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New strategic resource: data

Some perspective...data is a critical new strategic resource. And knowing how to effectively access, analyze and use data is crucial to understanding the grid and engaging its customers. Smart meter communications need to be more relevant and offer information precisely when utilities and their facility managers need it. Utilities/facility managers have a tremendous opportunity to create value out of immediacy – to be ready with relevant services and information in the context of the moment.

 

The longest day of the year - summer solstice

Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year and signals the start of summer. We wish our employees, customers, partners and friends a wonderful summer - enjoy your vacations, great weather, pools, baseball games and everything else that goes along with the season.

Congratulations to Smart Energy Innovators Award Winners #smecon

Echelon presented GreenWave Reality and Streetlight.Vision with its 2012 Innovator of the Year awards. The Awards were presented at Echelon’s annual Smart Energy Conference held on June 12-15 in Budapest, Hungary.

The Echelon Innovator of the Year awards spotlight outstanding achievements and commitment in the areas of technology expertise and service specialization that result in new energy efficient services for customers. Congratulations to GreenWave Reality and Streetlight.Vision!

Here's a snapshot with (left-to-right) Tomas Sørensen of GreenWave Reality and Michael Anderson, Echelon SVP of Worldwide Markets, and Ron Sege, Echelon Chairman and CEO.

Here's a snapshot with (left-to-right) Christophe Orceau of Streetlight.Vision and Michael Anderson, Echelon SVP of Worldwide Markets, and Ron Sege, Echelon Chairman and CEO.

The era of “Big Data”

Given the data explosion most organizations, including utilities, are facing, there is a recognized need for more sophisticated analytical capabilities.

Smart meters from Echelon and from its Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP) meter partners worldwide can now be upgraded in the field to function as multi-parameter grid sensors, in addition to serving as billing devices. These meters are the industry’s first smart meters that separate billing data from grid power quality data – so that they can be read on independent time cycles. By separating these data types, the utility can collect relevant power quality information on an as-required basis, instead of collecting large volumes of billing and operational data from each meter on every read cycle. This can enable the utility's communications infrastructure and analytics applications to minimize the volume of data collected and processed, while increasing its usefulness – ultimately improving service reliability at lower cost. Read more: http://www.echelon.com/company/news-room/2012/efficient-grid-analytics.htm

 

The big picture: the intersection of smart cities, smart buildings and the smart grid #smecon

International representatives from the U.S., Asia and Europe - Peter Christensen of GreenWave Reality, Simon Loeffler of Gorlitz, Christophe Orceau of Streetlight.Vision, Sakorn Payakkarueng of PEA Laurent Schmitt of Alstom, and Lee Nam Seok of ADIC - joined our Varun Nagaraj on stage to discuss smart cities, smart buildings and the smart grid. The panel discussed the opportunities and challenges of convergence, how they saw the grid, cities and buildings coming together in their regions and what will be the benefits for consumers, utilities and society as a whole in the future.

 

ESNA: Making standards available to grow the ecosystem #smecon

Our Ron Sege took a moment to let us snap this photo of him and Harry Crijns, the secretary general of ESNA (Energy Services Network Association), who is attending Echelon's Smart Energy Conference to promote the application of advanced energy management systems – including AMR/AMM and Open Smart Grid Protocol (OSGP), and its value added services – to build and expand interoperability standards for utility networks.

 

The edge of the grid and the rise of low voltage distribution automation

Surging demands, unpredictable generation from renewable sources, volatile energy costs, and the emergence of electric vehicles are all real factors threatening to cause grid instability. To continue to deliver high-quality and reliable service, utilities around the world want to know how to better anticipate and diagnose potential problems at the edge faster. At Echelon's Smart Energy Conference, Poul Berthelsen of NRGi, Oliver Bustall of GridKey, Bastien Fischer of Oracle, Per Joergensen of Eltel, Marcos Rizzo of ELO, and Antonio Tortolero of Telvent joined our Michael Anderson on stage to discuss the promise of low voltage distribution automation, identifying real problems at the edge today.

 

LG CNS Keynote@Smart Energy Conference: opportunities with advanced analytics for the realization of a smart green city #smecon

To achieve smarter, more energy efficient cities, an immense amount of data is produced and has become the source of many new opportunities and challenges. LG CNS was a keynote at Echelon’s Smart Energy conference today identifying the issues, and presenting effective solutions and core competencies for the realization of smart green cities and buildings. Dr. Keunhyoung Lee of LG CNS kicked off his session with this great video.

 

Echelon kicks off its Smart Energy Conference in Budapest

Echelon's customers, partners and executives just finished up their first day at the Smart Energy Conference in Budapest, discussing the growing business value of a comprehensive smart grid infrastructure that includes smart metering, smart cities and buildings, and smart street lighting. This year, executives from ADIC, Alstom, ELO, Eltel, Fortum, GreenWave Reality, Gorlitz, GridKey, LG CNS, NRGi, Oracle, PEA, Philips, PMT, Streetlight.Vision, Telvent and many others have joined to share their experience and stories about their grid deployments. More updates to come…check back regularly. #smecon