Robots, smart grid invade San Antonio

If you're in the great state of Texas---or visiting the great state of Texas next week---I want to extend you an invitation to a robot party.

Yes, seriously, a robot party. (Scotty, our lighting robot, is already getting down with his bad self in the picture here.)

For the Utility Products Conference and Expo 2012 (UPCE), which will be at the Henry Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio Jan. 24-26, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has graciously agreed to bring three of their robots onsite to the exhibit floor. Each robot will be demonstrating its skills multiple times during the show, and you are welcome to join in. Times for those demonstrations will be listed in the UPCE show guide, which will be available in hard copy at registration when you pick up your conference badge for either UPCE or DistribuTECH. (The robot demonstrations are open to DistribuTECH attendees as well.)

Additionally, EPRI will have the world premiere of their newest transmission robot right on the combined UPCE/DistribuTECH show floor. And we would love all of you to be there for that unveiling. The premiere is scheduled during the opening reception on Tues., Jan. 24, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. And all will be revealed on the exhibit floor, right down aisle 4400/4500.

UPCE officially kicks off with an opening keynote session on this Tuesday morning, Jan. 24, 2012. After the keynote, the conference itself is open for business with a bevy of learning opportunities.

Experts from the Electrical Industry Training Institute (EITI) will present a number of sessions during the conference, including a two-part session on managing electrical operations. Arkansas State University’s Dr. Duane Doyle will speak on developing occupation programs at local community colleges during the conference. UPCE will also present a two-part session on occupational grounding. And the EITI experts will return with a session on understanding switching best practices. The National Utility Industry Training Fund (NUITF)---a part of the IBEW---will discuss crafting training and development for line workers as well. Finally, local utility CPS Energy will discuss adopting lessons from local smart grid work.

Additionally, EITI will offer some precourses on qualifying employees to work near high voltage substation equipment and high voltage substation grounding and bonding on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, before the show begins. More information on those precourses can be found online at http://eiti.us/upce.html.

UPCE isn’t all business, though. It’s about fun, too. Also onsite: Hooters girls, a buckin’ bullride and a cash giveaway multiple times each day of the show. The cash prize giveaway will be featured on the UPCE exhibit floor all week. Just get your passport stamped by all the UPCE sponsors, and your name may be called to get a few minutes in our money machine. The Hooters girls will escort your trip in and out of the booth. You may go in broke and come out ready to buy the next round.

I hope you can join us for the robot premiere, and feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about the robots or the show itself.

More information on the robots can be found online at http://www.utilityproductsexpo.com/

Looking forward to seeing all of you in San Antonio at this exciting robot shindig. Block out a few minutes of your time on Tues., Jan. 24 and join us.

More 2012 perspectives, predictions

Last week, I made my own annual predictions about what will happen in the power industry in 2012. I summed it up with four items: More smart grid, more cautious consumers having growing pains, more consumer growing pains means fewer EVs on the road, and more government contraction pains means less renewables investment.

You can read my predictions here.

This week, I look to other industry insiders to give 2012 predictions with a little insider perspective.

Chris King of eMeter (now owned by Siemens) tells us they’ll be a lot of meter growth in South America, Easter Europe and other emerging markets with Brazil, Poland and Singapore leading the way. King also notes that prepayment will become a major topic and “Smart Grid 2.0 will become a reality,” meaning that some consumers who live where smart meters are already deployed in full will start seeing the whole smart grid package.

King also predicts that data analytics apps will be a popular item with leading utilities and, unlike my predictions, that EVs “will reach critical mass.”

Steve Ehrlich with Space-Time Insight touched on data volumes just like King, pushing analytics, again, as a big 2012 trend.

“Pulling yesterday’s data out of a data warehouse is not the answer,” he tells us. “Utilities not only need access to real-time data but, because getting to the root cause of problems is increasingly complex, they also need more sophisticated software to come up with answers.”

From today’s waste of data to tomorrow’s waste of power, King also sees the idling of renewables becoming a “significant problem” with “utilities paying millions to curtail wind power and, for the first time, solar power.” Unfortunately, the solutions of more power lines and time-based pricing are longer-term items, according to King.

IDC Energy Insights sees positives in renewables for 2012, however, including it in one of the technology areas they expect to grow this year. In fact, they forecast that solar PV installations in North America will grow by more than 25% just this year.

As 2012 advances, we’ll get to see just how smart meters, smart grid, EVs, renewables and data analytics progresses. Keep an eye out.