Smart Grid News - IEEE Smart Grid

Interview with Wanda Reder

Wanda K. Reder, an IEEE Smart Grid technical expert, is the former Chair of IEEE Smart Grid and a Past President of the IEEE Power & Energy Society. She is a member of the IEEE Power & Energy Society Governing Board and has served in that capacity since 2002. In the public policy arena, she served as a member of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu's Electricity Advisory Committee. She works in the utility industry as Vice President of the Power Systems Services Division at S&C Electric Company.

In this interview, Wanda Reder explains that Smart Grid has an important role to play in helping bolster economic vitality and an improved way of life. She urges the utility industry and ecosystem participants to work together to make the electric grid modernization investments and policy changes needed to bring Smart Grid to reality.

Question: Consumer electricity usage has changed substantially in recent years. How is consumption changing and how does this influence the need for Smart Grid?

Interview with Bob Saint

Bob Saint, an IEEE Smart Grid Technical Expert, is well-known in the Smart Grid industry for his work as chair of the IEEE P1547.7 working group on distributed resources impact studies and as chair of the IEEE Power and Engineering Society working group on distributed resources integration. A principal distribution engineer at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), he has worked extensively with distribution cooperatives on Smart Grid implementations.

In this interview, Bob Saint summarizes some of the roles electric cooperatives have played in advancing the commercialization of Smart Grid technologies. He also shares some of results from recent demonstration projects, conducted at rural electric cooperatives, to develop cybersecurity and distributed generation impact modeling technologies that utilities can include in their Smart Grid implementations.

Question: How do you expect the Smart Grid industry to evolve over the course of the next five or ten years?

IEEE Smart Grid Cyber Security Round Up

Discussion of cyber security and the connected, modernized grid is trending very high right now and, as can be expected with a topic this important, there is much Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). IEEE’s Smart Grid subject matter experts cut through the FUD and give us their reasoned responses to the questions:

Will a connected grid will be more vulnerable to attack? Can we keep a connected grid more secure than the Internet itself?

Interview with Gregorio Cappuccino

Gregorio Cappuccino, an IEEE senior member, is a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Analog and Signal Processing, a member of the Advisory Committee for the IEEE Transportation Electrification Initiative and associate editor for the Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers and the Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications. He is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science Engineering, Modeling, Electronics, and Systems at the University of Calabria, Italy.

In this interview, Gregorio Cappuccino discusses technologies and markets for energy storage, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications and his view of international efforts in grid modernization.

Question: What is your view of IEEE’s work as it relates to grid modernization?

IA Round-up of IEEE Smart Grid Expert Opinions on What Will be the Most Important Development to the Grid in 2013

Many prognostications are made about the development of the electric infrastructure in years to come, five, ten, twenty years out. IEEE Smart Grid thought it would be useful to hear what some of its Smart Grid experts think will be the most important development to the grid this year, a much more difficult query without the luxury of a distant time frame to shade the possibilities.

In this roundup: Massoud Amin, Sam Sciacca, Erich Gunther, Steven Collier, and John McDonald weigh in.

Interview with Dave Bassett

In this wide-ranging interview, David Bassett asserts that utilities need to come up with new and imaginative ways of presenting energy data to customers to encourage customer participation in Smart Grid. He discusses challenges associated with connecting customer-owned generation to the grid, solutions needed for controlling distributed resources, and the communications and computational technologies Smart Grid will require.

Question: You have said that it will take not only time and effort to realize the Smart Grid but that it will also take a lot of imagination. How can the industry be imaginative about Smart Grid?

Interview with Thomas S. Basso

In this interview, Thomas Basso sorts out the subtle but important differences between renewable energy resources and distributed generation. He also gives his perspective on the trend toward renewable energy generation, the challenges and value it has for utilities, and the related topics of microgrids and islanding – all terms that need some explaining.

Question: We hear a lot about distributed generation in the media these days. It appears to be a topic that means different things to different people. But before we get into that, could you tell us why, in your opinion, the idea of distributed generation has become so popular?

Interview with Jim Wendorf

In his role as Director of Industry Connections for the IEEE Standards Association and as an IEEE Smart Grid Technical Expert, James Wendorf is helping organizations from throughout the Smart Grid ecosystem work together to incubate new technologies and standards for Smart Grid. A recognized leader in cross-industry and cross-discipline collaboration and consensus building, Wendorf previously served on IEEE-SA’s Corporate Advisory Group as a representative of private industry. A computer scientist, Wendorf has directed corporate strategies and standards development in computing and consumer electronics.

In this interview, James Wendorf describes Smart Grid activities, now under way at Industry Connections, to build a smart energy data repository; advance high-voltage solid-state transformer technologies; and develop wireless charging solutions for electric vehicles. He also discusses the importance of collaboration in the emerging Smart Grid industry and the roles computing and consumer devices will play in this new business environment.

Question: Tell us about IEEE Industry Connections and its role in Smart Grid.

Interview with Avnaesh Jayantilal

Dr. Avnaesh Jayantilal, IEEE Smart Grid technical expert and Senior Member of IEEE, is the Global Activity Manager for the Integrated Distribution Management Systems (IDMS) product line at Alstom Grid.

In this interview, Dr. Avnaesh Jayantilal finds some bumps in the road in his update on Smart Grid deployment two years after the U.S. Department of Energy grants. But while some missteps have been made, electric utilities in general are making good progress.

Question: A year ago, Smart Grid deployment seemed to be on a fast track. In the U.S., billions of dollars in Department of Energy seed money were coming online. Europe and other parts of the world seemed, if anything, to be a little ahead of the game. Has anything changed?

Interview with Srikanth Chandrasekaran

Srikanth Chandrasekaran (Sri Chandra) is IEEE Standard Association's Senior Regional Program Manager for India. In this role, he drives all standards-related initiatives and programs in India. Recently, Sri has been promoting standards development activities through focus groups on technical topics such as smart grid, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

In this interview, Sri Chandra discusses the present state of the electric power grid in India, the country's Smart Grid initiatives and why the role of developing nations has critical importance in creating standards that are truly global in nature.

Question: What is the state of the power engineering profession in India?

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