Read Smart Grid Update's exclusive interviews with industry leaders

• Sandy Simon, Utility Innovations & Smart Grid Strategy, Xcel Energy
• Jim Parks, Program Manager, Sacramento Municipal Utility
• Ogi Kavazovic, Senior Director of Marketing & Strategy, OPOWER
• Peter Porteous, CEO, PowerCost Monitor, BlueLine Innovations

14 January 2010

Interview with Sandy Simon, Xcel Energy

To gain insight into emerging smart grid technology trends, Smart Grid Update interviews Sandy Simon, Utility Innovations & Smart Grid Strategy, Xcel Energy.

SGU: Can you tell us a little bit about the projects that you’re working on currently? What are your aims for the next 6 months?

Sandy: At the broadest level, we are in the process of evaluating the integration of the various smart technologies into our business (i.e., taking the learnings from our SmartGridCity initiative and putting together a plan for what / how / where to deploy those technologies throughout our service territory)

At the more tactical level, we do have a few specific projects in process:

• Wind to Battery - this project is entering the analysis phase -- we are evaluating a 1 MW sodium sulfur battery that we have connected to a 10 MW wind farm in southwestern Minnesota. The idea is to determine if we can use this large scale storage to help manage some of the intermittancy of wind.
• Advanced Wind Instrumentation -- this project is in the implementation phase and is focused on using advanced tools and technology to enable us to be more precise and provide longer lead times for wind forecasting.
• SmartGridCity - Customer Acquistion - of course, the customer facing phase of SmartGridCity is launching which is focused on getting information and tools for control into customer's homes so we can validate pricing and demand response scenarios and begin the analysis of the customer focused hypotheses for that effort.
• Smart Grid Optimization and Modeling -- this project is just launching and is focused on the taking the data we are gathering from our SmartGridCity deployment and putting together energy system models to help with grid optimization.

In addtion, while not official "projects" yet, we are looking at and a solar forecasting intiative.Finally, one of our roles in Strategic Technologies is to focus on continually identifying and evaluating technologies in the industry so we are reviewing technologies in many areas, including carbon capture and sequestration and geothermal.

SGU: What partnerships are you looking at and who would you like to work with?

Sandy: We evaluate numerous partners for the various efforts we are looking at to determine those who best fit with our overall strategy, have the technology or the wherewithal to build the technology we need, and who are willing to invest in the efforts so they can learn and develop the technology with us for the industry.

SGU: Who has come up with the most exciting innovation that you’ve seen recently and which trend, according to you, will impact the industry the most in the coming years ?

Sandy: There are many exciting innovations going on throughout the industry. I don't know that I would pick just one as "the most" - as utilities continue to get more information about their systems, innovations will continue. Probably the trend that will impact the industry the most are the activities occurring on the customer side of the meter. As more distributed generation sources become available and more and more customers become more actively (or even passively - "set it and forget it") engaged in the monitoring, management and control of their energy, the market will evolve and force change and innovation.

SGU: Which aspects of the grid reforms are most reliant on the development of standards? How do you see the industry changing over the next decade?

Sandy: It's important to recognize that the core utility functions (generation, transmission, distribution) have had standards in place for a long time. The "newer" areas are clearly on the customer side of the meter and that is where I believe you will see the focus on standards so that devices, appliances, etc. can all be "plug and play" and communicate with those entities that the customer wants to interact with. So with all the new technology, whether its in the home or on the grid, the key, of course, is interoperability. We (utilties and customers alike) don't want to make investments in technology that constantly have to be changing when updates come out.

In the past, utilities have provided safe, reliable energy at a reasonable cost. That's not going to change. What will change is the level of customer engagement and input into their energy use - distributed generation, desire for renewable energy sources, tools for them to manage their energy more dynamically based on their lifestyles. Utilities need to be prepared for that - we will have to get better at understanding our customers' needs, segmenting our customers, offering tailored programs to them, managing the impacts of distributed energy sources - and we are going to need help from the regulators in defining the financial mechanisms to enable us to implement and do these things still in a safe, reliable and reasonably costed environment.

SGU: Which gadgets/services/technology solutions are on your Christmas wish-list for 2010?

Sandy: My kids want solar panels on our house. My husband and I want an energy management system so that we can understand and manage our energy use. (Just not sure which one to pick - there are a lot of choices - all of them very cool; but none of them clean house yet....)

