Additional Related News Items: ENERGY/UTILITIES Sector

Here we present a selection of related news items that are of interest to our subscribers. These are presented "as is" - meaning with no editorial treatment by us. They are intended to keep our subscribers informed of related developments, but are not stored at our site as are the regular articles developed by our editorial team. We invite your comments/suggestions about the content in this section at info@vtechlink.com.

• Electric City Joins the Demand Response and Advanced Metering Coalition
• Plexus Selected by City of Seattle and Progress Energy for AMR Projects
• System Allows Home Owners to Monitor Energy Use
• APC Unveils 10-Outlet UPS for Home Networking

Electric City Joins the Demand Response and Advanced Metering Coalition

Electric City Corporation, a developer, manufacturer and integrator of energy savings technologies and demand response systems, and the Demand Response and Advanced Metering Coalition [DRAM] have announced that Electric City has joined the industry group.

The Demand Response and Advanced Metering Coalition is comprised of companies providing products and services in areas such as advanced metering and communications, automated controls, and demand response program implementation and management. The Coalition's goal is to educate and inform policy makers and other demand response stakeholders on the benefits of demand response and its enabling technologies. It seeks to provide support for the increased deployment of such technologies in demand response programs such that both energy companies and energy consumers are empowered with time-based usage information and other new options they can use to efficiently and cost- effectively provide and use energy.

Other members of DRAM include eMeter, DCSI, Landis+Gyr, Echelon, EMON/MeterSmart, SmartSynch, Alliance to Save Energy, Elster Electricity, Hunt Technologies, Silver Spring Networks, Invensys Goodwatts, Comverge and the Northeast Energy Efficiency Council.

Electric City is a leading developer, manufacturer and integrator of energy savings technologies and building automation systems. The Company currently markets the EnergySaver, the GlobalCommander and a full line of energy retrofit technologies, as well as its independent development of scaleable, negative power systems under the trade name Virtual "Negawatt" Power Plan "VNPP". The Company is developing its first VNPP development - a 50-Megawatt negative power system for ComEd in northern Illinois, a second system in the Denver area for Xcel Energy, an initial program in Ontario, Canada with Enersource and a 27-Megawatt fourth system with PacifiCorp in the Salt Lake City area. Electric City is based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois and is traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol ELC.

Plexus Selected by City of Seattle and Progress Energy for AMR Projects

The City of Seattle, Washington has engaged Plexus Research to help the City select meter reading technology and develop a comprehensive business analysis of its performance. The South Lake Union and Denny Triangle areas [SLU/DT] near downtown Seattle are undergoing extensive redevelopment with new residential, commercial and light industrial facilities.

Seattle's public utilities will install up to 20,000 new electric and water services. The City's meter reading staff already is working at maximum capacity. This affords a superb opportunity for the City to install and evaluate advanced metering and automated meter reading [AMR] technologies. New AMR systems can cost less than manual meter reading, enable better customer service, and support more efficient management of electric and water distribution.  

Seattle City Light is a progressive, publicly-owned electric utility serving approximately 385,000 customers. Seattle Public Utilities serves over 1.3 million water customers throughout King County, including downtown Seattle. The two municipal utilities of Seattle are collaborating in this AMR acquisition for SLU/DT. Seattle obtained competitive proposals from selected industry consulting firms that specialize in AMR system economics and technology applications. After a careful evaluation of cost and capability, Plexus Research was selected.  

A competitive solicitation for procurement of up to 2,000 AMR-equipped water and electric meters AMR will be released to qualified suppliers in mid 2005. The deployment in SLU/DT will proceed in stages. A thorough evaluation of the business case and system performance will assess the results achieved in the present stage. A positive business case and favorable results for Seattle may lead to expansion of the system in subsequent stages.  

The AMR meters will be integrated immediately into the mainstream operations of Seattle's utilities. Plexus Research will support Seattle in conducting a detailed business analysis of the costs and benefits of the AMR. Meter automation eliminates reading errors and estimated bills, facilitates improved customer service, and supports a wide range of other operational improvements and efficiencies. Plexus Research has assisted utilities in identifying, quantifying, and attaining these benefits since the early 1980s and has more experience than any other firm in this field.

• Progress Energy AMR

Progress Energy of Raleigh [North Carolina] has selected Plexus Research to assist the utility in acquiring a large mobile meter reading capability with advanced solid state electric meters. Progress Energy, a Fortune 250 company, serves more than 2.9 million customers in Florida and the Carolinas. The project will enable remote automatic reading of all customer meters served by the utility on energy-only rates. Approximately 2.6 million customers will be equipped with new electric meters that include radios for remote meter reading.

