What We Do EnerNex is an electric power engineering and consulting firm specializing in the development and application of new electric power technologies. We understand the big picture and all of the elements of electric power engineering and how they fit together. We have a passion for developing solutions to the challenges facing the electric power industry.

EnerNex provides solutions to the challenges facing the electric power industry through research, engineering and consulting using a variety of classical and advanced methodologies and technologies. We provide engineering services, consulting, and software development and customization for energy producers, distributors, consumers, and research organizations. Our primary product is information packaged as technical reports, measurement data, design recommendations or expert advice. Our services are often utilized in conjunction with t...

Smart Grid Engineering Since its founding, EnerNex has played a critical role in several industry efforts in helping to design, architect or otherwise facilitate a Smart Grid. The company was part of the original team that developed the EPRI IntelliGrid Architecture and company personnel are involved in the work of the DOE GridWise Architecture Council, DOE Modern Grid Initiative, Galvin Electricity Initiative and the USCA International Users Group.

Why EnerNex EnerNex is unique. Few companies offer the services we do and fewer provide the high level of expertise we deliver everyday. We help design, build and implement a cleaner, smarter, more reliable electric power system. EnerNex is recognized as a leader in electric power engineering. You will not find yourself doing the same thing and working on the same project everyday. firstco...

Service Overviews AMI Cyber Security Demand Response Enterprise Architecture

For information regarding EnerNex, please contact EnerNex | Carrie Parks +1-865-218-4600 x6142 office +1-731-225-3414 mobile carrie@enernex....

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Our Staff EnerNex staff are well known and respected in their fields of expertise. Our professional excellence and leadership are reflected in our extensive and active record of publications, our professional service and recognitions, and the proportion of our staff who are in leadership positions in industry trade groups and standardization bodies. In addition to their technical expertise, our staff bring extensive experience from industry to ensure that projects are grounded in both the technical cutting edge and practical realities.

Introducing Utility Stats Our new app, Utility Stats, provides information about more than 3,200 U.S. Electric Utiliti...

by Stephan Amsbary Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to present  and attend the Open Group Conference in Austin TX. For me this was an exciting opportunity to vet our Enterprise Architecture direction and see what other are doing (cross-industries).  Here is a brief background.  The proceedings from this event can be found here. Highlights

by Sandy Bacik, Principal Consultant In general, policy is a plan or course of action a business intends to influence, determine decisions, actions and other matters and an architecture is the art and science of designing and building something. A cybersecurity policy architecture is the cornerstone of an effective business strategy. Specifically, a cybersecurity policy architecture is the foundation of an enterprise protecting assets, a combination of administrative, technical, and physical protection. A cybersecurity policy architecture needs to be based on executive direct...

All content of this Internet site is owned or controlled by EnerNex and is protected by worldwide copyright laws. You may download content only for your personal use for non-commercial purposes, but no further reproduction or modification of the content is permitted. The products, technology or processes described in this site may be the subject of other intellectual property rights reserved by EnerNex or other third parties. No license is granted with respect to those intellectual property rights. The information presented here has been compiled by EnerNex from internal and external sources....

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AMI Service Overview The “I” in AMI also allows a utility to cost-effectively implement a variety of modern grid applications. EnerNex knows how to help a utility get the most out of the “I” in AMI. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) consists of everything needed to support advanced metering - from the meter itself to the back-end applications associated with demand response, billing, etc. Effective AMI development, implementation and operation relies on a marriage of electric power engineering with informat...

Utility Communications Service Overview EnerNex provides recognized expertise in utility communications, particularly in industry standards and communication protocols. Our staff has decades of experience with numerous utilities, research organizations and government agencies in the development, implementation, integration and verification of communication standards and protocols. Our involvement in international standards-making organizations and other standardization efforts such as the IEEE, IEC, ANSI and Cigré is the key to our work. We not only use these utility communi...

Cyber Security Service Overview EnerNex practices an evolutionary, standards-based approach to solving real-world information security problems. We are well-positioned with memberships in the industry’s key standards-making groups to provide services and solutions for security policy and architecture development. We provide our clients with personal insight into security issues because we are the premier consulting firm for intelligent grid development. We have proven experience in regulatory issues and ...

