How can you be against the smart grid? Or against smart meters?

Isn't it like being anti-motherhood or anti-apple pie or anti-education? Apparently not, according to a recent citizen uprising in Fresno. And a recent smart grid panel I moderated.

First the panel. I moderated a relatively contentious panel at the Netherlands America Foundation on Thursday night. Execs from smart grid hardware and software startups including:

• Tony de Rijk, CEO of iDo Technology 
• Joris Jonker, CEO of Home Automation Europe  
• Rich Celio, CTO of Applied Power Technology  

All chimed in with the warning that:

• A $2.2 billion meter deployment would have a questionable ROI if most of the savings came from reduced truck rolls 
• The smart meters were not smart enough
• Consumers don't want Big Brother controlling their thermostat and appliances

Even a panelist from the SF PUC was dubious of the value of the smart meters. As for the firms themselves, APT has been profitably integrating smart energy systems in the enterprise for 15 years – deploying smart energy before the term was invented.  iDo and HAE are start-ups looking to add intelligence to the building or home energy system but not at the meter.

On to the citizen uprising...

Excerpts from an October 22 article in The Fresno Bee:

More than 100 people packed a town hall meeting in downtown Fresno to vent their frustration with PG&E's newest metering technology – SmartMeters – that customers say has led to faulty spikes in utility bills. "The meters, in my opinion, are not very smart," PG&E customer Joe Riojas told Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter. The meeting lasted four-and-a-half hours. No one spoke in favor of the Smart Meters.

Many customers brought their PG&E bills to show Florez their skyrocketing costs. For example, Don Vercellini of Fresno said his bill recently went from $500 a month to $1,173. "It's straight-out fraud. I want my money back," he said.

Florez complained that the technology for customers to check usage will not be in place for years.

Said Florez: "People don't see the value [in this program]. They just see higher cost, and that makes them angry."

You wouldn't like Fresno when it's angry.

Jeff St. John blogged about it here. According to St. John's reporting: Those complaints have focused attention on PG&E's $2.2 billion, 10 million smart meter deployment, with the California Public Utilities Commission demanding that PG&E find a third party to investigate.

But PG&E has already tested many customers' smart meters – made by General Electric and Landis+Gyr and networked by Silver Spring Networks – and have not found any problems with how they're working, according to PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles.

Rather than malfunctioning meters, PG&E thinks the higher bills have come from its two rate hikes in the past 12 months, plus a hot summer that led to many Central Valley residents cranking their air conditioners to beat the heat, Boyles said.

With the feds ready to launch another wave of smart grid funding – it would be helpful for the public to actually want these products and services. And to actually feel some immediate benefit and value from the smart grid.

It can't be just about benefits for the utilities.

Imagine an affluent Massachusetts suburb where EVs really take off, say to 10 percent of the neighborhood homes in a short while. Then, figure that when the owners come home from work at 6:30 p.m. and plug in their cars to recharge they're pulling 3.5 kilowatts from the grid, which is as much or more than their entire house. So now,  the house has been lit up, the car is in the garage recharging, and the big screen and some appliances for dinner are also going. And then it's just a matter time before you begin to hear the sound of transformers popping, and the lights go out.  

At a Ford Motor Company media day here in Boston this week, the cars – a Ford Focus with a Magna electric drivetrain, a plug-in Hybrid Escape and a 2010 Taurus with THX surround sound – were the big draw. Alongside Ford was National Grid, discussing its vision for a smart grid. For now it means working on standards together, and integrating current smart-metering efforts and business models with the EV industry, so that the impact of the EV isn't overlooked in utility smart grid plans. In the future, assuming EVs take off, things will get more interesting for the power company. Nancy Gioia, director of Ford global electrification, and Stan Blazewicz, global head of technology for National Grid, discussed how the integration of EV charging and smart grid does more than keep transformers from overheating, but is part of a whole new paradigm of utility-controlled load-shifting, renewable energy integration, and distributed energy storage.

This is far easier said than done. The pitch is that EVs will use off-peak power from a utility, thereby taking advantage of lower pricing during these periods of low load. On its surface that feels true, and there are a few studies that claim no new generating capacity will be needed for the first years of EV penetration because of off-peak charging. However, a closer inspection of this idea raises a few questions:

1. At 6 p.m., when many drivers will arrive home and plug in to recharge, utilities are operating in a well-documented second peak of daily demand. Without some kind of intelligent management, this additional load can create havoc in areas with many EVs. It also cuts against the notion that EVs will have little impact on the grid because they will mainly charge during off-peak times.

