smart grid

In partnership with private developers Gale International, South Korea is nearing the end of an ambitious $35 Billion project. They have set themselves the task of building a city from scratch with all the essential infrastructure homes, School, offices, hospitals and shopping centres and hotels.  Unlike any of the other Korean cities, ‘Songdo’ will be smart, connected and almost self sufficient. Read more »

Amdocs has announced the launch of two new solutions for service providers wanting to offer both M2M (Machine-to-Machine) and Connected Home services or either.  The new solutions according to Amdocs will enable service providers to quickly and cost-effectively enter the fast-growing connected devices market, create new revenue streams, provide a unified customer experience and allow them to compete with over-the-top providers. Read more »

Trilliant has launched a smart metering interoperability group to support UK utilities with their smart meter roll-out.  According to Trilliant the group will offer utilities a clear low risk route for utilities to help consumers to cut their energy bills.  The interpretability group consist of eight industry players including in-home display providers and energy and water resource management solution provider. Read more »

Want to know where the smart grid projects are in Europe? Through data collected by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and in partnership with Eurelectric, an interactive map has been developed to show active projects. Apparently there are over 200 active smart grids on the go in Europe at the moment.  The map is to provide up to date information on active projects. Read more »

The UK has joined the rest of the world to start its own Island smart grid project, called the EcoIsland Partnership on the Isle of Wight. Technology partners Cable&Wireless and Silver Spring Networks announced that they have signed a partnership agreement to participate in the project. Like Maui island smart grid project, EcoIsland will use a combination of renewable energy sources to provide electricity to the island’s inhabitants. Read more »

Kosciusko REMC, the Indiana based electric cooperative has selected Landis+Gyr’s Gridstream RF Smart Grid solution for its advanced metering  project. Starting early 2012, Kosciusko REMC will start rolling out Landis+Gyr’s E350 FOCUS AX-SD residential meters, E650 S4e commercial meters and Gridstream RF mesh network technology.  The programme is expected to run for 18 months and include all 18 thousand members. Read more »

According to research firm ABI Research an estimated $590 million was spent on smart grid security technologies in 2010. They are projecting that by 2016 the amount will surpass $2 billion. In 2011, security spending on transmission upgrades made up the largest portion of smart grid spending; approximately 54%. ABI expects security spending to maintain this trend over the next five years. Read more »

The entire energy sector eyes are on Hawaii’s second largest island of Maui.  The island's electricity provider Maui Electric Company (MECO) and the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii (HNEI) said they want to reduce their dependency on imported Diesel Oil.  Currently 15 percent of the island’s electricity is generated by renewable energy and they have set themselves an ambitious target of increasing this number to 70 percent by the year 2030. Therefore, Maui Island has become a test bed for the latest in smart grid technologies under a Japanese-businesses and US joint partnership. Read more »

Enel, Italy’s largest utility supplier has launched the country’s first smart grid renewable power solution.  The pilot project is costing approximately 10 million euros and is to take place in the southern region of Molise.  According to Enel, the project is setup as part of its push to develop the technology needed to handle electricity flows from decentralised, fluctuating renewable power sources. Read more »

In addition to the home security and home automation solutions provided by Vivint, they launched a new solar energy service which has received a $75 Million renewable energy funding.  Vivint Solar, the recently launch subsidiary will focus on providing affordable residential solar energy solutions across the U.S and its territories.  The fund was made possible by U.S. Bancorp and will allow Vivint to make up to 2,400 solar system installations. Read more »