Wireless Sensor Technology
Equipment health monitoring for the modern utility.
Wireless sensors open new, novel applications for utilities, replacing expensive cabling network options to sense incipient equipment failures.
Security
Intelligent Protection
Local network security in the age of microgrids and distributed generation.
With the local grid infused with distributed generation, static relay settings must yield to a more dynamic approach to ensure network security.
In the Crosshairs
Protecting substations and transformers after the PG&E Metcalf attack.
The latest fallout from the April 2013 Metcalf incident: the unprecedented assault with high-powered rifles on PG&E’s Metcalf substation, in Silicon Valley, which disabled 17 of 20 large transformers.
Results-Based Regulation
A more dynamic approach to grid modernization.
The utility’s role is changing, and regulation must change along with it – to spur innovation and respond to evolving customer needs. Modernizing the industry will require a dynamic approach.
Toward a Self-healing Smart Grid
Advanced distribution management technology promises to revolutionize operations.
Building blocks of the self-healing grid are taking shape. End-to-end integration will enable the grid to achieve 21st-century resilience.
SGIP, New and Improved
Making the case for collaboration on interoperability standards
The mission of harmonizing industry standards moves forward in the work of the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel 2.0, Inc.
'Resilience'
A new watchword for the industry and its regulators.
If the concept of resilience—including cyber and physical security—had been baked into the industry’s culture from the beginning, the energy grid might look a lot different from what it does today.
Preventing Tomorrow's Blackout
Submitted by mburr on Wed, 2012-12-19 13:52Recent outages show the importance of proper transmission system design. As the grid becomes more complex, meeting NERC reliability standards and proper assessment of power grid reliability will require closer coordination between system planners and protection engineers.
Recent outages show the importance of proper transmission system design. As the grid becomes more complex, meeting NERC reliability standards and proper assessment of power grid reliability will require closer coordination between system planners and protection engineers.
Customer Service: Doing More With Less
Balancing operational cost and consumer value creation.
Regulatory mandates and smart grid technologies are creating an opportunity for utilities to adopt a new approach to customer service—an approach that balances a range of strategic and operational imperatives, toward the promise of higher customer satisfaction, greater efficiency, and enhanced revenue.
Edison Under the Hood
Can utilities put EV batteries in the rate base?
Thomas Edison once hoped to make a fortune in the auto business—selling electric cars. Of course it never happened; he and Henry Ford tried and failed to bring a low-cost electric car to market. They scuttled the project after investing $1.5 million toward the effort—more than $32 million in today’s dollars. Edison’s nickel-iron batteries just couldn't match the performance of Ford’s petrol-powered bang-bang.