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The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) announced on May 14, 2012, that it has formulated a policy for promoting energy conservation and management, titled "Toward a Smart Energy City Beyond Power-Saving" (unofficial translation). In addition to i...

GE appliances have been converted to have electronic controls and will have a small module in the back that will allow it to communicate with a home's smart meter. With that communication link in place, consumers can find out how much electricity individual appliances use and program them to take advantage of off-peak rates.

This standard is intended to serve as the communications protocol for smart grids as well as providing WAN facilities to end users.

Chicago (IL) - Broadband over power lines is marching closer to actual availability. The P1901 Working Group today announced the release of the first draft defining medium access control and physical layer specifications for IEEE's Standard P1901. The draft was approved with more than 82% majority vote during a meeting held in Tokyo from July 21 - 24, the IEEE announced today. The initial version is based on technologies using FTT and Wavelet OFDM modulation schemes.

The conventional wisdom is that meeting our ambitious renewable energy goals requires a new, nationwide high-voltage transmission system. ILSR Vice President David Morris explains how a bottom-up, distributed renewable energy system can tap the inherent resources across the states and accomplish the goal at a lower cost.

I'm not generally a fan of Jeremy Rifkind's work. But, as a commenter is quoted as saying at the end of this BBC News report on Rifkind's latest ideas for energy policy, "The world has room for visionaries." At a Prague conference, Rifkind outlined a grand scheme for solving economic and energy problems by rapidly moving Europe to distributed renewable energy resources integrated with smart grid systems. If you strip out the seemingly-obligatory-in-public-pronouncements-these-days promise of millions of "green jobs," it is a vision of what a smart grid system can do for distributed energy. Sure, too ambitious by half, but that is part of what makes it a vision and not a program for immediate action. Although, I'll have to say, there is an odd bit of centralization in a distributed energy proposal in which at "any one time the system will know what every washing machine is doing in Europe" and in the case of "peak demand, [with] not enough supply, software can say to two million washing machines 'forget the extra rinse'." (Though Rifkind notes his system is entirely voluntary and participants would be paid for their contributions.)

The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced that $620 million in stimulus funding is going to 32 smart-grid programs, which will be coupled with another $1 billion in private money. A total of $770 million from government and industry sources in the next few years will go to energy storage, giving a number of storage technologies a dose of real-world experience.

There is some concern that millions of plug-in electric vehicles charging at the peak times, such as around 5:30 p.m. when people return from work, could cause power disruptions or require construction of new power plants. To address this, Google has written software with "vehicle dispatch algorithms" that can decide how to best charge cars, Reicher said. In addition to smoothing out the load on the grid, smart charging makes it easier to take advantage of solar and wind power, which are variable sources of electricity.

Controlling the flow of electricity to stabilize the grid

the industry needs more open standards and devices needs to work with utilities in all locations.

Redmond, Wash.-based software giant unveils beta release from its new startup, announcing partnerships with four utilities and two leading meter companies, with more to follow.

GridPoint, which makes a distributed power generation appliance, is in the process of raising more than $32 million in a fourth round of funding. GridPoint makes home storage appliances tied to renewable energy systems, such as a solar electric array.