READY FOR SMART CITIES? - Fileburstenergycentral.fileburst.com/.../2015/iu_spring2015.pdf ·...

READY FOR SMART CITIES?

VOL 7, ISSUE 1 » SPRING 2015 Realizing the digital utility evolution

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AN ENERGY CENTRAL PUBLICATION

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With advanced metering for electricity generating unprecedented amounts of data, Darby and Fred can solve just about any challenge that comes along. From helping utilities conserve resources and predict usage to recognizing and reducing theft,their work is essential to Itron’s commitment to our customers.

According to Darby and Fred, there is no end to what data can do. We’re limited only by our own imagination. We fi nd that pretty exciting, and it’s the perfect way to envision a more resourceful world.

itron.com/resourceful

– Darby McKee, Analytics Manager

“The most important questions are the ones we haven’t asked yet.”

Darby McKee and Fred Behrmann, Itron Analytics

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TM

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March 3 – 5, 2015 Phoenix, ArizonaJoin us for our annual spring strategy conference that fosters dialogue and peer collaboration through insightful keynote presentations and interactive executive discussions.

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May 12-13, 2015 Charlotte, North CarolinaCapstone event for a community of energy professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and innovating marketable assets out of smart grid data technology.

SmartCities.EnergyCentral.com

smartShaping a SmartEnergy Future.

cities

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�COVER // SPRING 2015

Smart cities are all the rage, but, after all the talk quiets down, what will they look like? We take a guess with a collection of insights from the systems needed to the data to be parceled.

FEATURES // OPERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

8 How well do you know your urban future?+ Studying smart cities’ systems within

systems at MIT

11 Augmented reality+ From eclectic history to today’s electricity

14 Utilities: the future’s distribution system platform+ Insights from Con Edison

16 SEPA prez brings in the light + Traditional utilities meet a new solar wave

DEPARTMENTS

4 Drawing the line

6 Intelligentutility.com

20 Analytics

20 Enabling a unified

smart city vision in

four easy steps

+ Follow this path to success

22 IT & OT

+ Come together, right now (and reap the benefits)

25 Does your utility need

a data scientist?

+ A data scientist answers

27 Customer focus

27 A look at power evolution

+ Case studies in renewables integration and the evolving grid

28 Utility2Utility

+ City of Modesto

30 IT insights

30 Smart thermostat

market heats up

+ Why utilities need to embrace new connected technology

32 Utility2Utility

+ City of Ponca City, Oklahoma

34 International

34 A look at smart cities

around the world

+ Europe, Asia very active

36 Talking to Harley

about LiveWire(ing)

the EV market

+ Is the world ready for an electric hog?

38 By the numbers

38 What fuel cells bring

to the power equation

+ More companies push leading market applications

40 Out the door

40 ComEd brings local

girl power

+ With old fridges & lots of facetime

Vol. 7, No. 1, 2015 by Energy Central. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint or quote excerpts granted by written request only. Intelligent Utility® is published quarterly by Energy Central, 2821 S. Parker Road, Suite 1105, Aurora, CO 80014. Subscriptions are available by request. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Intelligent Utility, 2821 S. Parker Road, Suite 1105, Aurora, CO 80014. Customer service: 303.782.5510. For change of address include old address as well as new address with both ZIP codes. Allow four to six weeks for change of address to become effective. Please include current mailing label when writing about your subscription.


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DRAWING THE LINE

Kathleen Wolf Davis

Editor-in-Chief, Intelligent Utility magazine [email protected]

AT 12, I HAD AN OBSESSION WITH JULES VERNE AND

H.G. Wells the way many girls of my generation swooned over the boys in Duran Duran. I had a stacked collection of their works on the nightstand next to my bed that could rival any friend’s collection of “Teen Beat.”

Wells, especially, was such a unique blending of Victorian morality and sci-fi technology that he inspired visions of what a future might look like for many artists, from writers to filmmakers. I have, certainly, never been alone in that obsession.

My favorite of his was (and is) “The Time Machine,” and I couldn’t help but think back on reading that as we put together this smart cities issue of the magazine. After all, what is a smart city but our attempt to define—or in some cases, redefine—the future?

You’ll notice in this issue a common theme—namely that no one is super sure what a smart city is, nor what a smart city will become. We’re feeling that out, as is perfectly understandable for people trying to both grasp and build the future at the same time.

The time machine is a perfect parallel example. Wells coined the term in the 1890s when he wrote the novel. But his time machine looks a whole lot different than the one Marty McFly hopped into in “Back to the Future.” And the ones we imagine now—which seem to be very influenced by concepts in “Star Trek” and are best visualized by the recent film “Looper”—have lost the concept of a “machine” involved altogether—let alone one that resembles either a carriage or a DeLorean.

The point is: The style changed, but the purpose remained the same. Each of those examples is, es-sentially, a time machine. And it will change, again, as we change—as any interesting concepts do.

This includes smart cities. I realize it’s uncomfortable for us, as an industry, to not be able to quantify or completely define something, but that’s the nature of new ideas. They are amorphous and can adapt. When the vision becomes technology, strategy and planning, we’ll get a better handle on things: what’s in, what’s out, what’s no longer important.

But, just as the road to a true smart city is a long one—and perhaps one you’d like a DeLorean or a time machine to traverse—so is the road to defining a smart city. We’re not quite there yet. We’re with Wells at the beginning where a term is coined and all sorts of interesting stories are yet to unfold.

Join us in hearing a few of those stories in this issue and visit us at Energy Central’s Smart Cities 2015 conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can get more information online at http://smartcities.energycentral.com. Let’s continue this conversation.

Getting back to the smart cities future

9:45 AM

< Notes

Energy Central’s Smart Cities 2015 May 12-13, 2015 Charlotte, North Carolinahttp://smartcities.energycentral.com

Register Todaysmartcities.energycentral.com

Shaping a Smart Energy Future

Need a Smarter City? We Have the Conference For You!

May 12-13, 2015Charlotte, North Carolina

Smart Cities 2015 is the only event focused on collaboration strategies for utilities needing to lead Smart Cities initiatives.

Register by March 27th to receive early bird rates.

The Experience You Can Expect:

• Interact with utility and municipal leaders shaping the convergence of the new

• Modernize utility processes and strategic operations to maximize the

• Develop a robust and resilient business model that will leverage an advanced

• Design techniques to e� ectively collaborate with municipalities, vendors,

• Make connections necessary to implement your vision for your utility’s future

Smart Cities is an Energy Central Event*This o� er may not be combined with any other o� ers. For new registrations only.

energy infrastructure

performance of grid investments

communication network to capitalize on evolving revenue streams

regulators, and regional business stakeholders

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OPERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

HOWWELL

DOYOUKNOWYOUR

URBANFUTURE?

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9

IN CASE YOU DIDN’T GET THE MEMO, THE

Smart Cities lab at MIT—yes, that MIT—isn’t called the Smart Cities lab anymore. It’s now called the City Science Initiative, but it’s intent is still the same as it was with the original 2003 founding—namely, to find all the best, most efficient ways for humans to live together in urban environments.

And how do you find those best, most efficient ways? You study, of course. You study the systems. You study the systems within those systems—and then the systems within those systems. And then you study how well those systems work together.

To get a grasp on this, imagine your living room in its current state. The smartest thing you have may be your TV. Perhaps you also have a Roomba to sweep the room. Now, imagine that all the furniture in the room had a level of smarts somewhere between the Roomba and your TV. Now you need a system to manage all these things so they don’t, say, smack into each other while trying to clean at the same time or overload an outlet by all plugging into the same circuit at the same time.

Now you’re studying a system of smart systems—a micro-cosm of smart cities. And, like the researchers at MIT and elsewhere, you’re trying to figure out how all these systems will work together before the furniture gets all kinds of too smart for its own good.

Rejecting the label

So, why not call the MIT lab a smart cities lab anymore? Well, some of it is academic, some of it is personal and some of it is, well, marketing—marketing with negative connota-tions, you might say.

“We felt that smart cities have been co-opted by people in industry and other academic fields,” admitted Dr. Ryan C.C. Chin, managing director of the City Science Initiative and research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. “The term means so many things to so many different people.

“We’re all about going beyond smart cities to figure out what are the disruptive strategies, policies, design and think-ing that can move beyond it. In many ways, the area of smart cities is mainstream and even a bit traditional,” he said.

So the MIT City Science Initiative is moving past standard smart cities approaches, such as the deployment of IT infra-structure into the city concept.

“That’s certainly important, though,” Chin added. “But the IBMs and the Ciscos of the world should be doing that—and

they are. Disruption and reinvention is the next step. That’s what we are interested in now.”

Work on the smart grid is one of those areas of disruption and innovation that the lab is currently studying.

But that’s not technically where they started. They started with transportation (EVs, battery use, battery storage), and transportation is still a large focus, though it’s moved to engulf behavior, land use, millennial trends away from private ownership, combining ridesharing with the concept of autonomous vehicles, and understanding patterns.

Unlocking the pattern

Studying patterns in technology and use is how to make all those smart city systems work—right down to the details and infrastructure backbones, like a smart grid.

“Smart grids, smart metering—a smart city should have all of those things, as well as home energy management systems. Those are all critical, certainly, if we want to develop things like alternative transportation networks,” Chin said. “For that, you need a smart grid. It will be impossible to transition to a fully electric economy without the smart grid.”

Chin pointed out the transportation/smart grid connec-tion is quite evident in countries such as Norway, which sold more Teslas than all of the U.S. in 2013, even though they have only five million people (or about size of Massachusetts) in population. Still, though, the country has had issues with charging those vehicles simultaneously.

And that’s exactly where we circle back to the smart grid.“It’s funny because, at MIT, when we imagine a smart grid,

what we really mean is the genius grid—the grid that can do everything—as opposed the not-so-dumb grid, which is the early phase of what the industry is looking for,” he added.

So, what other systems is MIT studying in this attempt to push from a not-so-dumb grid to a genius grid. What will be necessary?

Chin says first and foremost on the list is energy storage, in order to get the levels of renewable energy envisioned in a smart city.

“We can sense and put smart meters everywhere, but with-out the storage, we cannot go beyond fossil fuels with any significant degree,” he said. That storage development takes awhile though. With an average of 10-15 years for new tech, traditional battery storage will be the go-to tech for now.

Chin also points to energy conservation as an important step toward that genius grid and smart cities, though he is intrigued that, most of the time, pricing schemes like time-

Studyingsmartcities’systemswithinsystemsatMITBy Kathleen Wolf Davis

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of-use are tapped into to push this idea when, according to recent research, social incentives may work just as well, if not better—maybe two or three times better if experiments conducted in Switzerland are any indication.

“Social incentive and social pressure are more effective in many ways than making it more expensive,” Chin noted.

EVs, microgrids and renewable adoption blending into smart city environments also bring in those social incen-tives—if in larger forms than neighbors competing over single home energy use. But all are layers and systems within the vision of a smart city.