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4 January 2010, Gargi Iyer

Interview with Jim Parks, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

To gain insight into emerging smart grid technology trends, Smart Grid Update interviews Jim Parks, Program Manager, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). SMUD, a publicly owned electric utility, recently received $127.5 million in stimulus money as part of the Smart Grid Investment Grant. We talk to Jim about SMUD's plans for the future...

SGU: What are you working on right now and what are your aims for the next 6 months?

Jim: Over the past months my group has focused on several activities: developing stimulus proposals for smart grid and electric transportation; developing net zero energy homes and deep energy efficiency retrofits; developing demand response pilot projects that incorporate dynamic pricing; testing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and infrastructure; performing demonstration projects on emerging energy efficiency technologies; and working regulatory and legislative issues.

Since winning the smart grid award of $127.5 million from Funding Opportunity Announcement 58 (FOA 58, Smart Grid Investment Grant), much of our focus has shifted to fulfilling the commitments identified in our proposal.  The next 6 months will be very busy as we work to finalize our contract with DOE and begin implementing projects.  SMUD has already started installing advanced metering infrastructure using Silver Spring Networks and Landis + Gyr meters.  Our initial 50,000 point ‘pilot’ will be complete in the first quarter of 2010 and we will begin full deployment after that.  While this is happening, we will be designing distribution automation upgrades, developing dynamic rates, reviewing demand responsive and control technologies, preparing to install electric vehicle charging stations, preparing for implementation of Auto DR…it will be an exciting 6 months.

It’s a great time to be in the utility industry as there are so many interesting projects to work on and we’re seeing some of the biggest industry changes since the days of Thomas Edison.

SGU: What partnerships are you looking at, or who would you like to work with? Who has come up with the most exciting innovation that you’ve seen recently and why? Which trend will impact the industry the most in the coming years and why?

Jim: In our Smart Grid Investment Grant proposal (FOA58) we partnered with the State of California Department of General Services, California State University, Sacramento, and the Los Rios Community College District.  Each one of these entities has developed smart grid projects that will enhance operational efficiencies.  We have always had a good working relationship with these partners, but over the next three years, that relationship will expand as we work to fulfil the obligations of FOA 58.  We are calling the project “Smart Sacramento”.  With these partners we plan to install 250 electric vehicle charging stations with demand response capability, enhance the energy management systems on several college campuses and on buildings connected to the State Central Plant, install over 600,000 advanced meters, automate much of our distribution system, incorporate demand response capability with programmable thermostats and controls in 50,000 homes, and incorporate Auto DR in many commercial facilities.

As far as innovation goes, it’s tough to pick the best one or two technologies or products.  Over the past months I have talked to many vendors who have developed innovative technologies covering a broad array of topics.  What I look for now is long term stability of a company.  Is the company financially stable?  Do they have capital and resources to carry them through initial start-up and launch of new products?  How long have they been in business?  Do they have a track record of success and customer support?   What types of warranty do they offer and will they be around to fulfil warranty requirements?  I do not want to broadly implement a new technology only to have a company go out of business midway through the project.  We will be looking for innovation as well as reliability and stability when we move forward with our projects.

Of the various Smart Grid elements, I think AMI will have the greatest impact in the coming years.  In addition to the ‘normal’ AMI benefits—automated meter reads, automatic connect/disconnect, theft detection, outage detection, reduced meter reading costs, etc., AMI enables the use of dynamic pricing to all customer classes.  The current metering system is great for taking monthly reads, but the system will not allow customers to see their usage information in near real-time that would enable them to make decisions to reduce energy use or reduce demand during peak periods.  Under current conditions, by the time the customer receives their energy bill, it is too late to do anything about it.  Under AMI, the customer will have the ability to see their energy use and make adjustments to reduce their usage.  With the implementation of dynamic rates and home automation, customers will be able to pre-program conservation measures that are based on a price or emergency signal from the utility.  Very few people want to continuously monitor their energy usage, but many will be willing to program energy and demand reductions based on price signals.  These changes would then happen automatically without further need for human input.  SMUD plans to pilot test dynamic rates in the near future to help us determine how to proceed in coming years.  There are no silver bullets with smart grid.  All of the smart grid elements should work together to provide the most beneficial and cost-effective package that will maximize benefits to customers, utilities and the community at-large.  I’ve heard it called “silver buckshot” and I think that is the right approach—many technologies working in concert to optimize the grid.

SGU: As a winner of the recent stimulus grants for smart grid initiatives, you understand the US government’s commitment to building an electricity network of the future, but what are the current aims of the state reliant on? Which aspects of the grid reforms are they most reliant on? How do you see the industry changing over the next decade?

