One thing about the smart grid sector: you can always count on seeing how technologies, services and products are progressing – and how and where they are being implemented. This week’s smart grid wins highlights some notable examples.
PROJECT WINS
Ambient Corporation announced that Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. has contracted the communications and applications platform company to provide application development and communications equipment to replace discontinued technology for commercial and industrial metering. The contract award follows a year of testing and a successful pilot and signals a roll-out to further locations across the New York City area.
Survalent Technology has commissioned a new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for Loudon Utilities Board, Tennessee. The new system features Survalent’s highly available, open-architecture system based on Windows Server. Survalent has also commissioned a new SCADA system for Delta Electric Power Association, which provides power to several counties in Mississippi.
ABB has been selected by Fastned to supply chargers to more than 200 electric vehicle fast-charging stations in the Netherlands, bringing an EV fast charger within 50 kilometers of all of the country’s 16.7 million inhabitants. Also, a new cloud-based solution that enables energy providers to manage virtual power plants from the cloud is now ready for commercial use in Germany. The solution, which leverages demand response management software from ABB company Ventyx, was developed in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom. It has been tested extensively as part of the T-City project – a technology lab sponsored by Deutsche Telekom in partnership with the city of Friedrichshafen, in southern Germany, and also is now ready for commercial use. ABB also has announced projects in Iraq and Sardinia, among others, over the past few weeks.
Sensus is expanding its demand response (DR) portfolio with the launch of the industry’s most advanced load control module (LCM) for use in residential and commercial applications. The Sensus FlexNet™ LCM enables electric utilities to shed load by controlling power to energy-intensive appliances, without the need for a ZigBee®-enabled meter. Load shedding typically involves HVACs, pool pumps, water heaters and irrigation pumps. The DR application allows utilities to create, monitor, schedule and manage load shedding programs and events using the Sensus FlexNet multi-application, wireless communications system, which is based on open standards, interoperability and FCC licensed spectrum.
SkyFoundry noted that Smart Grid Norway has adopted the SkySpark analytics platform as part of its family of solutions that cover all aspects of grid operations from production to consumption. Smart Grid Norway is a leading provider of intelligent solutions for measuring, collecting, processing, communication and visualization of energy related data and events. The company helps large power users, power producers and grid operators improve energy and operational efficiency with a range of smart grid solutions.
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS
Toshiba Corporation has acquired a 76% interest in cyberGRID GmbH, an Austrian developer and provider of intelligent energy management solutions. The purchase makes cyberGRID a Toshiba subsidiary, positioned to enhance Toshiba Group’s smart community business in Europe, where progress in introducing renewable energy is driving a need for optimal power management technology that delivers a stable power supply. Toshiba sees the development of its smart community business as a key strategy for the coming years.
By Doug Peeples, SGN News Editor