The lab is looking especially at one unique aspect of microgrid use: as a cornerstone of an EV/home charging system.

“Microgrids could be ideal for partially spent EV battery storage for the grid, creating a potential buffer. And that enables a secondary market for EV batteries that will lower the cost of ownership and use of EVs and lower the barrier for renewable power to take off,” Chin added. So, essentially, you’d take your EV battery from your car and plug it into your home microgrid.

Stardate 68554.8

But that vision of a microgrid that brings together your home and your EV and blends smoothly into a neighborhood smart city system is still a few years away—maybe many years.

“Every major utility has a microgrid pilot project, Chin noted. “But for it to really take off, there needs to be a green-field/brownfield smart city that attracts a lot of attention—or there needs to be a large event like the Olympics that uses microgrid tech.”

Despite its interesting tech angles, microgrids aren’t Chin’s favorite aspect of smart city study. He loves the lab’s urban farming project, City Farm, that’s creating vertical farming in the lab using soilless conditions. (This was originally created by NASA for the MIR space station.) In traditional farming, where you would grow 3 heads of broccoli in one year in one square foot of soil, here you can grow 18—and way more if you stack these systems.

And it still involves energy—namely to calculate how much energy is used in City Farm versus traditional field farming.

“We don’t have conclusions yet, but the energy component is a huge one as well as the dramatically reduced transportation costs,” he added.

So when might we see this perfect smart city with ridesharing autono-mous vehicles, microgrids, urban farming and perfect energy conser-vation?

Well, we’re at the start of things, but we’re cer-tainly a long way from finished. Still, as Chin pointed out, it’s nice to see so much smart city promotion around the world, though there have been some “notable misses” where “smart city projects have failed to live up to expectations. China has a famous collection of smart city ghost cities where no one lives,” Chin said.

The lesson there: “Don’t invest in reckless specula-tion, spending millions for cities where people don’t, and won’t, live.”

But that doesn’t mean smart cities aren’t coming and that the concept isn’t important. To Chin, smart cities are one of the most important tech pushes of the century.

He suggests avoiding that reckless smart city speculation with a two-step process. First, learn from the cities we’re cur-rently living in by studying the data: analytics, ethnographic work, challenges and changes, the deployment of systems already in place.

Then, design new cities to work better, using that data from today’s cities that takes human behavior into account.

And, he notes, the first city to really become the ideal smart city model will be replicated and mass-customized ad nauseam.

So, what advice would Chin give electric utility execs eyeing the smart cities movement as a disruption in their business model? First, look internally to see if your culture is ready. Then, think about new brands and new divi-sions—with new autonomy to explore the space. Or, hey, buy a company that’s already doing all of this well and is on the right track. Pilot projects looking at behavior will help—“living lab” experiments, he called them—and get lots and lots of data to help you weather that disruption.

“It’s definitely a disruption,” he said. “But, if you don’t embrace disruption—either as a threat or an opportunity—you’re dead in the water. Many utilities

are heavily regulated, but regulations will have to change for this. That will evolve. Policies have to change for a true smart grid and then a true smart city.”

“Bottom line: Try things out, scale that up, and your business model will evolve—and survive—because what a utility brings to a smart city is absolutely

necessary,” he added.


9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: disruption, the genius grid, battery storage, EVs, urban farming.

“Social incentives may

work better than pricing

schemes—maybe two

or three times better,

according to research.”

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YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE REALIZED IT, BUT

augmented reality (AR) has been incorporated into your college football experience since 1998. Thanks to a company called Sportvision, the viewers at home know when a team gets a first down before viewers at the stadium. How? TV viewers see the line of scrimmage marker drawn across the screen. That’s augmented real-ity—but not virtual reality.

Virtual reality is where your entire realm of sensory perceptions is replaced by interactions with an electronic device; augmented reality uses computer-generated im-agery and sounds to enhance the real world.

Back to the game. During it, you’re watching comput-er-generated information overlaid on a view of the real world—augmented reality. It works well on television, but could it be used in the workplace?

Fromeclectichistorytotoday’selectricityBy John J. Simmins, Gerald R. Gray & Norman McCollough

REALITYAUGMENTED

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It can, even in our industry. So, let’s talk augmented reality—how it started and how it now applies to your job.

A little history

The first true mention of augmented reality is in L. Frank Baum’s novel The Master Key in 1901. Baum, who also wrote the Wizard of Oz, writes of a set of spectacles that showed the character of people: “While you wear them, everyone you meet will be marked upon the fore-head with a letter indicating his or her character. The good will bear the letter ‘G,’ the evil the letter ‘E.’ The wise will be marked with a ‘W’ and the foolish with an ‘F.’ The kind will show a ‘K’ upon their foreheads and the cruel a letter ‘C.’”

Augmented reality was completely beyond reality until the mid 20th century, when it moved from fictional to possible.

In 1962, Martin Heilig’s work in what he labeled “ex-perience theater” culminated in a patent. Heilig, known as the father of virtual reality, tried to develop an experi-ence that went past simple visual stimulation to include sound, smell and touch. He called it “Sensorama,” and the original run included a series of journeys: a motor-cycle ride through Brooklyn (complete with seat vibra-tions mimicking the movement of the bike and the smell of baking pizza wafting out from a shop) and a view of a belly-dancer (with the whiff of perfume).

As a harbinger of the ultimate utility of augmented reality, the patent for the Sensorama mentions a use for the technology where “there are increasing demands today for ways and means to teach and train individuals without actually subjecting the individuals to possible hazards of particular situations.”

Heilig’s device was technically virtual reality, but it sparked research, inspired by the space program, throughout the sixties that would culminate in the Sword of Damocles, the first augmented reality de-veloped by famed computer scientist Ivan Sutherland while at Harvard College in 1968. The system was a head-mounted display (HMD) suspended from a ceiling where the viewer was fed computer-generated graphics. This device would come much closer to achieving what Baum envisioned at the beginning of the century, in fact.

Unwieldy—it was suspended from the ceiling, after all—and primitive, it nevertheless tracked the user’s gaze and kept the projected images in the proper location.

It took two scientists at Boeing, Thomas Caudell and David Mizell, to put augmented reality to work. In ana-lyzing the complexity in the manufacture of the Boeing 747, they realized they needed something to digitize the documentation and create an environment where the

worker could access necessary drawings and directions without leaving the immediate worksite. What Caudell and Mizell developed was a see-through, virtual reality goggle to augment the worker’s field of view with useful and dynamically chang-ing information. And it was Caudell who first used the term “aug-mented reality.”

From Oz to EPRI

EPRI’s research in augmented reality started with the question: “If you can project a first down marker on real-ity at a football game, why can’t you project GIS (geospa-tial information system) information on reality in a work environment?” The project is called “Field Force Data Visualization” (FFDV) and relies on three technologies:

\ Augmented reality—overlaying GIS data, measure-ments, menus, and documentation on an interac-tive view of the utility distribution or transmission environment.

\ GIS context awareness—knowing the location of the worker relative to utility assets, customizing the user’s experience and defining what the user can and cannot do.

\ Common Information Model (CIM) messaging —using CIM to communicate with multiple back

“Augmented reality

was completely beyond

reality until the mid

20th century, when it

moved from fictional

to possible.”

office systems to accomplish the allowed workflows.

The concept of FFDV was to develop an integrated field force data visualization and integration tool for managing any work and maintaining any asset in the field that can be utilized across the industry. The ap-plications that were envisioned include:

\ Viewing asset maintenance manuals\ Performing storm damage assessment or inspections\ Accessing asset information in the field\ Facilitating switching communications\ Integrating work-order information flows\ Obtaining real-time system status validation \ Visualizing faults in the field\ Overlaying any data, like weather or operational

data in the field\ Viewing and analyzing power quality data in

the field\ Using the same technology in the control center

as well as in the field devices

A key use-case could be to allow a field crew to be able to identify all relevant data for the network at the crew’s current location. From this interface, they could navigate through all the data for a transformer, identify its location in the GIS and view a single-line diagram, be shown the down-stream circuit on a map, query into its asset history, maintenance history, manufacturer information and catalogue, etc. Upon arriving in a street, the GPS receiver, magnetometer (compass) and gyro-scopes built into a tablet would identify the crew’s loca-

tion and orientation. The crewmember could then hold up the mobile device and see real-time graphical information overlaid on the camera’s view of the area—just like that line drawn on the TV during the game.

The data would be correlated with a single line diagram and a map. The crew member could query as to the state of a switch, identify premises with outages, automatically tag devices, etc. This would all be possible with properly integrated data environment and accurate GIS data.

As a first step in bringing this technology to fruition, EPRI is developing a field force tool on an iOS-based device (think iPad or iPhone) platform based in the Common Information Model (CIM) for messaging. The application used GIS context awareness to create the option available to the user. What the user sees and the operations they are able to do are dependent on their role and their spatial relationship to the utility asset. For example, if the user has permission, they might have the following options:

\ Schedule maintenance\ View the manual of the nearest device\ Move the asset location (redlining)\ View location details and asset history\ Report storm damage\ Take a photo of the asset or site

The user can access the menu by tapping on the symbol for the asset in the map view or in the augmented reality view. Details for storm damage assessment, asset mainte-nance, etc. will be on subsequent submenus and forms.

EPRI has installed one demonstration project and plans on three more. Each successive implementation will add more capability to the platform and augmented reality will become more real than Baum or Helig could have dreamed—and for a better purpose than smelling a bellydancer’s perfume, by far. One could even venture that the work life of augmented reality may even surpass it’s great use in college football, if EPRI has it’s way.

John J. Simmins is technical executive of information and communication technology with EPRI. Gerald R. Gray is senior researcher, technical leader, and Norman McCollough is project manager with the augmented reality project at EPRI.

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts:

virtual to augmented

reality with utility asset

management.


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9:45 AM

< Notes


grid integration and the

future utility biz model.Utilities:

the future’s distribution system platform InsightsfromConEdisonBy Sergej Mahnovski

THE NEW YORK STATE PUBLIC SERVICE Commission (NYS PSC) took the bold step of

launching the “Reforming the Energy Vision” (REV) proceeding in April 2014. They mapped an ambitious vision of the future for the state’s electricity system, giving more than 200 stakeholders the opportunity to participate in a collaborative process charting the “rules of the road” for the path forward.

It’s been nine months, and REV, at its core, is still fo-cused: The goal is to develop distributed energy markets that will help our industry keep pace with rapid techno-logical innovation, customers’ changing energy-service expectations, and more expansive federal and state environmental goals.

How are utilities navigating this? By advancing change, utilities will need to invest in the infrastructure and systems that will become the backbone of future markets. But more importantly, utilities will invest in people, industry knowledge, brainpower and application skills that come into work each day. Say what you will, but the architecture of our energy future still involves keeping our lights on and our devices running. And the utilities’ system remains

analogous to the architectural features that guarantee a building’s strength, without which the integrity of its ability to reliably stand is compromised.

