Utilities

Electric utilities are facing a need and opportunity to transform their business due to the bidirectional nature of distributed generation and energy storage. This is just one of several fundamental changes that the smart cities movement is driving to reshape how fundamental services are delivered and managed.

Cities across the globe have followed multiple tracks in their quest to become “smart.” It isn’t a question of right or wrong. However, two key themes are emerging in their approach – either start with a pilot project that produces quick results, or undertake a comprehensive master plan that strategically lays out the coming years and decades.

It used to be that the quality of infrastructure was measured by its lifespan. Water systems might last a century, and power plants at least half that. Those were measurements of solid assets, well worth the investment. But today, dependable infrastructure is just not enough. While it must be resilient and have an extended life cycle, now it must also be intelligent and communicate with other systems in ways that were unknown only a few years ago.

Pamoja Cleantech, a Uganda-based social enterprise specializing in biomass technologies for off-grid applications, has joined the Business Call to Action (BCtA) with a commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by 150,000 tons each year and increase access to energy for more than 30,000 rural households by 2020.

Black & Veatch and Schneider Electric USA have formed a joint venture to design and construct an energy security microgrid at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar, in San Diego, California. The microgrid solution will allow operations at mission-critical facilities to continue uninterrupted if the utility power grid is compromised or damaged.

Black & Veatch has partnered with FATHOM Water Management, Inc., to offer ASSET360™ data analytics applications on their recently launched online marketplace. The FATHOM Store allows water utilities to purchase and quickly adopt smart analytics services, risk-free.

Across much of the 2016 Strategic Directions: Water Industry Report, a common trend is that high-profile events impacting water supply and distribution networks have dramatically raised awareness of operational challenges but also demonstrate an opportunity to change decades-long funding trends.

Adoption of smart city initiatives appears to be dividing most city governments into two camps – those that opt for incremental add-on or pilot programs, and those that pursue some form of root-level master planning. There are advantages and disadvantages to each course.

Solar power is rapidly expanding in the U.S. — by 2015, there was enough solar capacity to power 5.4 million American homes. And the nation’s major cities are leading the revolution to power their metropolises with clean energy and sustainable lifestyles.

As utilities are challenged to minimize rate increases while balancing limited budgets with competing projects, chronic underinvestment, deferred maintenance and compliance mandates, one solution to consider is the public-private partnership (PPP) model.