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Grid

(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) April 30, 2009 4 Comments

Top Ten Smart Grid

What companies are leading the charge toward a smart grid of the future? And, who are the utilities that are taking the lead in giving them a market? We’ve broken down the smart grid sector into a number of broad components areas – smart meter manufacturing, neighborhood-area meter networking and communication, in-home energy management, demand response, meter data management, other smart grid software and services, and the broader role of integrating these areas.

7. Grid Automation Software: General Electric

Nobody should be surprised that General Electric is a major player in smart grid efforts – not to mention one with the cash on hand to run Super Bowl ads pointing out the fact. But beyond the smart meters GE is making, or the wide-area network WiMax radios it's deploying to support smart grid projects (see GE Offers WiMax Smart Meter Solution), the engineering giant is also a provider of a wide range of software aimed at helping utilities optimize grid operations, said Rick Nicholson, vice president of research for IDC company Energy Insights.

GE has been providing grid-management software to utilities for decades, with a most recent iteration deployed by utility American Electric Power in September. But the giant has been pushing into new smart grid fields, acquiring companies with software to manage field automation technologies, grid cybersecurity, and other aspects of smart grid operations.

GE is far from the only company looking to help make the grid smarter with software, of course, Oracle and IBM are providing similar services, and startup GridPoint has raised more than $200 million with the promise of providing a wide array of software to solve the smart grid's challenges of integrating home energy monitoring, distributed energy generation and plug-in vehicles into the grid. (see GridPoint Gets $120M, Buys V2Green and GridPoint to Manage Wind Power Battery Storage).

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Comments [4]

John 06/23/09 5:23 PM
There’s no doubt in my mind that Itron Inc is the industry leader in smart meters. They have an amazing product line and the best management in the industry. Their latest CEO has done a great job with the company.
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Vince 07/7/09 12:38 AM
Hey Jeff, this is an excellent top ten list. I learned a lot about smart grids from this list, it is very interesting and I hope the future brings about more advancements. You can cross-post this to our site http://www.toptentopten.com/ and link back to your site. We are trying to create a directory for top ten lists where people can find your site. The coolest feature is you can let other people vote on the rankings of your list.
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