by Jarret Adams

Vice President Joe Biden

According to a report by Vice President Joe Biden, the administration’s clean energy programs are expected to help create some 700,000 jobs. He said that the $787 billion Recovery Act is helping spur investment in new clean energy technologies, including wind, solar, energy efficiency and perhaps even nuclear energy. According to the ABC News blog:

“I’m pleased to report that the administration is laying the foundation for a clean energy economy that will create a new generation of jobs, reduce dependence on oil and enhance national security,” Biden begins his memo to Obama.

Biden notes in the memo that “Recovery Act investments in renewable generation and advanced energy manufacturing of $23 billion will likely create 253,000 jobs and leverage over $43 billion in additional investment that could support up to 469,000 more jobs, putting us on track to meet the goal of doubling our renewable energy generation, including solar, wind and geothermal, in just 3 years.”

Smart grid investments through the plan are expected to create some 43,000 jobs. AREVA T&D is participating in one of these initiatives to develop the smart grid systems.

Regarding nuclear energy, the Vice President also reports that “by the end of our first two years in office, we will have provided conditional commitments for loan guarantees for two nuclear power operators to add three to four new nuclear reactors.”

That’s great, but weren’t there four companies listed as finalists for the loan guarantees? And DOE officials have said that the first loan guarantee for a nuclear project could be issued by the end of this year.

by Katherine Berezowskyj

If you are going to be at the GridWeek conference in our nation’s capital this week, be sure to check out booth #103. Here, AREVA’s Transmission & Distribution (T&D) division is demonstrating its unique system for integrating its Smart Grid technologies and renewable power generation.

AREVA T&D's Booth at GridWeek

AREVA’s Smart Grid Suite, which includes a range of e-terra products, helps to manage and optimize the grid efficiency. As part of AREVA’s work in grid efficiency, AREVA was awarded a Department of Energy grant in July to study global best practices in grid tools and operations for wind plants. This will provide the basis for the U.S. grid to operate with more wind power generation

This is a complimentary effort for expanding CO2-free power generation that supports AREVA’s rapidly growing renewable sector. Some of the major projects currently under development around the world include biopower (biomass to electricity) and offshore wind.

Photo Courtesy of RB Watkins

Today we would like to spotlight another integral part of AREVA family here in North America ─ RB Watkins, a transformer field services company based in Stow, Ohio. Founded in 2004, the company joined the AREVA group in December 2008 and is now part AREVA’s Transmission & Distribution subsidiary. RB Watkins performs complete services for high voltage transformers including installation, maintenance and repair.

Its 42 employees work throughout the U.S, with offices in Ohio, Oklahoma, and soon in Phoenix, Arizona. Co-founder and Unit Managing Director Jim Rodgers said that RB Watkins has really thrived because of it expertise and experience in the transformer industry. He and co-founder Wes Watkins are good examples of this know-how, as they both have extensive careers in the field. Each started with energy industry in the early 1980’s and have accumulated years of experience and understanding working in transformer power services, including the large power service field and the managing transformer remanufacturing division.

Rodgers also talked about what he liked about AREVA, saying “while we had eight different offers, AREVA was the best fit.” For their customers, he said AREVA’s line of services allow them to be part of an attractive business model. Working with AREVA has created a strong support system for current RB Watkins employees and has also made the company more appealing for recruiting well-qualified employees. In fact, the company has hired eight people since the beginning of the year. This relationship even extends to the company’s future outlook, as Rodgers mentioned that this association has provided them with additional sales resources to continue the company’s current growth.

To find out more about RB Watkins, check out the company’s site here.

Considering the future of AREVA, the group’s Supervisory Board met and finalized the next steps of the group’s plans (press release). As the world leader in the nuclear power industry, AREVA has witnessed a major increase in demand for CO2-free energy solutions. At the same time, AREVA has exciting goals for the future—both in nuclear energy and renewables—that need investment while keeping a healthy balance sheet.

This is why AREVA will invite new strategic and industrial partners, and current certificate holders, to join as shareholders. Plus, the group will launch a new employee shareholding plan.

Additionally, the Supervisory Board asked AREVA to sell the group’s Transmission & Distribution division. AREVA will initiate a call for bids, and while the financial offer will be one factor; attention will be paid to the potential buyer’s plans for the division. Based on the offers received, AREVA will make the decision whether to sell T&D by the end of the year.

Speaking about today’s decision, Chairman of the Board Jean Cyril Spinetta said, “Solutions for generating CO2-free energy—its core business—have undisputed prospects for growth. The group must be able to pursue an ambitious investment program to take advantage of its growth.”

