By Clay Luthy, Global Distributed Energy Resource Leader, Energy & Utilities Industry, IBM

With gas prices hovering at $4.15 per gallon where I live, the talk of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased with vigor. More of my neighbors and friends are toying with the idea of making the switch – much of their reluctance though stems from the fear of inconvenience – will I find a charging station as easily as a gas pump, how will this impact my energy bill, how far can I go on a single charge? These consumer concerns are driving new innovations – uniting forward thinking players to perfect and deploy a smarter EV driving experience.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As a resident of Washington DC, I don’t have to look very far without noticing the well-established bike sharing program that is currently in place.  Locals are biking to and from the subway station and to work while tourists are cruising along to increase the number of monuments and museums they can see in a day.

This approach to urban commuting is now applied to electric vehicles. For example, in Paris, Autolib launched an EV sharing program with great success. According to initial reports, 250 vehicles hit the road on the first day, 2000 are expected this summer and 3,000 are planned within the next two years. Like bike sharing, I can see why this mode has taken off in a city with over two million citizens and highly dense roads – a strategy that I believe, should be replicated in cities around the world.

New business models are being deployed to support privately owned electric vehicles as well. In Israel, Better Place is set to go live on a deployment of networked charging stations. Their innovative business model helps reduce the cost as users pay for electric vehicles much like they do a cell phone – they receive a discounted price on the vehicle and battery in exchange for subscribing to a service to recharge. Innovative business models are often what is needed to bring new technology to the mainstream.

Innovation is also driving the way we create fuel for electric vehicles. Already we are seeing renewable energy becoming cost competitive with traditional energy sources due to improved manufacturing processes and technological breakthrough. Within the next 5 years, we can expect to see the levelized cost (a common cost metric) of electricity generated from roof mounted solar to be the same as, or potentially even less than, your retail electricity price. This, to me, is exciting news for both our environment as well as for our transportation system.

It’s a known fact that electric vehicles can help increase the use of renewable energy. If EVs can communicate with the grid, they can charge based on the availability of renewable energy resources, such as sun and wind. This will help overcome the variability and relative unpredictability of renewable energy (the sun doesn’t always shine when it’s supposed to!) —a challenge that needs to be addressed if renewable energy will scale.

It’s also why the recently announced project with Honda and PG&E is so important – it allows vehicles and the grid to directly communicate with each other. Layer in IBM’s cloud based optimization and automatically, the vehicles become intelligent —now with the ability to charge in accordance with grid conditions.

IBM, Honda, and PG&E Enable Smarter Charging for Electric Vehicles

However, innovative business models and electricity from renewable sources will be less impactful if we are not successful at making the experience of recharging your electric vehicle as easy as pumping gas. This means that we must ensure open access to charge posts for all users regardless of who owns or operates them. Innovation is likewise occurring on this front — Data standards are under development to ensure charge posts communicate in a common way Think of it this way, what happens when you go from one city or state to another and need to recharge your vehicle?

You may be the realm of another service provider and much like cell phones in the old days, if proper systems aren’t place, you may not be able to recharge outside of your network.

In Europe, IBM and a consortium of partners are building a demonstration system that allows for seamless interoperability. As an example, a participant could drive from Barcelona to Rome, charge their vehicle and be accurately billed for the electricity even though the network of charge posts in the two cities are owned and operated by two separate entities.

Similarly, the IBM team in Slovakia is working with ZSE on a project that is designed to make charging across territories more convenient for consumer. Using e-mobility technology, this study will help interconnect the Slovakian capital city, Bratislava and Vienna with a “green highway” of public charging stations.

IBM and ZSE Create Virtual Green Highway for Electric Vehicles

It’s innovations like these that keep me both optimistic and fascinated by the future of the electric vehicle. With fuel prices rising higher and higher, the decision to switch to EVs is getting more attention but is till by no means an easy one, especially considering that Americans on average purchase a new car every five years. So, we all want to ensure we’re making the right decision.

The industry, local and national governments, auto-manufactures and utilities are making significant in-roads – the rest is up to us.

