Utilities don’t like wind not because it’s not competitive, but because it brings prices down for their existing assets, thus lowering their revenues and their profits. Thus the permanent propaganda campaign against wind.  The reality is that wind power brings prices down for consumers.

by Jérôme Guillet

Bloomberg has a somewhat confusing article about the newest complaint about wind power, but the gist of it is that wind power is an issue for the industry because it brings their revenues down:

operators in Europe may have become their own worst enemy, reducing the total price paid for electricity in Germany, Europe’s biggest power market, by as much as 5 billion euros some years

Implicit in the article, and the headline (which focuses on lower revenues for RWE, a big German utility) is the worry that wind power will bring down the stock market value of the big utilities – which is what the readers of Bloomberg et al. care about.

But despite the generally negative tone of the article, it’s actually a useful one, because it brings out in the open a key bit of information: wind power actually brings electricity prices down!

windmills (…) operators in Europe may have become their own worst enemy, reducing the total price paid for electricity in Germany, Europe’s biggest power market, by as much as 5 billion euros some years

The wind-energy boom in Europe and parts of Texas has begun to reduce bills for consumers.

Spanish power prices fell an annual 26 percent in the first quarter because of the surge in supplies from wind and hydroelectric production.

This tidbit of information, which will hopefully begin to contradict the usual lies about the need for hefty subsidies for the wind sector, has been publicised by EWEA, the European Wind Energy Association in a report on the merit order effect (PDF). This is the name for what happens when you inject a lot of  capital-intensive, low-marginal-cost supply into a marginalist price-setting market mechanism with low short term demand elasticity – or, in simpler words: when you have more wind, there is less need to pay to burn more gas to provide the requisite additional power at a given moment.

I’ve long argued that this was one of the strongest arguments for wind (see my article on The cost of wind, the price of wind, the value of wind from last year), and I’ve pushed the EWEA people to use it more – so this study (which I was not involved in) is most welcome.

The key thing here is that we are beginning to unveil what I’ve labelled the dirty secret of wind: utilities don’t like wind not because it’s not competitive, but because it brings prices down for their existing assets, thus lowering their revenues and their profits. Thus the permanent propaganda campaign against wind. But now that this “secret” is out in the open, it’s hopefully going to make one of the traditional arguments against wind (the one about its supposed need subsidies) much more difficult to use… The argument remains true for solar, and to a lesser extent for offshore wind, but the utilities are going to complain much less about offshore wind given that they are investing so much capital in that sector right now. The reality is that wind power brings prices down for consumers, even taking into account the cost of feed-in tariffs or other regulatory support mechanisms, which means that these regulatory schemes are not subsidies, but rather smart corrections of market inefficiencies for the public good.

Ironically, wind provides “utility-like” returns to investors, ie low, stable single-digit returns, as befits a regulated strategic infrastructure activity required for the common good. Utilities and investors should love the sector; but they have been spoiled by market deregulation, which has allowed companies to seek higher returns by under-investing, building merchant gas-fired plants, going for M&A games, and playing on market price volatility and trading – in other words, by behaving as perfect clients for investment banks…

As I’ve noted many times, the energy sector is one of the best examples of how the financialization of the economy has brought results that are bad for everybody except the investment bankers and top management; it’s also, thankfully, one where reality can most objectively re-assert itself.

And the reality is that you get cheaper electricity with wind – and oh by the way, wind requires no imports of fast-depleting fuels from unstable countries, spews no carbon and provides lots more domestic jobs. And it’s a perfect investment for our pension needs – safe, low risk, stable, decent long term returns…

© 2010, jerome_guillet. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

As a time-limited $19.5 billion market opportunity, meter and communications suppliers with be working with utilities around the world on replacing typical home and business electric meters with Smart Meters. Be prepared for empowered decision making around your business’s energy usage and energy costs.

by Jeremy Gross, Green Economy Post

When was the last time your business upgraded the accounting software, the office’s lighting, or your marketing campaign? Recently, right? Well, how about the electric meter?

