Vince Ward, Project Officer at the Southern Housing Group

By Vince Ward

What started out as a community-based energy project on the Isle of Wight has morphed into a bona fide social movement.

Encouraged by the work of IBM Distinguished Engineer, Andy Stanford-Clark, who created a “smart” house that monitored, managed and optimized energy use, three years ago the Village of Chale created the Chale Community Project, which seeks, among other things, to reduce home energy costs by up to 50 percent. While the project has indeed raised awareness and helped residents lower costs, it has also had a serendipitous outcome – it has brought the community together.

From the very beginning of the Chale Community Project – during planning and roll-out phases – we worked on ensuring the local community was on board. Going from door to door, the team would communicate with residents about the plan of action, encourage participation and try to boost morale.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With confidence growing we continued by introducing schemes that would improve quality of life for the village. Local residents embraced the training schemes we provided on renewable technologies which not only offered new skills but opened up employment opportunities in areas previously unavailable. The schemes also benefited other parts of the island as residents could now act as ‘local green champions’ to educate other villages that were developing plans to become more sustainable.

These successful early activities encouraged the village to grab hold of the project and take it further. For example, local resident Peter Atkinson now manages a new data centre filled with computers donated from a local school that had closed. The computers are being used to train residents in core IT skills to help them use the Internet to pay bills and access online Government information. Atkinson believes that around 50 percent of the village is without Internet access in their homes, so the project has made a massive difference to people’s lives in that respect.

These activities have provided a solid foundation from which we built and expanded our sustainability project.  In addition to the aforementioned, the team has:

• Persuaded the local transport company to halve bus fares to encourage the use of public transportation for residents
• Seen a dramatic drop in rent arrears as energy monitoring has made utility bills more manageable; some residents have reported reductions of up to 50 percent
• Created an allotment area in the village, where young and old residents are brought together to reinforce a new sense of community spirit

Planning For The Future

Though we have achieved so much so far, we still have a lot of plans for the future.

For example, we are very excited to be the first village on the island working on a roll out of SMART meters that will replace electricity meters.

Additionally, we are talking to residents about launching a new electric vehicle project in the village which establishes clusters of electric vehicles (EV) to mimic a future network. If residents take part, we will offer the use of a brand new electric vehicle at a discounted rate for an 18-month trial period and install an EV charging point free of charge for each trial participant.

For us, the emphasis in all of these activities is on the community helping itself to live more sustainably. That is why we are pleased to be working with IBM to support the Business in the Community’s Start campaign called Be the Start. Start is an initiative inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales and the campaign is running throughout May with over 40 brands and organisations inspiring people to live sustainably by demonstrating how it can be rewarding and meaningful.

On 14 May IBM will bring sustainable living to life with a Chale focus on www.smartertrends.co.uk. IBM supported the installation of energy monitoring technology in the village which helped save energy and water so I’ll be hosting a Twitter chat with Andy Stanford-Clark on 14 May at 10:00AM ET to provide insights and top tips. So please come and join us by following @smartertrends or #IBMChale to find out more about the Chale Community Project.

Technorati Tags: Andy Stanford-Clark, Big Data, environmental stewardship, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Isle of Wight, smarter analytics, Smarter Cities, Smarter Energy, sustainability

Andrea Pedretti, CTO, Airlight Energy

By Andrea Pedretti

It would take only two percent of the Sahara Desert’s land area to supply the world’s electricity needs. Unfortunately, current solar technologies are too expensive and slow to produce, require rare Earth minerals and lack the efficiency to make such massive installations practical. To address this, scientists at Airlight Energy have teamed up with IBM and Swiss university partners to develop an affordable photovoltaic system that is capable of concentrating, on average, the power of 2,000 suns, onto hundreds of 1×1 cm chips.