2. How long will off-peak actually stay off-peak? With increased penetration of EVs, the increased load during off-peak times will inevitably lead to higher pricing and the eventual diminishment of what is now a predictable off-peak timeframe.

3. Stress on the grid. Many of today's utilities with aging networks count on the cool nights to keep their neighborhood transformers from overheating, allowing them a good 10 hours to cool down each evening. With EVs pulling such extreme loads at night, these transformers won't last and will need replacing, increasing the cost to utilities and complicating the economics of smart grid and utility-vehicle integration.

From there we went outside to test drive the cars. I drove the Ford Escape PHEV, one of National Grid's, with Steven Tobias, principal analyst for technology and innovation at National Grid. Even compared to my Prius it was incredibly quiet. There was no annoying beeping on backup and no sound at all while driving out of the lot into South Boston. It did have a great deal of information from the dash about power usage, charging status, etc. "When does the gas engine kick in?" I asked. "When it needs to go over 40, or when you floor it," said Steven. So I floored it. Sure enough, combustion, and a real pleasing kick, threw our heads back into the seats as the tachometer came to life and showed 2000 rpm. It gave us a good ride around the neighborhood, and a sense that this SUV had some life and consumer appeal.

The question is whether the grid is ready for it. 

Aneesh Chopra is the Chief Technology Officer and Associate Director for Technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology. He was sworn in on May 22, 2009 and is the nation's first CTO. He spoke to several hundred Silicon Valley folks at a TiE event early last Saturday morning. I repeat, early Saturday morning.

Mr. Chopra listed the technology areas that he and the Obama administration want to address:

Health IT: One of Chopra's "passions." He wants to "catalyze product innovation through open data standards, deliver administrative simplification, and align research and health IT."

Education Technology: He wants to ensure "continuity of learning." What happens if schools close due to, say, a flu? How do we enable nimble, easy to roll out, continuity of learning mechanisms?

And lastly and most germane to Greentech Media readers, he wants to accelerate the smart grid and energy efficiency through product innovation enabled by open standards. His office is "extraordinarily concerned about cybersecurity in the grid." and is championing open standards.  According to Chopra, "FERC claims we can lower energy consumption with demand reponse by 20 percent."
 
After his keynote, Chopra sat on a panel along with Scott Lang, the CEO of Smart Grid poster child, Silver Springs Networks. Silver Spring has raised about $175 million in Venture Capital from investors such as Foundation Capital and KP. KP's special partner, Al Gore, is chairman of SSN's advisory board. Lang commented on how his customers, the utilities, are some of the most risk-adverse entities on the planet yet they are now working with SSN and networking about 10,000 homes a day with smart meters.  Lang claimed that energy efficiency and demand response can lower our need for new generation by 50 percent.

Silver Springs recently purchased Greenbox for a rumored $20 million in an all stock deal. Greenbox had recently been looking for funding. And while we're promulgating rumors, SSN is talking about a company valuation of, sit down, $1.5 billion.

Finishing off this event was Silicon Valley icon, Steve Wozniak, looking relatively trim and upbeat despite being replaced by "The Hammer" on Dancing with the Stars. The Woz meandered enthusiastically about education and his recent stint as a teacher. He received about as much applause as the CTO of the U.S.

Erfan Ibrahim of EPRI gave a wide ranging talk on Tuesday evening entitled "EPRI's Smart Grid Vision and AMI/HAN Research Overview."  It was an Industry Outreach Event held at EPRI's bucolic Palo Alto campus. The talk touched upon Noam Chomsky, the effect of high magnetic fields on the menstruation cycles of cattle (long story), and the long-term energy portfolio of the United States. Mostly the latter.
 
EPRI is the Electric Power Resource Institute – a non-profit tax-exempt organization funded by utilities and founded in 1972 after the electric blackouts of the 1960s.  EPRI has more than 700 employees, a budget in excess of $300 million and instigates more than 1,600 R&D projects annually. EPRI also engages in relatively high-risk technology innovation and research ranging from new energy storage technologies and new battery chemistries – all the way to cold fusion.