At Con Edison, we see REV as an opportunity to get the rules right for the changing business; to learn from and embrace technological innovation brought to the table by new partners; and ultimately, to find new and better ways to meet our customers’ expectations.

An important goal is to innovate—including find-ing new ways for utilities and other businesses to work together to provide customers with the products and services they want, while providing value that will benefit the system as a whole.

This is truly one of the most dynamic times our industry has seen. Technology is putting the customer in charge, and the traditional utility must adapt. If it doesn’t, whether in state or nationally, the razor-sharp competitive edge that American enterprise so often defines will find itself at a rough and ruddy nexus.

Markets change and redefine themselves: AT&T was broken up, and competition blossomed; some companies prospered, some disappeared. Look at the new, unex-

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number greater than the cumulative solar projects installed in the company’s entire history. In the future, the company will integrate more systems with battery controls, smart inverters, community solar projects, or with western-facing solar panels.

Just recently, Con Edison’s innovative Brooklyn-Queens Demand Management program was approved by the PSC. Through the program, we aim to defer $1 billion of tradi-tional capital expenditures through targeted customer and utility-sited distributed resources.

Working in concert with the New York State’s PSC, Con Edison is actively engaged with the technology community, thinking creatively about innovative solutions. Every tool is on the table, including community engagement, basic energy efficiency, demand response, storage, fuel cells, solar arrays—you name it, we’re considering it. The program helps us understand how utilities can rely on and value a portfolio of customer resources to manage the grid.

We believe utilities will be crucial in developing distribut-ed-energy-resource markets even further. Study after study shows the trust customers have in their utility. And utilities are well positioned to bundle various DER solutions with in-novative rate structures to meet customer needs. In partner-ship with third parties, utilities can help connect customers with technologies that will best meet their energy needs.

The New York City metropolitan area is a key test area for REV, with unique operational challenges. Our customers demand world-class reliability and resilience. Con Edison customers generate more than 9 percent of the US GDP here in the world’s acknowledged financial capital; 50 percent of all commercial office space under construction in the U.S. is lo-cated in New York City. The city is home to nearly two million businesses, some of the most complex infrastructure in the world; the influx of those who want to be here and the city’s recent growth are leading us to plan for a New York accom-modating another million residents. We can’t get it wrong.

“Reforming the Energy Vision” means seeing and defining ways and creating opportunities to use energy wisely. It’s a balance of technology, opportunity, economics, persever-ance, and policy. It’s a great challenge, but one we approach knowing we are moving to a better future.

Sergej Mahnovski is director, utility of the future, at Con Edison. Dr. Mahnovski previously served as the head of New York City’s energy and sustainability agency under the city’s former mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

9:45 AM

< Notes


grid integration and the

future utility biz model.

pected markets and some of the players: AirBNB, Uber, and LendingClub. In New York, we even have peer-to-peer bike- sharing programs.

Bringing this organic innovation to the utility sector is going to require new approaches to customer engagement and invest-ment in foundational technologies that enhance service for all customers. A modernized grid will enable customer choice and also fairly distribute the cost of operating and maintaining the infrastructure across all markets in an equitable way.

It also will involve creating opportunities so that all sectors of the economy, and perhaps society, can meaningfully partici-pate in and benefit from new technologies, thus truly playing an active role in our energy future. The digital divide so often mentioned cannot become an energy divide, and therein lies perhaps the most meaningful challenge on our journey: Making reform viable while keeping energy affordable and reli-able for all of us.

So what are we doing to get there, and where does the distribution system platform (DSP) fit into this? Ultimately, the DSP will synthesize system planning, grid operations, and market operations to promote the efficient and effective adop-tion of distributed energy resources (DER) on the distribution system, with the goal of enhancing system efficiency, reducing long-term infrastructure costs, and engaging private capital in meeting customer energy goals.

Truly integrating resources will mean enhancing grid opera-tors’ visibility of DER, and their ability to control and dispatch those resources as part of day-to-day grid operations. Until DER can be counted upon as a reliability resource, its relative value in deferring or reducing long-term infrastructure costs will be reduced.

Think of the lessons learned at the wholesale level as more renewable resources came online in the 2000s—incorporating wind forecasting into the control room, assigning non-zero capacity factors based on location, and learning the attributes of how these new resources performed.

In reality, we’re already on our way to achieving this goal. Con Edison has partnered with customers, technology provid-ers, and aggregators to develop an early-stage platform that allows distributed resources to be monitored and dispatched during system events. We are one of the few utilities in the nation that currently operates demand-response programs to relieve distribution-level constraints.

Con Edison’s targeted demand-side programs have saved customers $200 million in T&D expenses over the past decade. More than 2,000 new solar installations went online in 2014, a

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JULIA HAMM, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE

Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), opens up the utility industry to the sun—both literally and figuratively.

She helms a nonprofit with a singular focus: bring solar into a utility’s energy portfolio. That may sound simple, but the reality of it is a bit more complicated. After all, the solar industry is a more modern arm of the power industry, and the traditional utility is, well, traditional.

“These industries couldn’t be more different from one another,” said Hamm. “With the utility industry being well established, risk adverse, conservative and generally slow to change (due to its regulated nature) while the solar industry is relatively young, dynamic, entrepreneurial and rapidly adapting to change.”

Hamm helps infuse those risk-adverse utilities with renew-able options by letting those utilities talk to each other about

where they are at and what they are doing with solar—and by bringing in the solar industry itself when necessary.

She considers herself “a bridge,” which isn’t horribly far away from what she dreamed of being as a kid, actually (though then she labeled it being a “manager”).

“I really had no idea what that meant,” she laughed. “I imagined myself sitting behind a desk with people coming in to get my guidance and opinions.”

In reality, she gives those opinions about the power in-dustry and solar, though, back then, industries and specifics weren’t really a part of the dream—just advice giving and solid mahogany.

In essence, she managed to hit that kid fantasy on the head, but, since then, she’s learned one hard lesson: that running an organization and really, truly managing things doesn’t much involve sitting behind a desk all day.

SEPAprezbringsinthelight

++Traditional utilities meet a new solar waveBy Kathleen Wolf Davis

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9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: renewables and renewable integration.

And the road from kid dream to adult reality wasn’t exactly a simple one. She went to college. She looked at op-tions. Should she go into sales for a staffing agency? What about marketing for an equipment company or working meeting planning at a conference center?

The planning position was a first step, but not because she knew where it would lead—just because it was in D.C. And she really wanted a gig in that town.

So, off she went to D.C., excited. But, within a few months, she found the worst secret of the adult world: work can be boring—mind-numbingly boring.

That boredom led to randomly answering a cryptic ad in the paper, and, suddenly, she found herself marketing

the first incarnation of SEPA. It was a bit of a happy accident that brought her right here to the fulfillment of that childhood dream—with a few twists and turns, of course. (Hamm went to ICF International to

work with the Environmental Protection Agency on energy effi-ciency for a few years before being

invited back as SEPA’s first-ever employee in 2004.)Her days living out this dream aren’t always behind that

desk, of course, though some of them are in the office. When she is behind the desk, she talks with her team, finds out project progress and manages the board activities. In a nutshell: she talks a lot—on conference calls, in meetings, in one-on-ones.

Hamm, however, is on the road at least half of the time, going to energy industry gatherings “of one flavor or an-other,” as she described it.

There may be a speech or panel discussion involved. There’s always networking, and there are usually more one-on-one meetings (though this time with attendees and not SEPA team members).

On either of those types of days, Hamm’s favorite part is reading industry news, like you can get here at Intelligent Utility. It’s not just about catching up and keeping up, though, for her. It’s also a search on how well Hamm and her team are doing.

“SEPA’s name is turning up there more and more, and it makes me proud of our team and the work we are doing ev-ery time I open a story to find SEPA quoted or referenced,” she said.

Her confidence—and all that talking—must be at least partially responsible for that uptick in SEPA chatter, and Hamm advises that confidence is key to conquering this industry for any woman coming into the power biz.

“I am confident and proud of my expertise on the nexus between the utility and solar industries, so you can stick me in a room of 100 male utility CEOs to talk about that subject, and it won’t intimidate me one bit,” she said.

But, she also notes that she knows when to holler, “hey, that’s not my arena.” She says that directly—not timid or apologetic—and has always found that she “leaves the room with the respect [she] deserves.”

That’s exactly her take on how other women should face this industry: no nerves, no shrinking, no wallflowers.

Stand your ground. Be confident and say your peace. Then say if you have no piece of that puzzle. It’s that simple.

After all, that simple formula brought Hamm her child-hood goals—even if it is in an industry she never much though of.

Hamm added, “I didn’t dream of working in the energy industry, but today it’s hard to imagine being anywhere else.”

MARCH 3 – 5, 2015PHOENIX, AZ

The 4th Annual


®

A D IV IS ION OF ENERGY CENTRAL

AT UTILITY ANALYTICS SUMMIT, LEADERS BECOME EXPERTS

HOSTED BY, AND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Arizona Public Service

Salt River Project

� Catapult your data analytics efficiency enterprise-wide

� Connect, learn and share with an exclusive network of utility decision-makers and industry leaders

� Maximize the value of data for your utility

It is a great conference! I liked it so much and will be back for more! —Florida Power & Light

“”

The content was very relevant, and sessions seemed to have variety yet flow together strategically.

—Kansas City Power & Light

“”

� VCONFERENCE PACKAGESUtility & Government: $895Solution Provider Members: $1,495

PRESENTED BY:

Great experience for me as I lead the data business intelligence initiatives. The networking [and] interaction experience was great.

—Mid-South Synergy

“” The only event backed by The Utility Analytics Institute.

The member-vetted agenda is designed by utility analytics professionals for utility analytics professionals.

WHERE IS YOUR ORGANIZATION ON THE ANALYTICS VALUE CURVE?

If you are just beginning to embrace analytics or apply advanced analytic applications, The Utility Analytics Summit provides opportunities to transform your utility through the strategic use of analytics!

OMG! We’ve got Data

Data Fortress

Business Transformation

Predictive Planning

Business Intelligence

Basic Reporting

01 0203

04

05

07

Execution Near- & Real-time

06

s

sTIME

VALU

E

s

FOUNDATIONAL PHASE

ADVANCE

D PHA

SE

More details at UtilityAnalyticsSummit.com

MARCH 3 – 5, 2015PHOENIX, AZ

The 4th Annual


®

A D IV IS ION OF ENERGY CENTRAL

AT UTILITY ANALYTICS SUMMIT, LEADERS BECOME EXPERTS

HOSTED BY, AND IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

Arizona Public Service

Salt River Project

� Catapult your data analytics efficiency enterprise-wide

� Connect, learn and share with an exclusive network of utility decision-makers and industry leaders

� Maximize the value of data for your utility

It is a great conference! I liked it so much and will be back for more! —Florida Power & Light

“”

The content was very relevant, and sessions seemed to have variety yet flow together strategically.

—Kansas City Power & Light

“”

� VCONFERENCE PACKAGESUtility & Government: $895Solution Provider Members: $1,495

PRESENTED BY:

Great experience for me as I lead the data business intelligence initiatives. The networking [and] interaction experience was great.

