GreenBeat 2010

SSE Labs of Stanford University and VentureBeat hosted the GreenBeat 2010 conference on the smart grid at Stanford University on November 3rd & 4th. This year’s conference explored the evolution of the grid and how the new “Super Grid” is creating huge opportunities in autos, storage and renewables.

GreenBeat 2010 brought together over 300 entrepreneurs, utility executives, technology executives, policymakers, investors, and press for provocative discussion, debate and power networking. 

The 2010 program featured a mix of leaders of the next generation of green developments in this dynamic market and focused on the hottest trends that are charging the Super Grid. Topics included:

• Grid Operating System & Demand Response
• Electric Cars & The Grid
• Consumers & Efficiency
• Storage & Batteries, Fuel Cells
• The Rise of Distributed Power
• Grid Investing Trends
• Privacy & Security
• Wireless Warfare
• DOE, Arpa-E & Policy

 

VentureBeat's coverage of GreenBeat

 

The Smart Utility

Moderator: Stephan Dolezalek, Managing Director & Group Leader, CleanTech, VantagePoint Venture Partners

Guest: Kevin Dasso, Senior Director of Transmission & Distribution, PG&E

• Level 2 charger is equivalent to 2 households.
• PG&E could easily handle 100,000 EVs on the grid with an investment of $150M to $175M to upgrade transformers, etc. However, this cost could be brought down to 20% of this using the smart grid to be smarter about charging.
• Similar issues occur with household solar PV. One is fine, but two or three on the same neighborhood transformer causes problems because they push the voltage too high which can cause some panels to trip offline.
• Mandated 33% renewable by 2020 (not counting large hydro)

 

“Smart Grid” or “Smart Hype” — An Analytical Perspective From a ‘Grid’ Neophyte

Vinod Khosla, Partner, Khosla Ventures

• Last year: opportunities exist but hype also exists and is leading us in the wrong direction
• Solar and wind output is very uneven
• "The smart grid is about managing uncertainty"
• To increase certainty: IT, dynamic response, design for non-catastrophic failure
• Central need is to redo the grid infrastructure
• Real-time pricing relatively irrelevant compared to how much bandwidth we need: maybe we need 100x more
• Real value of smart grid is smart power electronics (versus old-style transformers)
• Need to focus on flexibility, not demand response
• Beefs
  • Single biggest problem is cyber security
  • De-couple rigid grid so it is self healing and adaptive
  • Local "power quality": local self adjusting
• Savings
  • Shift peak $16b
  • Remote meter reading $7B
• Economic gravity will win with consumers, regulators and Governments.
  • Smart washing machines a complete waste of money
  • Zero net-energy home regulation is a terrible idea
  • Efficiency (like insulation of more efficient appliances) a great idea
• Excited about compressed air energy storage, thinks it will be below $100kWh
• Design for evolution, resiliency, competition, open standards
• Today unimaginable becomes tomorrows conventional wisdom

 

The Future of Storage

Yi Cui, Associate Professor - Materials Science & Engineering, Stanford University

• Batteries are key to enabling the super-grid
• High energy silicon nanowire batteries can hold 10x more ernergy
• Spun off company to develop this Amprious
• Have done 4,000 cycles

 

Panel: The Sultans of Storage

As governments begin mandating storage on the grid, big questions loom: Who’s gonna pay for it? How much will it cost? Can we survive without it? Decision makers at the policy and utility levels mix it up onstage with the tech companies providing solutions.

Moderator: Eric Wesoff, Senior Analyst, Greentech Media

Ed Cazalet, VP & Founder, Megawatt Storage Farms
Nat Goldhaber, Managing Director, Claremont Creek Ventures
Christopher Villarreal, Policy and Planning Division, CPUC

• Megawatt is looking to put battery storage on the grid. They want 5%, or 4GW
• Claremont Creek
  • Nat thinks his block in Berkeley will be the first where everyone has an EV
  • Utilities invest 1/3 of their money in power generation, 2/3 in distribution
  • Looking to invest in grid storage, Particularly technology to control it. Like neighborhood communication
• CPUC
  • AB 2514 drives grid storage
  • Concerns: cost effective, grid not setup to handle storage and generation behind-the-meter
• Does grid really need storage? 
  • Ed: If we had infinite transmission across the US, then we wouldn't need storage. But it is cheaper to put in local storage
• What companies do you like to fund?
  • Nat: local storage, management and communication of local storage
• What changes could be made to national policy to usher in more intelligent storage?
  • Chris: More assistance. CPUC is largest in the nation, but most others are smaller and don't have the resources to do complete and accurate analysis
  • Ed: Get the federal government out of the way of developing the smart grid. Reduce role of regulation and regulating utilities and increasing competition
  • Nat: Government support is important