Today marks the last day of #EVweek. Thank you for participating in all of the various online activities. If have more opinions, we’d like to hear them. Continue the conversation today on IBM’s People for A Smarter Planet (P4SP) for #SmarterFriday, a daylong chat about EVs.

Technorati Tags: Clay Luthy, EDISON, EKZ, electric vehicles, energy, EV, EVweek, Honda, IBM, PG&E, smart grid, Smart Grids, Smarter Cities, Smarter Energy, Smarter Planet, Smarter Transportation, sustainability, traffic, transportation, ZSE

By Jonathan Marshall, Chief, External Communications
Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Electric vehicle (EV) owners and electric utilities may soon enjoy a much closer and more fulfilling relationship than traditional car owners have with gas stations, thanks to a new pilot project announced today by IBM, Honda Motors, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). This collaboration aims to demonstrate the ability to optimize the charge schedule for each customer’s EV battery so that the needs of customers and the electric grid are satisfied on an ongoing basis. That’s still a stretch for most utilities.

When the typical power engineer hears “electric vehicle,” he or she usually thinks: “challenge.” A plug-in vehicle can draw as much power as three homes in the more temperate parts of California. An enthusiastic bunch of early adopters could potentially overload local circuits if they all charge up at the same time in the same neighborhood.

But PG&E is thinking instead, “opportunity.” For one thing, we have a growing number of clean electric vehicles in our own fleet, from Chevy Volts to a new class of extended-range pickup trucks from Via Motors. And we know that widespread adoption of EVs throughout California will help the state meet its ambitious clean-air goals.

For another, we believe there’s great potential for using the latest “smart grid” technology to facilitate vehicle charging at night, when demand is low. By making use of underutilized generation and grid resources at off-peak times, EVs can help utilities make more efficient use of their assets and spread costs over a wider load without overtaxing the system.

PG&E demonstrated last year, in the first utility test of smart charging, that it could control vehicle charging through its SmartMeter™ infrastructure. But in a competitive marketplace, many customers may want to put control of their charging in other hands—such as the vehicle manufacturer or another trusted vendor. The whole process may someday be controlled by a third-party app on your smart phone.

The IBM-Honda-PG&E pilot takes an important step in that direction. The basic concept is to marry Honda’s knowledge of the status of its EVs and PG&E’s knowledge of the status of its grid with IBM’s “cloud” computing power to make charging smarter, simpler, and more efficient.

“We want to encourage third parties to innovate,” said Ulric Kwan, PG&E’s project manager. “What we haven’t yet demonstrated is whether you can develop a ‘brain’ in the cloud that meets our needs and those of our customers. Each customer has a different set of needs. The cloud has to figure this out and provide the proper charging levels to each EV, adapting to changing customer requirements and grid needs.”

This new pilot will demonstrate exactly that. IBM will take data from several Honda Fit EVs, via cellular uplink, and analyze it together with sample data from PG&E on the status of its electric distribution network to help optimize the charging schedule for each car. (Honda plans to begin selling the Fit EV to California customers this summer).

PG&E, meanwhile, still has plans—awaiting approval by the California Public Utilities Commission—to recruit up to 100 EV owners to test more advanced communications between the utility and EV battery chargers via SmartMeters™. This proposed pilot would bring us one step closer to the holy grail of using EV batteries as a form of distributed energy storage for capturing and making good use of fluctuating supplies of renewable energy.

For all of these projects, the overriding goal is the same: to ensure safe, reliable, and affordable service to our customers. Fortunately, PG&E has some very smart partners to help us make that happen.

Join PG&E and IBM for the #EVWeek Twitter Chat on April 12, from noon to 1pm ET @smarterplanet. For more information, visit: http://storify.com/smarterplanet/p4spchat-electric-vehicle-adoption

Technorati Tags: electric vehicles, energy, EVs, EVweek, IBM, PG&E, Smart Grids, Smarter Energy, Smarter Planet, Smarter Transportation, traffic, transportation

By Pat Davis, Vehicle Technologies Program Manager, Department of Energy (DOE)

“May you live in interesting times” can be either a blessing or a curse. Needless to say, those of us who work in the transportation sector are certainly living in interesting times, full of challenges and opportunities. Electrifying our vehicle fleet offers an abundance of both, making it a particularly exciting area for us at the Department of Energy (DOE).