Progress Energy will move swiftly to complete the deployment by early 2007. Deployment will begin in 2005 in Florida and will conclude in early 2007 in the Carolinas. The speed of the project is challenging and will bring the benefits of automatic meter reading [AMR] to more customers in a shorter time than any previous deployment.

Plexus Research has over 22 years of experience in remote meter reading applications, and immediately focused the project on the essential steps of specifying the meters, the meter data communications, and the installation services for this large project.

Since 1983 Plexus Research has served the energy industry with objective, expert support for utility metering, meter reading, and load management. Plexus utility clients benefit from the firm's extensive library of methods, analytical tools and document templates, which quickly and efficiently guide the complex process of technology selection, acquisition and deployment. Plexus resources, and the 'lessons learned' of many previous utility projects, reduce project costs and improve results for Plexus utility clients.

System Allows Home Owners to Monitor Energy Use

A team of students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has developed an award-winning monitoring system that alerts home owners when they exceed their monthly goals for utility costs, enabling them to conserve energy in time to lower their bills. A computer-based AWARE@home tool lets home owners monitor their total consumption of electricity, gas and water in real time, and a wireless wall plug allows the electricity consumption of individual appliances to be monitored on the same system.

Energy consumption is indicated on the system in dollars or environmental emissions and delivered to the home owner automatically through a wireless network, according to Steven Skerlos, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and advisor to the student project.

The invention won one of the Environmental Protection Agency's first P3 - People, Prosperity and Planet - Awards in a design competition seeking profitable sustainable development technologies from universities. The team from the University of Michigan was one of seven to win a top honor out of 64 student teams invited to participate in a finalist competition in Washington, D.C.

To get the energy-consumption monitoring system up and running, the utility provider first swaps out the analog meter for a digital one. Then the consumer gets a start-up kit that includes a CD and, if needed, a USB wireless antenna for the computer.

After loading software from the CD onto the computer, home owners are asked basic questions about utility rates, billing cycles and how much they want to spend on utilities each month. At any point in the month when it looks like the desired utilities expenditure will be exceeded, the AWARE@home will notify the home owner by e-mail and direct them to a site on the Web where they can find information on how to reduce consumption.

Power companies, landlords, meter providers and appliance manufacturers have already expressed interest in the system, said Skerlos. Eventually, the design team hopes to see their invention reduce residential utility consumption in the U.S. by 10%.

APC Unveils 10-Outlet UPS for Home Networking

American Power Conversion has announced the Back-UPS ES 750, a complete broadband power protection solution for home networking equipment. The uninterruptible power supply provides battery backup for a desktop PC, monitor, hub, router, and other data sensitive equipment in case of a power failure. The unit also offers surge protection for high-speed Internet lines including cable modem, DSL [Digital Subscriber Line], telephone, Ethernet, single line phone/fax, modem, and DSS [Digital Subscriber Service] systems.

Ten outlets provide enough protection for additional desktop peripherals and can accommodate two transformer block shaped plugs that prevent other receptacles from being blocked. Five battery backup outlets with surge protection keep a CPU, monitor, and other data-sensitive devices up and running when the power goes out. In addition, five surge protection-only outlets protect printers, fax machines or other equipment from surges without reducing battery capacity.

The Back-UPS ES 750 comes equipped with USB [Universal Serial Bus] connectivity and includes APC's PowerChute Personal Edition software, an easy-to-use, safe, system shutdown tool. Its sophisticated power management functions protect files when the user is away from the computer. The software is compatible with Windows [XP, ME, and 98] and Macintosh OS X [v10.4 or higher] operating systems.

The UPS has a space saving, strip-shaped form factor, user replaceable batteries, and incorporates an intelligent battery management system that maximizes battery performance and reliability. The Back-UPS ES 750 offers an equipment protection policy of $50,000. It ships with a data recovery warranty and a free trial of firewall software.

APC's new Back-UPS ES 750 is currently available in North America and carries an estimated resale price of $100

Founded in 1981, American Power Conversion is a leading provider of global, end-to-end solutions for real-time infrastructure. APC's comprehensive products and services for home and corporate environments improve the availability, manageability, and performance of sensitive electronic, network, communication, and industrial equipment of all sizes. Headquartered in West Kingston, Rhode Island, APC reported sales of $1.7 billion for the year ended December 31, 2004.

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