2012 is off to a quick start!

Two significant conferences have already occurred: the IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference in Washington, D.C. on January 16-20 and the DistribuTECH Conference & Exhibition in San Antonio on January 24-26.

The Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT) conference is sponsored by IEEE and the presentations in the paper sessions are generally more technically oriented than other smart grid seminars and conferences. This conference was first held two years ago at the NIST offices in Washington, D.C., it moved to Anaheim last year, and returned to Washington, D.C. this year. I had a couple of observations.

Managing transformer health and performance with utility analytics

Guest post: Randy Schrieber, Marketing & Sales Manager, ABB Power Equipment Services

In a recent web publication on utility analytics, Mike Smith at intelligentutility.com said:

“... a second area where the predictive characteristics of analytics are being applied is in managing assets across transmission and distribution infrastructure, which is costly to maintain. While most utilities have been using some type of enterprise asset management (EAM) system for years to help manage these maintenance and operations tasks, the roll-out of the smart grid is providing new opportunities for improvement as the infrastructure becomes smarter.

Why is battery energy storage such a hot topic?

Guest post: Alexandra Goodson, Business Development Manager, ABB Energy Storage Modules

I may be biased, but I think battery energy storage is going to be the next big “game changer” in the smart grid and power industry. Increasing demands for power along with regulations mandating renewable energy generation can lead to instability in the grid. There is constant struggle for utilities to not only maintain but improve their system’s reliability. One way to accomplish this is by having energy that is stored and ready to be dispatched… aka energy storage.