The prototype system uses a large parabolic dish made from a multitude of mirror facets. The dish is attached to a tracking system that determines the best angle based on the position of the sun. Once aligned, the sun’s rays reflect off the mirror onto several microchannel liquid-cooled receivers with triple-junction photovoltaic chips. Each 1×1 centimeter chip can convert 200-250 watts, on average, over a typical eight-hour day in a sunny region. 


The solar receiver system will use hot-water cooling processor technology, developed by our partners at IBM for supercomputers. Based on a collaboration with the Egypt Nanotechnology Research Center  it was reapplied to cool photovoltaic chips.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I am particularly proud of the design, which I refer to as “frugal innovation.” I describe it this way because we have replaced expensive steel and glass with low cost concrete and simple pressurized metalized foils. Our business will manufacturer the small high-tech components, in particular the microchannel coolers and the molds, in Switzerland, while the remaining construction and assembly will be done in the region of the installation. This will create jobs in my home country and abroad, which is also rewarding for me.

To provide fresh water our colleagues at IBM are using a unique concept that they originally helped to develop for water-cooled supercomputers. With both the Aquasar and SuperMUC supercomputers water is used to absorb heat from the processor chips, which is then used to provide space heating for the facilities.

In the HCPVT system, instead of heating a building, the 90 degree Celsius water will pass through a porous membrane distillation system where it will be vaporized and desalinated. A large system could provide 30-40 liters of drinkable water per square meter, enough for a small town.

With such a high concentration and a radically low-cost design, we are targeting a cost-per-aperture area below $250 per square meter, which is three-times lower than comparable systems. This is a good price point for locations around the world including Southern Europe, Africa, the Arabic peninsula, the southwestern United States, South America, and Australia. Remote tourism locations are also an interesting market, particularly resorts on small islands, such as the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius.

Over the course of the next several months, thanks to a generous grant from the Swiss government, we will be building up new prototypes here at Airlight in Biasca and at the IBM lab in Rüschlikon, Switzerland. By Earth Day 2014 we should begin to have some very promising results.

Till then, Happy Earth Day.

Technorati Tags: Airlight Energy, Earth Day, IBM Smarter Planet, IBM SuperMUC, innovation, Photovoltaic devices, Smarter Energy, solar, solar power, SuperMUC, sustainability

Dr. Anna Topol, CTO, Energy and Utilities, IBM

IBM today christened a new generation of technology innovators, naming 66 new Distinguished Engineers from across the company. The DE rank recognizes people for their outstanding technical accomplishments, as well as their potential for breaking new ground in key areas such as cloud and mobile computing, Big Data analytics, social business, and many more.

This year’s class includes Dr. Anna Topol, IBM’s Chief Technology Officer for the Energy and Utilities sector. A native of Poland and mother of two young boys, Topol holds a doctorate in physics from the State University of New York Albany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and has earned nearly two dozen patents. She joined IBM in 2001. The Smarter Planet editorial team recently sat down with Topol for an inside chat with one of the company’s newest DE’s.

Smarter Planet: Where do you see the biggest potential for breakthroughs in your current area of specialization?

Anna Topol: There is a lot of innovation happening in the energy and utility sector. What has been learned from other industries such as telecommunications and retail, where the use of data analytics has had transformational benefits, is now being applied to help us be smarter about how we generate, consume and conserve energy. Right now, there is a focus on automation and the use of smart meters, devices and sensors. For energy consumers, this translates into a decrease in change-related outages through increased efficiency and reduced mean time to repairs.

SP: How can utility companies benefit from Big Data?

AT: For many utilities, maintenance is performed because it’s scheduled, not because something is defective. The savings come from a new understanding of when not to do the work in the first place. Now we have digitally based instruments, sensor networks and simulation devices, which can provide more data and insights. The analytics-driven information can help a company decide the best time to fix or replace a power transformer, for example, based on real-time information instead of an outdated maintenance schedule. Smarter utility companies are using their data to increase equipment utilization, reduce maintenance expenses and defer capital expenditures. This cost consciousness is particularly important for industries like energy and utilities which have an aging infrastructure.

