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Smart Grid Industry News Roundup: 03/09/2010
By Brian Jenkins on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010Get up to date on the latest Smart Grid headlines from across the industry:
What Do Consumers Think of the Smart Grid? Um, Not Much
According to a recent Harris Interactive poll, 70% of consumers have never heard of the Smart Grid, and 63% don’t know a thing about smart meters.Smart Grid Micro Grid Energy T&D and Storage Reports Now Available
Check out this brand new report on Smart Grid development, applications, products, manufacturers & trends.IBM Sponsors Rural Smart Grid Summit
Learn more about IBM’s April Rural Smart Grid Summit, featuring 80+ CEOs of the top US electric co-ops. -
Smart Grid Industry News Roundup: 03/02/2010
By Brian Jenkins on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010Catch up on last week’s Smart Grid news with these top headlines from across the industry:
Identity Management is Key to Smart Grid Security
Learn why, in the future, identity management will be critical to preventing cybercrimes related to the Smart Grid in this Kuppinger Cole Blog post.Smart Grid Could Re-Energize an Aging System
Find out how the Smart Grid could re-energize an aging system and save money for both consumers and utilities in this Physorg.com post.Global Smart Energy Meter Market 2008-2012
Check out this brand new report that finds new meters could provide 15% energy savings. -
Smart Grid Industry News Roundup: 02/23/2010
By Brian Jenkins on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010It’s been quite the week in the Smart Grid world. Discover some of the top Smart Grid headlines from across the industry:
USA and Australia Leading the World in Smart Grid Development
Check out this brand new report that provides detailed analysis of the energy and utilities market worldwide.Smart Meter Benefits for Low-Income Consumers
Smart meter benefits aren’t just for high-income consumers. Find out how lower-income consumers can benefit too in this Knowledge Problem Blog post.Smart Grid Product of the Year Awards Winners
Trilliant is among the TCM Smart Grid Product of the Year Award winners for its mesh technology. Learn more in this article from SmartGrid. -
Upcoming Webinar – Application Partitioning for Smart Grid Security
By Brian Jenkins on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010Date: Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Time: 10am Pacific / 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern
This webinar discusses how a single Smart Grid communications network can be partitioned into virtual networks to ensure end-to-end security and provide application-specific communication requirements. The discussion will provide an opportunity to learn about:
- the basics of a multi-tier Smart Grid network. Learn how communications can be segmented into wide area networks (WAN), neighborhood area networks (NAN), and home area networks (HAN).
- network virtualization. Learn how the Smart Grid communications network can partitioned into distinct virtual networks using both virtual LANs (VLANs) and virtual private networks (VPNs).
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Smart Grid Industry News Roundup: 02/16/2010
By Brian Jenkins on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Check out some of the latest Smart Grid news stories from across the industry:
Government Rules and Regulations Delaying Smart Grid Evolution
Check out this SmartGrid blog post to see how the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may be slowing the advancement of the Smart Grid market.Absence of Smart Grid in Budget Talks Isn’t Smart
Budget talks from the Obama administration seem to be missing a key component: the Smart Grid. Find out more in this Daily Finance article. -
Upcoming Webinar – WAN Communications for Distribution Networking
By Brian Jenkins on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Time: 10am Pacific / 12pm Central / 1pm Eastern
This webinar discusses the role of the distribution grid within the context of a broader Smart Grid communications network. The discussion will provide an opportunity to learn about:
- the basics of a multi-tier Smart Grid network. Learn how communications can be segmented into wide area networks (WAN), neighborhood area networks (NAN), and home area networks (HAN).
- the role of the WAN. Learn how the WAN can provide a wireless network with the range and capacity required to provide complete coverage and broadband performance.
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Smart Grid Industry News Roundup: 02/09/2010
By Brian Jenkins on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010Don’t miss some of the most popular Smart Grid news stories from across the industry during the first week of February:
Report: Government Rules Delaying Smart Grid Evolution
This article from Smart Grid online offers insight on a recent study from NanoMarkets that found the stall behind the evolution of the Smart Grid is government policies and regulations – particularly the National Standards and Technology (NIST).What’s Driving Utilities to Adopt Smart Meter Technology?
A brand new report discusses the drivers for adoption of smart meter technology in Western Europe and North America, and provides insight on the technologies comprising advanced metering infrastructure. -
Smart Grid Industry News Roundup: 02/02/2010
By Brian Jenkins on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010Check out some of the Smart Grid news headlines from around the industry during the last week of January:
Recovery Act Investments Provide Michigan with $83.8 Million for Smart Meters
According to 4EVRiders.org, $19.3 million has been provided to develop smart household appliances that schedule energy use for efficiency and cost-savings, as well as $5 million to upgrade the electrical grid.Can the Smart Meter Change Consumer Behavior?
This 2nd Green Revolution post discusses why both technological and behavioral changes are needed for smart grid technology to gain widespread acceptance. -
What is a Smart Grid?
By Brian Jenkins on Friday, January 1st, 2010From transportation to commerce, education to health care: the Smart Grid is a networking and communications infrastructure comprised of energy monitoring devices installed in homes and businesses throughout the electricity distribution grid. This collective organization provides a “nervous system” for the grid giving consumers the ability to monitor and control energy consumption comprehensively in real time across the Wireless Mesh. Think of it as the Internet for Energy.
Key elements include:
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WAN: Why Not Synchronous? (part 5)
By Randy Frei on Friday, December 11th, 2009To understand the benefits of a synchronous protocol, it helps to look at the disadvantages of an asynchronous protocol. When a node using an asynchronous protocol such as 802.11 wants to transmit a frame, it normally will simply transmit the frame after it senses the channel is idle for a period of time (which is called Carrier Sense Multiple Access, or CSMA). If a collision is determined, due to the lack of an acknowledgment frame, the frame is re-transmitted after waiting an amount of time that increases exponentially for each retransmission. In order to minimize the impact of a collision and to maximize the chance of a successful reception of the data frame, 802.11 includes an optional collision avoidance (CA) function where a short Request-To-Send/Clear-To-Send (RTS/CTS) exchange is first performed, which causes devices overhearing those frames to not access the channel for a period of time. This collision avoidance function may be beneficial in some situations, but it comes with a large overhead, and it introduces problems of its own, and the impact of these problems is greatly increased in a long-range outdoor system.