If your building is like most, the electric meter hasn’t been touched since its initial installation. The typical meter replacement cycle reaches a range of 15 to 20 years.  Well, get ready because a handful of environmental, economical, governmental, and technological trends will soon bring your electric meter into the 21^st century as a Smart Meter.

As a component of the Smart Grid [Smart Grid 101], Smart Meters and initiatives like Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) are integrating two-way communications with energy measurement. These new meters will help provide customers with detailed consumption breakdowns and communicate information back to the utility for monitoring and billing.  They will help match consumption with generation, and promise major energy savings by changing how and when we use electricity.  Along with the Smart Grid, businesses will be empowered with automation and pricing knowledge.  For example, with real-time knowledge of what it costs to keep summertime office temperature at a cool 72 degrees, I might raise it a few notches and open the windows if costs are reduced significantly.  (Or you might have more casual days and promote “cooler” clothing!) I would be able to immediately see the lower energy usage and cost in real-time.  Now that’s motivation to make educated decisions around energy usage which immediately impacts the triple bottom line.

According to a new report from Pike Research [Report Link], major utilities worldwide, incentivized by savings and interested governments, are working to replace over 45% of North American and European electric meters by 2015.  This represents a time-limited opportunity for meter and communications suppliers as a projected $19.5 billion of smart meters are deployed worldwide between 2010 and 2015.

Pike Research divides the Smart Meter market into two groups: basic meters and advanced meters.  Basic meters transmit energy usage data over two-way communications networks. Advanced meters include basic functionality in addition to capabilities like remote connect/disconnect and home area networking (HAN).

Advanced metering will play an important role in enabling many new smart grid technologies and products.  As home area networking merges with these meters, Bob Gohn, Pike Research Senior Analyst, says that smart thermostats, energy information displays, smart appliances, and other key tools for energy management will become widely adopted.

The concept of home area networking can also apply to businesses. For example, in the future you may use a cell phone or computer to connect remotely to the office’s digital appliances and devices.  You may manage your security system, control heating, cooling and lighting, and other energy users.

Additional Facts and Figures

Here are some Smart Meter projections according to Pike Research’s report:

• The worldwide smart meter market will experience an aggressive 19% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) through 2015.
• Total smart meter shipments will reach 39.5 million units by 2015, representing a $3.9 billion global market.
• More than 250 million smart meters will be installed worldwide by 2015, representing a penetration rate of 18% of all electrical meters by that time, up from 46 million in 2008.
• North America will become the leading market in 2010, reaching 55% penetration of all electric meters by 2015, passing over Europe, the current leader in smart meter adoption.
• HAN capabilities will be included in 49% of all smart meters shipped worldwide by 2013, and the North American HAN-enabled meter penetration rate will be even higher at 81% by the same year.

How Will Your Business Benefit?

Your business will be able to:

• Monitor, track, and adjust real-time energy usage
• Get more accurate billing and create better forecasts
• Identify energy hogs and adjust consumption to lower bills
• Reduce the carbon footprint of your business – a trend which is sure to be impacting everyone as government regulations are implemented
• With real-time pricing, you may choose to run certain business processes based on off-peak pricing
• Depending on the business type, you may even benefit from shifting working hours based on energy prices (perhaps in manufacturing?)

Additional Resources

Smart Meter – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_meter

Smart Meter News and Information – http://www.smartmeters.com/

Google Map of Smart Metering Programs around the World. Maintained by Smart Metering Project Team at the Energy Retail Association in the UK.

Will your business’s electric meter be getting an upgrade? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

© 2010, Jeremy Gross. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The first comprehensive update to Unites States wind potential estimates in 17 years helps renewable energy proponents by providing solid data for development and legislation.  However, the wind power industry is seeking an improved electrical grid in order to transport and sell wind-generated energy.

by Konstantin Gorshkov, Green Economy Post

New wind resource maps and wind potential tables for the lower 48 states were recently released by AWS Truewind in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).  This new data marks the first state-by-state comprehensive update of wind energy potential since 1993.  Accurate information about the wind resources available in each state will help keep the momentum in wind energy development going strong in 2010.  If state and federal policies need valid evidence of wind potential to promote this clean energy source, then that data has arrived.