—Mid-South Synergy

“” The only event backed by The Utility Analytics Institute.

The member-vetted agenda is designed by utility analytics professionals for utility analytics professionals.

WHERE IS YOUR ORGANIZATION ON THE ANALYTICS VALUE CURVE?

If you are just beginning to embrace analytics or apply advanced analytic applications, The Utility Analytics Summit provides opportunities to transform your utility through the strategic use of analytics!

OMG! We’ve got Data

Data Fortress

Business Transformation

Predictive Planning

Business Intelligence

Basic Reporting

01 0203

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Execution Near- & Real-time

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THE SMART CITY CONCEPT REVOLVES AROUND MORE INTELLIGENT technology working together across traditionally disparate industries that

“touch” under a municipal umbrella—power, water, transport, lighting—and that concept will evolve into a 12-25 billion dollar market in less than 10 years.

So, how does a utility take full advantage of that growing market—and its growing demands—over that next decade of explosive growth?

they label Smart3, which postulates that smart metering plus a smart grid leads to a smart city.

“Smart metering, however, is only one starting point that a city might have,” Pate added, noting that different stakeholders in the process will come from different starting points. What a utility has to keep in mind is that all of the stakeholders in the process, including them-selves, have a common end goal in the smart city vision—or a holistic “smart community,” as Pate labeled the thinking.

Pate estimated that approximate-ly 50 percent of smart cities would start off with a metering infrastruc-ture, though some may start off in tangential areas such as communi-cations networks for smart lighting. Wherever a utility starts, however, bringing to light the benefits to all stakeholders in the process can help all disparate players in the vision to come together.

Enabling a unified smart city vision in four easy steps

++Follow this path to successBy Kathleen Wolf Davis

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: planning for a smart cities vision and strategy.

Plan,actandthenrepeat

Step one: big vision

First, define what a smart city is for your utility. It should be efficient, modern, automated, secure, connected, informed and responsive, accord-ing to Ron Pate, vice president of Smart Grid Solutions at Elster, during the recent Elster-sponsored Intelligent Utility webcast “Preparing for the next big convergence: smart grids and smart cities.”

“Technology will be one of the key enablers of the smart city,” Pate noted during the presentation.

THE PATH TO SMART CITY

SUCCESS

Buildandvalidatethebusinesscase:SWOT,baseline/

metrics,financing

Establishavisionaryteamthatcanlead

thejourney

“Those technology indicators will be complemented on the customer side by a smart city that is more connected, a population that is more informed and a utility that is more responsive,” added Larry Owens, senior division manager of customer services and marketing at Silicon Valley Power (SVP), who also spoke on the recent webcast. (SVP is the City of Santa Clara’s municipal utility with some customers among the who’s who of high tech.)

Step two: happy, heard stakeholders

After defining a vision for the smart city, Pate advised that step two is garnering stakeholder support for the vision from everyone in the process—from utility insiders to community activists.

Owens offered insider insight into how SVP is preparing for the smart city future with both tech advances and stakeholder communication. They started with a vision

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Step three: tech solutions

Once you’ve defined your util-ity’s smart city vision and brought in the community and company stakeholders, it’s now time to discuss the technology side of the smart city equation.

“The bottom line on smart cities is that they are intelligent,

energy-efficient communi-ties enabled by advanced architectural solutions,” Pate said. Those ad-vanced solutions are an amalgamation, really, of innovative, diverse, inte-grated and interoperable devices in the vision that Pate and Owens laid out in the webcast. And the

devices on the short list of smart city enablers

include sensing de-vices, communications technology, informa-tion systems and data-driven applications.

“Sensing devices will be the eyes and ears of the smart city, and you need to plan for that up front—thinking about the pervasiveness of these devices,” Pate advised.

“Elster and SVP are really of the same mind with this vision,” Owens added. “We see all of this coming up in conversations with city planning and stakeholder context.”

Step four: returning to the big vision every day

In the end, Pate and Owens advise pulling back to “higher-level plan-ning” and rooting out maximum value with each new technology step—and not to get bogged down in the tech details. Keep with the vision.

“Energy is a natural starting point, as it will power the grid of the future,” Pate noted. But, the smart city technology of the next evolving decade will cross over through energy, transport, health and security.

As insiders in the energy industry, utilities know about those smart city factors: smart meters, intelligent networks, renewable energy, light-ing control, water and gas management and energy storage. Pate and Owens, however, suggest also looking at how those energy technologies you’re focused on touch the other three ar-eas. How does energy intersect with traffic control and coordination, multi-vehicle tickets, intelligent parking and electric vehicles under transport? How does energy impact data exchange, eHealth and remote health monitoring? How does it factor into public safety, monitor-ing systems, biometric identification and integrated sensors for security?

Understanding those connections is key to developing the most efficient

smart city vision. “I encourage you to think in unified network layers,” Pate

advised. “Multiple-layered architecture and multipurpose networks will be the reality of the future.”

That layered architecture will create an evolution in multi-network devices. So, the networks of the future will have layers in architecture and devices, along with advanced, multi-dimensional interoperability, all while serving more than one

purpose under more than one vertical in the smart city scheme.

“There’s a microcosm of multi-dimensional interoperability happen-ing with the utility industry—with my utility—right now,” Owens said. “The devices and the applications connect through a ubiquitous, multipurpose communication network. And that’s a vision we saw early on with the metering deployment and discussions about how we could control the utility of the future.”

To learn more about SVP’s work toward a smart city vision—as well as detailed advice from Elster on how to make that vision happen at your utility—watch the full webcast for free. Just type this link into your browser: www.energycentral.com/events/30634.

Thinkbig,butstartsmall(andvalidate

assumptions)

Establishacollaborative

supportstructure

Teamupwiththerightpartners

(internalandexternal)

Utilizeaholisticapproachbutplan

forevolution

Findandsharebestpractices

andlessonslearned

Exploreavailabletechnologyoptions

Celebratesuccesseswidely

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IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT COST SAVINGS ARE IMPORTANT TO American Municipal Power (AMP), a wholesale power supplier with strict govern-ment guidelines for protecting critical data and the information systems

that help bring power and other services to 129 members across seven states, servicing more than 635,000 customers.

When we noticed that less than 50 percent of its data backups succeeded on the first pass with a low chance of successful restores, we realized that cost savings were secondary only to performance. These days, I sleep better at night because of effort put forth in streamlining the company’s data management.

When it comes to data management, organizations within the utility industry are doing a little bit of everything, but mostly, they run operation technology (OT) and information technology (IT) as completely separate islands. This is not the case at AMP, where the data and technology man-agement of (most) OT and (all) IT resources have been centralized to drive business efficiency.

This is not a new concept; how-ever, people are still quite startled when we talk with others in the industry about what we’re doing. At AMP, we may be pushing the data management envelope by streamlin-ing our technology departments, though we are actually on the cusp of a growing trend of bridging the divide between OT and IT that has been seen in many sectors recently.

OT has become increasingly more like IT over the years. The functions of each department are different, but the core technology and infra-structure are often the same. Having separate and distinct OT and IT road maps often results in duplicate efforts and costs, as well as creates a

huge liability and security risk. For instance, many OT systems and pro-cesses now utilize traditional TCP/IP networks and industry standard operating systems (Windows/Linux). When the two separate departments are both worrying about things like cybersecurity, configuration and change control, you’ll have one department doing X while the other is doing Y, which is not only coun-terintuitive but also a potential waste of time, resources and money.

Alternatively, if both departments are connected and have insight into what the other is doing, your orga-nization as a whole is able to move

IT & OT++Come together, right now (and reap the benefits)By Branndon Kelley

“Organizations are

doing a bit of every-

thing, and, mostly,

they run OT and IT

as completely separate

islands.”

303-782-5510 • [email protected]

You’ll only find us in one place.

Whether you’re looking for the elusive “perfect-fi t” candidate or

searching for the best employer for your skills, there is only one

place that has the resources specifi cally tooled for the global

power industry. EnergyCentralJobs.com is the most powerful,

proven job board.

Visit us online at www.EnergyCentralJobs.com or call

800.458.2233 for more information.

A division of

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forward in a more efficient way, which is what we have been able to achieve by leveraging key technolo-gies, such as CommVault’s Simpana software. With one platform that crosses and helps manage both IT and OT departments, we’ve been able to eliminate many custom-built applications. By standardizing on Simpana’s software management

layer to control both sets of data through a single interface, AMP has:

\ Consolidated 10+ backup sys-tems/processes into one single platform for global governance across a fleet of sites;

\ Integrated and consolidated many IT and OT systems for centralized management and reporting, helping to predict growth and reduce hardware/software spend across the enter-prise;

\ Virtualized and created a secure and nondisruptive backup and restore process for many SCADA and plant systems;

\ Replaced a highly customized and unsupportable SCADA system with a market leading system that was completely vir-tualized and vendor supported with reduced customization;

\ Introduced automation for the deploy-ment and detection of new servers and systems (virtual and physical), enabling quick protection of new environments;

\ Improved backup and restore success rates north of 95 percent, ensuring the team is meeting SLAs and is well-posi-tioned for successful disaster recovery;

\ Made more efficient use of backup storage with over 90 percent dedupli-cation rates for data backups; and,

\ AMP is currently implementing an enterprise data warehouse for plant and process data to have a single source of the truth for monitoring and managing plant operations.

Today we’re operating with a lean staff who are crossfunctional between the IT and OT departments. Optimizing resources helps ensure effective communication and thorough understanding of the requirements of the technology ecosystem used to operate power plants and generation assets.

When I started at the organization approximately five years ago, we knew we had a lot of business opportunities coming down the pipeline; for example, we had four hydroelectric plants coming online within 18 months of each other that were all built in pretty much the same way for efficiency’s sake. By applying this concept of uniformity to how we treat data from our critical systems by manag-ing it within a single warehouse and through a single interface, we’re able to use predictive analytics from a fleet versus plant-management perspective. Analytics help us make the most efficient use of budget dollars while ensuring we have an effective plan for command and control in the event of power outages.

For us, the return on investment and return of time invested didn’t take long to achieve.

What we’re doing with these systems at a company level is changing the mentality of the way we think. Is the convergence approach cutting edge? Absolutely not. People do this all the time. In the utility industry, it is a little bit of a forward-thinking approach to adapting to the environment. By thinking like a business leader instead of an IT leader, we’re able to provide the highest level of sophistication and security that’s needed to run the facil-ity, but at the most cost-effective price.

As AMP brings on more than $2.5 billion in run-of-river hydro generation power plants over the next 18 months, we plan to continue to take advantage of the strategic technologies that are around us, including working with our data management partner to back up, recover and protect data in those facilities and ensure it can be recovered in the event of system failure. In short, we’re taking advantage of the opportunities that are around us—and urge you to do the same.

Branndon Kelley is senior vice president of information technology & CIO at American Municipal Power.

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: Internet of Things, IT/OT convergence, handling data wisely from a utility perspective.

