New study shows metering devices are electrically safe
BY LEN GARIS, Fire Chief of the City of Surrey
A new study by a Canadian university may help mitigate any lingering concerns about the fire safety of smart meters. “Revisiting the Safety of Smart Meter Installations in British Columbia”, released in September 2013 by the University of the Fraser Valley, investigates whether or not smart meters have been associated with an increase in residential fires...
Addressing concerns from the utility and end user’s perspective BY DAVID BOVANKOVICH, E-Mon The increasing sophistication of commercial and industrial devices and equipment continues to drive the critical need for clean, dependable, stable electric power. As such, power quality continues to gain...
Persuading skeptical consumers by answering the question: 'what’s in it for me?’ BY TIM WOLF, Itron The history of smart grid metering technology is replete with examples of unfounded fears, unsubstantiated claims, and urban legends that greet, and sometimes impede, the progress brought on...
Standardizing communication to achieve plug-and-play interoperability BY RYAN MALEY, ZigBee Alliance All over the world, there is increasing demand for standardizing communication in the Smart Grid. Electric utilities and their regulators are increasingly concerned with upgrading all aspects of the...
Leveraging AMI to improve grid reliability and outage response BY TIM WOLF, Itron Getting a handle on overall grid reliability and outage trends for the entire U.S. can be challenging. Despite generally high reliability numbers, power outages are occurring more frequently and the U.S. Department of...
In the past 100 years, customer interaction with electric utilities has not changed significantly. However, with the introduction of smart meters, customers are now able to sign up for new programs and access their electricity usage data. In early 2013, the Illinois Energy Infrastructure and...
Already, smart city technologies are strong in Europe and the Middle East. Now, cities all over North America are joining the smart cities movement as well. Once the journey begins, a city quickly realizes that it cannot become smart and sustainable without the help of its electric power utility....
The electric industry is making the transformation from a centralized, producer-controlled network to one that is less centralized and more consumer interactive. An automated, widely distributed energy delivery network, the Smart Grid, is characterized by a two-way flow of electricity and...
Leveraging AMI to improve grid reliability and outage response BY TIM WOLF, Itron Getting a handle on overall grid reliability and outage trends for the entire U.S. can be challenging. Despite generally high reliability numbers, power outages are occurring more frequently and the U.S. Department of...
Optimizing conservation benefits through AMI BY MELODY TOMKOW, Aztech Associates The conservation benefits of ‘real-time’ electricity consumption information provided by home energy monitors, also known as in-home displays, have been studied repeatedly over the past decade. Recent studies such...
Standardizing communication to achieve plug-and-play interoperability BY RYAN MALEY, ZigBee Alliance All over the world, there is increasing demand for standardizing communication in the Smart Grid. Electric utilities and their regulators are increasingly concerned with upgrading all aspects of the...
