smart-grid

Telvent Canada says someone sneaked past its internal firewall, installing malicious software and stealing files related to control software it makes that's used to manage the electric grid in various countries.

The company warned customers last week that it learned of a breach of its network on September 10, according to the KrebsOnSecurity blog. Project files associated with the firm's OASyS SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) software were stolen, the post says.

"Although we do not have any reason to believe that the intruder(s) acquired any information that would enable them to gain access to … Read more

If you take CEO Thorsten Heins' word for it, the next Research in Motion operating system -- BlackBerry 10 -- isn't intended just for mobile devices, and is already drawing interest from other industries.

In an interview with CNET, Heins said businesses in the health care and smart-grid fields have already expressed interest in using the operating system. The company likes to tout that QNX, the software BlackBerry 10 is based on, powers a number of different systems, including cars.

Eventually, BlackBerry 10 will power devices and equipment in multiple industries, Heins said. For instance, he said, the auto … Read more

To a computer company like IBM, plug-in electric vehicles just look like more nodes on the network.

IBM tomorrow is expected to announce a demonstration project with Honda and California utility Pacific Gas & Electric to charge a fleet of Honda Fit EVs without disrupting the grid.

The smart-charging project will also test smartphone and Web-based apps for consumers, giving them an estimate of charge time and location of charging stations.

The power grid as a whole has the capacity to accommodate millions of plug-in vehicles, say experts. But if there's a concentration of electric cars charging at once, … Read more

How do you integrate electric vehicles with the building out of the smart grid? One session at the Networked EV conference in San Francisco yesterday tackled that topic.

Speaking as part of the panel, Phil Davis, a senior manager at Schneider Electric, and John LoPorto, president and CEO of Power Tagging, gave their perspective on the subject.

Related stories:

• Building a power plant under Greenwich Village

• Electric vehicle powers house

• Making electric vehicles louder: Can you hear them coming?

WASHINGTON D.C.--The smart grid was hyped and then deflated. Now, it's looking to rebound, this time with consumers along for the ride.

Consumer "engagement" is a persistent theme at the GridWeek conference here, where people said new grid technologies need to be made relevant to consumers.

Smart-grid technology is already bringing more information about energy usage, shortening power outages, or generating tips to improve home efficiency. The problem is that many advanced services are only offered to small groups of people as part of pilot programs.

So what will it take to speed up the … Read more

Families and retirees come to New Mexico to chill in the sun; aliens come to crash-land their ships; scientologists come to build secret compounds and prepare to visit the aliens; the government comes to hide the crashed alien ships and blow stuff up; and studios come to make movies about all of the above. Now, a private company is coming to build a 20-square-mile ghost town of the future.

D.C.-based Pegasus Global Holdings is planning to build the model city to test new and up-and-coming technologies such as smart grids, renewable energy, intelligent traffic systems and next generation Wi-Fi. The company says the huge facility, dubbed "The Center," would likely be located somewhere near the Albuquerque or Las Cruces metro areas, giving the company access to multiple Interstate corridors, nearby national labs, universities, and military installations.… Read more

Utilities stand to save money in operational costs after an initial large investment in smart-grid infrastructure, but the rest of the savings will depend on consumers.

That's according to a 38-page white paper (PDF) released this month by the Institute for Electric Efficiency.

The IEE group did a cost-benefit analysis using real-world numbers for things like equipment costs, energy prices, and usage statistics to estimate the costs and benefits to four different types of prototypical utilities managing a service territory of one million residential electricity consumers.

Implementing smart grids, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and associated energy management technologies would … Read more

At a Paris event on Wednesday, GE announced a new gas-fuelled power plant it says offers more flexibility and efficiency than many other options currently available.

The FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant is rated at 510 megawatts, has a base-load efficiency of more than 60 percent, and, when fully operational, can provide enough energy to power more than 600,000 European homes, according to GE. The plant is built to incorporate fluctuating power sources like wind and solar, as well as a main source of natural gas, the company said.

"The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is engineered for flexible operation by integrating a next-generation 9FB gas turbine that operates at 50Hz, which is the power frequency that is most used in countries around the world; a 109D-14 steam turbine, which runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine; GE's advanced W28 generator; a Mark VIe integrated control system that links all of the technologies; and a heat recovery steam generator," GE said in a statement.

GE says the plant also conforms to the EU's strict plant emissions standards for NOx and CO2.

The plant represents $500 million in research and development and came out of GE's Ecomagination program to develop clean-energy projects. GE announced in June 2010 that it planned to invest $10 billion over five years in green-focused research and development.… Read more

Get ready for reliable electricity, and an automated world of electronics, appliances, and buildings, to become the new normal.

That's the main message in a report released today by GigaOm Pro and Pike Research.

Smart-grid applications in six key areas will change the way people use, buy, manage, and think about electricity, according to the report "Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution" led by Clint Wheelock, Pike Research founder and managing director.

Those electricity-related applications focus on home energy management systems, electric vehicles, distribution automation, smart-grid analytics, building energy management systems (BEMS), and … Read more