We know that wind power is an inexhaustible source of energy that can play a large part in creating a sustainable future, but there are real-life factors that keep this resource grounded.  Transmission and storage of the generated energy requires a modern power infrastructure that is expensive and controversial.  Additionally, developers need a stable policy environment if they are expected to commit to long-term projects with tremendous up-front costs.  But no wind-power skeptic can spend a few days in Texas and claim that wind is not a viable solution to our future energy woes — just check the new map.

At the 80-meter height, the estimated wind energy potential of available development sites yield 10,459GW (gigawatts) of installed capacity. The new estimates are available on the AWS Truewind website and the NREL website. The current installed wind capacity in the US is 35GW and 158GW world-wide.  In 2009, the U.S. wind industry added about 10GW of new capacity, enough to power the equivalent of 2.4 million homes.

The maps and estimates were created with a weather modeling system and then refined with measurements from wind monitoring stations.  The NREL has already conducted a preliminary review and validation of the AWS Truewind’s 80 meter map estimates for 19 selected states across the US using wind monitoring station measurements at heights of about 50 meters and above from more than 300 locations.  The estimates show the windy land area with a gross capacity factor (without losses) of 30% and greater.  Capacity factor compares a turbine’s actual production over a given period of time with the amount of power the plant would have produced if it had run at full capacity, or at full sail, for the same amount of time.

An important consideration for wind energy is its dependency on variable but predictable weather patterns.  For example, average US wind speeds in 2009 were up to 10% lower than their long-term averages in key locations, and they were slightly higher in others.  This significant difference was caused by the El Niño climate fluctuation.  3Tier, a renewable energy mapping and data solutions company, provides a visualization of these fluctuations.  But wind is not the only renewable that is affected by weather patterns:  Solar and hydroelectric power resources are in the same boat.

Large-scale wind power projects need more than just good data on placement locations.  They need a way to tie into the grid and sell that clean wind energy to big urban markets.  Currently, this is a significant factor affecting the viability of many wind power projects.  A speedy transition to a clean energy economy needs a Renewable Energy Transmission Highway, and this is one of the legislative priorities of the American Wind Energy Association.  While an improved transmission grid might conjure up images of even more ghastly metal towers criss-crossing the US, there is a better alternative. Underground super-cooled transmission lines can efficiently transmit electricity when they are refrigerated, and the cost per mile is comparable to the standard above-ground transmission cables.  However, this technology requires substations about every mile in order to keep the coolant cold, so it is best for shorter distances.  Another technology instead uses direct current (DC) for a high-temperature underground superconducting transmission system.  The Electric Power Research Institute recently released a report that indicates the high-temperature superconducting lines are a practical and efficient way to improve electric grids.

The large-scale concept of renewable energy calls for an interconnected, national renewable energy infrastructure so that wind, solar, and hydro developers and utilities can plug in.  Others see long-distance transmission as expensive and unnecessary and promote local power generation and storage solutions.  The local-power proponents point out that utility companies are lobbying for new transmission lines because they want to sell power regardless of its source.  The actual solution that will emerge over the next decade is likely going to be a combination of local and imported power.  The utilities themselves foresee a future “hybrid” model of power generation by 2050 that includes both centralized and distributed models.  This will create a reliable, efficient, and well-balanced national grid so that the electrons will flow come rain or shine.  Some areas of the United States are ideal for wind, while others barely squeeze by that minimum 30% gross capacity factor.  For some cities, local power generation simply won’t cut it if there is any chance of weaning the united states off of coal power plants.