Dr. Anna Topol

SP: Did you always want to be an engineer?

AT: I always liked math and physics and loved astronomy. My parents instilled a love of learning early on. My mother was a physical therapist and my father was in the Polish navy and later taught navigation and ship construction. I moved to the United States when I was 18 years old, and I studied physics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After graduating, I worked briefly for an IT company in Boston and realized I needed to learn more. I earned my masters and doctorate at SUNY-Albany. The professors there cultivated my interest in nanoscience and in industry research. I began my IBM career at IBM Research, working on 3D integrated circuit technology, and then moved into client-facing roles.

SP: What advice would you give young women who might want to follow in your footsteps?

AT: Always ask questions. If you don’t know something, ask. Sometimes, we’re reluctant to ask because we feel embarrassed that we don’t know enough, but that’s the very time we should be asking. In college, I found professors were incredibly generous with their knowledge. Ask your professors about their research; ask if you can shadow them in the lab. Experience is a better teacher than the textbook. Finally, be persistent. Expect to fail, but learn from your failures.

SP: What do you look for when you are hiring?

AT: Two things that go in different directions. First, you have to be a good team member. The smartest and best brains never create in a vacuum. I listen closely to see how eager people are to collaborate. Second is having a vision. Sure, you can be an engineer, follow orders and do a good job. But the only thing that moves us forward is vision. Where do you want to take our company, our clients, our industry, our world? Are you a follower or are you capable of independent thinking and making a difference? I’m looking for people who want to be a force for progress.

SP: Where do you get your best ideas?

AT: I get my best ideas by talking to people who have different backgrounds than me. I like to gather information from various sources. I also like to hear from people of different ages – older and younger generations. I think it’s very important to get those different perspectives, so you are looking at a problem from many different angles, not just your own. It’s what I call diversity of thought.

SP: What does being named Distinguished Engineer mean to you?

AT: It’s very humbling. It makes me thankful for the people I have met and the help they have given me along the way. Recognition is important. It has a direct influence on staying passionate about your work.

SP: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?

AT: I like playing volleyball. On Sundays, I go to church and pray for a good week. On Wednesdays, I play volleyball for recreation. Sometimes, that also helps me work out frustrations by banging the ball. But mostly, time with my family, my two boys, ages 5 and 6, are the wings to my day. They are my guiding angels. They wake up in the morning and they are eager to meet the day. I love seeing how the world looks through their eyes.

SP: What music do you enjoy?

AT: I play the piano and being from Poland, Chopin of course is my favorite. I like harmony – with a good portion of discord. I listen to smooth jazz and other music, but classical is my first choice.

Technorati Tags: IBM Distinguished Engineer, IBM Research, IBM Smarter Energy, IBM Smarter Planet, Smarter Energy, smarter utilities

Anders Rhod Gregersen, Senior Specialist Plant Siting and Forecasting, Vestas Wind Systems

By Anders Rhod Gregersen

Deciding where to put a wind turbine is a lot like planting a tree: where you plant it is critical to its long term health and effectiveness.

For wind turbines, pinpointing the optimal location enables energy producers to maximize power generation at reduced energy costs. It’s something we at Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark have been working on for several years.

To do it, we mine Big Data and leverage predictive analytics for deep insights. We analyze literally petabytes of information, ranging from weather reports and tidal phases, to geospatial and sensor data, as well as satellite images and weather modeling research. In all, 160 factors are analyzed that influence location, plant performance and service life.

But the insights gained help us to do a lot more than determine prime locations. The analysis also helps us identify new markets for wind energy and helps our clients meet aggressive renewable energy goals. For a company like ours, that is committed to addressing the world’s energy requirements, it is of high importance to not only seek high-performance but also to generate an energy-efficient computing environment that offers a reduced carbon footprint through lower server energy consumption.