 

The Smart Grid Applied

Moderator: Matt Marshall, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, VentureBeat

Lee Krevat, Director of Smart Grid, Sempra Energy

• EVs charging at night will make better use of electricity generation and this will save more money than the cost of upgrading the transformer
• Sempra won't be controlling when EVs charge. However, they will send prices signals to influence charging times.

 

The State of Smart Grid Innovation

John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Raj Vaswani, CTO, Silver Spring Networks

• Security and privacy:
  • SmartMeters could be compared to OnStar: OnStar provides a lot of data about where people are but people are willing to provide it because of the benefits they receive
• Policies that affect the deployment of solar and wind energy:
  • Need to get utilities aligned with clean energy.
  • Utilities have 100% market share, low cost of capital.
  • Real power to embrace clean energy is with PUCs
• Frontier for innovation in 3 to 5 years: 
  • New market, lots of opportunities, especially software and power electronics
  • Utilities are judicious and need reliable and secure solutions
• John Doer quote: "Entrepreneurs do more than anyone thinks possible with less than anyone thinks possible."

 

Do EVs Need the Smart Grid?

Common wisdom has it that mass adoption of electric vehicles depends on the roll-out of smart-grid technologies. But carmakers are launching their first plug-in vehicles anyway. Do utilities risk getting left behind? And why should carmakers care whether or not smart-grid capabilities arrive?

Moderator: John Voelcker, Senior Editor, High Gear Media
Byron Shaw, GM of Advanced Technology, General Motors
Saul Zambrano, Director, Integrated Demand-Side Management Core Products, PG&E

• John comments: Utilities excited about selling fuel for EVs, just want it done at night. Concerned about clusters. Ratepayers will blame utilities when anything goes wrong, not EV makers. It is hard to change consumer behavior
• Byron: Volt doesn't need smart grid today but can leverage it once it comes up to speed. OnStar will manage charging by coordinating with utilities, for instance, by stagger charging them.
• Saul: Utilities can manage early introduction with smart grid since EVs will be gradually adopted. Clustering a concern. Standards for EV communication still be worked on and eventually  Home Energy Controller will manage charging. Once communications standards done, utilities will start integrating EVs into their distribution management backends. 
• Byron: Consumers don't look at total cost of ownership, they look at what they can afford right now. Fleet owners are more pragmatic however, they need specific types of vehicles
• John: Tesla downloads data from their 1300 vehicles. They found that over half of charging comes from opportunistic 110V charging.
  • Saul: PG&E are not concerned about fast 440V charging, just regular 220V charging.
  • Byron: Tesla experience might not be the same as other EVs. EVS are like cats: they spend about 22 hours a day sleeping.
• John: New EV drivers spend about 1 week worrying about range, and then figure it out
• John: What is the first smart grid feature that will effect EV owners?
  • Byron and Saul: Prices to devices so EVs can charge at cheapest time

 

How to Kickstart a Social Movement

David Merkoski, Executive Creative Director, frog design

• A social movements needs: a face (WWF panda), brand (EnergyStar), and symbol (LiveStrong bracelet)
• Frog design brought together people to "find their panda" for the energy conscious consumer
• To change behavior it is not enough to get people to reflect on their behavior, they also need a trigger to start changing it lik tokens (AA tokens, FaceBook thumbs-up)
• The panda symbol they are searching for could play a part of this trigger that can change self-image
• It comes down to responsibility
• The Nissan Leaf polar bear commercial embodies the emotion they are trying to capture in this symbol
• Add ideas to http://thinkin.frogdesign.com/

 

Data on the Grid

The lofty goal of a grid-wide demand response systems is held at arms length by the disparate data systems that have grown up independently: generation, distribution, home-energy management, etc, not to mention the reticence of homeowners an business owners to give up control. What needs to happen to make demand response a reality?