Jim: I believe the state is interested in conserving energy and optimizing the grid.  We have multiple issues to deal with.  The state has traditionally seen population growth every year.  Even with the per capita energy use remaining flat, this translates into a need for additional energy resources. Siting power plants, transmission lines and other infrastructure takes an incredible amount of time and resources.  In addition, every project is confronted with Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) and Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything (BANANA), making the completion of an actual project very difficult.  It is imperative that we improve the efficiency of the grid in order to eek out every possible kWh and manage our system peaks.  Smart grid is the way to do that.  I believe we can get much more from our system when we enable customers to make good energy choices; promote energy efficiency, renewables and demand response; automate the distribution system; and improve the efficiencies of our transmission and generation resources.  I believe the next decade will yield the biggest changes in the utility industry since its inception.

SGU: Lastly, could you tell us which gadgets/services/technology solutions are on your Christmas wish-list for 2010?

Jim: SMUD is focused on the technologies that will help us meet our FOA 58 requirements.  These gadgets include AMI, distribution automation, communicating programmable thermostats, controllable appliances, home area networks, appropriate control software, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and Auto DR.  Our Christmas wish-list was to get some smart grid stimulus money and that wish was granted in a big way!

To comment on this article, please write to giyer@smartgridupdate.com

Sacramento Municipal Utility District will also be presenting a case study at the Smart Grid Technology Conference and Expo on the 11th & 12th May 2010, San Diego, California.

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18 January 2010, Gargi Iyer

Interview with Ogi Kavazovic, Senior Director, Marketing & Strategy, OPOWER

SGU: What does OPower do?

Ogi: provides a multi-channel, customer engagement platform to utilities proven to engage and drive action across 85% of the targeted customer base, and deliver energy savings on an unprecedented scale. To date, OPOWER has delivered over 60 GWh in measured energy savings to its utility partners at less than 3 cents per kWh, and aims to triple that amount in 2010. To put this into perspective, current savings generate enough energy to power a town of 20,000 people for a year.

With the advent of smart grid, the platform provides a solution that delivers visible and quantifiable value of smart meters to all customers. Its nationally acclaimed mailed home energy reports are complemented with a world-class utility portal that includes easy-to-understand data displays, a section clearly explaining new TOU rates and potential savings, online audit, high-bill analyzer, a proprietary EE tip database and advanced community features. In addition, the platform is capable of displaying the same information provided on reports and the web through smart phones as well as in-home displays where available, making the same data and information available and easily accessible by all customer segments. Finally, OPOWER’s customer service portal is a tool designed to help CSRs become energy efficiency consultants, providing targeted tips and recommendation to each customer over the phone.

SGU: How do you differentiate your offerings from your competitors? What according to you is your USP (unique selling proposition)?

Ogi: OPOWER’s products are built on a foundation of behavioral science and mass marketing expertise. We provide a fully integrated multi-channel utility solution that delivers measured and verified energy savings. As an efficiency program, it is becoming accepted in several states as an energy resource, allowing utilities to include the savings achieved through customer behavior change as part of their efficiency portfolio. OPOWER also provides measurement & verification of its results, and we are able to guarantee energy savings to our utility partners. At every utility where the platform has been deployed it has become one of the most impactful and cost-effective programs in its energy efficiency portfolio.

SGU: What partnerships are you looking at, or who would you like to work with? Who has come up with the most exciting innovation that you’ve seen recently and why?

Ogi: We would like to talk to every utility that is currently considering how to deliver the value of the installed (or soon to be installed) smart grid. We believe we have a solution that can reach and measurably engage all customers, which includes enhancing the traditional communication channels (mail, web & phone) in addition to adding the new technology such as in-home displays. It is important for utilities to demonstrate the value of the new meters to its customers and we are industry leaders in proactive customer engagement that delivers measureable results. In addition, OPOWER’s program can super-charge any utilities energy efficiency portfolio, with or without smart meters. As the nation’s only behavior-based energy efficiency program, we can deliver hundreds of GWhs of measured savings at a best-in-class cost effectiveness.

One of the more exciting innovations coming to market are inexpensive and easy-to-install in-home devices that are able to disaggregate energy use down to appliance levels, without installation of power strips or pluggable sockets behind each appliance. Showing customers how their energy use is distributed across various appliances, and importantly how that compares to what most people use, will enable them to become significantly more efficient in their day-to-day energy consumption.

SGU: What are your biggest challenges? How do you see the industry changing over the next decade?

