CenterPoint Energy’s natural gas distribution business will install Itron advanced metering technology across the utility’s six-state service territory by the end of 2015. Communication modules to nearly 1.3 million gas meters have already been installed in parts of the company’s service territory in Minnesota, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas. Upon project completion, 3.3 million communication modules will be installed in these states as well as Arkansas and Mississippi.

Aquion Energy signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Siemens Industry under which both parties will test the integration of Aquion’s AHI batteries and Siemens’ Sinamics S120 drive technology. As part of the MOU, Siemens purchased an initial set of Aquion batteries for immediate shipment to their manufacturing and test facility in Alpharetta, Ga.

Abengoa announced that Solana, the world´s largest parabolic trough plant and also the first solar plant in the United States with thermal energy storage, has successfully passed commercial operation tests. A thermal energy storage system allows Solana to generate electricity for six hours without the concurrent use of the solar field. This technology consists of parabolic shaped mirrors mounted on structures that track the sun and concentrate the sun's heat, later transforming water into steam and powering a conventional steam turbine.

The PJM Interconnection board of managers authorized $1.2 billion in upgrades and improvements to the high-voltage electric transmission system that serves the Mid-Atlantic and all or parts of other states between the Mid-Atlantic and Chicago, Ill.

Echelon and its partner Kapsch Smart Energy won several key pilots with leading Austrian utilities Wien Energie, IKB and Steiermark. The pilots are being prompted by a new energy edict in Austria that requires utilities to achieve specific grid modernization goals by 2019. The Echelon NES platform is operating as a fully integrated solution with the Kapsch smart energy management meter data management software.