As the manager for the U.S. Energy Department’s Vehicles Program, I lead a team working to get the most out of our cars and trucks, while minimizing their appetite for oil. Right now, 60 percent of the petroleum used in America fuels on-road vehicles—both consumer and commercial. A little less than half of this petroleum is imported, costing our country more than $1 billion every day. In addition to the national security implications of our dependence on foreign oil, our transportation sector also creates about one-third of America’s greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Although these figures may paint a daunting picture of the challenge ahead, I’m optimistic about meeting our transportation needs in more sustainable ways. Plug-in vehicles that run on domestically-produced electricity offer environmental, social, and economic benefits, and the variety and the quantity of electric and hybrid cars and trucks on the road is increasing. Car makers are rolling out new models; while the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are the most widely available models now, manufacturers are planning on introducing more than two dozen new plug-in vehicle models over the next two years. Tax incentives help more people have access to this cutting-edge technology and many cities are updating plans and policies for the charging infrastructure to be ready for these new vehicles.

We’re seeing incredible technologies emerge from the research we fund at our national laboratories and other research institutions. In particular, the cost of batteries is dropping dramatically. Our research has already helped lower the cost of advanced lithium ion batteries by 50 percent in the last few years. We’re on track to lower it another 50 percent, bringing it down to $300/kWhr by 2015. By the end of the decade, we hope to have it even lower – $125/kWhr.  Lowering battery cost will help lead to less expensive plug-in vehicles and potentially increase their all-electric range. Many of these breakthroughs have come about through improvements in battery components.  For example, Envia recently announced that they are close to building battery cells that cost less than half as much as existing ones. Cathode technology developed at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory with support from DOE contributed to this leap forward.

Lightweight materials also offer great promise, because lighter vehicles require less energy to operate.  For every 10 percent in vehicle weight reduction, you could save fuel 6-8 percent on fuel. For electric cars, it means smaller batteries and lower costs. DOE is focused on reducing costs and widening the use of aluminum, magnesium, high strength steel, and carbon fiber composites.

Last year I participated in a roundtable dinner in Washington D.C, hosted by IBM and attended by General Motors, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Electric Drive Transport Association, MIT, and PEPCO Holdings. It was a general consensus that the combination of these upcoming advances and the urgent necessity to transform our fleet and the energy infrastructure brings us to a unique point in history. At the Department of Energy, we believe that electric drive offers great promise, we’re also continuing to research complementary technologies and smarter systems, such as advanced combustion and alternative home-grown fuels from non-food sources such as wood and waste streams. In addition, we look to industry and local governments to do their part. We encourage manufacturers to take the long view of these technologies by continuing on their push to produce more efficient vehicle models that meet consumers’ needs. We advise local governments to think holistically about their citizens’ transportation choices, including plug-in vehicles and by helping to put in place policies that support the introduction of those technologies. Most of all, we support efforts to learn from the best practices of others. Sharing a common vision will help all of us move forward to a more sustainable transportation future.

Today kicks off #EVweek. Join us for a weeklong discussion on Electric Vehicles. Follow #EVWeek to participate in a Twitter Chat on April 12, from noon to 1pm ET @smarterplanet. For more information, visit: http://storify.com/smarterplanet/p4spchat-electric-vehicle-adoption

Technorati Tags: DOE, electric vehicles, energy, EVs, smart grid, Smart Grids, Smarter Cities, Smarter Energy, Smarter Planet, Smarter Transportation, transportation

By Andreas Fuchs, co-project leader, Electric Mobility, EKZ, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland

It is estimated that by 2050, 95 percent of cars will be equipped with an electric socket. This will mean that more than five million parking lots in Switzerland alone will be need to be equipped with a charging station to enable electric vehicle (EV) charging. Now imagine if all of these cars began charging at the same time and the impact it would have on the power grid.

