August 30
Avangrid Utilities Install Over 700,000 Smart Meters
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) and Rochester Gas and Electric (RG&E) installed more than 700,000 smart meters for electric and natural gas customers in their territories. The upgrades are currently focused on seven NYSEG and RG&E divisions including Ithaca, Rochester, Brewster, Sodus, Binghamton, Canandaigua, Lancaster and Hornell.
Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based, grid-edge distributed energy technology company that empowers utilities to build the grid of the future and meet global decarbonization goals, is proud to announce a collaborative partnership and technology integration with Mysa, a market leader in smart control for electric heating systems. More and more utilities are preparing to manage electricity demand peaks in winter in addition to summer.
Nearly half of senior energy professionals plan to integrate AI-driven applications into their operations in the coming year, according to a new report from DNV. The survey highlights digitalization’s crucial role in transforming the energy sector, impacting generation, transmission, distribution and consumption. AI-driven technologies like smart grids, predictive maintenance and real-time data analytics are already taking hold in the energy sector and promise to revolutionize it further in the coming years.
ElectriCities of North Carolina presented 17 communities with Public Power Awards of Excellence at its 2024 Annual Conference. “Public Power Awards of Excellence reflect public power’s strategic priorities. The awards recognize public power providers for developing a future-focused mindset, strengthening public power, providing superior power, providing customer-centered innovation and prioritizing their people as their greatest asset,” the joint action agency said.
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Industry News
The Texas power grid has broken new records throughout this summer – for how much electricity it has had to deliver as residents cranked up their air conditioners and for how much it has used solar power and batteries to keep grid emergencies at bay. Take last week, when temperatures soared into the triple digits across most of the state, causing demand to surge on the grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT.
DTE Energy says it has hit a “significant” milestone in customer reliability this year, as it has prevented 5,000 customer power interruptions and 1.8 million customer outage minutes so far this year. But how did it do it? Smart grid technology, mostly. DTE said it is committed to fully automating the grid by 2029, arguing that customers will receive improved safety, fewer outages and quicker restoration.
The federal government on Tuesday announced $521 million in grant awards that will help the nation continue building out EV charging and alternative-fueling infrastructure across 29 states, eight federally recognized tribes and the District of Columbia. The grants are being made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $2.5-billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program and a 10 percent set-aside from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.
Illinois has $30 million in incentives available for solar installations on multi-family buildings. So far, though, the state program has not received any applications for such projects, according to Jan Gudell, Illinois Solar for All Associate Director at Elevate. In urban areas like Chicago, residents of environmental justice and lower-income neighborhoods are highly likely to live in multi-family residential buildings where it is extremely difficult to install rooftop solar.
