Berlin, Germany --- (METERING.COM) --- May 10, 2013 - A total of 18 technical measures are available towards overcoming the voltage and congestion limitations that arise with integrating higher shares of photovoltaics (PVs) and other distributed energy resources (DER), according to a new report from the PV Grid initiative.

From these, the high priority solutions for LV grids in Europe are:

London, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 10, 2013 - The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has awarded £21 million to entrepreneurs to help bring a range of new and innovative smart energy and other low carbon products to market.

30 projects have been awarded a share of up to £16 million under the first phase of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. The £35 million fund, which was announced in April 2012, aims to support energy efficiency technologies such as building control systems, advanced lighting systems and space heating and cooling technologies, alongside power generation and energy storage technologies including fuel cells, biomass boilers and heat pumps. Winning designs range from smart energy demand controls and innovative waste management solutions, to innovative ideas for installing insulation.

Overland Park, KS, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 9, 2013 - Reliability and regulation, both environmental and economic, top the list of concerns for utilities in North America in 2013, according to Black & Veatch’s latest annual industry survey.

Walldorf, Germany --- (METERING.COM) --- May 9, 2013 - The SAP Utilities Customer Engagement mobile app has been introduced by SAP to enable utility customers to manage all aspects of their account and view important information from their utility company on iOS and Android devices.

With the mobile app, customers can manage payments and service requests, view account information including power consumption and compare usage over time. They can also get outage notifications and information on a map, report service problems, request service, receive important messages and get feedback from the utility. For example, the app can map areas suffering from power outages, explain what is causing the outage, show its impact and provide estimated restoration time.

Dublin, Ireland --- (METERING.COM) --- May 9, 2013 - The Irish energy market price comparison site uswitch.ie has been accredited by the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER).

uSwitch is the second energy price comparison website site to be accredited in the market, having met the CER’s defined standards for accuracy, transparency and reliability. The other accredited price comparison site is bonkers.ie.

Chicago, IL, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 8, 2013 - Illinois governor Pat Quinn has vetoed Senate Bill 9 that was aimed to clarify existing legislation pertaining to the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and smart grid in the state.

“I cannot support legislation that puts the profits of big electric utilities ahead of the families and businesses of Illinois,” said Governor Quinn. “… This bill sends Illinois in the wrong direction. We cannot allow big utilities to force automatic rate hikes on the people of Illinois by going around oversight authorities each and every time they do not get the decision they want."

Arlington, VA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 8, 2013 - National Grid Rhode Island has become the latest utility to offer Opower’s Home Energy Report program to its 425,000 residential customers.

“The Home Energy Report program is a great way for Rhode Islanders to save on their energy bills,” commented Timothy F. Horan, president of National Grid in Rhode Island. “Not only does the program provide simple energy efficiency measures, it also gives customers a chance to see how their efforts are paying off.”  

(METERING.COM) --- May 8, 2013 - Ecuador’s transmission grid operator TRANSELECTRIC and the wholesale electricity market manager CENACE are to upgrade to Ventyx’s latest energy management and wide area monitoring solution to optimize the utilization of the country’s generation and transmission network assets.

The move is in response to the new national smart grid policy established by the Ecuador Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Resources, which requires the country’s utilities to establish power grid operation and optimization strategies to support the modernization of the country’s electricity assets and services. The project will allow for supporting the grid’s expansion under the Program for Regional Power Integration that covers interconnections between Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.

Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 7, 2013 - A common definition of the structure, content, and semantics of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) alarms and events would enable a new level of interoperability for the cybersecurity of AMI systems and accelerate the integration of AMI systems with security information and event management (SIEM) and intrusion detection systems (IDSs), according to a new EPRI report.

San Diego, CA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 7, 2013 - San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) is introducing three new Green Button-based apps for residential and business customers to manage energy use and find new ways to save energy.
 
In addition to PowerTools, the first Green Button Connect app available to SDG&E customers, customers may now authorize apps including SolarCity’s Solar Home Energy Graph, EnergyAi(TM) and, in the near future, Ecova’s Meter Dashboard, to receive and analyze their energy data automatically.