Our solution is based on IBM BigInsights software and the IBM Firestorm supercomputer. We then combines open source Apache Hadoop software with unique technologies and capabilities from IBM that enable us to process very large data sets by breaking up the data into chunks and coordinating the processing across a distributed environment.

Thus, we know exactly how the wind is distributed across potential sites, and can compare this data with the turbine design specifications to make sure the turbine can operate at optimal efficiency at that location.

What is also remarkable is the fact that the supercomputers and modeling software aren’t only used in the planning phase. Once the wind farm is up and running, they can keep crunching data to decide when the best time to schedule maintenance is, and what important information can be incorporated into future models to refine them.

As we believe that electricity from wind technologies will further increase during the next years, Big Data analytics is helping us to speed up this timeline and enter new markets to capitalize on growing demand for wind energy.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, IBM BigInsights, IBM Firestorm, IBM Smarter Planet, smarter analytics, Smarter Energy, Smarter IT, Vestas

By Richard Silberman, Writer/Researcher, IBM Communications

During the past year, we’ve profiled nine exceptional “People for a Smarter Planet” who exemplify the spirit of change, innovation, creativity and curiosity that lie at the core of building a smarter planet. They are inventors and researchers, academics and executives, thought leaders, dreamers, risk-takers, pioneers.

These individuals come from a wide range of fields and possess an array of interests and expertise. What they all have in common is a passion for their work and a commitment to make the world a better place.

They include Ruhong Zhou, whose avian flu research may help prevent a global pandemic; Dave Bartlett, IBM’s smarter buildings guru; Bill Reichert, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with novel advice for entrepreneurs; and sustainability expert Sarah Slaughter.

If you haven’t met them yet, here are nine People for a Smarter Planet you should know.

Technorati Tags: business analytics, cloud, IBM Research, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, smarter analytics, Smarter Industries, Smarter People

Klauss Gottschalk, Senior IT Specialist, IBM Germany

By Klaus Gottschalk

The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), nestled on the outskirts of Munich in the town of Garching, was established 50 years ago by the Bavarian Academy of Science, to provide supercomputing resources to researchers and scientists across the Munich Scientific Network of universities.

Since then, the Centre has been the home of such systems as the HLRB and HLRB-II and has grown to become the premiere computing operations center for researchers across Europe, as they work to answer computational-intensive scientific questions.  

In June 2012, the Centre flipped the switch on its fastest and most innovative supercomputer to date, the IBM-designed and built SuperMUC (the suffix, MUC, is derived from the Munich airport code). In addition to being the 6^th fastest computer in the world, the 155,000-core system was built with an innovative cooling process that uses hot water to cool the thousands of microprocessors. By using hot water instead of compressed air and fans, typically used for cooling, the SuperMUC consumes 40 percent less energy than the previous supercomputer in use at the Centre – resulting in dramatic energy cost savings for LRZ.

Almost as impressive as the environmental milestones of the SuperMUC is the sheer processing power and ability to generate, manage and store massive amounts of information. I have worked on this project since its inception two years ago, and am still amazed at the enormous opportunities made possible by this system. Consider for a moment the vastness of its storage. The system, as it stands, includes 12 petabytes of permanent disk storage and 320 terabytes of main memory. For comparison, one petabyte is about the equivalent of all the content in the U.S. Library of Congress – times 100.

When people talk about Big Data, research centers like LRZ are ground zero. And when you deal with volumes of data that large, the first thing after establishing the permanent storage system is creating a backup and archiving plan to protect it against disaster. That’s exactly what IBM and our Business Partner, SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH, tackled recently. We built a massive archiving and backup storage infrastructure to safely store the growing volumes of data being generated by the LRZ.

How massive? Leveraging IBM’s advanced and energy-efficient tape library systems, as well as several enterprise class disk systems equipped with SSDs, the backup infrastructure has a storage capacity of 16.5 petabytes, which is expandable to 40 petabytes.

