Greenpeace – Greener Electronics Guide, version 16

The headline comment from the latest edition of the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics is the widening gap between companies that make good on environmental promises and those that don’t. Greenpeace points out that while some of the top electronics manufacturers are failing to keep their environmental commitments, others are innovating and making significant gains in phasing out toxic chemicals, increasing energy efficiency and making it easier for consumers to recycle old products.

Greenpeace deducts points for promises not kept and there are currently six companies affected; Dell, LG Electronics, Samsung, Toshiba, Microsoft and Lenovo. Most have one point deducted, but Toshiba has two -the first imposed for apparently backtracking on its commitment to bring to market new models of all its consumer electronics products free of PVC vinyl plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by 1 April 2010, the second for not admitting that it would not meet its public commitment until the timeline for that commitment had passed.

The first three places in the overall rankings are the same as for version 15, six months ago, with Nokia (7.5 out of 10) and Sony Ericsson (6.9) well ahead of the field and Philips (5.5) in third place. HP has moved up one place into 4th with a similar score.

Samsung is the biggest riser, though, up from 14th to 5th, with a score of 5.3, thanks to having a penalty point removed, although it still has one in place for backtracking on its commitment to eliminate brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in new models of all products by January 2010 and PVC vinyl plastic by end of 2010.

Lenovo gained three places due to significant progress in Greenpeace’s energy criteria, which include support for GHG limits as well as setting its own emissions reduction targets.

The main fallers are Apple – down four places to 9th. The company seems to be doing well on the product side, but not so well on its public position on some environmental issues, something we’ve commented on in the past. And Motorola is down three places to 6th – it had the same score as last time, but has been overtaken in the rankings by other companies.

The Open Data Centre Alliance is launched – a promise of effective data centre power management

A new body has been launched today called the The Open Data Center Alliance. With data centres becoming the focus for IT, particularly as we move into the cloud, the objective of the organisation is to define usage models that will help IT users choose open, interoperable, industry-standard solutions in their data centres.

It’s been set up by a Steering Group of 10 global enterprises with significant IT operations; BMW, China Life Insurance Company Ltd., Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Inc., National Australia Bank, Shell Global Solutions, Inc., Terremark and UBS. There are already 70+ other companies that are members and more are invited.

The Alliance has already given a preview of  its Usage Model Roadmap which will address the IT challenges and cloud infrastructure needs into the future. The usage models will become the foundation for Alliance members in their planning of future data centre deployments.

The alliance is vendor agnostic (although Intel will act as a technical advisor). It’s aimed to help users, but ICT companies can be members. Those already signed up include Atos Origin, Logica, AT&T, Nokia and others, but the major IT infrastructure and data centre players are noticeable by their absence.

 

An interesting development. This does seem to be a fight back by major users - the 10 Steering Committee member companies have $50 billion of technology spend annually. It reflects the fact that with IT increasingly moving to the data centres, particularly as the result of cloud computing, computer resources are becoming a utility, and that won’t work unless all the parts can work together effectively. At the moment companies are obliged to use multiple suppliers for computers, software and networking equipment which all have to be integrated and managed.

One significant aspect of the current mess, and one which the alliance is focusing on, is saving energy in the data centre. There are a number of incompatible and proprietary approaches out there (and companies are springing up all the time with new ideas) but it can only really be effective if there is a greater integration and co-ordination, for instance between the IT and cooling equipment. The ability to have this integrated, top-to-bottom approach to data centre resource and power management – a real utility delivery - is the holy grail.

I shall watch the progress of the Alliance with interest.

SAP and Siemens agree on electric car collaboration

 

SAP and Siemens IT Solutions and Services have agreed to work together on an eCar proof of concept. The aim is to demonstrate the cross-industry collaboration that’s going to be needed to support the widespread use of electric vehicles.

This seems to be all about how electric car users will be charged for their power use when they use various vehicle charging stations supplied by different providers. Siemens Energy will provide an actual charging station as well as a network operating centre to enable communication between the station and various back-end systems, while SAP will handle some of the back-end integration through its SAP for Utilities solutions.

The companies are working on specific types of use starting with demonstrating the end-to-end process of measuring energy consumption and generating an invoice of an eCar charging at the ‘home’ utility. It will also cater for the instance where a ‘guest’ utility is involved, for example, when a person could pay for electricity costs incurred during cross-country commutes through their home electricity bill. Additional charging and billing scenarios will be tried out once the initial test are complete.

 

It sounds quite interesting and gives an insight into the complexities of an electric car world (and this is just scratching the surface). To be honest, though, I wouldn’t have understood what was going on here if they hadn’t given the examples. (See what you think).

This is new technology, guys, for a new world. If you want us to know and appreciate what you’re doing then please get someone to tell us in the sort of English that we can understand. (And that’s from someone who’s been trying to making sense of IT-speak for 25 years).

Over and out.

Sony’s Open Planet Ideas enters the concept phase

  

Back in September I reported on Open Planet Ideas, launched by Sony Europe and supported by WWF as an online community incubator for collaborative technology solutions to critical environmental issues. The idea is to identify issues and tackle them through the innovative use of Sony technology.