Arlington, VA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 7, 2013 - The National Power Transmission Corporation (EVNNPT) of Vietnam has been awarded a grant by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to support its efforts to improve transmission efficiencies to meet increasing power generation capacity and demand.

Toronto, ON, Canada --- (METERING.COM) --- May 6, 2013 - Starting May 1 Ontario electric customers will pay a monthly levy of CA$0.79 (US$0.78) on their bills towards cost recovery for the development and operation of the province’s meter data management and repository (MDM/R).

The levy is applicable to residential and general service (<50 kW) customers and will run through October 2018.

Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 6, 2013 - The number of electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2035 is projected to range from a conservatively estimated 5 million to as high as 30 million, or around 12 percent of light duty vehicles (LDVs), depending on advances in battery technology, according to a new white paper from the IEE.

In 2010, the transportation sector comprised 29 percent of total national energy consumption in the U.S., making it the second largest consumer of energy behind the industrial sector, the white paper notes. Within transportation, the 225 million LDVs currently in the U.S. consume almost 60 percent of energy in the transportation sector. With fossil fuels making up about 99 percent of the fuel in transportation, 31 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions can be tied to the burning of fossil fuels in the transportation sector.

Canberra, Australia --- (METERING.COM) --- May 6, 2013 - Victoria has been a leader in smart metering in Australia and now its experience with privacy protections is set to form the basis for privacy for the national smart metering program.

A new review, which is now up for consultation, has found that with some adjustments for potential conflicts or inconsistencies, the recommendations that were proposed for Victoria would mostly be applicable on a national basis in Australia.

Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.  --- (METERING.COM) --- May 3, 2013 - A new handbook, setting out how to enhance consumer confidence in smart meters in just 90 days, has been published by NV Energy with support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Based on NV Energy’s own experiences, as well as those of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and ComEd, The Smart Meter Deployment Handbook presents a 90-60-30 strategy to build confidence with consumers prior to the deployment of their smart meters.

São Paulo, Brazil and Liberty Lake, WA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- May 3, 2013 - An upgraded version of Itron’s ACE SL7000 meter, a high-end industrial smart meter, has been certified for marketing in Brazil by the country’s metrology institute Inmetro.

To date, more than 900,000 units of the SL7000 smart meter have been sold in 90 countries. Upgrades for Brazil include an integrated modem, which optimizes communications and allows the meter to send alerts via SMS or e-mail about reverse energy detection, fraud attempts, excessive heating, quality of energy monitoring, and demand excess. This functionality makes identifying and fixing failures faster and more efficient.

Copenhagen, Denmark --- (METERING.COM) --- May 3, 2013 - To help utility companies gain insights into the changing market and drive industry co-innovation, SAP AG has announced the “Utility of Tomorrow” contest, with the goal to promote, accelerate and share transformative and innovative ideas with utility companies.

The contest, which was launched at SAP’s international conference for utilities last month, is focused on creating a connected, interactive and engaging customer experience.

São Paulo, Brazil --- (METERING.COM) --- May 2, 2013 - São Paulo utility AES Eletropaulo has launched what its slates as Brazil’s largest smart grid project – a R$72 million (US$36 million) initiative which will include the rollout of smart metering to 60,000 customers in the municipality of Barueri and the deployment of distribution automation solutions in the city of Vargem Grande Paulista by 2015.

Tokyo, Japan --- (METERING.COM) --- May 2, 2013 - Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has selected Toshiba to supply its communication system for its 27 million smart meter rollout over the next decade.

This will be the largest communication system in the world, according to Toshiba in a statement – breaking the group’s current record of 10 million endpoints for California IOU, Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

Wellington, New Zealand --- (METERING.COM) --- May 2, 2013 - New Zealand’s Commerce Commission has expressed concern about the limited competition in the delivery of gas metering services on New Zealand’s North Island and will consider an inquiry into possible regulation.

Following an inquiry into the level of competition and market power of the sector, and whether the benefits of regulation would exceed the costs, the Commission may then be able to make a recommendation on regulation and the best way to regulate this service.