GE ENErGy - Frank Farnel

STAKES
Managing the
wind in Hawaii
GE is working with the Maui Electric Company
(MECO) to utilize distributed energy
resources to help manage grid operations
on the island of Maui. GE’s Smart Grid management
tools will include advanced communications,
automation and control technologies
and possibly an energy-storage
system. The management system will control
and dispatch several types of powersystem
equipment, customer loads and
energy storage to compensate for sudden
changes in wind power and circuit loads.
“Hawaii has phenomenal wind- and solarenergy
potential, so incorporating higher
percentages of renewable power makes
perfect sense,” says bob Gilligan, vice President,
Transmission and distribution at GE
Energy. “GE Energy’s Smart Grid technologies
will help MECO reliably manage and
integrate these renewable-energy sources,
while increasing the grid’s energy productivity
and efficiency.”
Light in the dark
GE has completed the installation of Smart
Grid technologies to help Colorado Springs
Utilities (CSU) overcome the two major challenges
of power interruptions: restoration
and customer communications. The newly
installed GE PowerOn outage-management
system helps CSU respond more quickly to
power outages while providing consumers
with updated restoration-time estimates
when outages do occur.
The system improves customer service by
providing network analysis tools to identify
outage locations on the electrical network
and efficiently dispatch crews, speeding the
repair process. PowerOn also provides restoration-time
estimates for consumers who
call in, keeping them updated until restoration
is complete.
by leveraging GE’s Smart Grid tools, CSU
can significantly reduce the overall impact
of service interruptions.
Clever solution
for the East
Coast
GE smart meters will be the backbone of
the Energy Smart Miami project, potentially
the most extensive and holistic Smart Grid
implementation in the USA. GE Energy is also
providing smart meters for another Smart
Grid project in delaware.
“Smart meters are the consumer touchpoint
of the Smart Grid, giving people real
choice in how they spend — and save —
their energy dollars,” says bob Gilligan. “As
government officials move to a new level of
energy awareness, it is only fitting that one
of America’s original energy companies is
part of the solution.”
10 l CONNEXION GE Energy EPC Associates Magazine