Solar Power Battle Puts Hawaii at Forefront of Worldwide Changes
Date: 18 April 2015
New York Times
The solar-rich state of Hawaii is at the forefront of a global upheaval in the power business with home solar rapidly spreading across the country. Rooftop systems now sit atop roughly 12 percent of Hawaii’s homes, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, by far the highest proportion in the nation. Dr. Massoud Amin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Minnesota and IEEE Smart Grid chairman, is quoted in the article referencing the percent growth of solar installations and what that means to the industry.
A Summary of the Grid 3.0 Workshop
Date: 5 May 2015
IEEE Smart Gird
The Grid 3.0 Workshop held on March 26-27, 2015 built on the success of the November 13, 2015 “Electricity Sector Issues Roundtable: Grid 3.0 and Beyond” is part of a planning process that aims to help shape the grid’s future. The Grid 3.0 activity series was organized by a partnership of several government and industry organizations, including IEEE Smart Grid. The Grid 3.0 Workshop was designed to dive in deeper into the interoperability challenges identified at the Roundtable and to work collaboratively to develop the action plans needed to overcome these challenges.
The Grid 3.0 Workshop brought together experts from a variety of stakeholders including utilities, ISOs / RTOs, regulators, federal agencies, manufacturers and researchers to key topics emerging from the Roundtable discussion, such as: Resilience; reliability (including efficiency and sustainability); emerging and evolving markets; new actors in the grid ecosystem; and the pace of technology innovation. These key topics were developed by the organizing committee, including several derived from the IEEE Smart Grid focus areas.
Some of the “common themes” that emerged from the workshop include the need for:
- Ubiquitous, low cost, reliable, resilient communications
- Clearly defined common and stable (control) business, data management, communications, and physical systems architecture
- Well defined points of interoperability with built in security
- Reference designs (e.g. microgrid systems, distributed generation support systems)
- Regulatory jurisdictional certainty (state/feds) – also need clear metrics
- Education of the workforce
- Broad, equitable collaboration model
Following up on the information that came out of the workshop, the Grid 3.0 Organizing Committee will continue its work to identify the critical actions needed to realize the Grid 3.0 vision. Specifically, it will:
- Continue to refine the common themes from the workshop
- Develop aspirational “future statements” for each theme
- Conduct a gap analysis of: What organizations are working in this space? What relevant work is each organization doing? What’s missing?
- Develop Action Plans around priority gaps
Several of the gaps identified are uniquely suited to being addressed by IEEE Smart Grid and its member societies. Several IEEE PES standards activities such as IEEE 1547 and IEEE 2030 series directly address the gaps identified in architecture, interoperability, and reference designs. The Grid 3.0 Leadership Committee looks forward to working with IEEE Smart Grid and its other members to conduct the gap analysis and suggest specific work items to accelerate progress. Public discussion of Grid 3.0 is encouraged on the IEEE Smart Grid LinkedIn group.
The presentations that were made during the panel sessions can be found here.
View video recordings of several of the sessions. More videos can be found here.
Participate in the Ongoing Discussion During the Next Webinar
A webinar will be held on May 12 at 1 pm (EDT) to provide an update on the process.
Registration information can be found here.
IEEE Supports the First Installment of the White House Quadrennial Energy Review
Date: 5 May 2015
IEEE Smart Gird
IEEE announced its support of the first installment of the White House Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) report developed under the leadership of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Domestic Policy Council. Development of the QER involved 22 federal agencies and was coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The first installment of the QER was released on April 21, 2015 and highlighted at an event in Philadelphia by Vice President Joe Biden and DOE Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz on behalf of the Obama administration.
The IEEE and its membership were actively engaged during the development of the QER. In October 2014, the IEEE Joint Task Force on QER— spearheaded by the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES), IEEE-USA and the IEEE volunteer community, under the leadership of co-chairs Veronika Rabl, chair of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee and Damir Novosel, president-elect, IEEE PES—submitted a report to the DOE that addressed a specific set of priority issues.
An example of IEEE involvement and plans for on-going cooperation with DOE is underscored in the Chapter III “Recommendations in Brief” section on Modernizing the Electric Grid:
Improve grid communication through standards and interoperability.
In conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other Federal agencies, DOE should work with industry, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, state officials, and other interested parties to identify additional efforts the Federal Government can take to better promote open standards that enhance connectivity and interoperability on the electric grid.
Access the full version of the final QER report.
Via C-SPAN, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz testified at a hearing on the first installment of the QER. Watch the video now.
IEEE: Digital economy requires rigorous grid
Date: 14 April 2015
Smart Grid News
Smart Grid News Editor-in-Chief Barbara Vergetis Lundin recently interviewed IEEE Fellow Wanda Reder to get her insights on the power and energy sector, as well as IEEE's role in its ongoing development. In this Q&A, Reder shares her thoughts on the following topics, to name a few: IEEE's role in the evolution of the power and energy market, specific changes or transitions happening in the sector and IEEE’s role in ensuring an educated workforce to support future growth and development.
