Getting all these devices to “talk” with one another for optimum efficiency, which is after all the idea behind a smart grid, will mean a lot of data travelling back and forth in all directions. How much data? Imagine a tsunami of bits and bytes … maybe as much as 800 terabytes of data a year, which is about how much raw web data Google processes annually.

So what do we do with that much data? How do we manage it, secure it and mine it for valuable intelligence that can make our energy habits even smarter? That’s the subject of a coming Greenbang webinar.

“What to do with smart grid data” is scheduled for 2:30 to 3:30 pm GMT Thursday, Feb. 10. A prelude to other conferences that will be presented by Greenbang later this year, the webinar event is a January special that’s free to attend. However, places are limited to the first 100 attendees, so early registration is recommended.

Online registration is available here.

The webinar will explore a range of issues associated with the development of smart grids. While deployments of smart meters and smart city infrastructure will keep moving forward in 2011, questions remain over the business models of the companies installing, controlling or owning the equipment. The data collected from smart technology is key to the success of these businesses — but what will be done with that data?

Other questions to be examined during the webinar include: Where are the business opportunities? How will the smart grid eventually improve the lives of people? What are the security risks? And what kind of regulation will there be?

Click here to register for the webinar FREE
2:30 to 3:30 pm GMT Thursday, Feb. 10

NOTE: As a January special, this online webinar event is free to attend but places are limited to 100 attendees so register early.

Editor’s note: The following is a guest commentary by Hermione Crease, marketing and communication manager for Sentec, which provides products and consulting services for smart metering and energy management.

Can you remember a time before the internet? Those long-gone days when information gathering meant a day in a library or mass communication meant hundreds of letters. It’s hard to believe we ever managed to run businesses or social lives without it.

And now the energy markets are set for a similar, seismic transformation. The smart grid — aspects of which are powered by exactly the same technology that underpins the internet — will change the way we see energy provision forever.

Put very simply, the smart grid is a network that is differentiated from the existing grid through a number of improvements:

• It enables greater consumer participation thanks to two-way information about energy use and pricing incentives. This gives the motivation to change behaviours.
• It will help to incorporate greater levels of energy storage and distributed generation to help balance the disparities between supply and demand.
• It will be far more resilient as intelligent sensors throughout the grid will give us a much clearer picture of what is happening, so if one portion of the grid goes down the sensors will spot the incident and divert electricity from an alternative source to fill the gap.

Not surprisingly, this intelligent, interconnected network is by no means a straightforward proposition. It has a lengthy ingredients list, and so requires extensive deployments to make it work:

• The most obvious component is the smart meter, which stores detailed data on energy usage and transmits and receives information, acting as the communications “gateway” into the home.
• On top of this, a new communications network needs to be built. Operating in parallel with the electricity grid, this network distributes data between all elements of the new intelligent grid.
• In the distribution and transmission network, advanced utility sensors and control systems need to be deployed in wires and substations. Such a network then provides the sensors and controls that will improve the system’s resilience.
• The final element is software. This is required to present, interpret, analyse and react to the huge amount of data that will consequently be flowing through the system.

The functionality we put in place now is only the start of a whole swathe of potential applications in the future. The biggest challenge is that all these elements need to work together and there are a multitude of interdependencies that must be identified, understood and negotiated.

All of this suggests great expense. Italy has already spent €2 billion simply on installing smart metering. The natural question therefore follows of how the costs of all this will be met? This is a key reason for consumer concern, because of fears that the costs involved will result in severe hikes to energy bills. However, the smart grid will not arrive in one piece and many uses of the smart grid provide utilities with internal cost savings that mean prices do not need to be raised to justify the investment.  Utilities will see efficiencies and cost savings derived from reducing periods of unprofitable downtime, fault elimination, unmanned intervention and asset utilisation.

And, the UK has set up a committee to investigate smart grid options abroad, which means there are opportunities to look for examples of success and failure.

Other new applications will give consumers a chance to use energy in a way that should directly offset price rises: even at their simplest, smart meters will give consumers a far clearer picture of their energy usage and will give them the information they need to change the way they consume this energy. Future smart grid applications may allow consumers to set an energy budget for the year, buying (and selling) energy from the grid at a price that meets their requirements.

Despite the challenges ahead, the smart grid will transform the way energy is produced, bought, sold and consumed. Once in place, we will look back and try and recall what the energy industry was like before. And, just like modern technology in almost every other sphere, we will scratch our heads in wonder at how we ever coped without it.

After the unsurprising disappointment in Copenhagen last month, it is once again that my thoughts are reinforced: Economics will drive the move to a low-carbon economy, especially when the price of oil rises.

However – we at Greenbang have tasked ourselves with making 2010′s news on non-oil dependent technologies and business bigger and better than ever. So here are some announcements to get us off the ground.

While it’s freezing cold here in the UK, we’re therefore delighted to announce that we are growing outside of Europe.

Later this year, you’ll see two new offices open: one in the US and one in China. Feel free to get in touch with us and we’ll point you in the right direction to people when we’re fully up and running there. Shirley Siluk-Gregory will take the reigns as editor there, while we search for someone in the UK and in China.

Next up – we have two important dates for you to consider:

The next Low Carbon Symposium (which was called Low Carbon South West but has now become UK-wide due to popularity [[picture screaming Beatles fans and then scale down a bit]]) will be held on Feb 12th.

