Green Tech

Competition to supply gear to modernize the power grid is heating up as utilities Duke Energy and ComEd named their expected smart grid suppliers on Tuesday.

Duke said that it has chosen Cisco to supply an array of equipment for a planned smart grid program estimated at $1 billion over the next few years. Cisco, which unveiled its smart-grid initiative last month, is expected to supply in-home energy monitors as well as networking hardware for Duke's substations, the utility said.

North Carolina-based Duke aims to provide a digital upgrade to its 11 million customers in the five states it operates.

"Replacing our analog electric grid with advanced digital technology to create a 21st century electricity delivery system largely involves data, networks, and communications--all of it Cisco's expertise," Todd Arnold, senior vice president for smart grid and customer systems at Duke Energy, said in a statement.

Chicago-based ComEd on Tuesday announced its recommended providers, including General Electric for smart meters and Silver Spring Networks, which provides wireless communications and software.

If approved, the smart grid program would bring real-time information on electricity usage and rates to consumers by installing 141,000 two-way meters in 11 Chicago suburbs.

Several utilities are investing in smart-grid technology, such as in-home energy monitors and smart meters. By presenting consumers with up-to-the-minute information on usage and changing rates, utilities hope to cut their peak-time electricity usage and avoid outages.

There are dozens of providers angling for business from utilities in these smart-grid programs.

Seven-year-old Silver Spring Networks has emerged as one of the most successful providers, having secured deals with a handful of utilities, including Florida Power & Light.

Cisco, meanwhile, is making a concerted push around energy efficiency and grid modernization, developing a full line of communications products for utilities, consumers, and building managers.

Cisco knows a bit about building networks and it sees a $100 billion market opportunity in the smart grid.

The company, whose networking gear is installed in all corners of the Internet, on Monday will announce its intention to make communications equipment for the electricity grid--everything from routers in grid substations to home energy controllers. CEO John Chambers is scheduled to discuss Cisco's smart-grid push Monday morning at a JP Morgan conference in Boston.

Cisco's move is a sign that the creaky electricity distribution system is poised for a digital upgrade. Other high-tech companies, including IBM, Intel, and several start-ups, are ramping up smart-grid efforts to capitalize on expected investments from utilities and federal governments. Cisco estimates that the communications portion of that build-out is worth $20 billion a year over the next five years.

The idea of the "smart grid" is to modernize the electricity industry by overlaying digital communications onto the grid. Smart meters in a person's home, for example, can communicate energy usage to utilities in near real time. That allows the utility to more efficiently manage the electricity supply and potentially allow a consumer to take advantage of cheaper rates.

Cisco started devising a strategy to enter the smart-grid arena last fall. Some utilities are already testing how well its routers and switches can help more efficiently manage the flow of electricity and prevent outages in grid distribution equipment. Cisco also released EnergyWise software earlier this year for managing energy use in office buildings

Cisco's smart-grid program covers goods already part of its product portfolio, such as data center equipment. But in other cases, such as home networks and smart-meter security, Cisco is developing new products, said Marie Hattar, vice president of marketing in Cisco's Network Systems Solutions group.

For example, Cisco could make a home energy controller device or software for its Linksys routers and set-top boxes to give consumers a read-out of how much energy different appliances use.

More data
There's potential for communications gear in "neighborhood-area networks" as well. Using sensors or an embedded router in substation, a local utility could send information on the demand for electricity in real time to power generators. That will allow generators to run more efficiently and incorporate more wind and solar, said Hattar.

A "smart grid" infrastructure adds digital communications to the power grid so it can manage the flow of energy to run more efficiently and to incorporate more wind and solar power. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: Department of Energy)

Over time, people's homes will have more sensors in appliances, which will give consumers more detailed usage information to help cut usage and help utilities avoid stressing the grid during peak times, smart-grid advocates say. More sensors also mean that utilities will need to bulk up their data center communications to handle much more data, Hattar said.

Cisco's position is that the communications over the grid should be done using IP (Internet Protocol) in conjunction with existing industry protocols and standards. Not all smart-meter companies use IP to communicate information and the utility and IT industries are still defining a number of different standards.