TO DO: Energy Central’s Smart Cities 2015 May 12-13, 2015 Charlotte, North Carolinahttp://smartcities.energycentral.com

“By thinking like a

business leader instead

of an IT leader, we’re

able to provide the

sophistication and

security needed for

a good price.”

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WELL, THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION IN OUR HEADLINE FROM

C3 Energy’s Chief Data Scientist Zico Kolter is yes—and no. You need the skills. You need the product they make. You need to understand how data science can impact revenue protection, predictive volt/VAR optimization and asset main-tenance. You need better analytics for your data, but you don’t have to have data scientists on your staff to benefit from those analytics.

“Much in the same way that utilities don’t build their own computers to work with, they can find experts in data science and power systems outside of their own utility,” he said. In fact, he pointed out that it would be very, very difficult to develop a full staff and the right environment for a data science team in-house at a utility. He really sees partnerships with third parties as the best option as this world of data science develops.

“The reality is this is a new field and requires a wide range of expertise to do it well. As of right now, there aren’t that many people that have high-level expertise in this area,” he added. “That may change in 10 years, but it’s more efficient in the near-term for utilities to partner with a company like C3 Energy.”

And, while you may be breathing a sigh of relief that you don’t need a data scien-tist on staff, we know that a number of you were thinking what we were when we called Kolter up: Just what the heck is a data scientist anyway—chief or no chief?

Kolter admits that explaining his job is, well, a part of his job. And the concept of having a data scientist is so new to this industry, it’s not just outsiders who ask questions about what his gig entails.

“It’s pretty simple. What I do is analyze energy data to make utilities more ef-ficient and help them function more reliably,” he said.

Of course, the explanation gets a bit more complicated from there. Kolter likens it to traditional business analytics with a different set of tools that include the umbrella of computer science but also a subset of computer science known as machine learning. Add the overall concepts of machine learning to a veritable suite of mathematical and physical tools, and you have the ability to analyze large amounts of data. That’s data science in a nutshell.

“It’s a relatively new field, and that’s exciting,” Kolter added. “And it allows us to leverage data to make high-level decisions—to glean something from that data, to make it useful. And, hon-estly, that’s pretty cool.”

Kolter didn’t dream of being a data scientist when he was a kid because the concept of data scientists didn’t exist (though we did talk about how we hope kids today are having that dream). In fact, the very concept of a data scientist is, at the most, a decade old. Kolter took a long path to his data scientist position that started with a double major in college in philosophy and computer science. He loved the arguments and discussions of philoso-phy but was frustrated by theories that could not be tested empirically (or backed up by data).

After a college career that started out with open-ended questions of philoso-phy and ended up at the closed-loop concepts of computer science, Kolter became (and still is) a part of the

Does your utility need a data scientist?

++A data scientist answersBy Kathleen Wolf Davis

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: big data—both deluge and lakes—and the analytics solution.

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faculty at Carnegie Mellon, where his research explores the overlap of energy systems and machine learning. He’s currently on sabbatical in order to work with C3 Energy.

“Working in the industry gives me the opportunity to put the academic into practice,” he said. “This is an amazing time to be in the industry because we can test and evaluate what we learn from data. We no longer have to rely on ‘expert’ opinions that may or may not be ‘expert.’ We can actually quantify and evaluate hypotheses in the real world.”

And if you’re also wondering what a data scientist intent on changing the concept of expert opinion does every day, well, it looks a bit like your job: There are a lot of meetings with his staff and discussions of big ideas.

And it also looks nothing like your job: He writes a lot of code. He imple-ments algorithms.

“The majority of my days are spent writing iterations on code to visualize and understand the data in different ways,” Kolter added. Right now, he’s working on the code behind a product for revenue protection that detects theft

of electricity from smart meter signals. “This is not a trivial problem,” he said. “How do you know someone is stealing

energy rather than the customer using less energy? We wanted to be able to detect that from the actual meters themselves.”

So, Kolter and his team looked at the data of customers they knew were stealing energy, and then they looked at data of the customers they knew weren’t stealing energy—searching for differences in the signals.

The resulting product has been deployed at major utilities, analyzing data from tens of millions of smart meters and leveraging machine learning to achieve more than 90 percent accuracy in identifying potential cases of energy theft, compared to the industry standard of 30 percent. But, as with much of data science, it is an ongoing problem-solving process, so the team is always looking to improve the performance of the system.

“If the system doesn’t work too well in identifying some particular new type of theft—if it’s no better than a coin toss despite all the data input—there’s the op-portunity to apply technologies to improve it. So, we write the code to split the data differently and organize it in different ways,” he said.

And that takes a lot of in-the-trenches work, even from the chief.But that half of the day that looks like yours is the most exciting part to Kolter.

He helms a team of scientists creating code and splitting up data. And he loves discussing problems and ideas with C3 Energy’s team.

“I think if my job was just writing code with no team ops, I wouldn’t be nearly as excited,” he said.

Another exciting aspect of being a data scientist to Kolter is being immersed in the energy industry as it begins to understand how very important data will be. One of the reasons he chose the energy industry as a new data scientist was the large amount of available data to work with—and that it will continue to grow. Big data may be a buzzword, but it’s also nearly literal for the utility field. And that digital process is about to change how we traditionally view this industry, accord-ing to Kolter.

“In the past, energy has been thought of as a physical process: How do we generate it? How do we use it?” he said. “Going forward, there will also be a mas-sive amount of work to analyze and understand the vast amount of data currently being generated from over 50 million smart meters in the U.S and nearly half a billion smart meters worldwide. Even trying to visualize what that all means is mind-blowing.”

And that’s when utilities really need the right connections. So Kolter advises you to start jotting down the name and number of a data scientist near you so you can actually pull value from this data—real economic value that can be unlocked through better forecasts, better predictions, better models.

And that’s where we circle back to Kolter’s field of expertise, machine learning, which is a data-driven way of writing computer programs that help solve complex difficulties with models incorporating historical data.

With a strong basis in statistics, machine learning is at the forefront of data science in energy today and in the everyday work of Kolter, who spends each day examining how a machine-learning problem (say, when an asset will fail) inter-sects with a power system problem (such as the consequences of that failure).

“I cannot stress enough the importance of data science to utilities,” Kolter concluded at the end of our chat. “It offers a huge amount of value and will be as important as physical and policy considerations of the past. Data truly has an ability to transform how a utility operates and manages energy delivery, and, with partnerships, we can build a transformative set of tools to manage that together.”

What’sthekeytobeingagreatdatascientist?KOLTER: Hands+down,+it’s+the+

ability+to+debug+and+diagnose+

machine-learning+systems.+You+

have+a+data+set.+You+attempt+to+

make+some+prediction+from+the+

data,+but+it+doesn’t+work.+What+

do+you+do+next?+How+do+you+

fix+it?+Do+you+add+more+data?+

Do+you+parcel+it+differently?+Do+

you+try+different+algorithms?+

Knowing+what+to+do+next+really+

sets+an+expert+apart.+

But+it+does+not+take+an+

encyclopedic+knowledge+of+

all+algorithms+out+there.+That+

does+not+make+an+expert.+It’s+all+

about+the+ability+to+debug.+

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CUSTOMER FOCUS

HARDLY A MOMENT EXISTS NOW WHEN AN AMERICAN is not relying upon a device powered by electricity. In fact, the average American

household owns an average of 25 consumer electronic products, almost all of which need to be charged or plugged in. Utilities continue to provide reliable, affordable, and increasingly clean electricity around the clock to customers, all the while tackling new disruptions such as integrating new renewable power resources and optimizing the power grid for operational efficiency with an evolving distribution grid.

On renewable power

Renewable energy resources like wind and solar are a growing part of the nation’s energy mix. Utility companies across the U.S. are leading the way by investing in and integrating these resources into the power grid. Duke Energy

recently announced a $500-million commitment to expand solar power in North Carolina. The company will own and operate three solar power facilities totaling 128 megawatts (MW) of power, including the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) facility east of the Mississippi River. Duke Energy also signed power-purchase agreements with five other solar facilities in North Carolina, creating a total of eight solar projects that together have a capacity of 278 MW. This is in addition to more than 450 MW of solar capacity the company purchases in the state. When the sun is shining, that’s enough power to supply more than 90,000 homes.

Taking advantage of Arizona’s sunny weather, Tucson Electric Power Co. (TEP) recently put forth a proposal to install and maintain rooftop solar panels for its customers. In August, TEP proposed a new $10-million solar rooftop program to provide company-owned rooftop solar panels for its cus-tomers. In return, a typical customer who spends an average of approxi-mately $90-$100 per month on electric service would pay a fixed monthly energy rate of $99 for 25 years, assum-ing similar customer energy usage. The TEP rooftop solar proposal comes on the heels of the company’s success-ful Bright Tucson Community Solar Program, which already provides more than 3,300 megawatt hours of locally generated solar power to customers in the Tucson area. Under this program, a TEP customer can purchase 150 KWh of solar energy for $3 a month—less than a cup of premium coffee.

On the evolving

distribution grid

Across the U.S., the transformation of the distribution grid is well un-derway, and significant cost-effective investments are being made in smart meters, grid technologies, digitization, data analytics, distribution system sensing and monitoring, and controls to enhance operational efficiency

A look at power evolution

++Case studies in renewables integration and the evolving gridBy Lisa Wood

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and to integrate new resources. Utilities have already deployed more than 50 million smart meters nationwide. Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI) launched a Peak Energy Savings program in

Maryland and Delaware that allows customers to reduce their energy use for a few hours during

peak periods in order to earn credits on their bills. Customers are notified of an upcoming peak

period, either by voicemail, email or text, allow-ing them time to adjust their usage. Participation

in this program is voluntary. During the summer of 2014, approximately 500,000 customers participated,

saving over 4 million kWh of electricity and earn-ing approximately $5 million worth of bill credits.

The deployment of smart meters makes this program possible. Currently, more than eight million customers

with smart meters in California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Oklahoma are able to par-

ticipate in smart pricing programs like Pepco’s.These are just a handful of the many innovations that

utilities are focused on today. The more than $90 billion

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: renewables & grid evolution.

CUSTOMER FOCUS

invested annually in the power grid is putting new technologies to work, is providing new choices and solu-tions for customers, and is increas-ing the integration of renewable energy resources such as wind and solar. Utility companies are finding new ways to generate electricity and connect with customers to provide the energy needed to power their lives. For more information and to read more than 50 case studies detailing examples of innovations in the electric power sector, check out Innovations Across the Grid, Volume II at www.edisonfoundation.net.

Lisa Wood is the vice president of The Edison Foundation and the executive director of the Institute for Electric Innovation.

THE CITY OF MODESTO IS THE COUNTY SEAT AND LARGEST CITY of Stanislaus County, California, and they cover the region’s water works.

For this installment of the Utility2Utility series, we spoke with Debbie Sewell, customer services supervisor, about going mobile.

