing marriage of supply and demand resources within and outside of microgrids. This ruling could transform microgrids from threats to local distribution utilities into valuable resources for the larger grid. The FERC ruling’s primary impact is on energy service provision and less so on capacity and ancillary service offerings. Each ISO/RTO must file its demand response compensation tariffs later this month, but for all practical purposes, it will not be until next summer that this new revenue stream will be available to demand response providers. Just how significant is this new FERC initiative? According to Viridity Energy, payments would double in the PJM demand response market, which is already the most advanced market for demand response aggregation services.

Yet another twist to the microgrid vision revolves around forecasting. When a microgrid system level control is then coupled with more externally-focused information sources (weather patterns, commodity/energy prices, et cetera) available from enterprise level supervisory control systems (such as that provided by Power Analytics and Viridity Energy), the purported and well-hyped future functionality of microgrid systems is actually already here today.

The functionality, economics, and modularity of implementing such systems is possible because companies with decades of experience with similar competencies have re-purposed their field-proven tools to the unique needs of microgrid technologies as well as ownership models. A prime example is another firm that has been flying under the radar: Encorp LLC, which released its own “Microgrid System Controller,” this past April.

The company claims its new technology is the first microgrid system controller to connect onsite synchronous generators (typically diesel generators) with inverter-based solar PV, small wind, and advanced energy storage systems, and then monitor and control the resulting microgrid. Word has it that Encorp may not always win the initial contract, but is frequently called in after the fact to rescue projects that are not performing up to expectations. In essence, the Encorp system controller handles the nuts and bolts of the technology integration, interconnecting the combined generation portfolio of the microgrid to the larger utility grid or operating these devices while in island mode. Few other companies seem to be able to network legacy diesel gen-sets with more modern inverter-based generation and storage options as seamlessly as Encorp.

The new Encorp offering is based on the company’s well-regarded Gold Box™ and related software technology offerings. With over 1,000 MW of generation capacity under its control at 400 projects around the world, the company is betting big on the microgrid market. The new controller already has been successfully installed at a major international defense contractor site to ensure power reliability and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Among the projects Encorp is involved with is a small microgrid at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where the firm’s technology is creating the building blocks to help meet cyber-security goals. The company hopes to help realize new revenue streams for the DOD by helping to secure power supply for critical processes at Fort Belvoir, Virginia from a new Combined Heat and Power (CHP) installation. And at an undisclosed East Coast military site, Encorp is keeping its fingers crossed that it can work with Power Analytics to help a military base operate indefinitely in the case of a grid outage by integrating 1 MW of solar PV with advanced battery storage.

The growing sophistication of the microgrid market is truly impressive. We’ve come a long way since 2009. Yet, without the basic on-the-ground know-how and technology provided by firms such as Encorp, all of the functionality and optimization promised by the microgrid value proposition will go up in smoke.

Article by Peter Asmus, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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• Developing Nations Look to Remote Microgrids for Energy Solutions
• The Promise (and Perils) of the Government Microgrid
• Will U.S. Utilities Develop Microgrid Models for the Developing World?