Flagler County, Florida:
Flagler County residents have started receiving notification from Florida Power & Light that “smart meter” installation is imminent and a few have voiced their concerns to county officials, county spokesman Carl Laundrie said .
“We expect there will be more calls as more receive notification,” Laundrie said.
Power companies in Florida and across the country have installed millions of new smart meters that transmit electricity usage data over the airwaves, and are supposed to both conserve energy and build a better power grid. Statewide, 3.8 million have been installed and it is estimated that 4.5 million will be in use by the end of 2013, according to Laundrie.
The Flagler County Commission in May sent a letter to the Florida Public Service Commission urging the regulatory agency to adopt an “opt out” policy for those who would rather keep their traditional electric meters.
San Joaquin Valley, California:
Southern California Edison, a subsidiary of Edison International ( EIX ), intends to install smart electric meters in the San Joaquin Valley. As a part of Edison SmartConnect program, the company will begin installing the meters in late September 2012.
Edison SmartConnect is a $1.6 billion program authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission. Edison SmartConnect meters are digital, safe and mutual communicating devices. The company will replace the traditional mechanical meters resulting in the transition of electric system into a smart grid.
SCE’s smart metering program was designed to help achieve California’s energy policy goals, relating to improved electric system reliability, customer energy efficiency and demand response, and reduced environmental impact. The company expects its sustained energy conservation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and smog forming pollutants by an estimated 365,000 metric tons per year, which is equivalent of removing 79,000 cars from the road.
Ontario, Canada
While electric utilities worldwide are making major investments in smart grids, researchers in Ontario are finding ways to help them make the grid greener, more efficient and more reliable.
Ontario, with iconic Niagara Falls on its doorstep, has a long history of developing large-scale hydroelectric networks. Over the past century, as the power grid serving the province’s booming economy became more complex and sophisticated, researchers at Ontario universities developed a long list of solutions to help meet energy system challenges.
Today, the research focus is on the smart grid. Ontario has recently completed the province-wide deployment of 4.6 million smart meters and mandatory time-of-use rates for 3.1 million customers – one of the largest and rollouts in the world. And now, Dr. Rajiv Varma at the University of Western Ontario is developing a technology that both solves a critical smart grid issue and enables solar farms to make money at night.
Varma’s solution involves linking solar inverters with nearby wind turbines. At night, when the turbines can potentially generate more power due to high winds, the grid operator currently has little choice but to disallow the turbines, as they are likely to increase system voltages beyond acceptable limits.
Southeast Asia:
In recent years, robust economic development and urbanization in Southeast Asia (SEA) has led to strong growth in electricity demand, in both sophisticated economies such as Singapore and less-developed nations such as Cambodia and Myanmar. Most Southeast Asian countries, however, are faced with low electrification levels, underdeveloped power grid infrastructure, and a lack of capital and technologies. In a region where simply providing sufficient electricity is challenging, governments and industries in SEA are struggling to keep pace with the new trends in global clean energy development. Nevertheless some emerging countries, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, have recently begun developing concrete national roadmaps to deploy smart grid technology so that they can manage power more efficiently and effectively.
Undoubtedly, while policy makers in the SEA nations agree that a smart grid program should be the ultimate goal for providing electricity, the smart grid has a long way to go in the region. Pike Research forecasts that smart grid revenue in the overall SEA market will experience steady growth across the forecast period, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just over 10%. SEA smart grid revenue generated by the investment in transmission, substation, and distribution upgrades (as well as smart meters) will grow from approximately $1.9 billion in 2011 to $4.5 billion in 2020.
DC taxicabs will have new electronic meters incorporating GPS and credit card payment functionality
The plan was to have already been well into installing in all DC taxicabs new electronic meters incorporating GPS and credit card payment functionality. And, as in New York City and elsewhere that these meters are being used, there would be a TV-like feature that would allow passengers to track their routes — and also be subjected to advertising messages (!).
But no sooner had the installations started to get underway that a major glitch brought everything to a standstill when the District’s Contract Appeals Board issued a stop order for the installation of the Taxicab Smart Meter System (TSMS), due to the fact that the District had not meet the burden of compelling circumstances necessary to justify the installation of the taxi meters before the protest that had been filed by the losing bidders has been decided. Ride Charge, Inc. and Creative Mobile Technologies had appealed the contract awarded to VeriFone for the smart meters, arguing that the $35 million contract was unfairly awarded to VeriFone and excluded other bidders from the selection process.
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