Recently the Transmission & Distribution division of AREVA and PJM Interconnection made some “smart” moves forming a strategic alliance to better address to challenges of   “smarter” transmission grids for the northeastern United States.  The two organizations already have several years of success working together and will now be engaged in improving system resiliency and efficiency in the new paradigm of smarter grids.

Already a world-class transmission organization coordination the movement of wholesale electricity through 13 states and the District of Columbia, PJM is brings power to 51 million people in the U.S.  AREVA T&D has a successful history of delivering effective solutions to PJM, including industry firsts, such as locational marginal pricing (LMP)-based solution for the multi-settlement electricity market, and the first large-scale mixed integer programming (MIP) solution for clearing the day-ahead market.

Their joint strategy will now focus on developing T&D’s e-terra™ applications suite with “Smarter Dispatch” technologies.  This will facilitate a new generation of resources and devices for improved operational efficiency and expanded system security and with technologies that utilize PJM’s experience in providing quality and timely market information which will allow substantial and dramatic increase of the penetration of Demand Response technologies across PJM’s footprint.

PJM’s Senior Vice-President of Market Operations , Andy Ott, described how “On more than one occasion, AREVA T&D and PJM have worked collaboratively to deliver outstanding world-class solutions to meet our most challenging business requirements.”  AREVA T&D’s Executive Vice-President, Automation Business Unit, Jean-Michel Cornille said that “We are looking forward to combining our complementary areas of expertise to help shape the direction of Smart Grid technology, and to make more reliable, efficient and strong networks a reality.”

Back in December 2008, Lawrence E. Jones of AREVA T&D published an editorial in Smart Electric News entitled “Renewable Energy Systems, Electric Vehicles, and Smart Electricity Grids for a Carbon-Constrained World.” In that article, he lays out some of the challenges of the road ahead for the energy industry – including the need to reduce carbon emissions, the need for continued research, development, and implementation of renewable energy sources, an aging workforce, and the most crucial need – to create a 21st-century power grid that’s able to anticipate and deal with periods of heavy power usage.

The whole thing is worth a read… but here are some of the highlights:

Wind and solar power are intermittent resources and as such make it difficult to operate the power grids to which they are connected. To successfully integrate RES, electric utilities must have reliable forecast information about the quantity and availability of the power output. Thus, forecasting systems are one of the primary requirements to achieving increased penetration of wind and solar energy. The second requirement is combining the forecast information with the real-time operational data in the utilities’ control centers for decision making – both in the front and back offices. . . .

To effectively integrate large amounts of renewable power generation with existing and emerging smart power grids, there will be increasing need for modern information, communications and control technologies. But these are not the only prerequisites. There must also be investments in education and training a new work force to carry out the millions of new jobs expected to be created. Work force development must be an integral part of every country’s long term goal in order to compete in the 21st century global economy.

by Jarret Adams

AREVA’s Transmission and Distribution (T&D) division has announced that it has extended its three-year collaboration with Microsoft for the development of Smarter Grid Management solutions, so the global power industry can manage electricity demand more efficiently.

AREVA and Microsoft already provide AREVA customers with some key capabilities for managing the grid. Under the new agreement, the two companies will work to improve cybersecurity and integration with Microsoft Office tools.

Some other benefits are that the new smart grid systems are better at managing distribution generation and renewables. AREVA displayed some of its Microsoft-based smart grid solutions at DistribuTECH in San Diego earlier this year.

AREVA’s efforts to improve the efficiency of the grid through its T&D applications constitute one of three main pillars for fighting climate change. The other two are nuclear energy and renewables, which produce electricity without producing any significant amount of greenhouse gases.

Here’s a great diagram of how AREVA’s Smart Grid technology works…

Smart Grid Diagram (click to enlarge, approx. 160K)

AREVA Static VAR Compensator

by Joe Adamoli

If you were in parts of the U.S. and Canada on August 14, 2003, you were probably very confused, very inconvenienced, and very uncomfortable.

That was the day a cascading power outage plunged approximately 50 million people into darkness and cost the economy of both nations $6 billion dollars. The blackout represented another milestone in a disturbing trend of power interruptions that have grown in size and frequency over several decades.

The culprit is the aging electric transmission and distribution infrastructure, or “grid,” used to deliver electricity across regions and between utilities. While generation technologies and demand patterns have evolved and become more complex in recent years, the grid has remained virtually unchanged technologically from nearly a half-century ago. Even on the grid’s best days, its inherent inefficiencies balancing the flows of energy is a difficult process, one that wastes substantial amounts of electricity.

Under extreme conditions, such as those of that hot, muggy day in August 2003, stresses on the system can produce catastrophic results, hardly a comforting prospect for a world where energy demand is expected to grow by more than 50 percent in the next 20 years.