This month we’re looking at Low Carbon Computing. So far, we have confirmed Finlay MacLeod of First Data and a couple of other big names we’re just firming up.

But we have room for a couple more speakers, so if you’re an expert in low-carbon computing and would relish the chance to get in front of 100 people (investors, entrepreneurs, business people and academics), then drop me a line: dan@greenbang.com

We also have the Greenbackers event, in which four budding young cleantech startup companies get to talk to a small group of investors. The idea is that by making this a cosy event, everyone has a clearer idea of what they are letting themselves in for. If you would like to be involved in this, either as an investor or start-up company, drop me a line.

That’s it for now folks – keep reading and always, always, tell us what you think.

Dan

September 2009

16 – 18 September
World Bioenergy Clean Vehicles & Fuels 2009
Stockholm, Sweden

17 – 18 September
Platts European Smart Grid Strategies: Achieving a Successful Transition
Berlin, Germany

21 September
Ernst & Young Global Renewable Energy Awards
London

21 – 22 September
Renewable Energy Finance Forum (REFF) London
Millenium Gloucestershire, London

24 – 27 September
RENEXPO – 10th International Trade Fair for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficient Building and Renovation
Augsburg, Germany

29 – 30 September
The Carbon Show
ExCeL London

30 September – 2 Oct.
ZeroEmission Rome
Rome

October

7 – 8 October
Energy Solutions Expo
London Olympia

28 – 31 October
Ecomondo
Rimina Fiera, Italy

28 – 31 October
ENERGYES
Rimina Fiera, Italy

November

10 November
Essential CleanTech Investor Summit
Park Plaza Victoria, London

15 – 17 November
2nd International Congress on Biodiesel
Munich, Germany

19 November
Green Strategy 2009
Millbank Tower, London

24 – 28 November
Greenergy – Enersolar+
Milan

25 – 27 November
HTE – Hi.Tech.Expo
Milan

January

26 – 27 January
Energy from Biomass and Waste UK
London

Dan Ilett, chairman of CleanAnalysis — Greenbang’s new analyst group — will discuss how the CRC works (and talk about some of its weaknesses) during a series of one-hour breakfast briefings next month.

The meetings are scheduled for 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. on 4, 11, 18 and 25 August, with the location yet to be announced. The cost is £20 + vat (£23.50) and attendance is limited to 10 people per session, so be sure to reserve your seat well ahead of time. To book a space, call Florence Durand-Baudrit on 0207 462 8953 or email her at florence@cleananalysis.com.

CleanAnalysis has identified several areas in which the CRC regulation is weak, and the briefings are aimed at helping industry professionals understand how such loopholes — concerning, for example, the outsourcing of operations to non-UK locations — could be useful to their organisations. The extent to which organisations can benefit from such weaknesses is a complicated issue because of factors such as energy security, increasing oil prices, cost savings that might not be achieved, and the potential for weakness-exploiting behaviour to be exposed, leading to loss of goodwill.

Attendees will have the opportuity to raise various points for discussion, with the intention of sharing useful information and insights for their mutual benefit. Discussions will take place under the Chatham House Rule (meaning participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.)

The CRC will apply to companies that have had at least one half hourly electricity meter settled on the half hourly market across the whole organisation, and to businesses or agencies with a total half hourly electricity consumption of at least 6,000 megawatt-hours. The CleanAnalysis briefing is intended to benefit any private or public-sector organisation that will be affected by the CRC.

Among the topics to be addressed during the briefings:

• What will your CRC tax look like?
• What are the legislation’s current gaps and loopholes?
• What solutions can CFOs think of?
• What does the future look like (in terms of trading, stock-exchange, off-shoring, etc)?
• How does “green” affect your branding?
• Does anyone care about “green” in the current economic environment?
• How do you prove to your customers that you are “green”?
• Is it possible to be “green”?
• Is innovation connected to sustainability?
• Can “green”/sustainability help sell products?

Come meet us for drinks on Wednesday, 22 July, starting at 6:30 pm at the Grape Street Wine Bar at 226A Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross, London WC2H 8EB. (For directions, see Google Maps here.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to: drinks@greenbang.com. You will need to be on the guest list to get in the door.

See you there!
The Greenbangers.

]]> http://www.greenbang.com/join-us-for-greenbangs-birthday-celebration_10784.html/feed 0 http://www.greenbang.com/greenbangs-two-join-us-to-celebrate_10723.html http://www.greenbang.com/greenbangs-two-join-us-to-celebrate_10723.html#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:04:05 +0000 Greenbang http://www.greenbang.com/?p=10723 Greenbang is two years old this summer! To celebrate this (and to launch our new analyst and research company, CleanAnalysis), we’re having some drinks on Wednesday, 22 July, and we’d…

Greenbang is two years old this summer! To celebrate this (and to launch our new analyst and research company, CleanAnalysis), we’re having some drinks on Wednesday, 22 July, and we’d love for you to join us.

You can meet the Greenbang Team for our celebration starting at 6:30 pm at the Grape Street Wine Bar at 226A Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross, London WC2H 8EB. (For directions, see Google Maps here.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to: drinks@greenbang.com. You will need to be on the guest list to get in the door.

See you there!
The Greenbangers.

]]>