The first stage was to get suggestions of issues that people care about, that inspires them to action or involves the smart use of technology.

Since the start of the process 335 ideas have been received and a panel of experts has grouped them into six themes (rather than just selecting one problem, as originally planned). The themes are:

• Changing behaviour - How can technology help to make a less resource-intensive lifestyle not just the 'right' choice, but the more desirable option too?

• Cleaner by design - How can technology help us design products, services and infrastructure with fever environmental impacts in their manufacture, use and disposal?

• More with less - How can technology help us use our natural resources more efficiently?

• Make it real - How can technology bridge the gap between our actions and their impacts?

• Waste not - How can technology turn waste into something more useful?

• Recycling revisited - How can technology help us get better at recycling?

The next stage is for online collaboration via the Open Planet site to share ideas on how to use Sony technology to meet the challenge. There are already 71 suggestions and the process will continue until the end of November.

The solutions will be evaluated by the expert panel and the community as a whole to select the most elegant, beneficial or viable. The results will be announced in January next year and the winner will be developed through to proof of concept or a working model.

 

As I said when it was launched, it may well generate some interesting ideas for green technology applications. The ideas should have been narrowed down more, though, to focus effort on practical solutions. The themes are very broad and invite broad responses - as it is many of the ‘concepts’ already suggested have been fitted into more than one of the themes. It’s in danger of becoming a green ideas forum rather than a green ICT application collaboration. See what you think.

Home Area Network market - $3.3bn for starters

One of the consequences of the installation and use of smart meters is that it opens up opportunities for a smart connected home. According to research from ON World, this energy-related Home Area Network (HAN) market will be worth $3.3bn globally by 2014.

There are a lot of companies looking at the possibilities in this market, built around a home energy hub that can control energy consuming devices and also potentially integrate with cloud/internet services.

ON World surveyed 600 early adopters in five continents to get some insight into consumer attitudes to green homes, energy products and services, smart meter control, home automation, real-time energy data and other topics. The headline findings from the survey show that:

• Almost 60% are interested in adopting new technologies for home energy management

• Over 80% would be willing to pay for energy management equipment if they could achieve 30% energy savings.

• Respondents are willing to spend up to $150 on home energy equipment, although there are differences between the US, UK and Australia.

In the US, utility HAN pilots are underway in nearly every state and advanced energy saving programs are being developed by the majority of utilities and energy retailers across the country. But the growth of the market depends on the development of HAN technologies and standards, as well as collaboration among utilities, regulators, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) vendors, device manufacturers and home energy service providers.

While the initial focus is energy management, developers are offering hybrid HAN products and services that go further, with services that incorporate other capabilities, such as home security and control systems. 

 

I quite believe the $3.3bn figure, but that’s during the time that smart grids are being built out. Once consumers really see the potential of smart meter, both in energy management and other capabilities, this market is going to get a lot bigger. Which is why so many companies are angling for a slice of the action.

ICT companies’ green performance

Last week Newsweek announced its US and global rankings of green companies, based on environmental impact, green policies and their green reputation.

In the ranking of the top 500 green companies in the US, ICT companies performed well with seven of the top ten companies. Dell, HP and IBM led the market, with Intel, Sprint Nextel, Adobe and Yahoo! not far behind. Accenture, AMD and Cisco only just miss a top ten place.

The picture is a little different in the global 100 list. IBM comes out on top with Deutsche Telekom and Toshiba the only other top-ten ranked players. Mobile phone companies Vodafone, NTT and Nokia are also prominent in the rankings. But it does seem that some of the US companies are confining their green efforts primarily to the US – Dell, Adobe and Yahoo! don’t appear in the global 100.

Coincidentally, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released its latest ranking of the top green power purchasers in the US, which was also led by an IT company. Intel leads the list with over 1.4 billion kWh of green electricity purchased in the last year, 50% of the company’s power usage. Dell was in fifth place with 431 million kWh of green energy purchased, accounting for 129% of its electricity needs, with Cisco the only other IT company in the top-ten at 7th place.

 

The Newsweek rankings are interesting because they show how much ICT companies are doing to be seen as green, although it’s regrettable that much of that focus seems to be in the US. It’s a global issue that needs to be addressed globally.

As for the EPA’s rankings of green power purchases, well the rankings are based on buying renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), on-site generation and purchasing green power products from utilities. It’s good for encouraging the development of renewable energy, but RECS tend to distort the market, effectively paying for the extra cost of renewable generation, rather than for the power itself. Hence Dell’s purchase of 129% of it’s needs. But then again, with green power in short supply there wouldn’t be enough to go round anyway.

Yorkshire – joining the UK's smart grid revolution?

We reported last month on the proposal by GE and Central Networks to turn Milton Keynes (UK) into a world-class, low-carbon city. It’s part of the companies’ efforts to secure a slice of UK regulator Ofgem’s £500m Low Carbon Networks Fund. Well now CE Electric UK, British Gas, Durham University and EA Technology have come up with their alternative for the North East and Yorkshire.