While the electrical grid in Switzerland is not yet “smart,” the fact remains that EVs are being purchased. It is therefore, up to the auto manufacturers, utilities and equipment suppliers to ensure that the charging process is coordinated and controlled in order to prevent grid overload.

This was the driving incentive behind the Smartphone application (app) pilot that we are conducting with IBM Research in Zürich and the University of Applied Research Zürich in Winterthur, ZHAW. The goal is to study how mobile communication can be used to remotely control the EV charging process.

As you can read here and watch here – the driver can set boundary conditions for the charging process, using a smartphone, such as immediate or later charging, or delegate the charging responsibility to the utility. From this point, a charge schedule is created based on the availability of renewable resources such as sun and wind, as well as current grid conditions.

The main menu

Image 1: The Main Menu

In the graphic above you can see the interface for the app, which is web based and works on all of the latest smartphones and tablets.  Going in an counter-clockwise direction:

• Starting on the lower right edge: “Vehicle” one can choose which EV they plan to drive.  This could be particularly useful for car sharing programs or for managing an EV fleet of cars, similar to what we have at EKZ.
• On top to the left: The battery state of charge and an estimation of the remaining range in kilometers is displayed.
• On top to the right: Users can see a GPS map showing the locationof the EV in relation to the closest charging stations (data by www.lemnet.org).

• Bottom, to the left: This button offers EV drivers with the option to select from three charging modes – the first being “Immediate” which basically means that once plugged in, the car will begin to charge. For this project, the Twingo car was set with a default charging current that would provide drivers with a typical daily distance of 40km in Switzerland.
• The second charging option – “Premium” automatically shifts the charging period to the night. This will help avoid adding strain to the grid during the day, when most systems   are running.
• The third option – “Intelligent” allows the user to delegate the charging to the utility. Using a virtual power plant application, a utility can determine time of charge and load based on the charging history. For example, a car that is needs to be charged up to 85 percent at 4:30pm when the owner leaves for work.

Image 2: The blue rectangle during the night represents off-peak load charging of the electrical car.

Many companies are making in-roads in developing innovative technologies that have the potential to not only change how consumers get from A to B, but also change their level of interaction and control.

Image 3: The virtual power plant application calculates a “charging time table” that takes conflicting requirements into account, such as user preferences and available energy.

Before, consumers would just grab a set of keys and go – however, in the years to come, it will be a more connected experience. To prepare, many countries – especially in Europe, are implementing infrastructures to support the mass adoption of EVs – look no further than Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom or Ireland and of course Switzerland. We have the cars, now all we need is reliable energy, and the roads, charging stations, technology, as well as the consumers to keep up.

For more information: Visit http://www.klewel.com/conferences/iamf2012/ and http://www.klewel.com/conferences/iamf2012/

Join the #EVWeek Twitter Chat on April 12, from noon to 1pm ET @smarterplanet. For more information, visit: http://storify.com/smarterplanet/p4spchat-electric-vehicle-adoption

Technorati Tags: electric vehicles, energy, EVs, EVweek, IBM, smart grid, Smart Grids, smarter charging, Smarter Cities, Smarter Energy, Smarter Planet, Smarter Transportation, sustainability, transportation

Today, IBM announced the 33 cities that will participate this year in its Smarter Cities Challenge grant program. This marks the second year in a three-year, $50 million, 100-city initiative. IBM sends five- or six-person teams of experts in a range of disciplines to help cities formulate strategies for improving the quality of life for their citizens.

By now, IBM has amassed a wealth of knowledge about how to help cities get started on transformational projects. Last year, the company engaged with 25 cities around the world, including St. Louis in the United States, Glasgow in the United Kingdom, Chiang Mai in Thailand and Johannesburg in South Africa. The previous year, they ran test programs in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Katowice, Poland; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Chengdu, China; and elsewhere. The themes of the projects ranged from education, transportation and to public safety to energy and sustainable economic development. Here’s a post on the Citizen IBM blog from Stephen Mandel, the mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, about the engagement there.