EPRI has four divisions:

• Generation
• Environment
• Power Delivery and Energy Utilization (smart grid is in this segment)
• Nuclear

Long View

Ibrahim set the stage saying: "As we gaze over the grazing animals and the rolling hills of Palo Alto - we think in the long term." How do we deal with coal? It's not going away. How to we lengthen the life of nuclear power plants?

According to Ibrahim, the solution is not wind mills. Nor is it solar. (Adequate transmission lines being just one of the obstacles)

Aim of the Smart Grid

"Our aim is to begin a very serious dialogue on how the smart grid will lead us to a low-carbon environment as a society," he said. Ibrahim emphasized that EPRI is not made up of idealogues, that "there is no panacea" to curb greenhouse gas emissions and that it is going to take a combination of many technologies to decarbonize the electric industry.

The smart grid is just one piece of the puzzle.  

"It's not that the grid is dumb – it's that we haven't found a way to network all of these nodes," he said. There already is a relatively smart grid that functions at an almost 100 percent efficiency rate, according to Ibrahim. Siemens, ABB, etc. have been embedding intelligence into the grid for years.

"We have to intelligently embed networks to create a distributed intelligent network," said Ibrahim. How do we create this distributed intelligent network? EPRI is looking for a movement with realistic expectations.  Not just an IP platform.

EPRI's Prism Study (downloadable here) is a carbon cap strategy that limns out the best way to transition to low emissions technology.

And that includes:

• Efficiency
• PHEVs
• Demand Response
• Weatherization, better water heaters, better pool pumps
• Enabling intermittent renewables via advanced transmission grids
• Expanded advanced light water reactor deployment – increased dependence on nuclear power is going to decrease carbon footprint
• Advanced coal plants with CO2 capture and storage

Nuclear and CCS

It's not that EPRI isn't a fan of of solar – Ibrahim acknowledged it's contribution but doesn't see it playing a large role in our energy mix. In fact, in large-scale, EPRI found that solar actually increased the price of electricity (I'll assume that's due to the necessity of having back up generation or expensive storage to cover solar's flaws.)

EPRI certainly sees nuclear, now about 20 percent of the U.S. energy mix as a necessity. Specifically, third-generation nukes – "passively safe type reactors."  

And if you check the prism chart, EPRI also sees CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) as a necessary part of the U.S. energy picture. In fact, Erfan described coal with CCS
as a "disruptive technology" that will "revolutionize the industry."

EPRI's worldview is a glimpse into the utility mindset and must be considered as the likely trajectory our electric generators will follow.

BOSTON -- What does Uncle Sam want?

That's what entrepreneurs have for months tried to understand while submitting applications for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants. On Wednesday at the Cleantech Forum Boston, Matt Rogers, the Department of Energy's Senior Advisor for Recovery Act Implementation, shed light on the government's process and priorities.

Since mid-May, an average of 250 DOE reviewers – recruited through universities and professional societies to provide a mix of both technical and business feedback – have each day sorted through award applications. Across the board, the agency received more funding requests than it had anticipated.

"In each of our programs, we're dramatically oversubscribed," Rogers said. "We're nine times oversubscribed in carbon capture and sequestration, nine times oversubscribed in transportation electrification [and] three times oversubscribed in smart grid."

Since August, the government has accelerated its pace of revealing which of the many applicants were selected during its review process. A month ago, President Barack Obama announced more than $2 billion in funding for 48 advanced battery and electric drive projects. Two weeks ago, the DOE dedicated nearly $300 million for the purchase of alternative fuel and energy efficient vehicles by 25 state and local government programs. Last week, the agency finalized a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, the first DOE loan guarantee since the 1980s. In the coming months, many more winners will be named.

"It's going to be a very exciting fall. Every 10 days, we're going to have a new announcement," said Rogers.

Firms that can secure private funding to complement public sources, applied with pioneering "shovel-ready" projects, and already have the necessary teams and processes in place to execute their plans stand the best chance of being selected for DOE grants.

"We're looking for technological readiness. A number of folks have great ideas but don't have technologies that are ready to scale. We're looking for market acceptance," said Rogers. "We're looking for financial commitment... in most [cases] more than 50 percent of cost-sharing. We're looking for operational readiness and innovation."

Before finalizing its $535 million loan with Solyndra, for example, the DOE asked the firm to raise $198 million. Similarly, the government required A123Systems to secure an additional $239 million in financing to qualify for a $239 million grant.

