IBM and Hydro One Team to Improve the Power Grid in Ontario

Smarter technologies to be tested on Hydro One's distribution power grid

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ARMONK, N.Y. and TORONTO - 27 Mar 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its Business Partner Telvent announced that they have been selected by Hydro One, the largest distributor of electricity in Ontario (Canada), for a new smart grid project that will help transform the province's electrical system. Together, the companies will run simulations and tests to determine the smart grid technologies that have the potential to improve power efficiency and reliability.

Installed in the 1950s, many components of Ontario's current electricity distribution system have reached the end of their service life. More recently, technological advancements, provincial governmental policy, market forces and increased environmental awareness have added pressure to the demands on Ontario's electricity distribution system.

"As equipment on our distribution system ages, it needs to be replaced. This creates an opportunity to create a world-class network with new, intelligent and sophisticated technologies to meet the changing needs of our customers," Rick Stevens, Vice President, Asset Management, Hydro One. "Our collaboration with IBM and Telvent will help Hydro One assess the next generation of distribution equipment and make the right choices for our customers looking for more reliable electricity, particularly in rural areas."

The Advanced Distribution System (ADS) project will help the utility identify and assess equipment, test new delivery models for electricity, validate the costs and benefits anticipated with a new smart grid and recommend changes to cost effectively modernize Ontario's distribution system.

The project intends to enable an increased amount of Distributed Generation into the grid as well as help increase the reliability of the current distribution system and improve outage management during large scale situations. By taking advantage of the insights gained from new data sources based on analytics, Hydro One will be able to optimize energy utilization and management for greater efficiency while accommodating consumer demand.

"Utilities around the world are investigating new smart grid technologies to help solve complex challenges caused by an aging infrastructure and increasing demand," said Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM's Energy & Utilities Industry and Chairman of the Global Smart Grid Federation. "Together with Hydro One, we are paving the way for transformation by testing new sophisticated monitoring and control technologies that will enable the integration of renewable energy in the distribution grid while improving its reliability and responsiveness, and ensuring customer satisfaction. This will prepare Hydro One and the province of Ontario for further growth and deliver more affordable and reliable renewable energy for Ontarians."

As the overall system integrator, IBM will provide expertise in smart grid technologies, planning and implementation to oversee the reliability of the network solution. Hydro One will use the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), from Telvent, a real-time solution that will provide complete functionality for planning, operation and analysis of its distribution system. This will allow Hydro One to more accurately manage and plan their grid investments.

According to Telvent's Chairman and CEO, Ignacio Gonzalez, "In addition to the ADMS solution, Hydro One will benefit from the strategic collaboration between Telvent and IBM. Over the years, we have provided solutions to several large utilities to help make mid-project technology adjustments while increasing the speed of the solution development."

The project is in line with the requirements of Ontario's Green Energy and Green Economy 2009 Act ("GEGEA"), which fosters the growth of renewable and cleaner sources of energy while promoting a greener economy.

About Hydro One Hydro One provides services to 1.2 million residents of Ontario with the vast majority of its rural customers in low-density areas. Hydro One is the largest distributor of electricity with about 120,000 km of distribution lines over a rural service territory of about 640,000 square kilometers covering 75% of the province.

About IBM

IBM is involved in more than 150 smart grid engagements around the world, in both mature and emerging markets. IBM is the founding member of the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition, a unique collaboration of utilities from around the globe who are working to accelerate the use of smart grid technologies and move the industry forward through its most challenging transformation. More about IBM's vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works—how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts, can be found here: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet. 

For more information about Smarter Energy at IBM, please visit:www.ibm.com/press/smarterenergy. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Modernizing the Grid

Post from U.S. Dept. of Energy blog:

Modernizing the Grid: Getting More out of America’s Energy

February 10, 2012

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A crew from Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga, TN, install an S&C IntelliRupter PulseCloser on its distribution network. EPB is installing more than 1,000 of the smart switches which can detect customer outages remotely, isolate damaged sections of the power lines and quickly restore power to customers. | Photo courtesy of EPB Chattanooga

Patricia Hoffman

Assistant Secretary

As modernization of the nation’s electric grid moves forward, consumers and businesses are experiencing fewer outages, faster power restoration when outages do occur, more efficient operations, and cost savings.  Here are some of the latest examples of how Smart Grid Investment Grants from the Energy Department are helping the electric grid to better serve the American people.  

• Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company (OG&E) faces intense challenges from severe weather and an annual growth in electricity load of about 2 percent. Last month, it revealed preliminary results of its two-year demand response study showing a 48 percent reduction in electricity demand from customers with “smart” thermostats during peak periods. (Based on a notice received through the customer’s smart meter, the thermostat automatically reduces load by increasing the set temperature of the customer’s air conditioner so that it comes on less frequently during a peak period.) “These results clearly demonstrate that smart technology, coupled with dynamic pricing, enables customers to reduce their maximum peak energy use, which will help delay our need for building incremental generation until at least 2020,” said Ken Grant, managing director of customer solutions at OG&E. The company now plans to expand its Smart Hours program to an additional 40,000 residential and business customers.   OG&E’s Smart Hours program helps consumers better manage their energy use by sending them advanced notice via phone, text or email about the next day’s peak price.
   