Demand Response Service Overview EnerNex has experience in all aspects of demand response, advanced metering and pricing programs. Our expertise ranges from analyzing and developing new technology to developing business cases and cost-benefit analyses and even includes creating and facilitating industry-wide initiatives that coordinate demand response requirements and help influence public policy. Capabilities Automated Meter Reading Billing and Customer Information...

Utility Automation Service Overview Our Philosophy of Utility Automation: EnerNex is committed to using the latest domestic and international standards, as well as off-the-shelf tools, wherever possible, to cost-effectively solve customer problems. This open systems philosophy limits your exposure to proprietary software and hardware that often becomes too expensive to maintain and support. EnerNex is also actively working with utility customers in the development of security architectures and Advanced Distribution Automation applications. We not only have decad...

EnerNex has the largest concentration of IEC 61850 experts in the industry, including four former heads of IEC 61850 software development teams and the original project manager. Our team helped create the standard and continue to participate in its evolution and application. IEC 61850 presents an attractive standardization scheme for electric power utilities because it defines a single automation technology for the entire substation and has the potential to cut configuration and upgrade costs across the life cycle of the substation by 75% or ...

Enterprise Architecture Service Overview The Information Technology world is full of failures because the business drivers and automation implications were not fully understood in the beginning. For this reason, systematic enterprise architectural (EA) methodologies were developed providing clarity and risk mitigation. EA accomplishes this by focusing upon identifying and translating your organization’s business goals into the requisite business procedures, and underlying automation services. To...

Utility investments are usually large. Smart Grid investments are huge and will impact a broad range of stakeholders – and the impact on those stakeholders will be tremendous. The relationship between customers and energy providers will be fundamentally changed. Costs will be certain; however, benefits will be dependent on programs designed for Smart Grid users and customer participation. Customers will have the opportunity to realize significant benefits. Change to the customer-utility relationship brings the potential for confusion, misunderstanding, and risk. The greatest risk to utili...

Power Systems Service Overview Our studies and analysis capabilities support a wide range of service offerings for our clients, including: Advanced power system modeling and simulation studies (power system dynamics, electromagnetic transients and harmonics) Prototype engineering software development Technology assessments Requirements definitions for new products Insulation coordination Overcurrent protection Event/failure analysis a...

Smart Grid Development Service Overview EnerNex has played a critical role in several industry efforts in helping to design, architect or otherwise facilitate a smart grid. EnerNex was part of the original team that developed the EPRI IntelliGrid Architecture. This team gathered information from several hundred industry stakeholders to develop dozens of use case scenarios for how the power system of today operates and how it should work in the future. Capabilities EnerNex is helping deploy t...

Wind Energy Consulting Service Overview Wind power is the fastest growing source of new electric power generation in the world. The cost of energy from large commercial wind plants in good wind sites is now competitive with that from more conventional sources, and costs are forecast to decline further with future generations of multi-MW turbines. Large wind plants are complex dynamic systems, comprised of many individual wind turbines interconnected with the transmission grid through an extensive medium voltage collector network. Auxiliary systems and equipment may be employed f...

Systems Monitoring Service Overview EnerNex personnel have been working in monitoring of electric power systems for many years. Our staff has experience in a number of areas including product specification, software development, system applications and enterprise level data acquisition and management. We have provided support in systems monitoring for electric utilities, end-use customers, instrument manufacturers and government and private-sector research programs. Capabilities Data acquisition, analysis and presentation over secure Web sites Adva...

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Silicon Valley Power AMI Silicon Valley Power AMI Silicon Valley Power (SVP) is a not-for-profit municipal electric utility owned and operated by the city of Santa Clara, Calif. Silicon Valley Power service territory encompasses 19.3 square miles and provides power for more than 50,000 customers. The residential sector includes nearly 43,000 customers; the bulk of the remaining customers are included in the Commercial/ Industrial category, including nationally recognized companies such as Applied Materials, Intel, National Semiconducto...

Atlanta Hartsfield Airport/Georgia Power Harmonics Analysis Atlanta Hartsfield Airport/Georgia Power Harmonics Analysis EnerNex worked on a project in collaboration with Georgia Power and the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to investigate, model and mitigate significant harmonic distortion in the voltage and current cause by the airport's people mover train system. These trains have been in service for many years and use an older power electronic technology that causes this problem. Measurements were taken at transformer pads located out...

U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Storage Program U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Storage Program Coming soon… Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG) Utility Wind Integration Group (UWIG) Under contract, EnerNex provides administrative, techn...