According to several stakeholders, partnering with a larger and more established firm will in many instances improve a smaller, emerging company's chances of securing government support.

"The history of a lot of big technology grant programs is that large companies often get them," said Hank Habicht, Managing Partner of Sail Venture Partners. "Part of it is because of their size and resources, they have a higher prospect of succeeding than a company the government doesn't really know. In this last round [of DOE awards], the focus has started to turn to encouraging big companies to partner with smaller companies."

"Our companies that are involved [in DOE programs] have generally partnered with a larger company in their proposals," said Habicht. "The most visible is the Korean battery company in our portfolio, Kokam, which partnered with Dow and has received several hundred million in combination of tax benefits grants and loan guarantees. Another battery company, Xtreme [Power], is partnering with Ford."

Bob O'Connor, a Partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, agrees that smaller companies can reduce their perceived risk to the government by partnering with larger firms.

"As an emerging company, one has to think very hard about strategy with corporate partners. They have a few things you don't have – a balance sheet, they are credit worthy, they can provide credit support, and they might even be able to put to use investment tax credits to use that you could not otherwise use."

Yoni Cohen is a currently pursuing a joint degree at Wharton School of Business and Yale Law School. He formerly worked for Fox Sports, among other jobs.

Smart grid vendor Trilliant today said that it has taken steps to better integrate its UnitySuite with IBM's bread-and-butter Tivoli and WebSphere software platforms.

In reality, what does that mean? It gives Trilliant one more tiny wedge for potentially expanding its product base. IBM has been aggressively courting alliances with smart grid vendors and smart grid companies, in return, have been trying to cement links with IT giants like SAP, Oracle, Cisco and Big Blue. It's not the end of the world, but it also beats being left out.

And, as you already know, the world has gone bonkers for smart grid. A wide range of companies have submitted for federal stimulus dollars for smart grid projects and many will get grants. If the proponents are right (and they probably are) the U.S. can make faster progress in combating emissions by deploying technologies for increasing efficiency and curbing electronic waste than building green power stations.

Sipco LLC (Sipco) is an Atlanta-based developer of wireless mesh technology.

Last month Sipco sued Florida Power & Light Co. and FPL Group Inc. (collectively “FPL”) in federal court in Miami, alleging that the wireless network technology in the utility’s smart grid system infringes three Sipco patents relating to smart grid technology. According to the complaint (sipco_complaint.pdf), the infringing technology is being used as part of the Energy Smart Miami initiative to implement smart grid technology in Miami-Dade County.

The family of patents-in-suit comprises U.S. Patent Nos. 6,437,692, 7,053,767 and 7,468,661, each entitled “System and method for monitoring and controlling remote devices” (collectively “Sipco Patents”).

The Sipco Patents are directed to cost effective methods and systems for collecting, formatting and monitoring data from remote devices. A control system (200) consists of one or more sensor/actuators (212, 214, 216, 222, 224) each integrated with a (preferably RF, or radio frequency) transceiver. The control system also includes stand-alone transceivers (211, 213, 215, 221).

The integrated and stand-alone transceivers (211, 213, 215, 221) are configured to receive an incoming RF transmission (from remote devices) and to transmit an outgoing signal. Local gateways (210, 220) receive remote data transmissions from the integrated or stand-alone transceivers (211, 213, 215, 221), analyze the transmissions, convert them into TCP/IP format for internet transmission and communicate the transmissions via wide area network, or WAN (230).

According to the Sipco Patents, having the local gateways (210, 220) permanently integrated with the WAN (230) allows the server (260) to host application specific software that previously had to be hosted in application specific local controllers. The Sipco Patents explain:

…the data monitoring and control devices of the present invention need not be disposed in a permanent location as long as they remain within signal range of a system compatible transceiver that subsequently is within signal range of a local gateway interconnected through one or more networks to server 260.

The patented system avoids the expense of installing and connecting local networks of sensors, actuators and controllers, as was previously done in control system solutions for distributed systems.

The complaint alleges willful infringement and seeks treble damages and injunctive relief.

Eric Lane is a patent attorney and intellectual property lawyer at Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in San Diego, where he is in the Intellectual Property and Climate Change & Clean Technology practices. Eric is the founder and author of Green Patent Blog, which provides discussion and analysis of intellectual property law issues in clean technology.