Exhibition Open
Official conference opening and welcome from Greentech Media President and Co-Founder, Rick Thompson
David Leeds, GTM Research Smart Grid Analyst, and Rick Thompson, Greentech Media President and Co-Founder, will provide an introduction of what to expect, and why, throughout The Networked Grid 2010 conference program and walk through the top five industry trends in the smart grid market today and over the next few years, many of which have significantly shaped the agenda and speaker choices for this year's conference.
Industry visionaries from the most progressive North American utilities will engage with the audience in a 90 minute executive round table discussion and Q&A. Sharing stories of success and adversity relating to existing smart grid rollouts and future deployment plans, these utility executives will provide insight into the real-world issues facing the smart grid market.
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The communications infrastructure layer of the networked grid underpins nearly every application that has been conceived for a true end-to-end smart grid. The market has moved beyond basic AMI deployments and is now focused on AMI at mass-scale, in addition to utilizing communications networks for other applications. Although many utilities are well underway in deploying a next-gen comm network for their smart grid rollouts, over 30% of utilities polled in a recent GTM Research survey state that they are still in early planning and/or investigatory phases, meaning that the optimal solutions for this segment of the market are still evolving. This session will cover the various network segments of end-to-end smart grids and walk through what the leading network technologies and architectures are for each, while providing insight into how the right communications network can support short- and long-term applications.
Now that smart grid infrastructure is being put into place, the market is quickly shifting toward the emphasis on value-added applications and services. The smart grid applications layer, or the 'Soft Grid', sits above the power infrastructure and network communications layers, providing a platform for a number of advanced applications and services. As other sessions at the conference will dive into great detail on a per-application basis (electric vehicles, integration of renewables, distribution automation, demand response, etc.), this session covers the big picture landscape of the applications layer as a whole, touching on near-term and longer-term smart grid applications and services. The goal of this session is also to provide the audience with an understanding of realistic market timelines and priorities for the applications as they are rolled out.
Overall grid optimization and, specifically, Distribution Automation is the highest priority application among North American utility smart grid decision makers, with 77% ranking it number one, according to a recent survey from GTM Research. Optimizing the power layer infrastructure for real-time distribution automation applications may not be as sexy an application as networked electric vehicles or snazzy home energy management systems, but it's a major issue for utilities and can provide a significant amount of efficiency from an internal operations perspective on the utility end of the spectrum. Embedding sensors that interact with the communications layer of smart grids is an important topic and providing an infrastructure that can support very low latency is critical for its success. This session explores grid optimization and distribution automation technologies and architectures in depth.
As smart meters are now being deployed by the nation's largest utilities, managing the rapid increase in data and then turning that raw data into actionable intelligence via sophisticated analytics is becoming a critical priority. Over 90% of utility decision makers polled in a recent GTM Research survey stated that they are concerned with their ability to manage and utilize the potential onslaught of data coming from smart grid deployments. Compound that with multiple reads per day with the potential for that to increase in frequency and the coming grid-aware clients that will ultimately communicate via the meter over the utilities' networked grids and the potential problem (and opportunity) begins to increase exponentially. In addition, many questions remain as to who will ultimately own the granular data.
When talking about physical layer network technologies and architectures for smart grids, most focus is placed on the Field and/or Neighborhood Area Networks. The idea and future promise of energy-aware Home Area Networks (HANs) is a hot topic in the industry and the options for the physical layer of these networks are many, including ZigBee, HomePlug GP (Green PHY), WiFi, Z-Wave, etc. In reality, based on application requirements, geographical region, etc., different physical layer technologies will be implemented for smart grid HANs. This session will walk through the pros and cons of the various technologies, standards and protocols, from the chipsets through the platforms themselves.
Sitting atop the physical layer smart grid HAN, are the energy management systems that the consumer will interact with to better understand, and react to, their daily power consumption. Service definitions, consumer understanding and adoption, and utility marketing outreach programs have the opportunity to make or break the full scale realization of a smarter grid's potential. This session will explore the feature sets available in next-generation energy management systems, how/if consumers will adopt and leverage these platforms, and one of the most pressing smart grid issues in the industry today, time-of-use pricing models.
After a long day of in-depth information sharing, market analysis and industry luminaries' perspectives, enjoy the luxurious setting of Palm Springs' Hyatt Grand Champion Resort by networking with peers and industry leaders. Many visionaries from Greentech Media's published list of The Networked Grid 100: The Movers and Shakers of the Smart Grid will be in attendance!
