Cisco chases billion-dollar smart grid dreams  

Smart grids continue to be the main area of focus for cleantech lately - Cleantech.com has a report on Cisco's entry into the market - Cisco chases billion-dollar smart grid dreams.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) today announced what some in the industry might have already suspected: The company is seeking to sell its intelligent networking infrastructure into the smart grid.

The directive was secretly announced as an internal company priority for 2009, and again in recent weeks as the company made plans for 2010, said Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior director of network systems at Cisco, in an interview with the Cleantech Group.

But today’s public launch of a cleantech strategy aims to repackage and combine Cisco’s existing technologies to create an intelligent IT infrastructure embedded with sensors and security to serve the forthcoming wave of smart grid adoption around the globe.

The U.S. electric grid loses roughly 7 percent of energy production through faulty transmission lines, theft and mechanical problems. Government investment in the sector has typically not aimed to solve those problems, Lasser-Raab said.

“The grid has only changed to support increased demand; it hasn’t changed structurally,” Lasser-Raab said. “It’s a major industry effort in the initial planning stages.”

The industry has lobbied for the creation of standards for electric grids that would distribute and track energy flow using an Internet-based system capable of supporting a variety of applications developed by private companies (see IBM rides third wave of cleantech).

Cisco estimates the field at approximately $20 billion annually over the next five years, $1 billion of which Cisco thinks it can harness.

Cisco envisions its role as designing the intelligent network infrastructure, as well as bringing in other vendors to plug in components to report and analyze data from the grid. That includes working with systems integrators and companies that sell solutions such as smart meters.

Progress towards building a smart power grid took a leap forward this week with the release of grid interoperability standards and increases to grant awards to achieve this "urgent national priority."

As support from the Obama administration continues alongside growing demands for enhanced energy stability and reduced emissions, companies like Cisco are rushing to develop smart grid communications technology.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the 16 smart grid standards after serving as chairmen at an energy industry meeting, a gathering that was intended to foster standards adoption by key players. Together they emphasized the urgency of advancing the electric power grid, and echoed the industry need for open source that have been previously voiced by groups like the ZigBee Alliance.

"We took a significant step toward developing the open and transparent interoperability standards necessary to realize the Smart Grid vision," said Secretary Locke. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which has been working on smart grid standards since 2007 under the Energy Independence and Security Act, recognized the initial 16 standards, which will allow for compatibility between numerous competing technologies.

The two Secretaries announced that the Department if Energy would be increasing the smart grid program awards under the Recovery Act, raising the maximum Smart Grid Investment Grant Program award from $20 to $200 million and Smart Grid Demonstration Project awards from $40 to $100 million. In addition, $10 million in stimulus funds will be provided to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to support standards development.