Moderator: Matt Marshall, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, VentureBeat
Andres Carvallo, EVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Grid Net
Gary Bloom, CEO, eMeter
Ron Dizy, CEO, Enbala Power Networks

• Gary: Grid Net has an operating system layer for the smart grid based on IP
• Ron: Enbala rewards large electricity users for participation in the Smart Grid.
• Gary: eMeter does energy data management

 

Smart Grid Investing: Bubble or Goldmine?

After 4 years of exuberant (and often naive) heavy cleantech investing, capital efficiency is winning the day. What will this mean for the grid, which companies develop faster than others, and how are corporate giants getting into the act?

Moderator: Owen Thomas, Executive Editor, VentureBeat
Paul Holland, General Partner, Foundation Capital
Navin Chaddha, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund
Kevin Skillern, Managing Director of Venture Capital, GE Energy Financial Services
Kenneth Davies, Cleantech Advisor, Google Ventures

• Owen: Does clean tech need a "Netscape" moment?
  • Paul: This industry is not like the Internet, so maybe it will be more like "Cisco" moments where companies go public big but are not generally known before that
  • Kevin: GE is the largest corp investor in clean tech, invested in 24 clean tech companies so far
• Owen: Lots of bad news in clean tech, like Solyndra closing their factory
  • Navin: Mayfield looks at clean tech as an emerging opportunity. Have to focus on capital efficient investments (no more vitamins) and focused markets.
• Owen: Are we chasing consumers and ignoring large markets?
  • Kenneth: Yes, examples like offshore wind power transmission. We have the technology, Oklahoma right now can produce wind at 4c per kWh. What is needed is technology to increase utilization of renewable energy.

 

How to Build a Homerun Super Grid Startup

Cleantech investing has come on hard times as commitments decline and mid-level startups are left stranded, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. What are the secrets to building a successful smart grid powerhouse?

Moderator: Matt Marshall, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, VentureBeat
Scott Lang, Chairman, President & CEO, Silver Spring Networks

• How to start a business: Make sure you have a big idea, stay passionate about the idea and surround yourself with brilliant people
• Knocked on 125 doors on Sand Hill trying to get funding. They loved the ideas but didn't think the utilities would adopt it.
• Silver Springs has 5M homes networked around the world
• They had a good system but it wasn't 5 nines reliable which is what the utilities require, so they redesigned.

 

Innovation Competition: Round One

The first five finalists (as chosen by the VentureBeat team) take the stage to present their company’s ideas/business models for making the power grid smarter, more efficient, or more potent.

Host: Craig Tighe, Partner, Corporate & Finance Groups, DLA Piper

Redwood Systems

Jeremy Stieglitz, VP of Marketing

• Smart LED lighting system that unifies power, control, sensing on a network control
• Payback is instant for new deployment, 2-5 years

Optimized Energy Network

John Edwards, Principal

• Developers of demand side micro-grid projects for smart grid, renewable and storage. Targeting 5 to 50MW energy

 
SmartGridView

Larry Todd Wilson, Founder

• Connecting the dots for smart grid data

WIT

Charles Lawson, CEO & Founder

• World Infrastructure Technologies
• Looking at grid before the pole

 
Power Map

Steve Ortley, Co-Founder 

• "Facebook for your appliances"
• MyPowerMap: One $50 device tracks usage of all appliances

 

The Rise of Distributed Solar 

The race is on to put panels on rooftops across the world. What will the dawn of distributed solar power mean?

Moderator: Iris Kuo, Lead GreenBeat Writer, VentureBeat
Ron Van Dell, CEO, SolarBridge
Danny Kennedy, Founder, Sungevity
Edward Fenster , Co-Founder, SunRun

