BROWSING: Energy

OT industry puts IT industry back in its ‘magic box’ in battle for IoT hearts and minds

The operational technology (OT) industry moved to shore up its position as the arbiter of industrial change at PI World 2019 in Sweden today by declaring that new-fangled digital technologies like artificial intelligence cannot be so easily sold into the industrial set by opportunistic...

Johnson Controls carries out smart energy project at Cornell College

Johnson Controls, a global provider of solutions for smart buildings, is making infrastructure improvements at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, to help improve energy efficiencies throughout the campus, the company said in a statement. The firm said that updates began in August with plans...

Germany trusts in digital tech, and €40bn stimulus, as it winds down coal industry

Germany is to pump €40 billion into digital transformation of its old coal-mining regions, to drive enterprise and employment as coal mining is phased out in the country. New legislation that is expected to pass by the end of the year, which will designate...

Metering is at the “heart” of the energy transition, says IoT maker EDMI

EDMI, owned by Osaki Electric Company in Japan, has major smart metering deals with water, gas, and electric utilities in Asia and Europe. The Singapore-based company makes IoT modules for utilities, to provide the management platform for smart meter devices, connectivity, and data. EDMI struck...

The ‘beauty’ of broadband powerline (BPL), and the advance of Germany’s energiewende

Germany has a good model for the adoption of renewable energy resources. The country has an aggressive decarbonisation agenda as part of its energiewende (‘energy transition’). It shut down seven reactors after the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011, has since...

Itron to connect 240,000 smart electricity meters in Western Australia

Itron has a deal with givernment owned utility Western Power in Australia to connect around 240,000 electricity meters. Western Power, in Western Australia, will gain visibility into the operation of its electricity distribution network, enabling automated data collection, new remote services and the ability...

Thailand’s $3.9bn One Bangkok zone to set “new benchmarks” in smart-city living

Detail of the design of Thailand’s new real-estate mega development, One Bangkok, has been revealed for the first time. The $3.9 billion project, billed as the country’s largest ever private sector real-estate initiative, will set “new benchmarks in design, smart-city living and sustainability,” its...

Verizon intros LTE-based meters and management to PenLight power system

Peninsula Light Company (PenLight) has appointed US carrier Verizon to upgrade its power distribution system in Washington State with an LTE-based system, comprising smart electricity meters and a data analytics platform. Verizon will replace end-of-life meters with cellular IoT meters in 33,000 homes and businesses....

Georgia Power unveils first smart neighborhood in Atlanta

Georgia Power, the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company, and homebuilding company PulteGroup announced the opening of what it claims to be Atlanta’s first Smart Neighborhood.  Leaders from Georgia Power, PulteGroup, the Georgia Public Service Commission, U.S. Department of Energy, City of Atlanta and the project’s technology partners joined together to...

Colorado Springs Utilities selects Landis+Gyr for smart meter system

U.S. utility Colorado Springs Utilities has selected Swiss company Landis+Gyr to replace the utility's metering system with an advanced IoT network technology, capable of supporting the next generation of energy management applications, the former said in a statement. Under the terms of the agreement, the...

Portland General Electric launches smart grid test bed in Oregon

Portland General Electric Company is launching its Smart Grid test bed in Oregon, the company said in a release. "We're using our Smart Grid Test Bed to deliver simple, seamless solutions and working with customers to drive carbon out of our system," said Maria Pope, president and CEO...

NNNCo and Enzen sign $8m deal to drive LoRaWAN ‘at scale’ Down Under

Australian internet-of-things (IoT) operator National Narrowband Network Co (NNNCo) has signed a strategic investment agreement with global energy and environment company Enzen Group. The $8 million deal is geared towards driving LoRaWAN adoption in Australia “at scale”. The pair said they are in position to...

Narrowband, private, and powerline – questions of connectivity for smart grids

Note, this article is serialised from a report on the state of the smart energy market. It continues from a previous post.Go here for the last post; go here for the full report. The case for industrial IoT in the power market, both sides of the meter,...

Standalone private NB-IoT network debuts in Florida, in sliver of 700 MHz spectrum

The world’s first standalone private NB-IoT network has been launched in Florida, using upper 700 MHz A-Block spectrum and covering major urban centres in northern Florida initially. The operator, San Francisco-based startup Puloli, is targeting utilities and other critical infrastructure industries with a network-as-a-service...

Making Industry Smarter: Energy & Power | The challenge of electric vehicles, load balancing and condition monitoring

Note, this article is serialised from a broad-ranging report on the statre of the smart energy market. It continues from a previous post, entitled 'Why the home is the heart of the new energy internet'. Go here for the last post; go here for...

Making Industry Smarter: Energy & Power | Why the home is the heart of the new energy internet

Smart meters have provided a read-out on energy consumption and a window on energy usage. They have brought insight and control to the field of energy management, both sides of the meter. They are, in a sense, the gateway devices for these concepts of...

“Utilities don’t need AI yet – they just need better human access to data,” says OSIsoft

One key element that was skirted around in Enterprise IoT Insights’ recent report on digital change in the power sector: the nitty-gritty of data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). We referenced these as key disciplines – as the real art of digital change, in...

Making IoT add-up for smart grids: “Reliability is 99.9999% – there isn’t a case for another nine,” says Fingrid

Some time back, Finnish transmission operator Fingrid ran due diligence on the sector’s transformation, with the decarbonisation and decentralisation of the power supply, and advancements in digital technologies bringing cheaper hardware and better software to grid operations. “We looked at how we could take...

Making Industry Smarter: Energy & Power | “Digital twins will enable energy transition,” says Siemens

The only way the planet will hit sustainability targets is through comprehensive electrification and digitisation of the energy market, and of society at large, reckons German tech giant Siemens. Consumption of electrical power was 10,000 TWh in 1990 and 25,000 TWh in 2017, and will...

The way to decarbonised, decentralised power: What is a smart grid anyway?

The German Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) has a good definition of ‘smart grids’, which needs no embellishment. “The basic idea is that each device which is connected to the electricity grid should be integrated on a ‘plug-and-play’ basis. This creates an integrated...

Energy management Q&A: “NB-IoT and AI are game-changers,” says Honeywell

New Jersey-based Honeywell is a stalwart in smart energy systems, with focus particularly on industrial and enterprise solutions. It is proviidng managed smart grid services as a way for utilities to manage technical smart grid networks more easily, and enable improved electricity service and...

Editorial Report | Making Industry Smarter Report Series: Energy & Power

With localised power generation, the flow of electricity and data has to go both ways. New electricity metering infrastructure establishes an integrated system of meter hardware, communications networks, and data management systems to enable this two-way communication between utilities and customers. This new gadgetry also...

LoRa shoots for 75% of IoT market, versus 25% for 5G; aims for stars with satellite constellation

Three quarters of the IoT market will be given over to low-power wide-area (LPWA) network solutions, compared with just one quarter for high-bandwidth low-latency 5G applications. So says the LoRa Alliance, which continues to push its line about being the key technology in low-power...

National Grid’s energy-tech fund reaches $90m, taps San Francisco start-up power

National Grid, the UK-based electricity and gas utility, has pumped money into a group of new energy tech providers, taking its total investment portfolio to $90 million. It has also set up a new start-up incubation office in San Francisco. National Grid Partners, the investment...