AUGUST 20, 2010

A recent report by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory found security holes in computer networks controlling the electric grid. Hackers could access the systems and potentially steal data, deny service or otherwise take control. Many of the vulnerabilities are basic problems such as a failure to install software security patches or poor password management.

The report, which did not list any individual companies, locations or software applications by name, catalogs results from 24 assessments of grid-related industrial control systems (ICS) performed from 2003 through 2009. “Well-known unsecure coding practices account for most of the ICS software vulnerabilities,” the report said.

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AUGUST 20, 2010

ZBB Energy received special attention this week when President Barack Obama paid a visit to tout stimulus investments in its Menomonee Falls, Wis., battery manufacturing plant. ZBB Energy secured $1.3 million in state funding in June, which it will use to renovate its plant and triple capacity to make zinc bromide batteries and power management systems. The systems are used in grid-tied and grid-independent applications.

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AUGUST 20, 2010

A federal task force has released a report outlining obstacles and next steps for making carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology viable in the United States. The group, pulled together from 14 executive departments and agencies led by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said a lack of comprehensive climate change legislation is the key barrier to widespread use of CCS.

Without a carbon price and appropriate financial incentives for new technologies, there is no stable framework for investment in low-carbon technologies such as CCS,” the report said.

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AUGUST 13, 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approved a $33.9 million matching grant to NRECA last week, essentially firing the starter pistol for a nationwide smart grid demonstration project. The project involves 19 electric cooperatives that will deploy more than 153,000 smart grid components and test their value to cooperative members.

The smart grid research grant is part of $3.4 billion in awards made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, representing a potential joint public-private investment of more than $8 billion in smart grid technology.

The Electric Power Research Institute estimates the widespread implementation of smart grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than 4 percent by 2030. That would save U.S. businesses and consumers roughly $20.4 billion, according to DOE.

The cooperatives’ demonstration project will serve as an unprecedented nationwide pilot, testing end-to-end connectivity from power plants to homes. A portion of the project will expand MultiSpeak®—a utility software standard developed by NRECA to facilitate system interoperability—and address cyber security.

Funds will go to cooperatives in 10 states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, New York, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana and New Hampshire (see “Stimulus Grants to NHEC Fund Smart Grid Technology, Demonstration Program,” Solutions News Bulletin, May 14, 2010).

JULY 23, 2010

A beta website for the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse was launched this month. The site—now in a public testing phase—is designed to appeal to a wide audience, including consumers, utilities and regulators, and is managed and run by the Virginia Tech Advanced Research Institute (ARI) in Arlington, Va.

Educating consumers is a top goal of the portal. “We believe that by providing information about electricity usage, pricing and incentives, we can help motivate better consumer purchasing patterns,” said Saifur Rahman, ARI director. “Active consumer participation is very important to achieving a more efficient and reliable operation of the overall grid.”

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MAY 14, 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently awarded $15.8 million in federal stimulus funds to New Hampshire Electric Cooperative, Plymouth, NH, for installation of smart grid technology. The grant covers about 45 percent of the $35.5 million cost of replacing the cooperative’s existing metering and communications system with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), including new meters for each of the cooperative’s 83,000 members, associated two-way communications equipment, and sensors and controls. The new system will provide near real-time information on electric use.

Fred Anderson

“This grant gives us the opportunity to modernize our distribution and metering system in a way that will empower our members to understand and better manage their use of electricity,” said Fred Anderson, NHEC president and CEO. “It will also help us respond to outages more quickly and efficiently. For the first time, we will know down to the individual meter where outages are occurring.”

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MARCH 12, 2010

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) formally applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to withdraw its license application for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., putting the federal government’s plans for dealing with the nation’s spent fuel in limbo. A few days earlier, a federal court made it clear that the delay is not without consequences, when it ordered DOE to pay Energy Northwest $57 million in damages for the 12-year delay in taking its spent fuel.

The award to Energy Northwest, which operates the Columbia Generating Station in Richland, Wash., was ordered by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. It followed the court’s 2006 judgment that DOE was in breach of contract with the utility for failing to accept the spent fuel in 1998. The award reflects the costs incurred by Energy Northwest to construct an onsite storage pad for the spent fuel in 2001, including the costs of licensing, design, construction, security, storage casks and other items.

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MARCH 12, 2010

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) recently defined a 10-step cost-benefit analysis method for comparing various smart grid technologies in a standardized way. The process was developed to help the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and EPRI evaluate demonstration projects, but the concepts can be used by anyone wanting to evaluate smart grid options.

One goal of U.S. energy policy is to implement smart grid technology to modernize the nation’s electricity grid. DOE has undertaken numerous initiatives to determine the best way to do this. While smart grid applications often have a common objective, such as reducing peak demand, different technologies approach that objective in different ways, making it difficult to compare and contrast alternatives.

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JANUARY 22, 2010

In a briefing to reporters last week, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu said that $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for four new nuclear power plants will be approved soon.

DOE had expected to start approving the loans in December but the process was “more complicated than I thought,” Chu said, according to a report from Bloomberg. “These are multibillion dollar loans that involve a lot of stakeholders.”

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