• Iris: Why does distributed solar make sense?
  • Edward: In CA consumers spend $3.9B per year buying electricity in excess of $0.30 per kWh. This is the easiest place for PV to compete, rather than in the desert competing at $0.05 per kWh
  • Danny: Roofs are cheaper than the desert and create local jobs
• Iris: How much does solar viability depend on subsidies?
  • Edward: $4.5B in CA with just federal credits, $11B including local. Without this, costs need to come down. In Germany residential solar costs about 3.5 euro per watt so we should be able to bring costs down here.
• Iris: What will it take to get utilities to embrace rooftop solar?
  • Ron: DG can save costs by eliminating distribution lines and added reliability but utils need to be convinced it won't cost them more for things like truck rolls 
  • Danny: Utilities need to change mindset, like IBM thought that there would only be 5 computers in the world. Sungevity sold 1MW of solar last month, so residential solar is growing fast
  • Edward: There are many types of util companies, much more than just regulated or traditional so each will have its own motivation
• Iris: What technologies emerging that is making solar more appealing?
  • Ron: Moving from DC to AC based systems, and integrated electronics. Also increase reliabilities of power electronics to same as panels
  • Edward: Not seeing increased reliability of micro-inverter. If micro-inverters fail in the field, it is really expensive to rewire to string inverters. So it is hard to get warranties on systems.
  • Danny: Need more emphasis on software for the consumer, making it easier to install and financing
• Iris: What is standing in the way of consumer adoption
  • Ron: Work with other suppliers to offer system warranty
  • Danny: Make it sexy
  • Edward: Local governments, permitting

 

Brains in the Building

What’s next for smart buildings, and how big an impact could they really have?

Moderator: Leslie Guevarra, Associate Editor, GreenerBuildings
Mark Wyatt, VP of Smart Grid & Energy Systems, Duke Energy
Kevin Surace, CEO, Serious Materials
Mike Zimmerman, CEO, BuildingIQ

• Kevin: Building managers want to save money, not energy. Nearing 100% federal debt ratio so capital will continue to be tight and payback will continue to be of primary concern.
• Mike: BuildingIQ is like auto-pilot where it takes measurements and takes actions based on it. Can do demand-response inside the building
• Mark: Duke is looking at large commercial buildings and helping them save energy, and is able to make a return on these investments as long as they show savings.
• Mike: BuildingIQ programs are funded from cost savings, so CapEx issues are not a problem. In Australia, commercial buildings are required to post their energy usage on advertisements
• Kevin: Example: a LEED Platinum building had a 13% efficiency improvement within two weeks after installing the Serious Energy system. Santa Clara University saw 15% to 20% savings. This is from things from lights on at night, or heater and A/C going into the same area and battling each other. This is without changing any windows, lights or user behavior.

 

Consumer Efficiency: Will it Matter?

A look at all of the various consumer-facing services, dashboards and devices that keep tab on energy use and help you slash your consumption and energy bills… plus the million-dollar question: who will make money?

Moderator: Katie Fehrenbacher, Editor, Earth2Tech
Scott Hublou, SVP Products, EcoFactor
Rod Morris, SVP of Consumer Marketing & Operations, OPOWER
Bill Weihl , Green Energy Czar, Google
Saul Zambrano, Director, Integrated Demand-Side Management Core Products, PG&E

• Katie: How many people are you reaching?
  • Rod: OPower reaches about 9M consumers
  • Scott: EcoFactors commercially deployed in Dallas, reaches out to 3GW
  • Bill: Google has a dozen utility partner and a dozen device partner

 

The Promise and Perils of Transparency

The coming wave of smart meters and distributed power means that household energy information will flow more freely. What new possibilities open up, and how will privacy be managed?

Moderator: Owen Thomas, Executive Editor, VentureBeat
Jana Corey, Director of Advanced Metering, PG&E
Al Valdes, Senior Computer Scientist, SRI International
Christine Lyon, Partner, Morrison & Foerster
Mozhi Habibi, Strategy Manager, Global Energy & Utilities, IBM

• Mozhi: Our government sometimes asks the wrong question: Who is the owner of the data? The more relevant question is "Who has access to the data?"
• Al: Monitoring services where device-by-device data is sent to third party is causing some concern. although this data is also very useful
• Jana: Neighborhood transformer handles 5 or 6 homes and an EV is like a high-use home
• Christine: One question is how much you can aggregate data to protect privacy while still providing value
• Al: One problem could be "flash crash": if many devices turned on right when prices went down, it could cause a grid problem
• Mozhi: No matter how smart grid data is used, the most important goal is that the grid needs to be stable and reliable
• Jana: Fundamental belief is that with more information, consumers will make better choices to save energy. 
• Christine: Questions: Why are we concerned about energy usage privacy? Answer: Could be used for litigation issues, like child custody battles, and theft for people knowing when you are not home.
• Jana: Meter sends to PG&E hourly data for residential and every 15 minutes for commercial. Internal radio sends constant data to HAN. 