Nebraska Power Association (NPA) Nebraska Power Association (NPA) Summary coming soon… You can visit NPA's public viewing of the full report Western Electricity Coordinating Council Western Electricity Coordinating Council Coming soon… Missouri River Wind-Hydro Integration Analysis popup...

Demand response is the proactive management of electric and gas utility loads to more efficiently and reliably market, produce, transmit and deliver energy. Applications of demand response can be as simple as a utility interrupting load in response to severe demand fluctuation or as complex as millions of customers voluntarily reducing their load in response to price signals. Program design, rate structure and customer participation have a tremendous influence on the success or failure of demand response initiatives. A number of drivers, most notably the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, have fo...

Cyber Security Press: May 27, 2011, Press release:  EnerNex takes next step in reducing cyber attack risks   EnerNex Support of TVA PowerWAN Security Policy EnerNex Support of TVA PowerWAN Security Policy EnerNex helped TVA with the development of the PowerWAN, ...

National Institute of Science & Technology / Smart Grid Interoperability Panel Efforts NIST/SGIP Efforts In August 2009, EnerNex was awarded the $8.5 million, two-year contract to help NIST sustain the accelerated development of the hundreds of compatible standards that will be required to build a secure, interoperable smart electric power grid. Initially, EnerNex is required to establish and administer a Smart Grid Interoperability Standard Panel (SGIP

EnerNex has been participating in the EPRI /Automotive Industry effort to standardize communication standards for emerging plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. Click here for a recent EnerNex PEV Standards Activities Overview. EnerNex is using EPRI IntelliGrid processes to capture and develop the requirements for communication messages between the Electric Vehicle and the Utility AMI network. This work is being captured under efforts sponso...

Alliant Energy Advanced Distribution Automation Alliant Energy Advanced Distribution Automation Alliant Energy uses a Metricom remote metering system for distribution SCADA functionality. There are approximately 1000 meters installed, which communicate via Power Line Carrier (PLC) with a Metricom radio transceiver. The transceivers use packet radio technology and communicate in a peer-to-peer network to one of the 27 gateway sites that provide connectivity to the Alliant WAN and then on to an Oracle database and relevant applications. ...

by Bill Moncrief, Principal Consultant The term “Smart Grid” has been in use for a number of years, meaning different things to different people. Depending on locale, role and responsibilities, the “Smart Grid” can possess a variety of attributes and benefits. Seldom identified as one of its main attributes is the Smart Grid’s capability to heal itself. Heal itself? Let me explain. Traditionally, when the electric grid is hit by a weather mishap, the system protects itself and the public by disconnecting the failed portions of the system, often requiring a serviceman ...

EPCOR EPCOR EnerNex was engaged by EPCOR from October to December of 2006 to provide consulting services for distribution automation procurement and implementation assistance. EnMAX EnMAX In the area of feasibility and cost effectiveness analysis, ENMAX Power, one of the leading Canadian utilities in implementing feeder automation, is expanding its initiative to specifically address concerns about momentary service interruptions. EnerNex assist...

by Rudi Schubert, Principal Consultant Interoperability of Smart Grid systems and devices is a high priority goal cited across many organizations driving the efforts to enhance our energy infrastructure. System and device testing is a critical foundational issue for Smart Grid deployment. Vast amounts of capital expenditures are underway and the old adage of “measure twice, cut once” has never been so important. The stakes are high to assure that deployed technology has been rigorously tested to assure that requirements are met and systems interoperate as advertised. T...

By Bruce Muschlitz, Principal Consultant In a word, plenty.  The original 61850 documentation has existed since 2004 and (surprise, surprise) the users have found some issues (if you count the TISSUES, there's 767 as I write this). Mistakes do happen, and the IEC wants to fix as many of them as possible without causing too much heartburn to the user community. While existing users will not be affected greatly, some of the bug-fixes have uncovered deep-rooted flaws in the standard. As I write this, seven of the original 14 documents in the 61850 set have been updated and are availabl...

This podcast, presented by Sandy Bacik, Principal Consultant, provides a basic understanding of what is security, what it should include, and how it differs from safety within an operational environment. This session will help build a foundation for building a well rounded security program to protect stakeholder assets. This podcast will focus on: • Defining security and safety • What does security include? • Overview of what is included in a security program versus an information security program • T...

