Saturday, 06 February 2010 16:35

Smart grid development continued to pick up momentum in 2010.  The new year promises to be the biggest yet for the young industry.  Big industrialists introduced new products and technologies in January. 

Last month GE announced it was introducing a new energy information panel in partnership with OpenPeak, an expert in communications technology.  The new device is able to wirelessly communicate with smart meters, smart appliances, and other ZigBee or Wi-Fi enabled devices.  The smart panel keeps the energy consumer informed about fluctuating energy prices throughout the day so adjustments can be made accordingly.

The display units resemble a picture frame and are extremely portable.  The units are available for purchase through selected utility companies.  The level of functionality depends upon the smart grid technology that has been installed by the region’s energy provider.

Whirlpool, the world’s largest manufacturer of major home appliances, showcased its smart clothes dryer at the International Builders’ Show that ran from January 19 through the 22nd in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Whirpool’s most advanced dryer is able to automatically react to signals sent out by the power company that signify peak demand.  The smart dryer reacts by reducing energy usage when it receives such a signal.

Whirlpool says it will have a million smart appliances available for purchase within two years.  The company also has ambitious plans to only manufacture smart appliances by the year 2016 but cautions that its goals are only attainable if open smart grid standards and beneficial policies and programs are introduced around the world.

“We believe that the smart grid and smart appliances are the next big opportunity in energy savings,” said Marc Bitzer, president of Whirlpool North America.  “We are continuing to make significant strides in the development of smart grid enabled appliances.”

Parker Hannifin and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) both introduced new technologies that promise to expand the services available in the smart grid of the future.  Parker Hannifin has developed a new inverter system that shows a lot of promise for battery storage systems and the TVA said that it will deploy electric car charging stations across the state of Tennessee in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Parker successfully implemented its new inverter as part of a 12 megawatt smart grid energy storage system located in Chile’s Atacama Desert.  The system, combined with batteries manufactured by A123 Systems, allows for power substation personnel to manage fluctuations in demand while regulating frequency in a way that is much more responsive than other methods that are currently available.

The TVA, an energy provider to large industrial customers and 9 million people located in seven states, announced what promises to be one of the largest projects of its kind in the United States.  The car charging stations will use solar power to offset power needed during peak times and have a modular design that allows for four vehicles to be charged at a time – capacity that can be increased to more than 10 vehicles.  A system equipped with battery storage and smart grid controls will keep the demands of the charging station in line with the requirements of the local power supply.

Also in January, American Electric Power (AEP) announced a major smart grid project was announced for the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas in 2011.  AEP will install 230,000 smart meters in the area and expects the power system to become much more reliable as a result.  There are also plans to increase the amount of renewable power available.

Dominion Virginia Power (DVP) has already installed smart meters in Charlottesville and Richmond and more installations are planned throughout the utility’s service territory.  The utility announced last month that it is making investments worth $4 billion that will improve the quality of electric services for its 2.3 million customers. 

DVP has also built a clean-coal plant and is considering adding a carbon capture and storage system.  The utility also has 1.5 gigawatts of renewable power capacity under construction and says the smart

In what may have been the most surprising report, the Chinese government was announced as the world’s largest provider of smart grid stimulus funding.  This year China is leading the way with $7.3 billion and major players such as GE, ABB, Accenture, and Cisco have taken notice.

General Electric
3135 Easton Turnpike
Fairfield, CT 06828
http://www.ge.com

OpenPeak Inc.
1750 Clint Moore Road
Boca Raton, Florida 33487
http://www.openpeak.com

Whirlpool
2000 North M63
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com

Parker Hannefin
6035 Parkland Blvd
Cleveland, OH 44124 
http://www.parker.com

Electric Power Research Institute
3420 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto, California 94304
http://my.epri.com

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
1 Bethel Valley Road
Oak Ridge, TN 37830-8050
http://www.ornl.gov

American Electric Power
1 Riverside Plaza
Columbus, Ohio, USA 43215-2372
http://www.aep.com

Dominion Virginia Power
120 Tredegar Street
Richmond VA 23219
http://www.dom.com

ABB
Affolternstrasse 44
P.O. Box 8131
CH-8050 Zurich
Switzerland
http://www.abb.com

Accenture
Canon's Court 22 Victoria Street
Hamilton, HM 12
Bermuda
http://www.accenture.com

Cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134
http://www.cisco.com

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