After each engagement, IBM’s Corporate Citizenship team identifies lessons learned. The exercise is partly aimed at improving the program itself, but the team also gleans insights that could help any leader in any city launch an initiative aimed at fundamentally transforming an aspect of how the city works. Here are some of the most critical lessons for leaders:

Be Bold–Even Audacious. If you don’t set a high bar and really challenge yourselves, the progress you make will be marginal at best.

The United Kingdom, for instance, has set a target of halving carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2025—with a progress report due in 2014. Glasgow, a Scottish industrial city, will require significant improvements in energy conservation to meet the overall goals. But, at the same time, the city has a high ratio of poor people who suffer from what city leaders call “fuel poverty.” Nearly 35% of Glasgow households can’t afford to heat their homes properly. The goal is to address both problems with the same initiative. For starters, the city is paying for a fuel subsidy program for poor people using the proceeds from clean energy projects.

Think Differently. Be willing to try new ways of doing things. Just being more efficient with conventional approaches, even those that worked well in the past, won’t work best now.

Antofagasta, Chile, is a thriving port city in the country’s arid mining region, but it lacks some of the quality-of-life amenities befitting a city of its size and importance. The city leaders decided to take an unusual tactic: Make the city greener, literally, by irrigating parks and open spaces. Yet the dry climate made that goal particularly challenging. The IBM team crafted a set of proposals designed to get the most out of the limited supply of water.

Pick a Target That’s a Shared Priority. To get something difficult done, it will have to be at or near the top of the priority lists of all of the participants. Everybody involved has to pull together or the group will be pulled apart.

The political leaders in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and Charlotte, the county seat, invited municipal leaders from throughout the county to come together and agree on a project they could take on together. The theme they settled on, integrated regional capital planning, may not seem sexy, but, in a state where local government power is dispersed, it’s a necessary step for getting big things done.

Partner with Businesses and Non-profits. It’s important for city governments to engage with other actors in society, including universities and other non-profits, business organizations and individual businesses. Also, the earlier you get all the stakeholders involved, the better.

In Philadelphia, the Digital On-Ramps Initiative is aimed at preparing residents to work and thrive in the 21^st century economy. The initiative is being planned and managed by a consortium of institutions, including city departments, Drexel University, and a handful of civic groups, including the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, which is made up of representatives from government, business and neighborhood groups.

Encourage Citizen Involvement. Citizens can provide valuable insights into the most effective ways to improve the quality of life in their city. In this social networking era, it’s even more crucial to engage with citizens, and, thanks to all of the new technology tools that are available, it’s easier to do so.

Helsinki, Finland, faces social shifts resulting from an aging native population combined with immigration from Eastern European countries. It aims to open its data to the public, but needs to identify the most effective ways for communicating with a changing citizenry. The IBM team met with a group of citizens gathered at a local university and solicited ideas for open-data applications that would appeal to the people of Helsinki.

Understand the Value of Data. Evidence-based decision making really works. You can do things smarter and better, also more efficiently and more quickly.

In Syracuse, New York, a former industrial center with a sizable housing vacancy problem, city leaders realized that gathering and analyzing data is crucial to identifying which troubled neighborhoods have the highest potential for turnarounds. That way they could focus resources on them. A close look at the data showed—perhaps counter-intuitively—that neighborhoods with a high rate of calls to the police about drug use and loud disturbances have a high potential for being saved. It means the residents care enough to complain.

Invest for the Future. Sure, money is tight, but cities must be prepared to invest up front for long term benefits.

Chengdu, China, has laid out a five-year plan for investing in cloud computing resources to support its many Intelligent Chengdu initiatives. Chicago, Illinois, plans to invest in creating five new science and technology-focused schools, which combine high school and community college, in partnerships with IBM and four other corporations. The city’s leaders understand that they have to invest in programs that will take years to deliver results. They think it’s vital to creating the skilled workforce that’s necessary to sustain a dynamic economy.