By Grant Gilchrist, Principal Consultant  Okay, so the race to develop the smart grid is well underway, and judging by the number of conference invitations flying around, people are doing an awful lot of talking about it.  But has anyone else noticed that the way we’re talking about the grid has changed? I would like to propose that the change is happening at least in part because the pictures that we’re drawing of the grid have be...

By Jeremy Laundergan, Director Utility Services Consulting Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege to present a webinar through Conferences Connect titled “Translating Smart Grid Benefits to Customers: Are Customers Really Resources?” which provided an overview of the evolution of Demand Response through Advanced Metering Infrastructure deployments and the integration of Home Area Networks. These technologies are connecting the supply chain for electricity from generation to wholesale markets, transmission and distribution through...

by Ben Boyd At the 2011 ConnectivityWeek Smart Grid Conference in beautiful Santa Clara, I had the great fortune to attend the Consumers Symposium and their session, Changing to a Culture of Listening and Collaboration. The fact is the consumer has risen to the level of equal partner in the new equation as they now voice their concerns in venues where they were not heard before. This cultural shift (as it was called during this symposium) engages all players instead of just the utility representative and the regulator as in the past. The electric grid effect...

by Anna Grau, Senior Consultant Vertical Integration: Generation, Transmission and Distribution/Retail Sales Everyone knows Texas is special, but did you know Texas maintains its own power grid and is one of a handful of deregulated energy markets in the United States?  Traditionally, most US utilities exhibit a vertically-integrated structure.  With regard to electric utilities specifically, there are three clear components of the vertical structure: actual power generation, the transmission of power to local regions and the distributi...

  EnerNex Presents:  Leaping Forward The Grand Opening of Smart Grid Labs When:  February 29, 2012 Where:  EnerNex Smart Grid Labs facility 620 Mabry Hood Road, Suite 101 Knoxville, Tenn. 37932 Join us for this special event that includes a free seminar on implementing White House CTO, ...

By Jeremy Laundergan, Director of Utility Services Consulting I attended the Great Lakes Symposium on Smart Grid and the New Energy Economy in Chicago, Illinois this week.  While there, I met many of the people that EnerNex worked with during the Illinois Smart Grid Collaborative that EnerNex facilitated.  The event was well attended (guessing 250 attendees) with high quality speakers as well as many industry leaders in attendance. The most insightful policy summit discussion was during lunch on the first day with the following speak...

  Information Systems Security Architect The function of this position is to apply engineering and problem solving skills to develop solutions to complex problems in the electric power delivery process related to grid modernization. This position produces solutions based on a strong background in information security, enterprise information architecture, and familiarity with utility enterprise information models, common utility communication protocols and information modeling standards, a  working knowledge of advanced sensing and control, renewable energy, distributed resour...

By Brian Smith, Principal Consultant Automation systems are becoming integral to the utility's ability to meet the demands on today's electrical transmission and distribution systems. As these systems evolve and become increasingly integrated and interconnected, the need for the utility to have a effective change management program addressing them also increases.  A change management program will have many facets including governance, policies, and procedures, but at...

On Tuesday, October 17, Dr. Aaron Snyder and Vadim Zheglov had the privilege to speak to the Chattanooga Engineers Club on the topic of "Modern Power Quality Challenges." Aaron and Vadim challenged attendees as to what they knew to be “true” about electric power and its measurement. Most of us are famil...

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by Kay Stefferud Related press: November 8:  Kay Stefferud quoted in Solar Industry online publication "How One Utility's Plan Could Soon Undermine The Solar Power Rate Case" As reported by the San Diego Union Tribune and KPBS public radio, rooftop solar owners are upset by San Diego Gas and Electric’s (SDG&E) recent request to add new charges for owners of residential solar systems. In...

