Smart Grid Today Podcast

Paul Donahue is chairman of MelRok, a firm that built an energy IOT gateway, using patented technology that MelRok created, and that uses artificial intelligence in the cloud to learn from and control any of a myriad of distributed energy resources. We have been reporting recently on the firm and some big successes such as cutting 20% of energy use in a project for the University of California. Donahue explained how the firm got its start and what its technology is about and why it maybe should be much bigger than his firm can offer as the energy industry starts to really embrace change.

Hugo van Nispen, CEO of Bridge Energy Group, a consultancy and systems integrator for electric utilities that specializes in smart grid implementation. He spoke to us about his perspective on where the utility industry needs to focus to increase the value it can receive from using smart grid technology. His firm recently shared the results of its 2018 Bridge Index Utility Industry Grid Modernization Survey that reaches over 20,000 utility executives, managers, and engineers in North America. The survey found 73% of the firms reached are modernizing compared with 52% in the version of the survey published last year (Survey report: https://www.bridgeenergygroup.com/challenges-we-solve/industry-insights/).

Patrick Lazar is VP of engineering for FreeWave Technologies, a firm that for many years has specialized in industrial radio communications for a variety of industries including electric utilities and the smart grid, and he spoke to us about the exciting new grid edge sensing and computing his firm’s technology offers, including sophisticated processing of video in remote locations and programming of and creation of proprietary user apps that his firm’s system makes so easy, just about anyone can create an app without special training...

Mike Henchen, a manager on the electricity team at Rocky Mountain Institute or RMI, a very well respected sustainability research and consultancy organization. He joined us to talk about the details in a report RMI created for Vermont electric utility Green Mountain Power about a residential demand response program the utility developed that includes sophisticated use of home batteries for grid balancing and utility cost savings, and about how RMI was engaged to advise the utility on how to bring about the best possible outcomes with the program.

EnergyHub CEO Seth Frader-Thompson and National Grid Vice President for New Energy Solutions Carlos Nouel described the recent expansion of National Grid’s ConnectedSolutions demand response program to include several new smart thermostats and other devices including battery energy storage for residential customers. EnergyHub is a provider of connected device and distributed energy resource management solutions (DERMS) for utilities and National Grid is the UK-based multinational energy firm with a significant electric utility presence in New England serving customers in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

Bob Champagne is a senior VP at Innowatts, a firm that offers load disaggregation (load forecasting) and a machine learning analytics platform that includes a suite of predictive customer engagement solutions for energy providers and customers worldwide. He helped us understand how Innowatts is helping a variety of big energy users, marketers, and utilities improve the services they provide.

Jan Vrins is global energy practice leader for Navigant Consulting and his department recently released its latest whitepaper on what Navigant calls the "energy cloud," with this paper describing Energy Cloud version 4.0. Vrins shared some background on how we got to version 4.0 of this smart grid evolution and how his firm sees the future unfolding for his clients and for the industry as a whole - and a spoiler here, yes, it is all about distributed energy resources. He sees regulatory changes as the biggest hurdle to cross ahead, he told us.

We interviewed Sharon Allan, Chief innovation officer at the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), a non-profit that represents diverse stakeholders including utilities, regulators, technology providers and financial organizations. SEPA works with its members to navigate the changes to become a more modern and cleaner power grid and recently started an advisory service for its members.

ICF is a global business management consultancy and Philip shared with us his perspective on where the electric industry is now in its transition from a ratemaking industry to one that is adopting the regulatory business models needed to incent a new vision for the industry.

Dan Belmont is senior director of energy and utilities at consultancy West Monroe Partners and authored recently a report titled “Signature Research: Managing Grid Modernization: Integrating IT and Operations at US Utilities.” He spoke to us about how his firm advises utilities to bring IT and OT together, and how to attract top talent to achieve the goals of an evolving industry.

NOTE: An article based on this interview with some quote excerpts is available for Smart Grid Today subscribers here: West Monroe reports to utilities on IT, OT convergence