Landis+Gyr Wins First Major British Smart Grid Deal

March 29, 2010

Smart-meter maker Landis+Gyr said Monday it won a deal to supply up to 1 million smart meters to British Gas customers in the United Kingdom’s first major smart -grid trial.

The smart-grid trial will install touch-screen displays inside British homes

The nation hopes to have all residential and business customers of its six major utilities connected to smart meters by the end of the decade.

The British Gas deal is among Europe’s largest. It also breaks new ground with a promise to release programming interfaces to third parties so that independent developers can create applications for consumer use, much as outside companies develop applications for Apple’s iPhone. Each home will be outfitted with an internal touch-screen display.

The trial is meant to offer utility customers the opportunity to manage their gas and electricity consumption by connecting to smart appliances, such as dishwashers or heating systems. By better scheduling the use of appliances for when they are needed or when power is less expensive, people can save money.

Landis+Gyr is already working on three small British trials, giving a leg up on future smart grid contracts.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Venture Capital Clean Tech Love Affair Is Maturing

February 8, 2010

U.S. venture firms are taking a more circumspect view of clean-tech investing. Less flash, more focus on profits.

That could lead to more start-ups trying to build businesses with less money.

According to a recent survey, substantial sums of money continue to flow into the industry. Ernst & Young reported Monday that $2.6 billion went into clean-tech start-ups last year, a noticeably more optimistic assessment than last month’s MoneyTree survey, which posted a figure of $1.9 billion. The higher sum suggests VCs were significantly more active last year than may have been thought.

The E&Y work also uncovered a second detail that didn’t show up in the MoneyTree study – which was conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.  While investment dollars fell 45 percent in the fourth quarter, the number of deals were up – 21 percent to 62. More deals, smaller sums of money per company, more room for profits.

The MoneyTree work found that the number of deals in the quarter fell to 47 and that overall dollars declined 58 percent.

It is hard to know which of the surveys is more accurate. But the prospect of venture capitalists funding more companies at lower dollar values is interesting to contemplate. It suggests funds are seeing clean-tech investing more like they see information-technology investing: put a little money in, expect a lot back.  This prospect may encourage more VCs to take part.

Of course the shift to small deals is due in substantial part to the maturing of solar start-ups. In recent years, these companies needed large sums of money for manufacturing plants, and VCs were eager to provide them. That cycle is winding down. New solar ventures still get money, but in small allotments to explore new technologies.

At the same time, venture interest in clean tech has shifted to energy efficiency. It is here that small investment sums can start companies eager to develop, for example, software for energy management.

In the fourth quarter, energy efficiency received more money than any other category of clean-tech investing: $253 million. That total was inflated by the $105 million investment in smart meter maker Silver Spring Network. By even without Silver Spring, 21 deals were done, about a third of the total.

As venture capitalists look toward 2010, expect to see more funds using the game plan of the past. Dole out money slowly. Spread it around. Find ways to make each dollar go further.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

California Expects to Have 17 Million Smart Meters In Place By 2012

February 4, 2010

California continues to expect 17 million smart meters to be installed across the state by 2012, despite complaints by some residents about higher electric bills and electromagnetic radiation.

By 2011, the meters will provide energy use data in real time, and, this year, data can be transmited to monitoring services, says CPUC's Aloke Gupta.

Twelve million of them will be electric meters and 5 million will be gas, said Aloke Gupta, senior energy analyst at the California Public Utilities Commission.

The smart meter rollout is part of a $4.6 billion state project designed to bring new capabilities and flexibility to the electric grid. Adding these features will be especially important if electric cars catch on in the state and the electricity demand grows from daily car recharging.

But in the past several months, some residents have complained of bills that increased after the meters were installed. A suit is already pending against utility PG&E. Others worried aloud at public hearings that the meters gave off electromagnetic radiation.

The meters are hoped to let residents better manage the energy use. By 2011, they will provide energy use data in real time, instead of after the present 24-hour delay, Gupta said at the Grid ComForum in Silicon Valley. By the end of this year, they will be able to transmit data to third party companies providing energy monitoring and conservation services.

All three of the state’s large utilities are involved to varying degrees. PG&E is to install 10 million meters and claims it now oversees the largest smart meter deployment in the world. Its network, however, is likely to become eclipsed in the next several years by China, which wants to install up to 40 million meters annually.

The meters, being made by GE and Landis+Gyr, with networks provided by Silver Spring Networks, have transmitters that can communicate not just with utilitie but to appliances inside a home. The “radio” into the home is not yet activated yet, says Kenneth Abreu, principal resource analyst at PG&E. It will be in a year or two, he says.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Intel Looking Cautiously At Smart Grid

September 23, 2009

The world’s largest chipmaker has been looking at the smart grid for about a year. But the slow speed of the market and hesitancy utilities have to swap out older equipment for new is giving it pause.

The smart grid is a mulit billion dollar opportunity for chipmakers.

The smart grid is a mulit billion dollar opportunity for chipmakers.

The smart grid offers a gargantuan opportunity for a company interested in finding new uses for its computer and consumer-electronics chips. Buildings consume about 40 percent of the nation’s power and are responsible for more than 40 percent of its CO2 emissions.

Clearly new ways of doing things need to be found. At the heart of this change is the need for grid devices to have more intelligence and therefore the ability to channel information and control to utility administrators and consumers. It is the ideal job for today’s powerful semiconductors.

But equipment in the grid is typically designed for a 10 to 20 years lifespan. That makes it difficult to quickly incorporate new generations of chips that come out every year or two.

At the same time, adopting technical standards is critical, says Lorie Wigle, general manager of Intel’s eco-technology program office.

Wigle says Intel has 20 people working on an opportunity that for chipmakers of all stripes (not just those making computer chips) could be billions of dollars. Part of the task so far has been to identify where chips might go. Smart substations, plug-in hybrids, in-home displays and renewable energy systems are just some of the spots she has earmarked.

But she is convinced the utility mindset must change. So far, utilities are focused on installing smart gear to reduce costs, putting in a smart meter, for instance, to eliminate the need for a meter reader to drive to a home.

They are not yet thinking of supplying information to consumers, she says. “A lot of the utility activities are moving a lot slower than we might like,” she adds.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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