Basic Function Supporting engineering studies on wind plants and utility power systems. Benefits of an Internship at EnerNex EnerNex is a dynamic and reputable company that is positioned at the forefront of technology. Being a consultant at EnerNex is an exciting and rewarding profession but also a very challenging one that requires multidisciplinary skills such as extensive expertise and experience in the area of power systems, problem solving skills, and excellent communication skills to professionally convey study results to our customers. A freshly gr...

by Stephan Amsbary, Director of Utility Enterprise Architecture Getting Business Stakeholders and Information Technologists to Talk the Same Language Change In today’s world, change is the one certainty, and the rate of change is almost exponential.  New Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) such as mobile devices are rapidly bringing new capabilities at lower costs to businesses, thereby allowing companies to ...

by Aaron Snyder, Principal Consultant, Deputy Director of Smart Grid Labs The real problem with standards is that so few people actually contribute to their development, and then even fewer people actually read them! A further complication is that we tend to trivialize them by coming up with snazzy acronyms that can be marketed, or worse, use some sort of impenetrable geek shorthand name. A lot of energy is focused on getting them printed as if

By Sandy Bacik, Principal Consultant Session: Compliance, audit, risk, security what’s the difference and why do we need it? This one-hour podcast session, recorded from the November 3rd webinar, will provide a basic understanding of a compare and contrast of compliance, audit, risk, and security within a utility. This session will help build a foundation for understanding why all four functions are needed within a utility. This podcast will focus on: • Defining compliance, aud...

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By Kevin Brown, Principal Consultant Radio Frequency (RF) exposure limits have been known for a long time, this is not something new. Look at any amateur radio training guide and a substantial portion will be dedicated to RF safety and exposure and exposure limits. Radio frequency (RF) radiation also occurs naturally. Take any amplitude modulation (AM) radio and tune it to a dead spot and the static you hear are the radio frequencies coming from the universe. Radiation falls into two basic categories, one is ionizing ...

by Ben Rankin, Senior Consultant On October 20, FERC issued a Final Rule in Order No. 755 revising regulations for frequency regulation in organized wholesale markets. The new rule was created to address FERC’s determination “that current frequency regulation compensation practices in organized wholesale electricity markets which fail to compensate resources for all of the service they provide as part of that service are unjust, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory or preferential.” Frequency regulation markets are in place in PJM, MISO, NYISO, ISO-NE and CAISO. The freque...

Well, the Grid-Interop 2011 is in full swing here in Phoenix. Thanks to Clasma for a great event so far! Erich Gunther was part of the Green Button roundtable discussion this morning. In a video address from White House CTO Aneesh Chopra, he reiterated his challenge of creating the standards and framework necessary for rapid deployment of Green Buttons by utilities in t...

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By Ben Boyd, VP of Regulatory / Policy for Smart Grid Engineering The Missouri Smart Grid Conference was hosted by the Missouri Public Service Commission on November 29, 2011, in Jefferson City, Missouri, the state’s Capitol. This event was attended by over 100 representatives of various smart grid stakeholders and was appropriately titled “What’s Happening in Missouri?” The first panel discussion focused on project overviews by three utilities with discussions on technology highlights and  innovations, key su...

Check out Bobby Brown discussing the Cyber Security demonstration at the first of its kind Plug-In at Grid-Interop.  ...

Interested in hearing about the value of the first of its kind Plug-In demonstration at Grid-Interop? Listen to Brad Singletary, Deputy Director of EnerNex...

by Jeremy Laundergan, Director, Utility Services Consulting The one word to describe the 2011 Grid-Interop event is Progress. Progress being made in the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) with the population of the Catalog of Standards (CoS) and the soon to be released 2nd version of the Interoperability Process Reference Manual (IPRM). Progress with live demonstrations of interoperable products during the Plug-in demonstration event.

April 3  High Tech US Smart Grid Lab Integrates SUBNET Technology March 7  EnerNex’s New Smart Grid Labs Facility Commences with Grand Opening Event March 5  Knoxville News Sentinel: "

Opening Event Schedule 11:30am -1:00pm Networking, tour of the labs, and lunch 1:00pm - 3:00pm 3:00pm - 3:30pm Break 3:30pm - 4:30pm

DIRECTIONS  We are north of I-40/75, 12 miles west of downtown Knoxville. From West and East bound I-40 From interstate 40/75, take Exit 376A onto Pellissippi Parkway/I140 From Tyson McGhee Airport From interstate 40/75, take Exit 376A onto Pellissippi Parkway/I140 From Oak Ridge, TN Take Pellissippi Par...

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EnerNex combines industry experts from information technology, cyber security, and power systems engineering to bring a greater level of understanding to the challenges encountered in the electric utility industry. These disciplines are customized and combined in order to present a balanced set of solutions that provides comprehensive insight into your organization’s security posture. EnerNex is continually discussing the vision of a smarter grid, and with Smart Grid Labs we can bring our experti...