Even though Cisco advocates IP, Hattar said that a modernized electricity grid will be separate from the Internet, which she indicated should lessen security vulnerabilities.

"Our expectation is that this network will be 100 or 1,000 times larger than the Internet. If you think about it, some homes have Internet access, but some don't. Everyone has electricity access--all of those homes could potentially be connected," she said.

Even though many vendors expect a lot of money to be spent on modernizing the grid, smart-grid technology is for the most part still in the testing phase at utility-sponsored trials.

Many utilities tend to be conservative about investing in IT. Another factor that makes at least some utilities unenthusiastic about smart-grid technology is that many states have regulations structured around power plant investments rather than efficiency-related IT.

Cisco--along with General Electric and SilverSpring Networks--was picked for a large smart-grid project in Miami from Florida Power & Light, which aims to install 1 million two-way utility meters.

The City of Miami announced a proposal on Monday to install 1 million two-way "smart meters" to all Miami residents over the next two years in what would be the most comprehensive smart-grid program in the U.S.

Mayor Manny Diaz outlined the Energy Smart Miami plan, which is anticipated to cost $200 million in its first phase, at a press conference at Miami Dade College. Joining Diaz were the CEOs of the key suppliers in the project: Florida Power & Light CEO Lewis Hay, General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt, Cisco systems CEO John Chambers, and SilverSpring Networks CEO Scott Lang.

"To me these are prudent and smart investments that will easily pay for themselves," Diaz said. "It will show the nation how to address environmental, energy, and economic challenges all at the same time."

The installation of meters with a wireless Internet connection will allow consumers get detailed home energy usage information from the Web, according to Hay, the CEO of the Florida utility. With the up-to-the minute data, consumers are expected to take steps to lower their consumption.

About 1,000 consumers will get in-home energy display from GE, called an EcoDashboard, and have smart-meter-controlled appliances and thermostats. These people will also participate in a demand-response program that will allow the utility to adjust appliances to throttle down electricity use during peak times.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

The project, which will total $700 million across the state, also calls for adding Internet connectivity to substations and other hardware along the distribution grid, which will allow the utilty to prevent or quickly fix outages, Hay said.

Florida Power & Light is applying for a matching grant from the federal government, which would allow the utility to complete the program in two years rather than five, he said. About 100,000 people in FPL's Miami territory already have smart meters equipped with wireless networking card from SilverSpring Networks.

In addition, municipal facilities will invest in solar power at schools and universities, and FPL will buy 300 plug-in electric vehicles and 50 charging stations. With the smart-grid infrastructure, the utility can better incorporate distributed renewable energy generation to make the grid run more efficiently.

"We have 100,000 of the meters deployed already and customers are seeing real savings," Hay said. "It's an open-architecture-based system that will allow new applications to be developed" to automate home energy monitoring.

Stimulating the stimulus
The project altogether involves about 10 technologies, from the power generation station to people's homes, said Immelt.

As such, it would be a showcase for how information technology can upgrade the power grid and lower people's bills, he added. It also will serve to "stimulate the stimulus" plan.

"The most important word to come away with from today isn't 'green,' it's 'now.' The technologies are available now, the investments need to take place, the jobs need to be created now," Immelt said. "This is the kind of project the country should be doing."

Diaz said that the project would create between 800 and 1,000 jobs and pump between $5 billion and $7 billion into the general economy by 2015 from the energy savings of consumers. It's fitting that Miami would be at the forefront of cleaner energy technologies and environmental sustainability because a rise of several feet from global warming would put much of the city, including Diaz' current home, under water, he said.

Cisco will provide the networking infrastructure to transmit information from meters and other devices to FPL. Cisco CEO Chambers said that countries around the world recognize the importance in investing in an automated power grid.

Both governments and businesses need to invest in the grid, much the way the Internet was built. "This is an instant replay of the Internet," he said. "Instead of moving zeros and ones, we're moving electricity."

Cisco Systems is trying to help cities around the world go green.

On Monday the company announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Metropolis, an organization of 106 large cities mostly outside the United States, to help these cities use technology that is more efficient and less polluting.

