What's up at Smart Energy International India, 2011

Smart Energy India- the premier energy conference in India, which echos the development of Smart Grid is all set to debut on November 14th, 2011 with a theme "Today's inter-operable solution for tomorrow's integrated grid." According to organizers, "Smart Energy International - India forms part of a global series of events that provides one of the most effective experiential forums available to the electricity utilities industry. Events take place in Australia, Middle East, USA, Canada, Asia and now India. They are an asset that presents you to international markets by connecting global buyers to sellers and people to people in the connected future worldwide! The conference presents Smart Energy India and World Meter Design Congress, which—together with the pre-conference on Smart Cities-will form a unique gathering of international and national experts and market leaders." 

The premier event will be attended by who's who of the industry including Sam Pitroda, adivsor to Prime Minister and convener, Smart Grid India Forum.  The two keynote speakers will present their views on following topics.

 India: Technological advancements and future goals

 By Honorable Mr. P. Umashankar, Secretary, Ministry of Power, Government of India

Interoperability: Tomorrow’s answer today

Mr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister and Convener, The Smart Grid India Forum

   Featured Speakers

• Mr. G. V. Balram, Chief General Manager, BESCOM
• Mr. R. K. Goyal, Principal Consultant, Tetratech
• Dr. M. V. Krishna Rao, Director, GECE
• Mr. Harsh Sharma, Vice President - Meters, BSES
• Dr. Rahul Tongia, Director, C-Step

   Key Sessions

• The current state of the Indian Grid – an insight into the transmission and distribution scenarios
• Green Power - Renewable energy Integration in the Smart Grid
• Interoperability in the smart grid – an introduction
• ICT for Smart Distribution Systems – an introduction
• Smart consumer policies for a smarter grid

Apart from the above key highlights, the additional and probably the most exciting thing this year has is Smart Grid technical study tour which will visit Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore providing participants a broader insights of Smart Energy opportunities in India. India intends to provide electricity to every household by 2012, which will require over $100 billion investment in new transmission , distribution, and other related infrastructure representing huge opportunity for investors, companies, and other stakeholders. 

For more program details, use the following links

Website: http://www.smartenergy-india.com

Event Brochure

Hot Summer, Power Stress, and Demand Response

1. Hot Summer, Power Stress, and Demand Response

The continuous sweltering heat across New England is increasing the demand for energy, which in-turn, is posing challenge for utility companies to generate more power increasing the cost and global warming. At the same time,  power line operators also have to manage the peak load on the already aging infrastructure, increasing the possibility of brown-outs and black-outs. That's where Demand Response and companies like EnerNOC steps in, which already have businesses on their roll for cutting their demands as per their pre-agreed terms during peak load time period.

2. Electric Cars are Cheaper to Drive : Power Companies

In Automobile sector, Electric car is the new buzz word. Companies like Tesla, Nissan, and Ford are leading the charge, whereas, Toyota, GM, and Mitsubishi are closely following them. Naturally, a question arises in one's mind, are these cars worth the hype?, how much it will cost to drive? According to survey conducted by Washington D.C based research group, it will cost $40 per month to drive EVs that is hardly a week's drive using gasoline.

3. The Rise of Information based Cleantech

So far, clean technologies had  majority investment geared towards solar panels, bio-fuels, wind-energy, and other green energies where heavy capital, efforts, and time were needed to bring the product into market. With the advent of Smart Grid these seems to be changing , it seems the internet of clean-tech is emerging now. Three information based segment, Disintermediation, Data as a service, and Automation are emerging as the next hot thing for CleanTech VCs.

4. How the Smart Grid will Change your life

 In the era of information age, where most of the information is just your finger-tip away, Energy is exception tot the rule. The old grid, which was designed way back in 20th century has not evolved with the change of time. With increasing population, growth in emerging market, scarce resources, and growing demand for energy is making a way for Smart Grid through which an average user will be able to access their energy usage on their finger-tips.

5. What Smart Grid means and doesn't mean for India

Smart Grid, which is amalgamation of many technologies, has diverse application and can drastically vary from one country to another. In the case for India, curtailing load, or managing peak load  and reducing theft is the primary driver. For example, Electric Vehicals are not scheme of things for Indian Smart Grid, Similarly theft is non-concern for developed countries. Green Energy, though a national strategic priority for India, may not be a top priority for Smart Grid Implementation. In India, where many parts of the country yet haven't had electricity, optimizing the usage at low cost is a strong driver. 

Interesting Smart Grid updates of the week

In the first of its kind, Smart Grid India has started covering interesting updates from across the internet-sphere for its readers. With the growth of Internet many of the important developments are happening on Blogs, Vlogs, and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Technorati, Mashups, and of course on other standard websites. More so often, when many of the information is repeated, It is hard to keep tab of important development. In this series, we intend to provide important Smart Grid Development of the week.

1) Cities that will have higher Electric Vehicle (EV) Penetration

Published by SmartGridNews, the Pike research report reveals which areas will have higher EV Penetration in the USA in the future.

2) How Smart Grid may help solve Solar's cost and control problem

Greenbiz.com published interesting article "how smart grid can resolve solar energy's cost problem". According to the report, cost and control seems to be major concern for Solar's deployment. Smart Grid, which can intelligently be used to manage the load by better prediction, distribution, and control will help solar energy maximize the resource utilization and thus will help reduce the overall cost.

3) More Data Management and less outage time

Published by Greentech media, it tells how customer when faced with Outages feel optimistic about Smart Grid solutions.

4) Europe is leading the other areas of the world in Smart Grid Planning

 Published by IEEE, provides very interesting insight about Europe's top-level planning of Smart Grid.

5) Slicing and Dicing Smart Grid Data

Another IEEE production gives interesting information of Smart Grid Data.