GridWise Architecture Council announces awards

SANTA CLARA, Calif.,—Three individuals and two organizations have been honored by the GridWise Architecture Council for their achievements in advancing interoperability in the smart electric power system of the future.

Recipients of the 2008 GridWise Applied Awards are Suedeen Kelly, Commissioner, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Terry Mohn, technology strategist for Sempra Energy; and Peter Kelly-Detwiler, sustainability vice president, Constellation NewEnergy; the power integration firm Factory IQ; and the University of New Mexico.

“The two organizational awards demonstrate that facility owners and energy users are now willing to make investments to create value from interoperability applied to products, processes and facilities,” GWAC chairman Jack Mc Gowan said. “It is a particular honor to be able to recognize three individuals of such a high caliber, who have also invested personal time and energy into moving the GridWise vision forward.”

The awards of recognition and appreciation were presented during Connectivity Week in Santa Clara, Calif. “Nowhere is the progress that has been made toward the GridWise vision for Interoperability more evident than in the breadth of individuals and organizations that were eligible for GridWise Applied Awards,” Mc Gowan said.

Commissioner Kelly was recognized for taking leadership in pursuing policy that demonstrates the principles of the GridWise Vision. Kelly emphasizes the coordination needed between federal and state roles in the matter of Smart Grid. She co-chairs the Smart Grid Collaborative of FERC and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions with New Jersey Commissioner Fred Butler. Kelly also is working with the other FERC commissioners to staff and support the cross-disciplinary energy innovation sector in FERC to focus on demand response and other emerging smart grid issues. The GWAC commended Kelly for “her sensitivity to interoperability issues and desire to clarify a regulatory role that addresses these concerns.”

Mohn specializes in technology advancements in several areas: home automation, utility communication systems, power delivery automation systems, advanced metering infrastructure, sensors and devices and demand-side management. Mohn also represents Sempra Energy in the major industry consortia for GridWise: GridWise Alliance, EPRI, Intelligrid, universities, demand response initiatives, and UtilityAMI. He has been actively involved in GridWise-related activities since 2002. In his role as vice chair of the GridWise Alliance, Mohn is a highly visible champion for the concepts represented in the GWAC’s constitutional principles, and he helps promote the GridWise vision as a frequent speaker at conferences focused on communications, utility IT systems and sensors.

The GWAC honored Kelly-Detwiler for his “strategic vision and leadership.” Kelly-Detwiler and his Constellation NewEnergy team are developing software to position customers to participate in real-time pricing markets with the long term capability to build smart interoperable systems. Under Kelly-Detwiler's guidance, the team also is driving the development of potentially thousands of megawatts of electricity load response across North America and overseeing the integration of efficiency technologies and applications to help business customers better manage their total energy bills and create optimal energy solutions.

Factory IQ is an industry process control group that integrates industrial energy resources with electric power system needs. For example, a Factory IQ project with Portland General Electric integrates distributed generation into the grid for peak-shaving. The project demonstrates the complexity of aggregating geographically-distributed standby generators and renewables into a coherent dispatching and control system. The project integrates many different products from different vendors and highlights the need to improved interoperability and applying the principles espoused by the GWAC.

University of New Mexico’s ’s GridWise demonstration is integrating the UNM campus electric supply and demand resources with the area power system. This includes managing building thermal storage and energy efficient designs such as harvesting daylight for efficient uses in their new architecture building. UNM is applying interoperability principles, including distributed control approaches in the project. This work is simplifying the integration and optimal operation of the campus’s demand and generation resources.

The GWAC consists of practitioners and leaders with broad-based knowledge and expertise in power, information technology, telecommunications, financial systems and other fields who are working together toward a coordinated GridWise vision—the transformation of the nation's energy system into a rich, collaborative network filled with decision-making information exchange and market-based opportunities.

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