Take Action Immediately: The research and final report aren’t of much value if cities don’t take action based on them. These can be small steps: reallocation of funds, new data gathered, a working group set up or a staff position created. The most important thing is to keep the process moving.

A number of the cities were quick to implement some of IBM’s recommendations. For instance, Mecklenberg County, North Carolina, has signed agreements with all its municipalities to develop a consolidated capital budget planning process. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is developing a program for helping residents to continue or resume their educations. And Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, analyzes traffic data more rigorously to improve road safety.

For the complete report, click here.

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Read full report

Technorati Tags: Analytics, energy, smart grid, Smart Grids, Smarter Energy, Smarter Planet, sustainability

Jonathan Steel, Energy Aid

Guest post by
Jonathan Steel,
CEO of UK-based charity Energy Aid

Jonathan is also founder and Chairman of technology consultancy The Bathwick Group, and Chairman of Change London, a social enterprise focused on sustainability and youth unemployment.

As we enter the United Nations Year of Sustainable Energy for All, Pauline Latham OBE MP hosted the Parliamentary launch of the newest Global Energy NGO, Energy Aid, at the Houses of Parliament in London.  We were supported directly at the launch by DFID, IBM, Practical Action, Seeds for Development and The Ashden Awards.

The evening was one of the first major landmarks for Energy Aid as we continue to expand our presence in the international development field and the energy industry and strive to raise awareness of the need to ensure universal energy access. During the launch we stood among 150 of the UK’s leading business people, academics and political figures and called on them to help support us in our mission to eradicate global energy poverty.

Currently one in five of the world’s population lacks access to electricity, and nearly 3 billion people still cook over open fires. The lives of people in the world’s poorest areas including South America, South Asia and sub Saharan Africa could change forever if they had access to modern energy for heating, lighting, cooking, communications and mechanical work. Access to energy is vital if we are to break the cycle of poverty for hundreds of millions of people around the world.

The plight of energy-poor people was brought to life by Timothy, a farmer from Uganda who spoke about how access to energy has transformed his family’s lives. He also spoke of the opportunities that exist to help communities throughout Uganda and across Africa.

The feedback from this event and from Energy Aid’s presence at the launch of the UN Year in Abu Dhabi has brought the need for our unique collaborative approach to private sector engagement in the third sector into sharp focus. We now have a strong band of supporters from across the governmental, charity and commercial spectrum.

Now that our launch period is over, we are reaching out to corporates, other charities and political leaders and asking for their support. Providing universal energy access is one of the most important challenges of our time – but no one organisation can meet the challenge alone, and collaborative approaches are now needed.

With IBM and international development charity Practical Action as founding partners, Energy Aid plans to provide investment and resources including data, technology and skills to support charities and agencies running or planning energy projects for the disenfranchised, and we are developing a platform for private sector consortia to identify and fund new markets for energy services in many countries around the world.

Our research shows that only a fifth of projects in this space achieve their goals, and there is a lack of long-term planning and investment. We aim to address these shortfalls, combining commercial rigour, corporate expertise and finance with best-of-class NGO experience to create a charity for the 21st century that, working with existing actors, will achieve the change which is so desperately needed.

Follow @energy_aid

Technorati Tags: charity, energy, energyaid, international development, Smarter Energy, uk

To get an idea of the promise and possibility of the “smart grid,” look no further than what’s happening in the small New England state of Vermont.

With multiple energy sources and a clear focus on the environment spanning many years, Vermont continues to lead the path for other states looking to become “smarter.” Since creating the first energy efficiency utility, Vermont has positioned itself as a leader in implementing strategies that reduce energy demand. Just recently, the University of Vermont revealed the most energy efficient retrofit of any college campus – calling it a “green old building.”

Today, the state is embarking on a revolutionary plan to build the first statewide smart grid in the country, converting its electric infrastructure into a system that uses two-way communications and advanced sensors.