Accurate wind and solar power estimates are essential in order to create a big-picture plan for a renewable energy future that makes sense for all of the public and private sector players involved.  These estimates will help to provide accurate weather models so that utilities can keep a steady supply of electricity running through the grid to efficiently address demand.  Since the data is public, it can be integrated with GIS (Geographic Information System) databases so that planners and developers can take wind power into account.  This will lead to more small-scale wind generation on residential and commercial properties.  The data can also be used to design more energy efficient buildings by taking wind speed and direction into account.

Even though the technologies to create a renewable energy infrastructure are present, there are persistent issues with regard to residential area proximity and environmental concerns.  Exact wind turbine placement and transmission line placement is a hurdle that is typically characterized with the term NIMBY, meaning Not In My BackYard.  There are also concerns with the effect of turbines on bird and bat populations.  However, we have been living with power lines above our sidewalks and below our feet for a century.  In the same fashion, wind-harvesting towers will soon become an accepted urban and rural sight.

© 2010, Konstantin Gorshkov. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The recent announcement of billions of dollars of federal funding for smart grid demonstration projects is of particular interest to people who have been involved in thinking about how modernizing the electric grid can bring new benefits to consumers.   Many projects awarded have a dynamic pricing option that gives customers access to an electric rate that varies across each day, and provides incentives to manage peak electric demand; and some projects feature a real-time pricing model based on the wholesale electricity market prices.   For these projects to truly benefit consumers, it is essential to think about dynamic pricing from the consumer’s point of view.

by Anthony Star, Director of Policy and Evaluation, CNT Energy

The recent announcement of billions of dollars of federal funding for smart grid demonstration projects is exciting news for everyone, and of particular interest to those of us who have been involved in thinking about how modernizing the electric grid can bring new benefits to consumers.

In reviewing the descriptions of projects that have been funded, many include a dynamic pricing option that gives customers access to an electric rate that varies across each day and provides incentives to manage peak electric demand. Some projects even include a real-time pricing model based on the wholesale electricity market prices.

At CNT Energy, we have spent over seven years learning how residential customers respond to and perform on real-time pricing.   Our results have been extremely encouraging. Participants save money and reduce both peak electric demand (which stresses the electric grid) and total consumption. What’s more, they really like it. We are still learning about the most effective ways to persuade customers to leave the traditional flat electric rate that residential customers and generations past have had for the past one hundred years and enable them to become smart managers of their energy use. But, it is clear to us that once they do, everyone benefits.

However, there are several reasons that I am nervous about this large increase in the availability of dynamic pricing. One of our key findings has been that it is essential to think about dynamic pricing from the consumer’s point of view. That means several things.

First, the core design of any new dynamic rate structure must have value for consumers. This means that while we are interested in getting customers to reduce energy use during the few peak price times, it is only worthwhile to the customer if their peak time costs are more than offset by low electricity prices at many other times. If you let basic laws of supply and demand in the electric markets work then this will be the case. However, utility rate-making often finds ways to nickel and dime customers to the point where they end up on a rate that charges high prices but not low ones. But this isn’t inevitable. Consumer advocates and regulatory agencies need to work with utilities to develop new dynamic pricing options that provide real value to consumers, not just price shocks.

Second, the rate has to be friendly. Traditionally, utilities are not very good at marketing new services to customers. Just compare your utility bill or other information that you receive from them to what you get from a more dynamic one like the cellular industry. “Friends and Family” and “Nights and Weekends” phone plans are a lot easier to understand than a long complicated tariff sheet that includes references to critical peak periods, demand charges and lots of terms, conditions and disclaimers. Utilities tend to think that these types of rate sheets are what they should provide to customers, but they tend to be nearly impossible for customers to understand and riddled with terms that sound intimidating or just plain scary. We don’t need to hide the details, but we need to articulate what we are doing in ways that people can understand. Again, this sort of confusion isn’t inevitable, but we need to build a new type of relationship between utilities and consumers. This has to involve utilities learning a whole new way to talk to – and listen to –their customers.