To design such a powerful infrastructure that blends the most innovative supercomputing technology to date, with a technology such as magnetic tape, which is just as strategic today – if not more so – as it was 60 years ago when it revolutionized the computer industry, is inspiring. Then again, supercomputing truly does require super storage. And we built the template at the LRZ.

Technorati Tags: Bavarian Academy of Sciences, IBM Smarter Planet, IBM Smarter Storage, LRZ, Smarter Storage, supercomputing, SuperMUC, tape storage

Volker W. Fricke, Solution Architect, Telematics & Telemetry, IBM Germany

By Volker W. Fricke and Clay Luthy

What would Scotsman Robert Anderson say if he could comment on the history of electric vehicles? As the supposed inventor of the first vehicle with an electric motor back in 1836 he might have been a bit frustrated over the triumphal procession of the combustion engine for the last 100 years. However the progress and raising interest in electric mobility in the last couple of years might put a smile on his face.

Driven by technology breakthroughs, increasing oil prices and a raising environmental awareness, electric vehicles (EV) are moving into the center of interest for consumers, enterprises and governments. For example, the European Union (EU) has set an ambitious goal to reduce CO2 emissions by 60 percent by 2050.

More specifically, Germany aims for a 40 percent CO2 reduction within the next 12 years – also with the help of one million electric vehicles on German streets by 2020. Even though electric mobility technologies have made significant progress, a number of challenges still remain: limited battery range and the lack of a consistent nationwide charging infrastructure – a factor significant to European drivers constantly crossing borders into new territories. 

Clay Luthy, Global Distributed Energy Resource Leader, IBM

While IBM researchers are working hard in the Battery500 project to produce lithium air batteries with a range of 500 miles, IBM developers in Germany are bringing their knowledge and expertise into the EU sponsored project Green eMotion. Launched in March 2011, the project aims to lay the foundation for mass deployment of electric vehicles, Europe-wide, with the help of 43 partners ranging from technology companies, energy providers, electric vehicle manufacturers and universities.

The members are working to develop the systems, communications, and market models to help overcome the complexity of European electric mobility, such as grid control issues, international billing challenges and many more.  

Imagine that you want to travel with your electric vehicle from Stuttgart, Germany, to Barcelona, Spain – a distance of approximately 1,200 kilometers (750 miles). To do it today, you would need to access a charging infrastructure that is part of a different utility’s electricity network, operated by a different charge point operator than the one you contracted with at home, and which potentially utilizes a different business model. This is not only a headache for the consumer, but also a management challenge for utilities.

What is needed is an information and financial clearinghouse which enables roaming between different charging point operators and energy grid providers, similar to the concept used today when using mobile phones abroad. This system would enable access to charge posts regardless of the operator, provide a transparent billing and payment system for your recharging bills, and provide end users the ability to locate charge posts among other services.

To make this happen, the Green eMotion project is implementing a cloud-based, pan-European B2B Marketplace demonstration that provides the critical services needed for seamless electric vehicle charging. The IT platform is based on open standards and protocols making it easy for participating companies to add future services without major development and integration efforts.

As a result, drivers will be able to charge their vehicles and pay in any location across borders and geographies, regardless of their energy provider. Utilities will also benefit, as the IT platform provides interoperable standards and payment support, reducing potential management issues with financial settlement and international conversion.

Today, about 2,000 electric vehicles are operating in the Green eMotion demonstration regions relying on a network of more than 2,500 charging points. The number of EVs will grow to about 70,000 in 2015, with the number of charging points increasing to more than 80,000.

The B2B marketplace is a major step into the electric mobility future of Europe. Robert Anderson would be proud.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, electric vehicles, Green eMotion, green energy, IBM electric vehicles, IBM Smarter Planet, Smarter Energy, Smarter Transportation

Ron Ambrosio, Global Research Executive, Energy & Utilities, IBM

By Ron Ambrosio

Over the last few years, an interesting transformation has been taking shape in the Pacific Northwest.