SECURITY Audits Penetration testing Vulnerability assessments Security interoperability / LEMNOS Low-level / Hardware security impact assessment METERING AMI Functional Testing AMI Acceptance Testing AMI Test Practice Design AEIC and C12 Metering Guidance OTHER LABORATORY AND TESTING CAPABILITIES Develop in-house high-level testing capability Client implementation support Provide education/training to vendors...

About Smart Grid Labs EnerNex’s Smart Grid Labs is one of the premier evaluation testing facilities in the country, providing multi-faceted services related to communications, security, standards compliance, technology/vendor maturity, and implementation with a wide range of laboratory capabilities for utilities and product vendors.  The Lab provides a simple yet effective framework for vendors to evaluate new designs for compliance with key protocol...

Smart Grid Labs Datasheet Smart Grid Labs Overview statement Smart Grid Labs Press Kit Smart Grid Labs Logo ...

REGISTRATION FOR THE GREEN BUTTON IS CURRENTLY CLOSED.  FOR REMOTE ACCESS CLICK HERE. The Green Button Worksho...

KNOXVILLE, TN. (July 14, 2011) – Knoxville is the nation’s fastest growing area for green jobs according to a report, “Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment,” released by the Brookings Institute. Knoxville saw green jobs grow by 14.6 percent annually between 2003 and 2010. During that period the region added 10,000 green jobs, and now clean economy jobs account for 4.9 percent of all jobs in the Innovation Valley. The measure of the concentration of green jobs ranks Knoxville 2nd in the nation. Click

PRE-CONFORMANCE / PRE-CERTIFICATION TESTING Perform ‘pre-conformance’ and ‘pre-certification’ testing/evaluation (including review of firmware/apps) and recommendations for improvements Interoperability testing for vendors and utilities between all products Evaluation services to utilities for RFPs UCAIug testing guidelines COMMUNICATIONS Evaluations/assessments HAN interoperability testing 61850/DNP testing Wireless and low voltage PLC testing Specialized...

EPRI DNP Security Interoperability Testing The Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) is the most widely used utility communications protocol in North America. Ensuring that DNP3 communications are secure is an important goal for the power industry. The previous DNP Security Testing and Evaluation product ensured that version 3.0 of the DNP Secure Authentication Specification was released, including a method for remotely changing cryptographic keys and a review by cryptographic experts. The next step in ensuring the successful deployment this technology is to develop procedures for test...

by Sandy Bacik, Principal Consultant The Cyber Security Solutions & Practices Panel, led by Patrick Miller, NESCO, spoke about different practices that utilities need to incorporate into their practices.  Russ Silva, Telcordia, spoke about their products on monitoring and intrusion detection and how monitoring and reporting needs to be included in the utility security practice.  Efrain Gonzalez, SCE, spoke about their practical implementation of cybersecurity into all aspects of the organization and...

by Stuart McCafferty, VP Government Programs  Rudi Schubert, Principal Consultant The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) celebrated its 2 year birthday party at Grid-Interop in Phoenix December 4 – 8.  As we rapidly approach 2012, three key activities/announcements occurred that people following Smart Grid standards should be aware of. In September 2011, U.S...

by Vishant Shah, Senior Consultant New technologies require completely new infrastructures to maximize efficiency and effectiveness. History demonstrates these transitions over and over again.  At the turn of the 20th century, different types of ‘horseless carriages’ competed with horse-drawn carriages and wagons such as battery-electric cars, steam-powered vehicles and early internal combustion engine (ICE) powered cars.  The successful adoption and diffusion of early ICE-powered cars was driven by easy access to the gasoline fueling infrastructure including cans, barrels, hom...

by Grant Gilchrist, Principal Consultant You hear a lot about the use of “cloud computing” in Smart Grid systems today.  The idea seems to be that instead of a utility building and maintaining its own Energy Management System (EMS), Distribution Management System (DMS), or Meter Data Management System (MDMS) hardware and software, it buys them as services from a provider.  The provider has a central “server farm” somewhere that it keeps up-to-date with the latest technology for the benefit of the utility.  ...

By Doug Houseman, Vice President of Technology and Innovations In reviewing various publications and notices today, I found the industry had a basket full of Christmas presents from the regulatory agencies around the world. This makes for an interesting start for 2012. In Europe the regulatory staff is hard at work defining minimum criteria for smart meters. What will be the minimum function that a utility or meter service provider will be allowed to deploy in the European Union? This means that any project that is a...