The goal is to help build "intelligent" city infrastructure based on Internet Protocol technology. Cisco's philosophy is that helping cities get networked to use the Internet will also help them cut back on power consumption and pollution. As part of the two-year collaboration, Cisco will help cities come up with plans for a whole slew of solutions from building better-managed power grids to using technology that consumes less power to encouraging telecommuting and video conferencing.

And of course, Cisco, which makes networking equipment and has recently branched out into other product areas, such as IP collaboration tools, hopes its efforts will spur some business, too. As part of the initiative, Cisco's WebEx and Telepresence products will be used to help the cities collaborate with one another.

Cisco also plans to help cities set up regional Innovation Centers where specific green policies and technologies can be discussed and developed. Cisco and Metropolis will also jointly set up an Urban Leadership Academy that will provide training and skills programs that can be replicated throughout the world to demonstrate how cities can use technology more effectively.

Cisco has been working on helping cities go green for some time. The company said Monday's announcement with Metropolis builds on an ongoing partnership Cisco has with Connected Urban Development (CUD), a public-private partnership that includes cities such as San Francisco, Amsterdam, and Seoul. CUD also develops replicable programs and solutions to help cities develop and implement sustainable and intelligent technologies.

Cisco has also been acquiring companies to bolster its expertise in this area. In January it bought Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, a company that makes "middleware" that helps businesses better manage building systems, such as lights and air conditioning systems, to help save energy.

INDIA--Technology has made possible better management of cities and their amenities so that citizens can enjoy better quality of life. To this end, Cisco Systems unveiled in Bengaluru city on Thursday, its "Intelligent Urbanization" blueprint.

Through this global framework, Cisco plans to help cities around the world use the network as the next utility for integrated city management, better quality of life for citizens, and economic development.

Intelligent Urbanization brings together Cisco's products and services, partners, and other technologies, with an initial focus on public safety and security, transportation, buildings, energy, health care, and education.

Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers said during a press briefing here: "Each of these market segments has the potential to generate over $1 billion in revenue opportunities for Cisco." During the media event at its Globalization Centre East in Bengaluru, which was Webcasted worldwide, the networking equipment vendor also announced a pilot program with the State of Karnataka to develop the plan for an intelligent, smart, and sustainable Bengaluru city.

This collaboration builds on Cisco's technology expertise with Connected Urban Development (CUD), a public-private partnership in cities such as San Francisco, Amsterdam, Seoul, and Singapore, which aims to develop replicable ICT offerings to help promote sustainable, intelligent urban development practices.

In Seoul, Korea, for example, the company is working on a pilot project for intelligent transportation using PDAs for route planning.

Cisco's chief globalization officer, Wim Elfrink, who is also executive vice president of services, said at the event: "Technology and expertise from these various initiatives will be brought together for a program that covers all aspects of Bengaluru."

Chambers added: "Bengaluru will be a reference site for other cities worldwide that may be interested in similar projects."

The Indian city has a large number of technology workers at its numerous technology centers, and has been demanding high-quality infrastructure, including connectivity. And in the past, the local government had neglected Bengaluru's infrastructure.

The arrangement with the city does not specify a financial model or the amount of investment in the project. However, Chambers said the project could have a term of 10 years or more.

"We have started with a pilot project that will continue for the next three to six months. Later, we will extend it to education and health care sectors," he said. Cisco also plans to extend this initiative to other Indian states over the next nine to 12 months.

Toward intelligent cities
"With the number of people living in urban areas projected to grow from 3 billion today to 5 billion by 2030, urbanization is a global trend impacting citizens, governments, and industries," Chambers said. This trend will also significantly impact the environment, he said. For instance, the world's 20 most populous cities alone are responsible for 75 percent of the planet's energy consumption, he noted.

Building on CUD, the Intelligent Urbanization initiative will bring together a broad portfolio of Cisco's products, services and partners. The initial focus will be on global sustainable offerings. The vendor has several such offerings for public safety and security, transportation, buildings, energy, health care and education. Its Intelligent Security technologies, for example, enable automated detection, immediate assessment, and a coordinated response to a security incident.