To help make Vermont’s smart grid a reality, IBM is collaborating with the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) – the state’s transmission utility – to build a next-generation communications network that will connect transmission substations to utilities, and can enable intelligence to be built into the state’s smart grid. This advanced fiber communications network will span more than 1000 miles and will allow utilities to better monitor and manage the electricity network, including predicting and avoiding power outages, quickly addressing those that do occur, and improving management of the grid. The Vermont network will deliver a more than 6000 times increase in capacity for smart grid programs, and will be designed to handled the state’s needs for the next 15 to 20 years. See VELCO photos here.

This is only one of the many energy-focused projects being led out of Vermont. IBM continues to see Vermont as a leading example, demonstrating a clear focus on energy efficiency, infrastructure transformation and on-going consumer engagement.

IBM’s Vermont campus has been a model for advances in smart grid technologies for nearly a decade. The facility employs more than 5,000 sensors and meters to collect data in real time on equipment loading, usage and trends, power disturbances and other factors. That information is used for engineering analysis, monitoring power quality, load calculations, peak power management, billing, and identifying efficiency and conservation opportunities. The smart grid allows the Vermont team to use advanced data analysis and analytics to drive continuous improvement in the performance of the system.

The site’s smart grid has helped it effectively reduce energy usage by approximately 20 percent over ten years, while production capability increased.

Other IBM projects include:

• Energy management outreach – IBM is working with the Vermont Technical College and HowardCenter, the largest health and human services organization in Vermont, to apply its energy management program to help the two organizations cut energy consumption by at least five percent annually.
• IBM is leading a “Smart Vermont” Initiative – This project unites large Vermont organizations to establish energy management programs and to help them make intelligent use of smart grid data. The project looks to create capabilities, awareness and education on the benefits of using the smart grid.
• University of Vermont Project – A newly named Center for Energy Transformation and Innovation on the campus (in partnership with the University and Sandia National Laboratories) will focus on issues surrounding reliability, security and the integration of renewable energy into the smart grid. In addition, IBM and university researchers, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, are using complex systems to develop models to improve power grid reliability.

IBM’s project management and networking services expertise and Vermont’s dedication to energy innovation and collaboration have set the stage for the first statewide smart grid implementation, covering all its utilities. Vermont is creating a system that is more efficient and affordable than if handled separately by each utility. Whether on a state or regional basis, this can be a model for the rest of the country to follow.

Technorati Tags: energy, janette bombardier, smart grid, vermont

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Today news of a brand new global charity called Energy Aid will start spreading around the world. Given that nearly half of the world’s population lacks access to modern sources of energy, the charity has an impressive mission to provide universal energy access. This means people in the world’s poorest areas including South America, South Asia and sub Saharan Africa could have their lives changed forever if they had access to energy for heating, lighting, cooking, communications and mechanical work.

With IBM and international development charity Practical Action already on board as founding partners Energy Aid plans to provide investment and resources including data, technology and skills to support charities and agencies running or planning energy projects in the target areas.

In the lead up to the global launch building a solid business case for the charity was key. A vital element of this planning was research conducted by myself and a team at the London School of Economics. We went out to visit and study organisations in India and Peru that could engage with Energy Aid in the future and make our recommendations on how Energy Aid could add value.

We analysed five case studies through site visits and interviews. The organisations were grouped into either partner organisations which illustrated how Energy Aid could contribute to existing issues, or peer organisations which illustrated how similar organisations went about achieving their objectives.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Following our research Energy Aid finalised its business model now has three key strategies: an awareness campaign launching in 2012 dedicated to raising the issue of energy access in the public conscience, an open source of data, resources, technologies and research and a fund to raise and invest money into deserving long-term game-changing projects.

We are looking forward to seeing how Energy Aid develops over the next year and hope the issue of universal energy for all continues to grow in prominence with businesses and individuals.

We are not alone. Sustainable energy is an increasingly global concern with 2012 announced as the “UN Year of Sustainable Energy for All,” with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon giving a personal commitment towards the cause, and the UN Earth Summit Rio 20 in June 2012 will focus on alleviating energy access.

Technorati Tags: charity, csr, energy, Energy & Environment, energy aid, sustainability, water