But a new approach called “smart grid” holds the potential to dramatically modernize the nation’s electricity supply and delivery infrastructure.

Smart grid uses a variety of computer hardware and software tools to transform the existing centralized grid into a dynamic and complex system of energy- and information-sharing networks that allows utilities to better coordinate and manage loads, quickly avert potential blackout conditions, and save the U.S. economy tens of billions of dollars each year by ensuring power reliability. Smart grid is also better suited to accommodate the growing integration of wind, solar, and other renewable power sources with varying power flows into the energy generation mix, as well as small-scale local generators such as fuel cells and microturbines. Furthermore, smart grid will facilitate two-way communications between the utilities and their customers through the use of advanced smart meters. This is expected to increase energy efficiency.

The pace of smart grid technology development is sure to increase thanks to a $4.5 billion boost from President Obama’s recently enacted stimulus package. But research into these exciting technologies is already a top priority for AREVA’s Transmission and Distribution division, which manages a significant share of the world’s energy flow.

Working with large and smaller grid operators, researchers, energy technology specialists, professional organizations, and other key stakeholders, AREVA’s smart grid R&D program is focused on creating cost-effective tools that will help prevent blackouts, maximize the integration of CO2-free energy sources, optimize the performance and management of transmission and distribution infrastructure, and explore the best way to incorporate emerging modes of energy consumption (e.g., electric vehicles, appliances, and buildings) into the mix. In several control centers around the world (e.g., American Electric Power, North China Grid), AREVA’s advanced decision support and visualization tool, e-terravision®, is used to provide operators with situational awareness. AREVA is making significant enhancements to its generation control applications and other energy management tools to enable customers (such as Hawaii Electric Company, Bonneville Electric Power, and EnergiNet in Denmark) to better integrate wind and other distributed resources into their operations.

Several AREVA-developed technologies are already making a difference for the firm’s customers. ExCel Energy, which provides electricity to eight Western and Midwestern states, uses AREVA’s thyristor-based Static VAR Compensator (SVC) regulating devices to maximize system performance and power transfer capabilities while also stabilizing the network and easing the connection of renewable energy sources. The improved power quality afforded by AREVA’s newest system-regulating technology, SVC MaxSine, has helped industrial operations in the Middle East and Australia maximize operational performance and output.

In Canada, AREVA’s new generation HVDCiceTM system ensures the reliability of distribution networks by preventing ice build-up on overhead power lines. Elements of AREVA’s e-terra network management products are assisting grid operators in the U.S. and China with system monitoring, performance analysis, demand planning, and security management, while several hospitals in France have found the AREVA Microgrids Controller to be a superior emergency power option compared with conventional generator and battery configurations.

More technology innovations and refinements from AREVA are on the way as the company continues to help its customers address both current and evolving electricity challenges. Indeed, smart grid technology has a bright future, in more ways than one.

At the Distributech conference held February 2-5 in San Diego, Calif., AREVA T&D simulated a 21st century distribution control room environment, showcasing the latest in real-time management of distribution systems. The company’s e-terradistribution® software was projected onto a large mapboard, exhibiting the applications that allow utilities to configure their distribution systems to meet current and future needs.

by Joe Adamoli

A production version of the AREVA T&D Integrated Distribution Management System based on e-terradistribution® software recently went live at Florida Power and Light Company.

Florida Power and Light Company is one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the United States. AREVA was chosen by FPL to provide a Transmission Energy Management System (EMS) and a Distribution Management System (DMS) with a common SCADA system shared by the EMS and DMS. The resulting project represents a major accomplishment (a fully Integrated Distribution Management System), and is creating a customer demand buzz, demonstration requests, and requests for quotation.

The successful delivery also satisfies two business cases by FPL: 1) replace static mapboard-based operations; and, 2) install Fault Location and Fault Isolation and Service Restoration applications.

Replacing static mapboard-based operations allows efficient operations through the consolidation of control centers, and greater flexibility in storm restoration activities.

The Fault Location application determines potential fault locations along the distribution circuits, allowing dispatchers to more effectively dispatch field crews to isolate the faulted portion of the distribution network. After the fault has been located, the Fault Isolation and Service Restoration application can be utilized to find switching plans that restore power to the largest number of customers, improving the overall distribution system reliability performance, and increasing customer satisfaction.

According to Ethan Boardman, AREVA Product Manager for DMS, the Florida Power and Light project has established a higher standard for distribution network management systems. Said Boardman, “In terms of scale, performance, and functionality it is the most aggressive distribution management system to be implemented and operational anywhere in the world. The Integrated Distribution Management System offering is being rapidly emulated by all of the competition.”