Elfrink said: "The Internet is quickly expanding from mobile devices and computers to become the 'Internet of things,' as it begins to encompass not only the consumer and business Internet but now the industrialization of the Internet." He said cities that run on information will transform the quality of life for citizens, drive economic growth, and improve city services and management.

The Intelligent Urbanization initiative may prove to be more effective during a recession. "In these tough economic times, cities that use the network to accelerate and multiply their infrastructure investments will be those that not only survive challenges but thrive and lead into the future," Elfrink added.

Within the past month, Cisco announced several acquisitions and offerings that are key to Intelligent Urbanization. On February 10, it made a strategic announcement in Majitek, a provider of software platforms that enable an environment where everything is connected and available as a service in the network. On the same day, it also announced a strategic alliance with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to jointly develop and deliver IT services to address customers' needs in mature and emerging markets globally.

Similarly, on January 29, Cisco launched EnergyWise Technology for Cisco Catalyst switches--an integral part of the company's technology plan to provide organizations an intelligent IP network as a key enabler for energy efficiency. That day, it also completed the acquisition of Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, a provider of intelligent middleware technology for building systems that enables the convergence of building systems onto an IP network.

On Thursday, Cisco unveiled the Incheon Metropolitan City in South Korea and it will collaborate to transform the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) into a center of globalization expertise in the Asia-Pacific region. As part of this collaboration, Cisco will provide its experience and technologies around creating "intelligent urbanization" for the Korean city.

Swati Prasad, a freelance IT writer, contributes to ZDNet Asia from India.

Cisco Systems on Tuesday introduced software for controlling energy use in networked computing equipment as well as building heating and cooling systems.

Called EnergyWise, the software is a free upgrade to Cisco Catalyst switches that can monitor and manage how energy is used on IP-connected devices, including phones and wireless routers. This summer Cisco will release a version, based on Verdiem's Surveyor PC management software, that reduces energy levels of PCs.

With EnergyWise, a company can set policies on energy use, allowing PCs or networking equipment to go into sleep mode after work hours, for example.

(Credit: Cisco)

Cisco's longer-term plan is to get beyond tech gear and into building-automation systems.

Early next year, EnergyWise will be able to manage building assets, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, and employee badge systems.

On Tuesday, Cisco said it bought a company called Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence that makes software that translates information from building equipment, such as heating and cooling systems, into a format that can be read by EnergyWise and other software applications.

Other large IT vendors, like IBM, are making similar efforts to manage both IT equipment and building management systems.

Cisco is also working with Schneider Electric to tie its building management system to the EnergyWise software. But William Choe, director of Cisco's Ethernet switching technology group, told Light Reading that many of the energy savings for companies will occur by installing the software on smaller routers in a business.

"The majority of these switches in this application are in the wiring closet, touching the endpoints--the APs (access points) and the IP phones," Choe said.

Can Web 2.0-style collaboration halt climate change? Well, not entirely, but it can certainly help.

Former Vice President and Nobel laureate Al Gore and Cisco CEO John Chambers spoke on a virtual panel on Wednesday to discuss the role of business technology in environmental matters, most notably climate change.

The event was organized to showcase Cisco's videoconferencing technology and, overall, it performed very well.

Gore spoke from a location near his home in Nashville, Tenn., while Chambers was in San Jose, Calif., and the moderator of the event--ITN science editor Lawrence McGinty--spoke from outside London. People could watch over the Web and audiences listened and watched from the VoiceCon conference in Orlando, outside London, Warsaw, Dubai, and Paris.

The multi-location format drove home the basic point of the event: the Internet can help more people collaborate, something that is essential to solving the difficult challenge of climate change.

And of course, videoconferencing, telecommuting, and online collaboration can replace face-to-face meetings that require people to fly, which is very polluting.

Gore said that he is exploring whether Cisco's videoconference technology can be used in the international deliberations to establish global carbon regulations to follow the Kyoto Protocol treaty which is set to expire in 2012.

Not surprisingly, Gore characterized climate change as an urgent crisis, a situation where "scientists are practically screaming from the rooftops" to tell governments and citizens to take action.

He said that he is optimistic that a "tipping point" is nearing in government, where rapid changes in policies could take place.