• Idaho Power Company (IPC) is improving customer service, saving energy, and reducing operating costs with a comprehensive smart grid deployment that includes installing nearly 500,000 smart meters in customers’ homes and businesses across western and southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Before the installation, IPC collected 6 million meter reads per year. IPC now collects 13 million meter reads per day. Besides now having more timely, accurate customer usage data, IPC has been able to eliminate 80 service vehicles and saved on fuel and maintenance costs because employees are no longer driving 1.6 million miles per year to read meters.  IPC’s customers will see additional benefits as IPC also develops a modeling and forecasting tool for integrating renewables into the transmission system, and implements irrigation load control for agricultural customers.
   
• In Tennessee, the Electric Power Board (EPB) of Chattanooga believes that it is on track to save local businesses and homeowners an estimated $40 million a year by reducing the duration of power outages. Studies from Berkeley Labs, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and others indicate that the impact of power outages on an area the size of Chattanooga can total more than $100 million per year. Chattanooga aims to cut that amount by 40 percent. Last September, following a storm that knocked out power to 59,000 homes and businesses, EPB determined that its smart grid technologies had prevented an additional 25,000 customers from either losing power completely (16,000 out of the 25,000 customers) or seeing any significant impact (9,000 customers experienced only a momentary interruption in power). Earlier in the year, EPB was able to restore power more quickly in the aftermath of the April 2011 storm that devastated the area. Companies new to the area have been citing the reliable electricity as a major factor in choosing Chattanooga as their destination for doing business.  Smart grid technologies help reduce power outages by remotely detecting customer outages, isolating  damaged sections of power lines and restoring power to customers more quickly.
   
• Since June, the number of smart meters installed at homes and businesses has doubled to 10 million meters nationwide. The goal is to install an additional 5.5 million by 2015.      

As the grid continues getting smarter, we must continue to ensure that it is protected against cyber attacks and develop resilient systems that can survive a cyber event with no loss of critical functions. For the SGIG program, all grant recipients were required to conduct a risk assessment and develop and implement cyber security plans to mitigate the risks. All 99 cyber security plans approved by the Energy Department addressed the Department’s requirements.

For years, the Energy Department has worked closely with private industry, federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security, and other stakeholders on a number of cyber security fronts. The most recent example of this work – the cyber security maturity model initiative which will develop a tool that helps electric utilities assess their own cyber strengths and weaknesses and prioritize investments – is moving forward quickly. We will continue capitalizing on that momentum in the coming months.   

You can visit the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability site, to learn more about national efforts to modernize the electric grid.

Energy Innovation Hubs

News release from the U.S. Dept. of Energy:

Energy Department to Launch New Energy Innovation Hub Focused on Advanced Batteries and Energy Storage

February 7, 2012 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid.  The interdisciplinary research and development through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies that can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid, to better integrate clean, renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system, and for use in electric and hybrid vehicles that will reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

“As part of the Obama Administration’s investments in science and innovation, this Energy Innovation Hub will bring together scientists, engineers, and industry to develop fresh concepts and new approaches that will ensure America is at the leading-edge of the growing global market for battery technology,” said Secretary Chu.  “With the advances from this research and development effort, we will be able to design and produce batteries here in America that last longer, go farther, and cost less than today’s technologies.”

Energy Innovation Hubs are designed to bring together teams of scientists and engineers across intellectual disciplines to rapidly accelerate scientific discoveries and shorten the path from laboratory innovation to technological development and commercial deployment of critical energy technologies. The hubs are part of the Obama Administration’s broad-based clean energy research strategy aimed at harnessing American innovation to achieve needed breakthroughs in important energy technologies to grow the clean energy economy and generate new clean energy jobs.

The goal of the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will be to deliver research leading to revolutionary new technologies.  While advancing the current understanding and underlying science around energy storage, the role of the new hub will be to develop radically new scientific approaches, including the exploration of new materials, devices, systems and novel approaches for transportation and utility-scale storage. The hub should foster new energy storage designs and develop working, scalable prototype devices that demonstrate radically new approaches for electrochemical storage, overcoming current manufacturing limitations through innovation to reduce complexity and cost. The ultimate goal will be to surpass the current technical limits for electrochemical energy storage and reduce the risk level enough for industry to further develop the innovations discovered by the hub and deploy these new technologies into the marketplace.

Letters of Intent to apply are due on March 1, 2012 with full applications due on May 31, 2012.

Universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms are eligible to compete and are encouraged to form partnerships when submitting their proposals.  The award selection is expected this summer.  The full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is available HERE.

This will be the fourth such hub established by the Department since 2010.  Other hubs include the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, which focuses on advanced research to develop fuels directly from sunlight; the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, which is seeking to improve nuclear reactors through sophisticated computer-based modeling and simulation; and the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy-Efficient Buildings, which is working to achieve major breakthroughs in energy efficient building design.  Information on the existing hubs can be found on the Energy Innovation Hubs website: http://energy.gov/hubs.