Smart Grid Labs is located at 620 Mabry Hood Road, Suite 101, Knoxville, TN 37932 For more information about Knoxville and nearby hotels, restaurants, and other details, click here ...

By Stuart McCafferty, VP of Government Projects and SGIP Project Manager The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) kicked off 2012 with a bang adding new Governing Board members, adding new standards to the SGIP Catalog of Standards (CoS), and conducting virtual meetings of the Governing Board and the SGIP plenary. After the completing the runoff elections in December, the 2012 Governing Board includes 7 brand new members: ...

EnerNex's week at DistribuTECH in San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 23-26 was a huge success.  Thank you to those who stopped by our booth to chat. One of the major talking points of the week, was our new-found partnership with Paul De Martini of Newport Consulting.  In early January, EnerNex announced our strategic alliance with Paul's firm to focus on the development and management of advanced technology for grid modernization and customer engagement. “I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Paul for several years, one of Smart Grid’s m...

by Bill Moncrief, Principal Consultant I recently attended the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) meeting in Anaheim, California.  This Winter Meeting was once a general meeting, but is now a meeting of the committees and does not offer any papers, panel sessions, or other things that we often associate with IEEE meetings. The majority of my time was devoted to the Power Quality portion of the IEEE PES.  I am the chair of the Standard Coordinating Committee 22 (SCC22), the group that coordinates the different societies in developing IEEE standards that relate to Power Quality....

Director of System Studies Year joined firm: 2012 Industry years: 25+ Education: B.S.E.E. from University of Cincinnati; Master of Engineering from the Electric Power Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Expertise: solving power problems for industrial, commercial, and utility clients

Principal Consultant Year joined firm: 2012 Education: Doctor of Philosophy, Electrical Engineering, from the University of Minnesota (in progress) Expertise: power systems analysis, Smart Grid development, large-scale computing, data security, technical communication, and renewables Laurie Miller joins EnerNex as a Principal Consultant with o...

Announcing Utility Stats Utility Stats delivers information about more than 3,200 U.S. Electric Utilities at your fingertips. How many Megawatt Hours of electricity did a given utility deliver to its customers in the year? How many customers does it serve? How much revenue did it derive from its operations? Filter data on several criteria or search for a utility by name. Data ...

by Doug Houseman, Vice President Technology Innovation I had a long and frustrating conversation at DistribuTECH with several people on storage. We had serious problems with vocabulary and understanding when it came to storage. Each of us was using different terms or terms differently. I spent time thinking about how the conversation could have been better and finally realized that there is a need for a non-technical classification scheme for electric storage. With that said, here is my first pass (consider this alph...

by Erich Gunther, Chairman and CTO It is well established through many examples that fear, uncertainty, doubt (FUD) and ignorance has a real cost in terms of time, money, relationships, and other aspects of everyday life.  One great example that society dealt with for years was the idea that using seat belts would cause you greater injury than not using them. Thousands of people died during the period that this FUD was being spread. While the current FUD on smart metering does not rise to this level, it is based on the...

by Aaron Snyder, Deputy Director, Smart Grid Labs EnerNex is committed to deploying a core multi-vendor based infrastructure of power systems equipment, supporting communications equipment, enterprise and diagnostic software as a platform for researching and evaluating hardware and software in end-to-end, real world application-based scenarios.  This platform is used to support research, engineering and consulting services performed for utilities, vendors, and other stakeholders for product development, product refineme...

by Bruce Muschlitz, Principal Consultant In my last blog, http://www.enernex.com/blog/what%E2%80%99s-all-the-fuss-about-the-new-release-of-iec-61850-revision/#!/, I told you that there was lots of new stuff in IEC 61850 Edition 2. Now I’ve got some time to explain what’s new. As a recap, let’s start with some history.  61850 is an evolution of ideas started in the early 1990’s by EPRI in th...

by Kay Stefferud, Principal Consultant The economic and physical security of the United States depends upon our ability to acquire natural resources in all forms, from iron and rare earths to oil and gas. The United States government is one of the most ardent supporters of both free trade and democratic government. Although many nations support democracy and competitive market economies, some nations do not. Instead some nations openly favor their own national interests over global fairness. Some governments artif...

by Jeremy Laundergan, Director of Utility Services Consulting With the upcoming tidal wave of both AMI and Distribution Automation data, focusing on how to manage (Meter Data Management & Data Warehouse) what to do (Analytics) with that data will be significant. A lot of the business case savings (theft detection, outage management, etc.) is related to the analytics part. Think about grocery store price scanners. They have been collecting data for years and are only now realizing the inventory management and ...