Reder Unearths Workforce Solutions
Date: 2 April 2015
Intelligent Utility
As part of Intelligent Utility’s women-in-energy series, Wanda Reder, chief strategy officer at S&C Electric Company and board member of both the IEEE and IEEE Foundation, contributed her outlook on how to bring the power industry the best workforce possible. As she looks for ways to “power up” the next generation of industry workers, Reder describes the need to examine what younger workers want, what mid-career workers need and how the industry should be planning to balance both, along with the aging workforce. The article gives a glimpse into what organizations need to be planning for this generational workforce shift on a strategic level.
THE BRIDGE – The Magazine of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu: Smart Grid and Renewable Energy
Date: February 2015
The Bridge
As an honor society, IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu promotes and encourages the work of outstanding students, educators and members. To promote this work, IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu publishes a digital magazine called THE BRIDGE.
In the February 2015 edition, THE BRIDGE's theme is "Smart Grid and Renewable Energy." As a result, many of the feature articles in the magazine describe developments in the electric power infrastructure, the role of information technology, and new workforce needs.
Developing exemplary smart cities for a smarter world
Date: March/April 2015
EmbeddedComputingDesign
Urbanization is rapidly growing. To sustain cities that cater to a population that requires ubiquitous connections and access to services such as electricity and water, new initiatives are being created to create and support what is known as "smart cities." The idea of a smart city is becoming more clear as technological advancements continue their upward trend and clean energy becomes more universally available. The IEEE Smart Cities Initiative (SCI) is an example of a new organization that fosters the creation of global smart cities that allow urbanization to flourish and advance. Through IEEE SCI, the Internet of Things, the smart grid and other promising technologies provide the framework for smart cities to take shape, but they also pose many engineering challenges. The future is bright for smart cities; today, new organizations and networks are helping aid its success through interoperability and compatibility solutions. Read more.
Father of the Smart Grid: Dr. Massoud Amin Recognized as
Date: March 18, 2015
In a recent announcement by the Energy Thought Summit (ETS), University of Minnesota Professor and IEEE Smart Grid Chair Dr. Massoud Amin received the "Thought Leader of the Year" award. As a first-of-its-kind endowment, the "Thought Leader of the Year" award recognizes "an individual with an inventive, brave vision to inspire the global energy ecosystem," according to ETS. Dr. Amin was selected by a committee of his peers and colleagues from around the world--all who have also made significant contributions to the energy industry.
"I'm humbled and honored by this recognition," Dr. Amin said regarding the award. In addition to his professorship with the University of Minnesota and position with IEEE Smart Grid, Dr. Amin is also the director of the Technological Leadership Institute and Honeywell/H.W. Sweatt Chair in Technological Leadership.
Dr. Amin is known as the "father of the smart grid" because of his teachings and work on power grid theory and research throughout the past three decades. A long list of his accomplishments includes high-ranking involvement with the IEEE, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Texas Reliability Entity, and Midwest Reliability Organization. Most notably, Dr. Amin's expert knowledge on grid security has led to a recent interview on NPR and many other notable media outlets. He has also advised the White House, governors and other agencies on matters related to cyber security.
The award will be presented during the 2015 Energy Thought Summit (ETS15), which is being held March 25-26, 2015 in Austin, Texas. During ETS15, Dr. Amin plans to deliver the "2020 Outlook" and will participate in a panel discussion.
For more information and a previous interview with Dr. Amin, click here.
How to Save Aging Assets: Applying limited resources to critical infrastructure
Date: Jan/Feb 2015
Publication: Electricity Today
Did you know that in the U.S., the average power system age is 40 to 60 years old? About 25% of the nation's power assets, according to Dr. Amin, are of an age in which condition is a great concern. In this Electricity Today article, Dr. Amin examines the current state of the U.S. power grid. Using report submitted by the IEEE Joint Task Force to the U.S. Department of Energy for the White House's Quadrennial Energy Review and other research findings, Dr. Amin suggests that every utility develop "sound strategies for controlling the symptoms of aging within the utility's overall business plan." Read more.
IEEE: Smart grid progress on several fronts
Date: February 16, 2015
SmartGridNews
In this SmartGridNews interview with Professor Saifur Rahman, the issue of smart grid developments is closely examined and scrutinized. Where are we today in the development of a U.S. smart grid solution? Professor Rahman offers his perspective on what the U.S. utilities are doing to implement progress on a step-by-step basis: from installing smart meters to developing software. Furthermore, Professor Rahman provides a global snapshot of the smart grid industry as a means to show how far the industry has come as a whole. Read more.