Research laboratories, product developers, testing companies, utility engineering departments, and universities have been working together to design and implement a new and smarter approach to managing electricity delivery.

This approach, being developed by the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Project (PNW-SGDP), called for devising ways to move electricity from generation plants through customer equipment, such as smart meters, heating and cooling systems, and just about everything in between.

One of the largest regional smart grid demonstrations in North America, the PNW-SGDP, is led by Battelle and involves a host of partners, including the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center, 11 regional utilities, the University of Washington, Washington State University, and Central Washington University. Technology partners including Alstom Grid, Quality Logic, and 3TIER, Inc., and others are also involved. (A complete list: www.pnwsmartgrid.org)

The PNW-SGDP includes many different types of smart grid functions in test sites across five states in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In addition to 60,000 participating customers, 11 distribution utilities and their sub teams, the project has a regional team leading the overall design, development and integration of a Transactive Energy Management system.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Wednesday October 24, after more than two years of preparation, the PNW-SGDP went live and the Transactive Energy Management system went into effect. Attendees at a launch event at the University of Washington witnessed how the new system will allow project managers to accumulate and manage energy usage information from all energy assets in the project, including data from electric vehicle charging and battery storage systems. They will also be able to monitor the grid in real-time through a single management system that spans the entire delivery chain – a capability that was once impossible.

Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center (EIOC) located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which Battelle operates for the Department of Energy. The data from the project will be analyzed at the EIOC.

Now, the Transactive Energy Management system is able to communicate, make decisions and take action every five minutes through signals that reflect the changing electrical demand and costs of energy delivery throughout the grid. This system takes into consideration ordinary household appliances, such as heating and cooling systems, clothes dryers and water heaters, electric vehicle charging systems, and many other energy assets, including future large-scale battery banks.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington State interacts with University of Washington students who will use energy management devices to monitor and study energy use as part of the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project. (Photo courtesy of the University of Washington)

With this new platform, IBM along with other project participants are testing smart grid functions to manage the variability of renewables such as wind, improve response time, and reduce outages – with the goal to build a more resilient, automated and smarter grid.

Both system operators and local utilities will benefit from the increased visibility by allowing them to manage, automate and balance grid load. For example, the Transactive system will help reduce electrical load by calling on batteries and other distributed energy resources if there is an unexpected failure, such as a downed power line or a blown transformer. Such automated responses can help the grid survive situations that in the past have caused localized or wide-area outages.

At the same time, more than 60,000 metered residential, commercial and industrial customers involved in the demonstration will also benefit, indirectly through the improved reliability and operational efficiency offered by their utility. They’ll benefit directly through the ability to manage their energy in a more informed environment while also becoming an active part of the solution. By providing consumers with real-time access to their electrical use, they’ll be able to make informed decisions that will help reduce consumption, as well as their overall energy bill.

With the project up and running, the industry will now have a platform to export lessons and best practices to the rest of the nation, and the world. Now we watch, listen and learn.

Technorati Tags: energy, IBM, predicitve analytics, Smart Grids, Smarter Energy, smarter grids, Smarter Planet

Charles Vincent, Chief Architect, IBM Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities

By Fabienne Guildhary, IBM Communications, Energy & Utilities/Media & Entertainment

Often, history serves as a tool to teach us valuable lessons and help us avoid repeating the same mistakes. As Chief Architect of the IBM Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities, Charles Vincent is leveraging his considerable knowledge of Electric Vehicles (EVs) to better shape the future of transportation.

Charles’ passion for EVs was sparked long before his career in electronic transportation took off. Fascinated by the technology at an early age, Charles devoted a lot of time poring over vintage publications on the subject, such as American Electric Vehicle Association newsletters from the early 1900’s. Then in the 1980’s, Charles got the opportunity to put his knowledge and passion to work.  

An early 20th century advertisement for the Baker Motor Vehicle Co.