Third, there will be ups and downs. In our work with real-time pricing in Illinois, we’ve had far more ups than downs. We have had short periods when energy prices were high and customers had higher bills, but we’ve had many more times when they saved money because of they had access to lower prices. Giving customers smart meters and new rates will change their monthly bills. If introduced correctly and paired with the right high-quality education and information tools, customers will make the adjustment. If done wrong, customers won’t understand the changes and will be angry about having to pay for new technologies that they don’t see benefiting them. Regulators and others will have to be diligent that the introduction of smart meters and new rates is well managed and that any transitional hiccups are not overblown. Over the long term, getting this right is essential for introducing new energy efficiency options and integrating plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into the grid and energy markets. We don’t want to squander that opportunity.

As utilities around the United States speed up the introduction of dynamic pricing for consumers, both through investments made with the funding announced yesterday, and through other initiatives, we have an enormous opportunity to transform how households understand and mange their energy use. Our experience in Illinois can clearly suggest one way to do this. We worked hard to involve all points of view, gaining the support of consumer advocates and environmentalists and as well as the utilities and regulators. And we worked hard to develop dynamic pricing programs which benefit the customer. When we hear stories from participants, like the lady who came home to find her kids watching TV in the dark, having turned off the lights because they saw electricity prices were a bit high, we know that we are heading in the right direction. The next generation is learning how to be smarter about how they manage their energy use.

This post originally appeared on It’s Your Smart Grid

© 2009 – 2010, anthony_star. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Guest Post, by Alan Petrillo, Writer, Editor of KLD Research & Analytics, Inc.

This week, in a statement cited at Green Inc., Nike said that it “fundamentally disagrees” with the US Chamber of Commerce’s position on climate policy. The shoe giant joins three major utilities in opposing the Chamber’s recent lobbying efforts, which include a call for a “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century” regarding man-made climate change.

Why are some corporations so eager “to boost their green credentials,” in the words of Ann Fifield of the Financial Times? Perhaps these firms would rather defy their peers than alienate their customers – or their Senators.

“Social movements shape political power,” David Vidal told me last week. Mr. Vidal is Global Corporate Citizenship Research Director at The Conference Board, an independent organization working in the public interest to help businesses strengthen their performance and better serve society. He is also a member of the Newsweek Green Rankings advisory panel. He said his perspective is drawn from personal and professional experience, since the Board takes no official positions on legislation.

Mr. Vidal believes that concerned citizens, supported by empirical tools like the Green Rankings, can move even the most entrenched corporate and political interests.

Will “Coal States” Always Vote for Coal Senators?

While utilities such as PG&E and Exelon have broken with the Chamber of Commerce, others, including American Electric Power (AEP), have not. In my conversation with Mr. Vidal, I relayed a statement made by the head of AEP at a KLD forum last winter. I had found it interesting that CEO Mike Morris, in explaining why coal would continue to power the US economy, justified his position in political terms.

“We have 25 ‘coal states’,” Mr. Morris said. “That’s 50 Senators whose states depend on this [coal-friendly] economy.”

Mr. Vidal took issue with this calculus:

“The coal industry, and the wealth it represents, doesn’t hold those Senators as tightly as it thinks.

“Think of it this way: Before the Civil War, slaves were the single biggest ‘asset class’ in the American economy. History shows us that the power of wealth, of ownership, can be trumped by the power of social and political change.

“Coal is a big part of the economy, but do the coal interests really hold the constituents of ‘coal state’ Senators? Public views on the environment, and the urgency of environmental issues, have changed fast. Younger voters have been recycling since kindergarten. They’ve been hearing about climate change for almost as long. Coal has a negative connotation for many people, even in ‘coal states’ – think of the Tennessee ash spill last year.

“Will the public continue to vote for Senators who just do what a few companies expect them to do?”