Anatomy of a Deal

In September, Cisco and Itron announced a deal to use IP-based communications to connect everything from people’s homes to power distribution equipment on the grid, in an attempt to bring standards to facilitate smart grid innovation. Here’s how the deal went down and what it means for smart grid companies moving forward.

Moderator: Mike Kanellos, Editor-in-Chief, Greentech Media
Philip Mezey, SVP & COO, Itron North America
Paul De Martini, VP & CTO Smart Grid, Cisco Systems

• Paul: Utilities may have 15,000 to 100,000 endpoints on a network, but some may have 10M. These are completely different scales and require different technical management techniques.
• Philip: It is an interesting market because there are 2.6B electric and gas meters worldwide and less than 5% have automation
• Paul: Over the next 20 years, it is estimated that $1.5 trillion will be needed for generation, transmission and other electric infrastructure investment and about 15% of this will be spent on the smart grid
• Philip: Historically equipment has had 15 to 20 year life-cycle, and this is due to the investment requirements. However, with newer electronics, it might be shorter but it still has to be cost effective.

 

Innovation Competition: Round Two

The last five finalists (as chosen by the VentureBeat team) take the stage to present their company’s ideas/business models for making the power grid smarter, more efficient, or more potent.

Host: Craig Tighe, Partner, Corporate & Finance Groups, DLA Piper

ENBALA Power Networks,

Ron Dizy, President & CEO

• Works with large loads and pays them for contributing flexibility in their electric use within user settable constraints.
• Aggregates this and sells regulation services
• Uses a secure, private communications platform
• Costs them $3k to $5k for control device and a total of $15k to $25k for all installation and engineering costs
• They make about $250K per year for 1MW regulation
• Canadian company

InThrMa

Sam Boutros, Co-Founder & CEO

• Affordable demand-response functionality for HVAC in light commercial sector
• Built on web-based platform
• Can also control appliances

 

GRIDbot

Richard Donnelly, President & Chief Acceleration Officer

• EV charging station
• Enabled with phone number and charging time
• Controls charging to account for grid load and peak power
• Has 60 charging outlets going into Dallas City Hall in December

 

EcoFactor

Scott Hublou, SVP Products

• Personalized residential energy management
• Boost AC demand response yield by 36%
• Doesn't compromise comfort
• No hardware, purely in the cloud
• Understands how the house heats and cools and the weather to make adjustments
• Successfully deployed for a year across US

Capire Micropower

Jason Massey

• Microturbine Powerchips. Is a little power-turbine using fuel
• Capire Micropower is building the first biofuel powered silicon powerchip via exclusive license from MIT and Duke.
• 10W engine, 10x power of fuel cells and 5x energy of Li-Ion
• 40hr runtimes
• Will ramp to 50W to 100W

 

The Power of Policy: How Can Government Catalyze the Smart Grid?

Two massive hurdles stand in the way of super grid development: consumer adoption and utility incentives. How can policy makers most effectively lift the market over the barriers?

Moderator: Kerry Dolan, Technology Editor, Forbes Magazine
Dian Grueneich, Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
Gary Klein, Senior Member, Federal Affairs & Legislative Practice Group, DLA Piper
Michael Terrell, Policy Counsel for Clean Energy, Google
James L. Sweeney, Director of the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, Stanford University

• What do Tue's election mean for clean energy? 
  • Gary: Rep picked up 65 House seats. Economy and health are important issues, clean tech and Afghanistan didn't register. New legislature not likely to expand clean tech programs but also probably won't cut them either.
  • Dian: There has been a lot of stimulus money already funded but it is unlikely we will get more. 23 states have renewable standards.
  • Mike: State regulators are very important to smart grid. We won't see much coming out of federal government.
  • Jim: Federal gov may remain involved in the R&D area, mainly through DOE. Defeat of Prop 23 a good signal to government that people are willing to support clean energy.
• Dian: PUC is approving smart meters just on value to utilities. Don't yet have information on value to consumers.
• Dian: Energy efficiency programs approved on 3-year cycle. Last one increased by 40%, now to $3.7B, which is the largest in the world. Included provision that any commercial customer that voluntarily participated in energy efficiency program needed to have their data included in state database, have run into privacy issues though.