Director of Consulting Services Year joined firm: 2012 Industry years: 30+ Education: M.B.A. Stanford Graduate School of Business; M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.); B.S. in Management Science (Sloan School of Management), M.I.T.; B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T. Expertise: Technology a...

by Bob Russ, Director of Consulting Services After working as a sub-contractor over the past year with many of EnerNex's experts, I am happy that this relationship could be made 'official' allowing me to become a fully fledged family member!  I am looking forward to being EnerNex's northern California presence, especially within Silicon Valley which will allow me to better serve local EnerNex clients as well as finding new ones.  By way of quick background, my education includes both an engineering and business foundation as I had always been interested in the creative and successf...

By Ben Rankin, Senior Consultant In 2006 and 2009, Southern California Edison (SCE) developed Use Cases that that describe a general vision for a smarter grid from SCE’s perspective. While these and other Use Cases have done a great job and provide high level use cases that describe the general vision for a smarter grid, each utility faces different challenges that can depend upon their geographic location, business priorities, as well as the vintage of their current infrastructure. Therefore, there is a need to take th...

by Grant Gilchrist, Principal Consultant There’s one part of the smart grid that some utilities don’t like to talk much about.  No, I’m not suggesting shady accounting practices; I’m talking about network topology.  In other words, which customers are connected to which phases of which distribution transformers, on which feeders, connected to which substations?  And while we’re at it, where’s the customer physically located and where is the meter physically located on the building? There are a whole ...

by Rudi Schubert, Principal Consultant Development of a global network of Smart Grid test beds was the primary topic of discussion at the APEC-ISGAN Smart Grid Test Bed Networks workshop that took place in January in Washington, DC.  A broad international representation of over fifty experts and officials from laboratories and government agencies around the world made presentations on their programs and capabilities to set the stage for discussions on collaborative opportunities. ISGAN is the International Smart Grid A...

by Vishant Shah, Senior Consultant Today, the ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP) concluded a year-long effort and published a “Standardization Roadmap for Electric Vehicle Deployment”.   The Roadmap is important because it identifies grid-related gaps and underlines the need for coordinated action to fill these gaps. Originally convened in March of 2011, the EVSP is a coordinating body geared to foster coll...

PRESS RELEASES April 3  EnerNex Announces Director of Power Systems Studies March 7  EnerNex’s New Smart Grid Labs Facility Commences with Grand Opening Event January 11  EnerNex Announces Smart Grid Labs Grand Opening Event and Green Button Workshop January 4  

EnerNex webinar presentation, "Introduction to IEC 61850 Testing: The Features and Benefits," August 2011 EnerNex presentation from the UCAIug Summit "Advancing Interoperability for the Utility Enterprise and Systems," Nov. 15-18, Austin, TX: "UCAIug Testing Subcommittee Boot Camp" Anna Grau's presentation on

Smart Grid Labs offers a compact Consumer Domain experience test environment to utilities, vendors, and government entities. We offer a variety of services through our innovative facilities, distributed utility partners, and vendor partner relationships. EnerNex has long been known for our expertise in utility communications applications. EnerNex consultants are contributors to the standards and specification bodies for many of the key Smart Grid Lab communications protocols. ...

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EnerNex was a proud exhibitor at the IEEE T&D Conferencein Orlando, Florida last week.  We had a beautiful 10x20 booth space this year - and not only that - we had several EnerNex staff speak throughout the week.  One of the highlights of the week - we had a drawing for a free iPad 3!  Congratulations to the winner:  Lou Collazzo with Peco Methods Rotational.

Director of Consulting Services Year joined firm: 2012 Ind...

Course Overview As the business of transmitting and distributing electric power changes, so do the demands on the power system automation and communications infrastructure. Demands such as increased functionality, reduced total cost of ownership, and improved cyber-security are just a few that are leading many utilities to embrace a new generation of automation systems in support of their overall grid modernization efforts. These systems will in many cases be based on the IEC-61850 standards which provide enhanced fu...