Green Rankings give “Ethical Context”

The Green Rankings, in Mr. Vidal’s view, can amplify the voices of citizens and companies that take a longer view of sustainability. He believes that the financial markets have failed to do this:

“Let’s stop fooling ourselves. There is no financial incentive, in the current capital markets, for firms to act for systemic benefit – even if it’s in their own self-interest. The financial markets have given us the results of this short-term thinking, in the form of the worst economic crisis since the Depression.

“What the Rankings measure are the costs to the community, to society, of a company’s operations. This is not morally neutral. The Rankings are creating an ethical context in which to judge a company.”

New Language for a New Corporate Culture

The Conference Board, through its engagement with executives and directors, seeks similar goals at the corporate level.

“There is an existing culture of governance, and there is a sustainability culture emerging. These two cultures are seeking common language, but they don’t have it yet.

“For the Green Rankings project, we worked to develop terminology that businesses, consumers and policymakers can all use. The bridges between these groups are being reimagined and rebuilt. The language of engaged citizens, investors and managers can supplant financial language as the sole means of describing a corporation’s worth.”

As noted in a previous KLD Blog post, the Green Rankings encompass qualitative evaluations of corporate culture and reputation. Mr. Vidal sees a company’s cultural shift – as we may be seeing at Nike, PG&E, and other firms – as an important measure of success.

“Culture is what you do in the absence of specific external requirements,” he said. “You can’t measure culture the way you measure carbon emissions, but so what? To rely just on quantitative metrics is to miss the point. As consumers and citizens, we need to ask: Does this company empower smart people to go above and beyond what’s expected?

“We aim to shift the center of reference beyond what can be easily quantified. We need a broader measure of what each company demands from the environment, and from the community. These costs may not show up on the bottom line, so we have to find a way to expense them for society.”

***

For more on the Chamber of Commerce dispute, see this article by Pete Altman at the National Resource Defense Council. NRDC research finds that “only 23 members of the U.S. Chamber’s board have a publicly stated position on climate change and more than 80 percent [19 members] are not on board” with the Chamber’s official position.

Of the other 4 Chamber board members, 3 are coal companies. (Thanks to Scott Stapf for sharing the NRDC story with the Social Investment Forum listserv.)

Alan Petrillo is a Writer/Editor with KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. a social research company for institutional investors. Alan supports KLD’s marketing and communications efforts. He works with Client Services and the Research staff to explain and promote KLD’s work to both the SRI community and the general public.  Prior to joining KLD, Alan was a communications and editorial consultant for corporate, academic and public policy clients. He has written on politics and community development issues for outlets including the Providence Journal and Boston-area weeklies that are now part of the GateHouse Media group.   Alan earned an MS in Political Science from Suffolk University and a BFA in Industrial Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

© 2009, KLD_Blog. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

Marie Hattar, vice president of marketing in Cisco’s Network Systems Solutions group in an interview with LaMonica of CNet stated “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.”

This is quite a large helping of hyperbole, possibly the product of an unguarded moment of enthusiasm, but it makes a good headline. Kidding aside the Smart Grid is going to be big business for technology companies. In the same interview Hattar said that Cisco believes that just the communications portion of the Smart Grid represents a $100 billion opportunity — “$20 billion a year over the next five years.” Note that this figure is focused only on the communications portion of the projected business for the Smart Grid over the next five years and does not include all the other large capital outlays for physical power grid projects and other capital equipment such as new high voltage transmission lines and so forth.

Although certainly a large figure this is not an unreasonable one considering how much work needs to be done to upgrade the national grid and how slowly utilities and power companies have moved to upgrade their power grids, communications and data networks. In fact, the business culture that prevails in utility and power companies is generally quite conservative wedded as it is to very large and very long term capital and business cycles, unlike the fast and furious pace that is common in the technology sector. However these very large companies are increasingly recognizing that they need to make the large capital outlays to upgrade their increasingly outdated and antiquated grids in order to increase reliability, efficiency and the ability to handle the variable power supplies from renewable sources such as wind and solar.