Ogi: One of the most challenging goals for OPOWER continues to be the work that we have been doing on the regulatory side of things, helping build a case across the country for inclusion of behavior-based efficiency programs as part of IOUs efficiency portfolio. We have made tremendous progress in many states, resulting in large utilities including our program in the efficiency filings and getting credit from the PUCs for behavior-based energy savings, but more work remains to be done in other parts of the country.

With the proliferation of companies providing energy usage data displays through a web portal, it is becoming increasingly challenging to clearly delineate between simple data displays and a customer engagement platform that delivers measurable results. The difference lies in application of behavioral science customer segmentation and targeting techniques that results in subtle changes in wording and messaging delivered to each customer, which in turn make a tremendous difference in the resulting customer engagement and corresponding measurable energy savings. Our challenge is to get in front of as many utilities as we can and discuss a comprehensive customer engagement approach before they make a decision on updating their web portal with new AMI-enabled displays – the design and messaging of the displays, as well as the portal’s ability to tightly integrate with all other channels, esp. a new generation of “enhanced billing” is key to a successful customer engagement strategy.

SGU: Lastly, could you tell us which gadgets/services/technology solutions are on your Christmas wish-list for 2010?

Ogi: Better integration and synchronization between blackberry software and Google mail.

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Interview with Peter Porteous, CEO, PowerCost Monitor, BlueLine Innovations

SGU: In a nutshell, tell us what your company does? Can you tell us a little bit about the projects that you’re working on currently? What are your current aims for the next 6 months?

Peter: Blue Line Innovations is in the business of real time energy feedback. We have been pioneering this space since 2003. We were founded by 2 brothers who wanted to develop a “speedometer for electricity” to help people better understand this big personal budget item and to use information to change behaviour. In 2003 this was a great concept but clearly ahead of its time. It’s really encouraging to see energy conservation move into the mainstream and to have giants such as Google, Microsoft, Intel, GE, etc validate the opportunity and to help fuel even further innovation.

At Blue Line we have 2 parallel strategies, first to continue to offer a very family friendly product range under our brand the PowerCost Monitor. The PowerCost Monitor caters to the first layer of the onion, basic real time electricity use information presented in a simple, portable dashboard. The PowerCost Monitor is designed to be engaging for the entire family with a feature set to help drill down and better understand current uses, expenses and to encourage behaviour change. At the same time we are committed to work with others who are pursuing deeper layers of the onion – deeper, trendable data; connecting and controlling devices in the home through a personal network. Our role in these collaboration relationships is to allow our partners to expand their market reach beyond active AMI applications and offer their robust solutions to all homes through Blue Line’s universal passive patented optical sensor.

SGU: How do you differentiate your offerings from your competitors? What according to you is your USP?

Peter: There are only 3 ways to access residential electricity data today, through the utility, CT technology inside the breaker panel, or Blue Line’s patented optical sensing technology. The Blue Line technology is consumer friendly and retail friendly with no electricians required. The genius in the product design is this one sensor has addressed the complexity of different meter brands, analogue, digital, AMI, AMR and is compatible with approximately 90% of all North American homes. Thanks in large part to years of work with the utilities in research pilots and market offerings we are broadly accepted by utilities. With a purchase price of $109 US with no added complexity or cost associated with an electrician payback for a homeowner can be 4-6 months. Broad acceptance and availability of the PowerCost Monitor by retailers is moving the energy monitoring category from niche early adopters to the mainstream.

SGU: What partnerships are you looking at, or who would you like to work with? Who has come up with the most exciting innovation that you’ve seen recently and why? Or which trend will impact the industry the most in the coming years and why?

Peter: Clearly the exciting innovations are the deeper layers of the onion where a homeowner can use this real time electricity information to control their in home devices and electricity consumption. Simple plug and play solutions will succeed. We intend to collaborate with such companies in a “powered by Blue Line” relationship where we enable and propel their offering by providing universal, real time access to the electricity data. We announced our first such collaboration relationship on December 22nd with Intwine Connect. Intwine has developed a very robust and user friendly in home network with remote visibility and control....it’s the shape of things to come.

SGU: What are your three biggest challenges currently? How do you see the industry changing over the next decade?

Peter: Our 3 biggest challenges are the moment are;

1. Staying focused. The category is incredibly attractive at the moment and opportunities seem to be at every turn. We have been at this a while, we do have a very clear strategy, we just need to stay true to the path and not get tempted by the flavour or phone call of the day.
2. Managing high growth. Significant growth is terrific and it’s what we all shoot for.... but it’s tripped up many smart businesses and smart business people. We have to stay very sharp on our people and cash choices as we execute this growth
3. Staying focused....back to rule number 1

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