It’s the big smart grid IPO of the year. Silver Spring Networks, the most successful smart meter-smart grid networking startup out there,…
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California utilities lay out smart grid roadmaps
Last week saw California’s big three utilities release in-depth smart grid deployment roadmaps, giving smart grid companies about the closest thing to a detailed plan of attack that they could ask for.…
Read MoreOpportunities in California’s smart grid deployment plans
Last week, California’s big three utilities — Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — released in-depth smart grid deployment roadmaps that include about $5.6 billion in smart grid spending over the coming decade. For smart grid companies, it’s about the closest thing to a detailed plan of attack one could ask for. Of course, much of that money is tied up in ongoing smart meter deployments, and another huge chunk is for transmission and distribution grid projects with a limited range of potential competitors. Still, that leaves plenty of opportunities for nimble companies with key software, networking or hardware technologies to fill the gaps that remain. Here are some of them.…
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California’s big utilities are getting more specific about their smart grid plans. Today is the deadline for Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern…
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Here’s a personnel change worth noting. Andy Tang, Pacific Gas & Electric’s smart grid chieftain who brought a high level of tech…
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California’s new greenhouse gas reduction law is rolling toward implementation, and that means big emitters — like utility Pacific Gas & Electric…
Read MoreLandis+Gyr — Anatomy of a Smart Meter Company for Sale
Landis+Gyr is on the auction block, and General Electric, Toshiba, Honeywell and ABB are rumored to be in the bidding. Why the interest? Whoever buys Landis+Gyr will be getting the company's extensive smart metering and distribution grid management technology to work with, and its extensive roster of moneymaking projects.…
Read MoreCalifornia Lays Out Smart Meter Privacy Rules
California's utility regulator has proposed rules on how home energy devices should protect smart meter data privacy — and whether the device is “locked” into one company's platform or technology or not will be a big deal.…
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California Gov. Jerry Brown made it official — the state’s biggest utilities are going to get a third of their electricity from…
Read MoreOpower Lands Utilities PG&E, BG&E
Can Opower fix utilities smart meter customer relation woes? The startup, which uses data about energy consumption to modify consumer behavior, has two new clients -- Pacific Gas & Electric and Baltimore Gas & Electric — that have faced issues with smart meters and consumers.…
Read MorePG&E’s Smart Meter Opt-Out Plan: What’s Next?
How will PG&E's plan to turn off smart meter radios for complaining customers — and charge them extra for service — affect its smart meter plans, and others around the country? Here's 3 things I'm paying attention to:…
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So, Pacific Gas & Electric has given us its plan for customers who don’t want radio-enabled smart meters attached to their homes…
Read MorePG&E Picks ‘Radio-Off’ Smart Meter Option
Pacific Gas & Electric has chosen an option for customers who think their smart meter radios might be a health risk: just turn off the radios, and pay the extra charges of having them read manually.…
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Which utilities are spending the most on demand response? A really useful new report from ZPryme (PDF) lays out the top ten…
Read MorePG&E’s Opt-Out Options for Wireless Smart Meters
Pacific Gas & Electric is going to have to come up with a non-wireless alternative for customers afraid of what low-power wireless meters might do to their health. What are its options?…
Read MoreHow PG&E Can Avoid Protests Over Wireless Smart Meters
Pacific Gas & Electric is going to have to come up with a non-wireless alternative for customers afraid of what low-power wireless meters might do to their health. What are its options?…
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It’s freaky Friday, so let’s talk about the idea that wireless smart meters cause brain tumors and massive headaches — if not…
Read MoreThe State of Deregulation (Competition) in Power Markets
California’s grand experiment with power market deregulation ended with a bang in 2001, when Enron-engineered rolling blackouts. But in Texas, power market deregulation — or competition, as folks down here prefer to name it — is in full swing.…
Read More5 Ways To Make Sure Smart Grid Pilots Succeed
What makes a smart grid pilot a success — even when it's a failure? General Electric and Accenture spent an hour Wednesday with some energy industry big shots at the World Economic Forum in Atlanta and explained it all to us.…
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What makes a smart grid pilot a success — even when it’s a failure? General Electric and Accenture have written a report…
Read MorePG&E Picks 2 Consumer Energy Partners, OPOWER?
Pacific Gas & Electric has picked two companies to help it aggregate, analyze and present energy data to its customers outside of smart meter channels. Might one of them be OPOWER?…
Read MoreCompetition Heating Up for the OpenADR Market
Honeywell bought a lock on a key piece of technology for OpenADR deployments when it bought Akuacom this summer. But challengers are emerging with OpenADR server products of their own.…
Read MoreAre Honeywell’s Days as King of the OpenADR Market Numbered?
OpenADR may be the open demand response technology of the future, but right now one vendor — Honeywell — has a lock on the market. That may be about to change, however.…
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Will a technology for automating demand response get a boost from a new industry partnership? Wednesday brings news of the OpenADR Alliance,…
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