HOW IS THE CITY OF MODESTO ENGAGING CUSTOMERS VIA MOBILE?SEWELL: By no means are we experts in mobile payments. We are experts in

delivering water service to our customers, about 210,000 Modesto residents. So, when the time came to add mobile payments capability, we knew it was incred-ibly important to find a mobile payments expert that could help us with this. It’s also a lot more efficient to partner with a company in this versus building or buying your own solution. We liked Check because you can pay all your bills with it—not just your Modesto water bill. This makes things more efficient and provides more value to our customers.

HOW IMPORTANT ARE MOBILE CUSTOMERS IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THE CITY’S CUSTOMER SERVICE PLAN?

SEWELL: Until recently, customers would pay their bills with traditional meth-ods—i.e. via the website, the phone, in-person and mail-in payments. Traditional

payment options like these cost us a lot of time and money to process. It’s more cost-effective to take electronic payments. It’s fast, easy, affordable and efficient. We know mobile is the future of electronic payments, and we want to follow this growth in user prefer-ences. The reality is more and more people will be using their phones for everything vs. their computers. That—

Utility2Utility++City of Modesto

“By no means are

we experts in mobile

payments. We’re

experts in delivering

water service.”

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29

coupled with the cost savings—makes our mobile customer contingent extremely important.

HOW HAS MOBILE CHANGED WITHIN THE CITY IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS?

SEWELL: It’s more popular, for sure. People whip out their mobile phones for everything these days. We expect the trend to keep growing because (1) getting a mobile phone has become easier and more accessible, (2) more and more companies (even the small-est merchants) are starting to offer ways for consumers to take care of their tasks (for example, paying a bill) on mobile phones. So, it’s getting to be a bigger and bigger priority for us—not to mention, we are very close to Silicon Valley and can see the trend happening all around.

HOW WILL IT CHANGE IN THE NEXT FIVE?

SEWELL: I think it will extend beyond much more than your water bill. Cities like Modesto are starting to think about mobile payments for things like parking tickets and licenses.

HOW ARE YOU TYING MOBILE PAYMENTS TO OTHER ASPECTS OF THE BUSINESS OUTSIDE OF CUSTOMER SERVICE?

SEWELL: Besides customer service, there are some very real advantages for our business. There’s the cost savings that comes with mobile payment processing versus traditional payment methods (i.e., in-person or mail-in payments, phone payments, etc.). Shifting to mobile also takes us closer to a paperless billing envi-ronment. Our finance team is a big supporter.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OTHERS CITIES THAT DON’T CURRENTLY SEE THE VALUE IN MOBILE TECH, MOBILE PAYMENTS AND HIGH-LEVEL OPTIONS TO CONNECT WITH CONSUMERS?

SEWELL: I would encourage them to do a quick analysis of who is using mobile devices in their area. I think they’ll be surprised. People are forgoing computers for mobile devices completely now. Sooner or later, mobile will be the only channel. Utility companies have limited opportunities to engage with customers. Mobile is relatively easy to get off the ground, and the value that you get back is exponential.

9:45 AM

< Notes


customer communications

& mobility.

TO DO:

Energy Central’s

Smart Cities 2015

May 12-13, 2015

Charlotte, North Carolina

http://smartcities.

energycentral.com

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IT INSIGHTS

IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE THAT THE SMART THERMOSTAT

industry is heating up. According to Navigant Research, nearly 32 million smart thermostats will be installed worldwide by the year 2020. It is forecasted that global revenue from smart thermostats will grow from $85.5 million in 2013 to $1.4 billion in 2020.

As smart thermostats become more ubiquitous, this connected technology will play a massive role in increasing energy savings in the home. It also means the utility industry is poised for significant change, providing better connected technology to improve customer relationships and ultimately meet aggressive load reduction goals.

Why smart thermostats?

In a typical U.S. home, heating and cooling accounts for more than half of the energy use, making it the largest energy expense. With smart thermostat tech-nology, utilities can help their customers reduce their energy bills.

One of the newest thermostats to enter the market is a smarter wi-fi thermo-stat with remote sensor (full disclosure: ecobee has one on the market called ec-obee3). This thermostats measures temperature and occupancy in multiple locations, which results in increased comfort when homeowners are at home and energy savings when they’re away. In addition, homeowners can monitor and control their thermostat anytime and from anywhere, using their smart-phones, tablets or computers.

A thermostat-connected web portal may also provides valuable insights on how much energy is conserved each month and lets homeowners make more in-formed decisions about their energy use. According to the Smart Grid Research Consortium (SGRC), utilities can potentially reap large savings by implementing smart thermostat programs that take advantage of increased functionality and optimize control for customers.

Utilities across North America are partnering with smart thermostat makers on a number of different initiatives, with a particular focus on peak demand management through demand-response programs. One example of a popular initiative is the Bring Your Own Thermostat program. In this model, customers are incentivized for purchasing a smart thermostat and participating in demand-response events that allow customers to learn how to better manage their energy use, while ensuring the reliability of the energy grid when demand is at its highest.

When choosing thermostats which are the best op-

tions for Bring Your Own Thermostat programs, always look for OpenADR 2.0b certification. OpenADR 2.0b is a standard-based communication protocol that helps improve energy savings and ease of participation in demand-response programs.

Utility program success with

smart thermostats

Austin Energy is the eighth-largest publicly owned electric utility in the U.S. and provides electricity to more than 420,000 customers. It was one of the first utility companies to get on board with the Bring Your Own Thermostat demand-response program when it launched its Power Partner Thermostat program in 2012.

Now in its second year, the program helps customers reduce energy use when it matters most–during high-use periods. Customers can choose to enroll in the program and install their own smart thermostat. Once installed, Austin Energy provides a rebate of

$85 as well as additional energy-saving opportu-nities on their monthly bill. Participation is voluntary and customers can choose to opt in or out of a demand-response activity when necessary.

According to a recent poll taken by Parago Energy, 87 percent of util-

Smart thermostat market heats up

++Why utilities need to embrace new connected technologyBy Stuart Lombard & Debbie Kimberly

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: connected home devices, energy auditing and customer mobility.

“As these thermostats

become more ubiqui-

tous, this connected

tech will play a massive

role in energy savings.”

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31

ity customers said they would take part in a demand-response program if the incentives were right, includ-ing prepaid and cash-back rewards. In this particular rebate program by Austin Energy, the company has seen customers install smart thermostats at rates beyond expecta-tion. In the first year of the program, Austin Energy was able to meet their enrollment goals within the first two months.

Participation continues to increase, making the Power Partner Thermostat program an attractive replacement for Austin Energy’s early version of its residential demand-response program. The early version of the program relied on communication through a one-way radio signal making it dif-ficult for Austin Energy to confirm

the number of active thermostats in the field or measure energy savings dur-ing a demand-response event. With new smart thermostats, Austin Energy can precisely determine the number of participating thermostats and track energy savings during demand-response events.

By allowing customers to participate in demand-response events, Wi-Fi thermostats play a significant role in helping Austin Energy achieve its aggres-sive demand-response goal of 150 MW by 2020. The program also supports its customers by improving system reliability and reducing transmission expenses and fuel charges billed to the customer.

Smart thermostats have given Austin Energy customers greater control of their comfort and savings. When their customers choose to participate in the demand-response events, they are helping to delay the need to acquire additional peaking power and are helping to prevent unplanned outages.

It is more important than ever for utility companies to fully realize the advan-tages of implementing smart thermostat programs. As this kind of technology becomes the norm across homes in North America, utilities must get board now to improve their customers’ comfort, energy savings and ultimately meet today’s massive demand on the energy grid.

Stuart Lombard is CEO of ecobee, and Debbie Kimberly is the vice president of customer energy solutions at Austin Energy.

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IT INSIGHTS

WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT SMART CITIES FROM BRAZIL OR EUROPE or even the Middle East, but the City of Ponca City may be one of the smartest cities you know, despite being a town of less than 30,000 people

in the American Midwest. In the last few years, they’ve completed a project that connected all city departments and utilities via fiber. Then they ex-tended that to allow a wi-fi option to all city residents. (According to ABB Tropos, the City of Ponca City is their most heavily used network, clocking in at a terabyte a day.)

For this installment of Utility2Utility, we talk with Craige Baird, technol-ogy services director with the City of Ponca City, Oklahoma, about this project.

TELL US A LITTLE HISTORY OF THIS PROJECT. WHAT MADE THE CITY DE-PARTMENTS COME TOGETHER TO BUILD THIS NETWORK?

BAIRD: We started by running fiber to city departments and connecting outlying departments by point-to-point wireless. There was a request to run fiber to other entities like schools, hospitals, businesses, casinos, etc. So it was decided to connect Ponca City with fiber. City departments have always worked on projects that would benefit the community and this was no exception. Still, today, departments come together to install fiber to new businesses or connect up a customer who has had a bad experience with other providers.

ANY MAJOR EVENTS OR GOOD NET-WORK STORIES ABOUT THE PROCESS YOU’D LIKE TO TELL ME? FUNNY? PAINFUL? INSPIRING?

BAIRD: Our electric crews hang the fiber for us. It is about 95 percent aerial. They have gained valuable expertise over the years. We have trained many other Oklahoma

Utility2Utility++City of Ponca City, Oklahoma

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: citywide wi-fi and separating public and private data.

TO DO: Energy Central’s Smart Cities 2015 May 12-13, 2015 Charlotte, North Carolinahttp://smartcities.energy-central.com

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33

communities on how to install fiber optics so they, too, can help improve their own communities. So we feel we have helped Oklahoma as a whole to become an area ready for the next big technology demand.

TELL US SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR NETWORK AND THE FREE WI-FI SERVICE YOU’VE LAYERED ON TOP OF IT. WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE THIS CONFIGURATION?

BAIRD: We wanted a network de-livery method that would allow our departments and public safety access to large amounts of data that just could not be handled by a cellular device. It needed to be mobile, and we wanted the data to be obtainable from almost anywhere at any time. After testing the wi-fi, it was seen to handle much more throughput than thought. So, it was decided by the mayor and commissioners to give away the excess bandwidth and al-low citizens free internet—requiring no sign up or special devices.

ANY HURDLES TO OVERCOME WITH THIS CONFIGURATION?

BAIRD: The main hurdle was to separate the private city data from the public data while keeping it encrypted and segmented—but also still allow it to flow as rapidly as possible back to city servers and data stores. We were able to create two completely different networks run-ning side by side on the same Tropos radios and Cisco switches. It’s secure and encrypted but freely accessible using standard devices.

WHAT BENEFITS DO THE COOPERATING CITY DEPARTMENTS SEE? BAIRD: About 75 percent of our city employee workforce is in the field. Many

of them relied on work orders, maps, reports, data, etc., from a computer system back in their offices. Now all of them can access any of that data in the field requiring very few (or no) trips back to their offices. Plus, we’ve seen an increase in positions that carry iPads or laptops to access that information in the field. Employees who have worked for 25 years in the field and never touched a com-puter are now using these devices to enhance our services to our residents.