The Keystone of the Smart Grid is Real-Time Information and Making Good Use of It

Providing real-time information and the data processing, data mining and decision making software to consume that stream of raw data is perhaps the single most important aspect of the emerging Smart Grid. This parallel information network that is being built on top of the existing energy distribution network is what will enable nascent technologies such as smart appliances, home energy management systems and grid wide.

Big established technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Google, Cisco Systems and Intel are moving into this space and competing with the up and coming startups such as Silver Spring and others that previously had the playing field left mostly to themselves. All of these players have their eyes on getting a slice of the market for end-to-end communications networking, data gathering, mining and decision making that is needed by the Smart Grid.

The deals are starting to happen and they are starting to become bigger in size. For example Cisco and Duke Energy recently announced a one billion dollar deal in which Cisco will help Duke Energy build out its Smart Grid infrastructure helping to enable it to handle the massive and highly networked environment that is being created by the rollout of millions of smart meters to its customers and the networking of Smart Appliances that is expected to soon follow.

© 2009, Chris de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

To support our client’s needs, we seek individuals with expertise in the understanding of SmartGrid technologies, as well as implementation and policy issues. In this role you will build and manage a group of engineers, economists and other professionals to support utility and government clients that seek to evaluate and install SmartGrid technologies. You will work directly with internal ICF staff, our customers and partners for the purpose of providing advanced business solutions that address the SmartGrid challenges of the utility industry.

ICF International (NASDAQ: ICFI) partners with government and commercial clients to deliver consulting services and technology solutions in the energy, climate change, environment, transportation, social programs, health, defense, and emergency management markets. The firm combines passion for its work with industry expertise and innovative analytics to produce compelling results throughout the entire program life cycle, from analysis and design through implementation and improvement. Since 1969, ICF has been serving government at all levels, major corporations, and multilateral institutions. More than 3,500 employees serve these clients worldwide.

ICF’s Energy, Climate & Transportation Practice offers results and solutions to a broad range of clients in the energy industry in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. We have developed one of the most respected and experienced Energy Industry practices in consulting, and have provided key energy market analytical support to US DOE, FERC, and EPA, most major independent power producers, utilities, and many cooperatives and municipal utilities in the country.

ICF is a leader in integrated market analysis and modeling, transmission analysis, regulatory support and strategy in the areas of North American electric power, natural gas, and air emissions markets. Our proprietary and licensed models and databases examine every electric power generation facility, transmission facilities, industrial boiler facilities, and all oil and gas reservoirs in North America. ICF International offers an excellent benefits package, an award winning talent development program and fosters a highly skilled, energized and empowered diverse workforce.

Responsibilities
- A team leader that can develop new business, and provide subject matter expertise to clients
- Testify in client rate cases and educate regulators
- Design and develop integration SmartGrid solutions
- Understand both information technology and electrical power systems.
- Strong understanding of IT systems integration within a large enterprise

Qualifications

BS, Electrical Engineering or Computer Science or equivalent degree required
- 10+ years technical professional experience
- Ability to work independently and manage priorities through the project life cycle – understanding the project life cycle and executing the proper steps in the life cycle

Desired Qualifications:
- Knowledge of SmartGrid products and services
- General experience in the development of strategies for the implementation of advanced power system electronics, communications capabilities, advanced control and modeling systems, and real-time instrumentation
- Experience with cyber security issues and secure communication strategies and techniques
- Ability to identify challenges and approaches of interoperability and product integration on a system-wide scale
- Knowledge of renewable energy integration and demand response technologies
- Knowledge in technical standards and concepts related to SmartGrid technology
- Experience with electric utility System Operations and Planning and Distribution Management Systems
- Experience in electrical systems and power electronics (e.g. VARs, MPPT)
- Understanding of distributed network communication system management and techniques
- Knowledge of network design and implementation practices ( hardware and software)
- Experience in managing a broad range of innovative strategic and business solution offering to the energy industry

To apply, go to the ICF Online Job Center

© 2009, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.