The City of Kings Mountain has awarded the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) a contract to deliver its Smart Grid as a Service (SGS) infrastructure on the 1,200 meter smart grid pilot project. The integrated hardware and software solution will encompass smart meters for electric, water, and gas.

Texas Instruments has introduced the TMDSDC-EVMAM335x Smart Data Concentrator Evaluation Module (EVM), which gives developers performance, cost, and connectivity options for their data concentrator designs. The EVM includes advanced hardware and software that reduce development time by up to nine months while still supporting connectivity to more than 1,000 smart meters.

Texas Instruments (TI) is demonstrating its first integrated HG3352 Home Gateway Reference Design at DistribuTECH 2013. The technology links home energy systems that use ZigBee to any Wi-Fi router, so consumers can monitor or control their smart energy devices or home automation systems with their smart phones or tablets.

The Ontario Clean Technology Alliance (OCTA) is inviting global industry participants to invest in research and development (R&D) and advanced manufacturing to help build out the electricity system of Canada’s largest, most populous province.

The Tennessee Valley Authority and local utility companies are collaborating with four Tennessee colleges and universities to introduce EnergyRight Solutions for Higher Education, a new energy efficiency program that helps track campus energy use and educates the next generation of energy consumers through hands-on projects and additions to existing curriculum.

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a settlement between its Office of Enforcement and Deutsche Bank Energy Trading to resolve an Order to Show Cause proceeding regarding manipulation of California power markets.

A new Vermont state report concludes that smart meters emit far less potentially harmful material than considered safe by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “It is concluded that any potential exposure to the investigated smart meters will comply with the FCC exposure rules by a wide margin.” The Vermont Legislature commissioned the report last year as part of a package of energy legislation.

BPL Global (BPLG) has launched its Grid Management Pilot Package, which provides electric utilities a cost effective path to implement distribution grid monitoring. BPLG’s state-of-the-art software suite integrates with multi-vendor distribution line sensors to provide utilities continuous monitoring of distribution circuits and valuable information on downstream grid conditions.

Green Mountain Power (GMP) has announced plans to build a new Energy Innovation Center (EIC). Russell Construction Services has been hired to manage the project.

FishNet Security has announced plans to donate, integrate, and manage software-defined networking (SDN) equipment at a new Smart Grid Lab at Kansas State University (KSU). The lab will be one of the first such facilities in the world to test the ways that SDN technology can be used to more efficiently manage, distribute, use, and secure electrical power.

South American utility, Guyana Power and Light (GP&L), has selected Itron and Tantalus for a smart meters and AMI infrastructure deployment. The project is part of the Sustainable Operations of the Energy Sector and Improve Quality of Service program financed by the Government of Guyana through a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank and GP&L.

Itron has released the CENTRON Bridge Meter, a new piece of technology in electricity metering that bridges Itron’s communication architectures to enable migration from automated meter reading (AMR) to smart grid communications. The meter will be commercially available in February 2013.

Hitachi Communication Technologies America is partnering with Tendril to deliver a wide range of smart energy applications via set-top boxes, wireless gateways, and other devices already in the home. The technology significantly improves the economics of home energy management by providing an alternative to special-purpose gateways and other specialized hardware.

Xtensible Solutions is collaborating with Oracle to develop an Industry Data Warehouse and Analytics Solution to address the growing demands of utility real-time analytics.