Matthew Smith is Itron’s director of grid management and spoke with us about the growing applications that take advantage of grid-edge computing in the firm’s smart grid deployments with a special focus on wildfire prevention. We spoke about what applications Itron is offering now and also what is being tested in the field for release to customers in the near future.

Smart Grid Today Podcast

Matthew Smith of Itron on fire prevention

EnerVenue formed to bring to market the unique hydrogen metal battery – that was reinvented by a leading materials scientist at Stanford University after decades of use in spacecraft, satellites, and the Hubble Space Telescope because it is extremely safe, extremely durable, and can take almost infinite charges and discharges. The original formula was extremely expensive but EnerVenue is here now with a much more affordable version that is ready to change the electric industry and Heinemann told us all about it.

EnerVenue CEO Jorg Heinemann

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman and current Chief Regulatory Officer of Voltus Jon Wellinghoff told us about how when he led FERC, he helped establish the regulatory and legal foundation, through technical conferences, rulemakings, and ultimately in a case at the US Supreme Court, for how smart grid and its associated technologies, these days called distributed energy resources (DERs), would be introduced into markets. He helped us see the history and the very bright future he is working with Voltus to help create and this is one interview not to miss.

Voltus CRO Jon Wellinghoff

Foghorn COO Chris Penrose told us about his firm’s offering which began as a software platform to help manufacturers automate their operations has evolved into a flexible suite of advance automation and analysis programs being used in a wide variety of industries including buildings and campuses to monitor systems, find and fix energy waste, and help customers meet carbon reduction goals.

Foghorn COO Chris Penrose

Sense CEO Mike Phillips and the other founders of Sense came from the speech recognition world, bringing their understanding of audio wave forms to the subtle but distinct electrical wave forms created in the home by electric appliances. The firm uses a device installed behind the meter – and more recently introduced software for use in the Landis & Gyr Revelo meter – that brings value to home owners and to their electricity providers by gleaning what devices are using how much power and when. Teamwork with Schneider Electric is bringing the firm’s software into smart homes and Phillips told us how the value of the firm’s offering is growing by sampling the waveforms on the distribution grid, too.

Sense CEO Mike Phillips

Brian Levite is regulatory affairs director for S&C Electric, a century-old firm that from the start was dedicated to making technology that transforms the grid into a safer and more effective system. His role allows him to deftly explain the benefits of smarter grids and he joined us to discuss the firm’s annual reliability report and some very surprising gaps in reliability that were recorded last year.

Brian Levite of S&C Electric

Electriq Power is an electricity storage provider for residential electricity customers that offers backup power plus the wide array of values that aggregated storage deployments can bring to electricity providers and their customers. He shared some details about a pilot project in the Caribbean and a commercial deployment in California along with his take on how the fast-paced evolution of the electric industry is creating really exciting opportunities that his firm is addressing.

Aric Saunders of Electriq Power

Andrew Heath is a senior director at JD Power working in its utility intelligence practice. He shared lots of insights about the firm’s traditional utility customer satisfaction tracking and benchmarks and also about the new environmental and social governance metrics for the electric industry. How the tremendous investments that are being made in modernizing the industry are perceived is critical as the firm found out customers who know more about infrastructure work being done seem to have a higher level of satisfaction, but the industry is not always great at sharing the news of the benefits its work may be building.

Andrew Heath of JD Power

Store Dot defied all the predictions and created a battery technology that lets batteries of any size be charged in five minutes. The accomplishment was built on a nobel-prize winning battery formula and the use of machinery built for the biotech industry to make nanomaterials that can safely take a charge at incredible speeds. The implications for the utility industry and every industry that uses electricity – including now the transportation sector with EVs and electric trucks, buses and trains – are tremendous and Myersdorf spoke to the role his products could play in the electric grid for load balancing and much more.

Store Dot CEO Doron Myersdorf

Coretec CEO Michael Kraft told us about a brand new battery breakthrough his company is bringing to market that improves the energy density of lithium ion batteries by two to three times. Kraft is well aware of how the battery market is preparing for massive growth and he described how his technology has an edge on the competition and how battery storage is the key to bringing within reach the decarbonization of the grid, and of transportation, and beyond.

Coretec Group CEO Michael Kraft

Leclanche CEO Anil Srivastava’s knowledge and insights are fueled by a career that spans the smart grid story arc, from being an electrical engineer who worked with Hewlett Packard and a leading nuclear generator to taking the helm at a battery company that understands how electrochemistry, energy management software, and sound telecom networks merge to play a key role in the modernization of electric grids large and small being rolled out or still just imagined as the electric industry faces tremendous evolution – and he shared his vision with us.

Leclanche CEO Anil Srivastava

Justin Fier is director of threat intel and analytics at Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm that uses artificial intelligence for many industries including electric utilities of all sizes to identify when bad actors are moving in the system and shut them down. This is the second visit of Darktrace to our show and Justin helped us look at recent developments in the industry and shared insights about why the risks of cybersecurity should not interfere with the modernization of industries including the electric industry.

Justin Fier of Darktrace on utility cybersecurity

Strohecker is company managing director for Hitachi ABB Power Grids in Canada. He shed light on multiple facets of his firm’s smart grid deployments including how ABB has been managing to continue its critical smart grid work during the pandemic, about the key roles smart grid technology plays in the global transition to carbon-free electricity including multiple examples of projects his firm has been involved with, and also about the combination of ABB Power Grids with Hitachi and why that pairing offers big opportunities to both firms.

Bill Strohecker of Hitachi ABB Power Grids

Six-K is a firm using a novel plasma-furnace process developed at MIT to manufacture key battery components that cut the time and cost of battery production by a very dramatic percentage. Holman is a long time veteran of battery technology firms including A123 and he described how the traditional approach to creating some battery parts takes a couple days to complete while his firm uses its microwave-based plasma process that burns at 6,000°F, hence the name of his company, to make the ingredients in mere seconds, a time and cost savings he believes can drastically improve the economics for battery storage on the grid.

Richard Holman of Six-K

Sam duPont is a principal for strategic programs in the strategy group at Baltimore Gas & Electric and he spoke to us about a smart city/smart home pilot program being rolled out in Annapolis, Md, using smart meter data and connected devices to offer a select group of opt-in residential and small business customers control over their energy use He told us about the success of the messaging the utility used and the focus on groups such as low-income customers to make sure the feedback was coming not just from early adopters.

Sam duPont of BGE

The Smart Grid Today Podcast is produced by Modern Markets Intelligence Inc., publisher of the Smart Grid Today newsletter, the leading subscription-based daily trade newsletter covering the modernization of electric utility industry infrastructure. Email sgtp@mminews.com to be added to the list for updates about the podcast.

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