AND THE PEOPLE OF PONCA CITY? WHAT BENEFITS DO THEY SEE? BAIRD: Residents who could never afford Internet now can. Many comput-

ers are donated and others are given as special presents, too. So we see an increase of the technology in our residents’ hands, young and old. We have labs set up in the library and senior centers where they can use devices to not only access the Internet but learn skills. We have wi-fi in both locations so they can bring their own devices and learn or use them not only on-site but anywhere they go when they leave.

Our schools went through a couple years of trials and now issue wire-less devices to all 8th graders and older to use as a research item. Grants have been awarded based on the public access of the Internet available anywhere. We have 17,500 unique daily users using 1.5 TB of Internet a day now. Even at the lowest cost of Internet, that puts 3.9 million dollars back into their pockets to spend in our retail stores and local businesses.

You see very young children with devices everywhere in town, using them to learn or to entertain themselves, which gets them ready for a future that is going to be very technology heavy.

ABB TROPOS TELLS US THIS IS THEIR MOST HEAVILY USED NETWORK, MOV-ING MORE THAN 1 TB A DAY. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS?

BAIRD: We have always had several technology-based businesses here, which, in turn, makes for homes with heavy technology users. I hope that within a couple more years we see the number of devices connected exceed the number of residents living in Ponca City.

TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR FUTURE PLANS FOR WI-FI AND THE CITY. BAIRD: Items to help extend this service—and maybe someday access

requires no wires to achieve the delivery we desire and our residents demand today. Cellular always wants to be that mechanism, but everyone loses faith after a big crash or overload of some kind. Someday, we should see a merge of the two networks, and then maybe bliss will be reached. Many of the cellular providers are using these frequencies for data delivery now. We continue to give ABB Tropos enhancement suggestions to their products as we have done in the past. I think the users in the field far outweigh what can be thought of in a lab. Real world scenarios come up with the best usage of any technology.

ANY ADVICE TO OTHER CITIES LOOKING INTO A SIMILAR PROJECT? BAIRD: First decide what you want to deliver. Then look at your audience

and decide the best mechanism to achieve that delivery. Then research those mechanisms and decide which level you can afford (as well as what your audience can afford to pay for). Then decide if you can support it and keep it going and growing. If those items can’t be met, then back off and let some-one else do it.

“This small Oklahoma

city has a heavily used

network, clocking in at

a terabyte a day.”

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INTERNATIONAL

THE SMART CITY IS A SOMEWHAT NEBULOUS CONCEPT. THERE

is no absolute definition, but rather a process or series of steps by which cities become more livable, resilient and able to respond quicker to new chal-lenges.

In its latest report, IHS Technology defines a smart city as one that has deployed, or is currently piloting the integration of, information and com-munications technology (ICT) solutions across three or more sectors—en-ergy, transport, physical infrastructure, governance and safety/security functions—to improve efficiency, manage complexity and enhance citizen quality of life. IHS expects there will be at least 88 smart cities worldwide by 2025, up from 21.

IHS forecasts annual investment on smart city projects will rise from the current $1 billion to $12 billion in 2025. Other smart city forecasts tend to be broader in their definitions. Navigant Research forecasts global smart city technology revenue will grow from $8.8 billion annually in 2014 to $27.5 bil-lion in 2023, while Frost & Sullivan expects the global smart city market will

be valued at $1.565 trillion in 2020.While most analysts say a city

with smart meters does not alone make it smart, the European Union (EU) classifies 240 of the 468 cities in the 28-nation bloc with 100,000+ inhabitants and at least one smart city characteristic as smart cities. The European Commission identi-fies Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland), Manchester (UK) and Vienna (Austria) as “the most successful” in the EU.

Due to binding environmental targets, there tends to be a green focus in Europe when augment-ing existing infrastructure with smart technology. In Copenhagen, for example, sensors are attached to bicycles to detect CO and NOx levels, while in Spain’s Santander, soil-humidity sensors detect when land requires irrigating to reduce unnecessary use of water.

In January, the Commission

A look at smart cities around the world

++Europe, Asia very activeBy Tim Probert

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35

stimulate economic development and eradicate poverty. This strategy involves at least 54 smart city projects, and includes cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Wuhan, which are aiming to build smart cities during the 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015).

In Japan, the national government has selected 13 locations for its Eco-Model Cities (EMC) scheme. This includes four major cities—Kitakyushu, Kyoto, Sakai, Yokohama—plus nine further small and medium cities.

Yokohama’s smart city project, for example, includes 165,600 households focused on large-scale introduction of renewable energy through home energy management systems. One of the smaller EMCs, Toyota, has introduced a plug-in hybrid car-sharing system and solar-powered recharging infrastructure, as well as a tax break whereby citizens who build smart houses or convert their cur-rent residences into eco-friendly ones are exempted from half of the municipal real estate tax for three years.

Perhaps the world’s most famous smart city is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and its James Bond-esque mission control Centro de Operações Preifetura do Rio de Janeiro (COR). COR monitors the municipality’s 30 departments and private suppliers in a single monitoring room, tracking real-time conditions in the city via 1,000 traffic and surveillance cameras.

Other cities have similar projects. Madrid has one control room for police, fire and ambulance services, for example. But none are as big as Rio’s. Built by IBM for $5.4 million, an 80-meter wall monitor is broken into a grid of status graphs, meteorological reports, live video feeds from the cameras, plus Google satellite and street maps. This smart map enables 120 layers of information, such as the present location of every bus in the city.

Progress in Africa is slower than elsewhere, but notable projects include Kenya’s Konza Techno City, 60 km away from Nairobi in the so-called “Silicon Savannah,” plus Hope City in Ghana. Meanwhile, IBM is establish-ing its twelfth global laboratory in Nairobi and has included South Africa’s Durban and Nigeria’s Abuja in its Smarter Cities Challenge.

Of course, it is inherently easier to coordinate a smart city from scratch. Notable greenfield sites include Songdo City, a $20-40 billion development for a 500,000-person city built on reclaimed land by the Yellow Sea in South Korea; Masdar City in Abu Dhabi; and PlanIT Valley, a $10 billion project near Porto planned to accommodate 225,000 citizens in an area the size of downtown Boston. While some emerging countries are developing smart cities from the ground up, Armenia is perhaps stretching the game too far by branding its entire nation as a “Smart Country.”

Tim Probert is a London-based freelance writer with a focus on European power markets and new smart grid technology. He helms Millicent Media and can be reached at [email protected].

launched its Grow Smarter program, demonstrating 12 smart city solu-tions, including systems to opti-mize transport management and integrate renewables with urban power grids. The five-year program is being driven by three ‘lighthouse’ cities—Stockholm, Barcelona and Cologne—that have five ‘follower’ cities—Graz (Austria), Suceava (Romania), Valetta (Malta), Porto (Portugal), Cork (Ireland) —which will learn from these demonstration areas.

While the combined Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region represents the largest number of smart cities at present, within a de-cade Asia-Pacific will take the lead, says IHS. By 2025, Asia-Pacific will account for 32 smart cities, Europe will have 31, and the Americas will contribute 25.

India is perhaps the one to watch. In July, India’s new Prime Minister Nahendra Modi announced plans

to build 100 smart cities, including seven along the $90 billion Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor, using a mixture of public–private partner-ships (80%) and publicly funded in-frastructure investment (20%). One city already under construction is the $10 billion Gujarat International Finance Tec-City.

China, too, is pursuing a smart cities strategy as part of its efforts to

“Yokohama’s smart city

project includes 165,600

households focused on

large-scale introduction

of renewable energy

through HEM systems.”

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concept: What countries are at the top of the smart cities push?


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INTERNATIONAL

THE HOTTEST THING IN THE ELECTRIC CAR MARKET THESE DAYS isn’t actually a car. It’s not an EV but an EH—and electric hog.

Last summer, Harley-Davidson announced LiveWire, the first electric Harley- Davidson. While it’s still in the research phase and there are no solid plans to put the LiveWire on the market anytime soon, it still made us curious. After all, having Harley on board the EV world lends it a sexier cache than any ol’ run-of-the-mill electric car.

So, we knocked on Harley’s door and talked to Jeff Richlen, LiveWire’s chief engineer, about where LiveWire came from—and where it’s going.

Richlen said that LiveWire is really all about gauging customer reactions and learning what people expect from an electric motorcycle that’s also an authentic Harley-Davidson, which might end up being a longer list of expectations than normal. After all, Harley fans can be avid or rabid, depending on their mental image of a Harley, their vision of the perfect bike.

“Our core riders know the brand better than anyone else, and they trust us to design and build the best motorcycles in the world. We believe they will recognize and appreciate nods to Harley’s design history in the Project LiveWire motorcycles,” he said.

Richlen and company are taking LiveWire on a U.S. tour. It started with a trip down Route 66 and is ending with stops at about 30 dealerships. The U.S. tour was winding down by the end of 2014, but, at each stop, they gathered more—and better—feedback.

LiveWire is even offered as a simulated riding experience on Jumpstart. The physical tour itself moves on to Canada and Europe in 2015.When I asked why bring out an electric motorcycle now, Richlen replied,

“Why not? America at its best has always been about reinvention and multicul-tural diversity,” and they see LiveWire as part of that tradition.

It’s curious to note here that during this interview and during more PR released around LiveWire’s launch, nothing much focused on the electric part of this motorcycle. There were no talks of shaking up the EV market (except us here, of course) and little discussion of the actual mechanics of the bike itself.

Talking to Harley about LiveWire(ing) the EV market

++ Is the world ready for an electric hog?By Kathleen Wolf Davis

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: EVs and grid integration.

Instead, Harley’s senior vice president likened the LiveWire to “the first electric guitar—not an electric car.” Why make that distinction? Why push toward rock and roll and away from the electric vehicle industry?

Richlen circled back again to that idea, focusing on the bike being “an

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expression of individuality and iconic style that just happens to be electric” and noting that the electric motor itself looks like a normal Harley-Davidson motor. (It also sounds like one, too, which is interesting since one of the touted benefits of an electric vehicle is how quiet it can be on the road. According to Richlen, though, LiveWire does sound more “fighter jet” than traditional engine; it has unique elements.)

In fact, Harley has been quite care-

ful in making this electric motorcycle mimic, in many aspects, the more gas-guzzling variety—all to give riders that distinctive Harley experience. It makes me wonder: Is that a market option that electric vehicle manufacturers are actually missing out on? Has Harley hit upon a nostalgia/comfort factor that could play big in a market still on the fringes of both the power and automo-tive industries?

As for the details of charging the LiveWire, it’s actually pretty simple (despite being experimental and all). While it doesn’t, of course, plug easily into a wall outlet or anything, it does take normal Level 2 chargers (which you can buy online, even on Amazon). So, basically, it powers up on 240 v, the same as your large home appliances, but takes about 3.5 hours to fully charge.

For more delicate details, you’ll have to visit Richlen and the LiveWire team on the road (or online). They would love feedback from the engineers and insiders in the power industry, he said. So, go take a ride and add details and questions on technology, charging and infrastructure into their customer viewpoints and feedback. Just pencil them into the post-ride survey at any tour stop.

