Honeywell is making a major play in the smart grid and demand response world, building on its already enormous client base of more than 100 utilities – with millions of customers – that the company says has already resulted in more than a gigawatt in saved electricity.
The company is building out a global footprint in smart grid with both large and small projects it says will underpin efficiency efforts and support end-user control of the systems that consume energy.
For a detailed analysis of Honeywell’s strategy in smart grid and demand response in light of increased renewable energy deployment, read more here.
Three of the company’s most high-profile projects include:
In Europe:
A smart grid project in the Thames Valley area west of London that is part of a larger project awarded to Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distributor by the UK energy regulator Ofgem.
The project, building on a successful auto demand response demonstration in Bracknell, is designed to help the local utility work with customers to “trim peak electricity use, and reduce strain on the local networks and substations, which are nearing capacity,” Honeywell said in announcing the project in early 2012.
The project will help with “creating a more robust, agile grid without the disruption and expense which sometimes accompany major infrastructure upgrades.”
In China:
Honeywell has an agreement with State Grid, one of the world’s largest companies, that includes demand response technology.
Electricity needs are imperative for the country’s economic development, Honeywell Vice President of Global Energy Services Jeremy Eaton told Breaking Energy. Current demand response is forced but often untargeted in China through brownouts and blackouts, and the country’s economic leadership is looking for more selective and sophisticated ways to approach demand response.
In the US:
Honeywell is working in Hawaii to help the island state absorb the intermittency of increased renewable generation as it tries to limit the amount of expensive imported fossil fuel generation it needs to run.
The challenge for Hawaii Electric is speed, Eaton told Breaking Energy. Taking wind cycles and matching them with changes in electricity demand requires a high degree of automation, and Honeywell is targeting ten minute response times in its project with the utility.
“As you roll forward with renewable generation around the world, everyone will be faced with this issue,” Eaton said.