Today, as an IBMer for 26 years and counting, Charles is a key contributor in the development of smart grid technology. Originally dubbed “intelligent grids,” Charles recognized early on the potential for these systems to adapt and respond to fluctuating energy needs. Even at the beginning stages, Charles and his team had a clear focus: work towards building a “Smarter Energy” infrastructure, one that could support increasing populations, new technologies and other unpredictable circumstances, such as extreme weather. The more the development evolved, Charles began to realize the crucial role the smart grid could play in creating a more EV-friendly environment.

Since then, Charles has seen the general public’s interest in EVs wax and wane, depending largely on fluctuating fuel prices. However, he believes the industry has a strong future.

“I think it’s obvious that plug-in electric vehicles will have a significant presence over the next 10 to 15 years,” he said. “Customers are becoming more aware of the benefits, utility companies are implementing new business strategies that will help support growing EV adoption, and even cities are taking the necessary steps to become “EV friendly.”

To help spur that future on, Charles and his team have developed IBM’s Intelligent Electric Vehicle Enablement Platform, a cloud-based energy solution that streamlines the charging process for utilities and consumers. The platform allows utilities to collect energy data via the EV charge-posts, and as a result, accurately measure energy needs and keep the power grid balanced. While, for consumers, the platform provides flexible payment options in the form of pre-paid billing and pay-per-use accounts – all key aspects in driving EV adoption.  

Charles says the EV Enablement Platform is the most challenging project he has undertaken thus far and he’s pleased to see it being applied to smarter EV infrastructures across many countries around the world – including Ireland and in the U.S.

What’s next? Charles hopes to increase EV momentum by working closely with all sectors such as consumers, utilities, automakers and stakeholders, to ensure the EV transition is as smooth as possible. With continued advancements, Charles and his team are preparing to harness smarter energy and leave their mark on transportation history.

Technorati Tags: electric cars, electric utilities, electric vehicles, EV, IBM, IBM electric vehicles, IBM Intelligent Electric Vehicle Enablement Platform

It’s part of an innovative First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) project that will help public school buildings in the city reduce their energy consumption through analytics.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In New York City, where buildings account for 75 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions each year, it’s unreasonable to build brand-new, energy-efficient buildings from the ground up.

But what if you could use technology to sift through critical building data to make school structures more energy efficient and more cost-effective?

Members of the New York City Department of Education and the City University of New York (CUNY) asked IBM this question as they began to think about new ways to improve energy efficiency in the city’s public school buildings.

IBM’s answer was to invite them into its labs, where researchers were working on advanced analytics and statistical modeling technologies that could provide insights into the every-day operations of buildings, including energy usage.  Another First-of-a-Kind project was born.

The system that was created lets facility staff track and analyze energy use, compare school buildings’ energy efficiency, forecast power needs, and run simulations on building improvements to predict the benefits of various retrofitting projects.

For example, a facilities department manager or custodian could run the tool, click on the simulation capability, and find out how much energy could be saved by replacing old, single-pane windows with double pane windows.

Also, heating energy used in one building could be compared with that of a nearby building of similar size and age. Perhaps that building serves the same number of students but consumes 20-percent less energy. To improve the less-efficient facility, facilities staff could explore retrofitting projects through computer simulations.

The CUNY project stands to benefit not only New York City’s school buildings, but also the 1.1 million students within. IBM and CUNY are training teachers on the system’s interactive features, which can help examine real energy use and translate it into tangible classroom lessons on environmental impact.

As the City University of New York is discovering, bringing greater intelligence and connectedness into a building’s operations can go a long way toward creating a truly integrated and smarter building system, while reducing energy consumption and developing energy-conscious students along the way.

And as all the FOAK projects are proving, it is the dynamic nature of this close interaction with IBM clients and the changing forces of the real world that drives innovation and brings it to market at an ever-quickening pace.

Technorati Tags: buildings, CUNY, IBM, IBM Research, new york city, school