Feedback from customers of all sorts is key to LiveWire’s purpose. It all makes for a better ride (and a better product) in the end, according to Richlen. It all makes for a better LiveWire—whenever it actually goes on sale, anyway. And, if LiveWire represents the future of electric transportation, it may make for a better overall EV as well, not just a better EH.

“Harley has been

quite careful in making

this electric motorcycle

mimic, in many aspects,

the more gas-guzzling

variety.”

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BY THE NUMBERS

THE UNITED STATES, ALONG WITH THE REST OF THE DEVELOPED world, has relied on combustion the past century to drive the economy and

meet societal needs for food, services, commodity goods and mobility. The ex-amples are pervasive, spanning from the generation of electricity to the propul-sion of automobiles, trucks, buses, railroads, aircraft and ships.

With the recognition of the finite resources of fossil fuels, the geopolitics asso-ciated with petroleum, and the need to curtail the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), attention is being directed to environmentally sensitive alternatives to combustion that will achieve higher efficiencies and operate with non-petro-leum and biofuels that are domestically sourced.

In addition to GHGs, combustion systems also emit “criteria pollutants,” the emission of which degrades the quality of air in urban environments with eye-stinging gases, small inhalable particles, and an aerosol-dense haze. Even the most advanced combustion controls, while effective in reducing emissions over the last four decades, are unable to reduce criteria pollutant emissions to levels required to protect the public health. Ideally, an alternative technology to combustion would emit virtually zero criteria pollutants.

The United States has been a leader in advancing clean energy alternatives to combustion that achieve these ideals. For example, as a result of federal funding in combination with private investments dating back to the 1970s, commercially viable fuel cell technology has emerged with celebrated high efficiency, an accompanying reduction in greenhouse gases, and virtually zero emission of criteria pollutants. When operated with natural gas, fuel cells are the most energy-efficient and environmentally sensitive means to produce electricity. When operated on a biogas, fuel cells generate a stable output of renewable, carbon- neutral electricity around the clock and complement, thereby, other renewable resources such as solar and wind that are inherently intermittent.

Four other attributes of stationary fuel cells are notable. First, in contrast to many combustion sys-

What fuel cells bring to the power equation

++More companies push leading market applications By Scott Samuelsen

tems, fuel cells require virtually zero water in the generation of electricity. Second, fuel cells are quiet and well suited for distributed generation (DG) at locations such as hospitals, universities, hotels, office buildings, and homes. Third, fuel cells have high residual heat energy in the ex-haust, which can be captured in DG applications and used for heating or cooling, thereby further reduc-ing GHGs. Fourth, fuel cell systems deployed as distributed resources alleviate the need for investment in

additional electrical transmission lines.

Today, stationary fuel cells are commer-cially installed across a wide variety of market applications including universities, hospitals, data centers, water re-source recovery facilities, and at leading companies

“Fuel cells require

almost zero water

for power generation,

are quiet, have heat

energy for capture and

alleviate some need for

line investment.”

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concepts: distributed generation and alternate power applications.

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such as Verizon, AT&T, Wal-Mart, Coca Cola, eBay, Federal Express and Google. In California, in excess of 100 MW are deployed. As the track record of success continues to grow in California and widen across market sectors, a portfolio of customers and utilities are following suit through-out the U.S. and the world. In South Korea, for example, installations are approaching 300 MW. Manufacturers participating in these markets with commercial product include FuelCell Energy, Bloom Energy, and Doosan Fuel Cells America. Going forward, LG Fuel Cells and GE Fuel Cells are preparing commercial launches.

In parallel to 1 MW-class installa-tions, large fuel cell plants are being commissioned. Referred to as TIGER (Transmission Integrated Grid Energy Resource) Stations, recent examples include a 15-MW deploy-ment in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and a 59-MW deployment in South Korea. TIGER Stations are filling a void for environmentally sensitive and efficient grid-support attributes on the utility side of the meter.

The increasing interest in fuel cell systems is associated with the match of fuel cell technology to meeting electricity system and environmen-tal goals throughout the country, and the world. Instead of focusing solely on addressing one energy challenge at a time (e.g., reducing GHGs, reducing particulate emis-sions, installing more renewable power, reducing water demand in the power sector, increasing energy reliability), fuel cells address these challenges concurrently and provide, thereby, an attractive and viable alternative to combustion power generation systems.

Scott Samuelsen, Ph.D., is director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center and professor of mechanical, aerospace and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine.

types of fuel cells: metal hydride,

electro-galvanic, DFAFC, zinc-air battery, microbial, UMFC, regenerative, direct borohydride, alkaline, direct methanol, reformed methanol, direct ethanol, PEM, RFC, phosphoric acid, solid acid, mol-ten carbonate, TSOFC, protonic ceramic, direct carbon, planar solid oxide, enzymatic biofuel, magne-sium-air (Wikipedia)

23:

estimated electricity generated from stationary fuel cells systems worldwide since 1-1-2013 (fuelcells.org)

2,446,000+ MWh:

fuel cell power shipped in 2012 (fuelcells.org)

120+ MW:

range of system sizes for stationary fuel cells (NREL)

5 kW-2.8 MW:

1838:date that first crude fuel cell was created

by William Grove (Wikipedia)

1939:date of first successful

stationary fuel cell created by Francis

Thomas Bacon (Wikipedia)

1.4 MW:size of the fuel

cell power plant at University of California, Irvine Medical Center

(NFCRC)

average fuel cell efficiency in a combined heat & power system (fuelcells.org)

85%:

170+ MW:installed fuel cell

capacity in the U.S. (fuelcells.org)

2014 cost status for automotive fuel cell

system (DOE)

$55/kW:

$30/kW:ultimate target for

automotive fuel cell system—expected to be reached after

2020 (DOE)

Wal-Mart stores powered by fuel cells (fuelcells.org)

35:

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OUT THE DOOROUT THE DOOR

ANNE PRAMAGGIORE, THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT AND CEO of Chicago utility ComEd, has spent some time focusing on a very impor-

tant project at her company, one that could change the face of her utility—name-ly, an icebox derby.

Over six weeks this summer, Pramaggiore and girls from around Chicago spent Wednesday nights working on race vehicles constructed from recycled fridges. Each week represented a different task, but the end goal wasn’t really the checkered flag, it was to get all those girls interested in science careers—perhaps even a utility-based one.

“Our industry has always been driven by technology,” Pramaggiore added. “What’s different now—and what will be different well into the future—is that the technology is changing very fast. It’s no longer that 100-year-old tech that we’re used to. So, our ability to innovate and deploy tech is our life’s blood. We need the smartest people in our workforce—like these young ladies.”

Pramaggiore often visited the girls as they worked on their electric derby vehicles, and when she chatted with them about their favorite parts of this pro-gram, she heard the same response from almost every girl: They loved being able

to use power tools.“I asked at least 15 of them several

times, and they all said ‘power tools.’ Every time. It just goes to show you that we all underestimate the breadth of girls’ interests, especially in what are labeled typically male areas like power tools,” Pramaggiore said.

ComEd’s icebox derby—and that new love of power tools—all came to be out of the utility’s community work and women’s history month. (Pramaggiore called community work like the derby “part of the DNA of this company.”) Typically, Pramaggiore noted, they’d have a panel of women talk to celebrate women’s history, but, this year, they wanted to get girls in-volved, to get more hands-on. And the derby was born. (And the derby was so successful and so popular, it will continue, she added.)

The derby took a lot of internal and external work. (During the compe-tition, each team was paired with ComEd employees from engineers to safety personnel—all of whom, Pramaggiore said, were incredibly

ComEd brings local girl power

++With old fridges & lots of face timeBy Kathleen Wolf Davis

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excited to participate—so much so that the positive atmosphere permeated throughout the com-pany.) ComEd also sat down with friends and partners to come up with this challenge, which pairs the utility’s general message of energy efficiency (hence the whole recycled fridges angle) with customization and cultivating STEM in local girl culture.

One of ComEd’s partners in this project, Girls4Science, has a life’s work of cultivating STEM in local girl culture.

Founded in 2009 by execu-tive director Jackie Lomax, Girls4Science, Chicago’s only all-girl science initia-tive, came to be because of Lomax’s then 10-year-old daughter who wanted to be a dentist (and still does). In looking around the city for ways to keep her daughter interested in a science career, Lomax noticed a dearth of girl-focused science pro-grams. And Girls4Science was born.

While neither Lomax nor Pramaggiore have STEM-based back-grounds, it became vitally important to both to keep STEM options open for girls today.

The partnership of ComEd and Girls4Science (along with a long list of other supporters) in this derby became a way for them to lead by example.

“This program gave these 30

girls the opportunity to have a hands-on experience that was fun and challenging,” Pramaggiore said. “To build a chassis, install an electric motor, to learn to read blueprints. It allowed them to have fun with STEM.”

Lomax added, “The derby really engaged the students’ critical thinking, and they became passionate about the work. One team expressed how they didn’t take a dinner break in order to perfect their steering wheel, and a parent told me how the ride home had changed with the derby. Now, instead of talking about TV, they talk about acceleration and the science behind transporta-tion.”

Lomax revealed that this specific passion about their derby entries has already translated into a gen-eral passion for science in many of the girls, some of whom have expressed interest in autoshop classes, becoming pilots and even working for NASA.

“These girls are declaring occupations that they may not have considered possible earlier, and that’s a

great positive to come from this derby,” Lomax said. “This is really helping to change the mindset and celebrate STEM.”

Pramaggiore added that, on top of what the girls get directly from the derby, there’s an additional benefit of its visibility and its place as a symbol.

“People can start thinking about what they can be when they see others doing this as well,” she said. “Women are 24% of STEM jobs but 50% of the workforce. Seeing other girls doing this ‘science stuff ’ opens up people’s minds to opportu-nities. It says, ‘You can achieve this, too.’”

That message—and the derby itself—was readily visible on social media where the ComEd mentors, the partners and the girls themselves regularly tweeted on the derby’s progress and challenges with #Empower.

Both Lomax and Pramaggiore hope that empowerment and visibility will carry on well past the final derby results, especially for the girls who participated.

Pramaggiore told all the girls they are the workforce of the future. “These girls proved to me that they have what I think is the necessary skill set

for the future: They learn well. That’s the playbook for success,” she added. “And I also told them, when they come back after college with engineering and sci-ence degrees, to knock on our door. We need them.”

9:45 AM

< Notes

Smart cities concept: STEM, workforce engagement & finding tech creatives to run the future show.


Make the

new city yours.

Finishedoursmartcitiesissuebutstillhavequestions?

Plan+ahead+for+changes+and+learn+more++about+the+disruption+that+is+smart+cities++

at+this+upcoming+conference.

EnergyCentral’sSmartCities2015

May+12-13,+2015++

Charlotte,+North+Carolina+

http://smartcities.energycentral.com

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