Specifically, he said it is essential that the United States take the lead in instituting worldwide regulations that put a price on carbon emissions.

He noted that all three presidential candidates are committed to carbon regulations and predicted that fast-growing countries such as India and China--which are fast becoming the largest polluters in the world--will participate in the follow-on to the Kyoto Protocol if the U.S. participates.

"For so long, the United States has been dragging our feet and even pulling the world back from progress it so greatly needs. (That) lets China, India, and every other nation off the hook" from reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

He noted that corporations are actually ahead of governments in addressing climate change in concrete ways. Gore last year joined Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has invested in several clean-technology firms.

"Most business leaders are way ahead of political leaders, and that's good news because once the market shifts, that really starts to make a difference," Gore said.

Chambers agreed, saying that there has been a "market transition" where many business managers and government leaders are trying to reconcile economic growth with environmental stewardship.

"For the first time, the environment is not just hitting (leaders') radar screen; they also know this is doable with economic growth," he said.

The company's chief marketing officer, Susan Bostrom, who spoke on the panel from Orlando, said that Cisco's use of videoconferencing at 185 locations has saved the company about $100 million in travel expenses, eliminating about 15 million cubic tons of carbon emissions.

Cisco Systems' new market is urban management.

The router and switch kings are teaming up with cities like Seoul, Lisbon, Madrid, San Francisco and Hamburg, Germany, on energy efficiency experiments. It will then take the successful ones and export them around the world.

In San Francisco, for instance, Cisco has rigged up a municipal bus with wireless Internet access so commuters can get their e-mail, browse the Web, or get information on when their connecting bus or train is coming in. The idea is to make public transportation more attractive and popular, which in turn reduces carbon dioxide emissions by getting people to stop taking their cars as much.

Michael Kanellos hopped aboard a Wi-Fi bus in San Francisco. Click here to see the video.

(Credit: CNET News.com)

In Amsterdam, the company and city authorities have erected regional smart work stations, i.e. satellite office spaces located closer to residential areas. Amsterdam and Cisco will also try to devise a Personal Travel Assistant, a GPS-like handheld that will track buses and trains, letting owners know when the next bus might arrive. Thus, if you want to get coffee before boarding, you can gauge your time.

"We will create a replicate-able system," said Cisco CEO John Chambers, speaking at the Connected Urban Development Conference sponsored by the company in San Francisco this week.

Cisco has also begun to more aggressively adopt technologies and practices to reduce fossil fuel consumption. The company, for instance, has installed a number of high-end video teleconferencing units in its global offices. This week, the company had a meeting with several thousand attendees, but only 200 were present in the company's Silicon Valley offices. Everyone else was on video consoles.

Video conferencing can also save the company $150 million a year, said Chambers.

These urban management projects, of course, could reap huge revenues for Cisco, which makes the Internet backbone equipment that makes telecommuting possible. New types of urban projects also represent something of an untapped customer base.

Cities are a natural place to start. By 2030, 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities, according to the United Nations, and cities already account for the majority of the energy consumed in the world.

John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, is one of the least controversial CEOs in the tech world. Unlike Craig Barrett (former Intel CEO) or Cypress Semiconductor's T.J. Rodgers, he doesn't generally take potshots at Washington politicians. Cisco provides its opinion on issues like immigration, open access, and foreign competition, but the company rarely insists on playing the leading role in these controversies.

Chambers even wisely plays both sides in campaign contributions. He's donating to John McCain's presidential campaign, but also gave to Senator Harry Reid and the Democratic National Party, among others, according to this Web site. Most of his donations tilt Republican, but he definitely placates both parties.

The Cisco CEO, however, does have strong feelings when it comes to climate change. It is undeniable that atmospheric carbon dioxide is rising and that the earth's temperature is rising, he said at the Connected Urban Development conference taking place in San Francisco this week.

"It (climate change) is not a question of if. It is," he said. "There is no doubt in hardly any of the well-educated minds that if we don't act quickly, we are going to have a tremendous problem on our hands."

You non-well-educated minds can comment below.

Chambers also said he now looks more favorably on government participation in projects.

"This is probably not something I would have said 10 years ago, but it is hugely important to have a supportive government."