Archive for June, 2008

On May 5, 2008, Hydro-Quebec announced that it has accepted 15 bids for 2,000 MW of wind generation to come online between 2011 and 2015. These projects will require a capital outlay of about $5.5 billion, with $1.1 billion for transmission infrastructure. Hydro-Quebec will draw up these contracts and submit them to the Regie de ... Read More

On June 2, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) signed a two-year collaboration agreement with six leading wind turbine manufacturers to find ways to improve turbine design and production methods. This agreement is intended to further to goals expressed in the DOE’s recently released report entitled “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030”, which was ... Read More

June 3, 2008, eSolar announced that it has been awarded a 20-year power purchase agreement from Southern California Edison (SCE) to build a 245 MW solar thermal power plant. The plant will be built in the Antelope Valley region of southern California and is expected to be operational by 2011. SCE will begin taking the ... Read More

On May 14, 2008, BrightSource Energy, another utility-scale solar thermal developer, announced that it has secured $115 million of fresh investment capital from Google, BP Alternative Energy, and others. Combined with funding from its original investors—VantagePoint Ventures, Morgan Stanley, Chevron Technology Ventures, and others—BrightSource now has about $160 million in investment capital. In March 2008, ... Read More

On May 12 and 13, 2008, more than 150 state and federal regulators, curtailment service providers, technology companies, and others gathered at PJM’s Demand-side Response Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss how to increase the region’s demand-side response. Demand-side response can include energy efficiency measures, reduced demand, and distributed generation. Key topics of discussion included ... Read More

On May 15, 2008, Xcel Energy announced that the design phase of its Smart Grid plan for Boulder, Colorado, is complete and construction has begun on the system’s control and operations center. This multi-phase project is expected to be completed by year-end 2009. During Phase I, which runs from March to August 2008, the equipment ... Read More

On May 8, 2008, Portland General Electric announced that it has received permission from the Oregon Public Utility Commission to deploy advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) across its Oregon territory. The meters will be installed over a two-year period, with full deployment expected by year-end 2010. The capital cost of this project is roughly $130-$135 million ... Read More

On May 23, 2008, Duke Energy Indiana filed a petition with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to deploy and implement its smart grid technology, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and time-of-use pricing to its 780,000 customers in Indiana. See case number 43501, called the Alternate Regulatory Plan, ARP. Duke intends to eventually deploy the smart grid ... Read More

In what is perhaps the first of its kind effort, a grassroots group in Illinois, called the Illinois Smart Grid Initiative, announced on June 4, 2008, that it is exploring how smart grid technology could bring the people of Illinois a cleaner environment while holding down electricity costs. The group has the support of Chicago ... Read More