The plan is for around 14,000 homes and businesses to be involved in a £54m project to test the impact of new low carbon technologies. As well as installing smart meters in all the homes, 800 will also have solar PV panels installed, 150 equipped with electric cars and up to 1500 with either ground-source or air-source heat pumps. The project team plan to work with household names to test new technology on the electricity grid, such as GE (which is also part of the Milton Keynes consortium), Panasonic and Nissan, which has based manufacture of its all-electric family hatchback at its Sunderland plant.

The plans will focus primarily on the North East and Yorkshire, including major cities such as Durham, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield. CE Electric and its partners are looking for £28m from Ofgem and if they get it work would begin in early 2011 with the technology installed later that year.

 

Nothing against Milton Keynes, but it would be good to see more government investment going to the North East of England, particularly if it brings with it new technology and new business opportunities such as this.

But this announcement from another consortium is a reminder of how competitive it’s going to be to get into this smart grid business. There’s so much to win in the long-term, but also so much to commit in the endeavour.

The CRC becomes a carbon tax

Well buried in the spending review announced by the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday was a policy change that re-shapes the cap-and-trade CRC Energy Efficiency scheme.

The announcement was that the scheme will be ‘simplified to reduce the burden on businesses’, with the first allowance sales for 2011-12 emissions now taking place in 2012 rather than 2011. More importantly, revenues from allowance sales ‘will be used to support the public finances, including spending on the environment, rather than recycled to participants’.

The recycling of revenues was a key aspect of the legislation. The original plan was for the scheme to be revenue neutral, with the income paid back to the best performing companies, based on a published league table.

The allowance price has been set at £12/tCO2 during the first phase and the government has estimated the revenue based on a price rise to £16/tCO2 during the second phase, planned to begin in 2013-14. On that basis the income to the government from the scheme will be £715m in 2011-12, £730m in 2012-13, £995m in 2013-14 and £1,020m in 2014-2015.

The government does state, though, that ‘ … there are significant areas of uncertainty around the original forecast for CRC revenue’, which seems to be an acknowledgement of the lower number of participants than expected. Registration ended at the end of September and the chart shows registrations to date.

 

 

The initial expectations were that 20,000 companies would need to declare their power use and 5,000 would be full participants in the scheme. This was eventually lowered, towards the end of the registration period, to a target of 3,000 participants and this was expected to be achieved through those companies who were still registering at the time of the deadline.

However, none of these seem to have been scheme participants. In fact the number registered for the full scheme has actually fallen, from 2,781 at the end of the registration period, to 2,779 now, according to Environment Agency figures.  

 

By not recycling the revenue to participants, the government has effectively turned the scheme into a carbon tax, although based on the lower number of registrations, it seems likely that the scheme revenue will be a lot less than originally forecast before registration began. And there’s no indication as to how much of the revenue will be spent on environmental projects or what those projects will be. 

From the participants point of view there is at least certainty about carbon costs, which will make it easier to plan carbon reduction measures. It’s a shame that the best performers will not be financially rewarded, though – the league table (assuming it will still be published) is now all stick and no carrot.

The scheme has always represented a big opportunity for providers of carbon management solutions. But recent conversations suggest that many companies have simply been buying what’s required to manage CRC commitments, rather than the more ambitious solution that can monitor, manage and target carbon reduction. Unfortunately, this change to the scheme may confirm that trend. 

Oceanopolis – the Facebook game that encourages recycling

Greenopolis is a company that’s using technology and rewards to encourage recycling in the US. The company places its interactive recycling kiosks in retail centres where people can scan and deposit their plastic, aluminium and glass drinks containers. In return they get a receipt and can go online to choose how to spend their rewards.

The online aspect is an important part of the process as the company has created a community of bloggers and content around recycling.

Now Greenopolis is expanding this social media approach through an interactive game on Facebook. Oceanopolis (Not to be confused with the marine life centre of the same name in France) is a game that educates users on sustainable living. If you’re in the US then the points you earn in the game can be combined with Greenopolis recycling points to earn real rewards.


It’s an example of social media as a means to educate, inform and encourage – a not-to-be-ignored aspect of green ICT. It wouldn’t be nearly as effective any other way (given that there are 500 million Facebook users).

If your not in the US have a go anyway. At least it’s a reason for logging on to Facebook (if you need one).

Google signs power agreement

You might think the title implies a further bid by the search engine (and much more) company to take over the world, but this is about Google investing in the development of a backbone transmission project for offshore wind generation off the US Mid-Atlantic coast.

It’s called the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) backbone and will stretch for 350 miles along the coast from New Jersey to Virginia with the ability to connect 6,000MW of offshore wind turbines. The idea is to connect offshore power hubs that will collect the power from offshore wind farms and deliver it via sub-sea cables to the most suitable points on the land-based transmission system.

The backbone means that there will be no barriers to scaling up offshore wind production. The 6,000MW capacity is equivalent to 60% of the wind energy that was installed in the US last year and enough to serve approximately 1.9 million households.
 
Google is investing 37.5% of the equity in this initial development stage, with the goal of obtaining all the necessary approvals to finance and begin constructing the line. It’s a small but important part of overall costs. It’s not all altruistic, though, the investment promises a financial return as well as helping to accelerate offshore wind development.

It’s another in a long list of green investments and other actions by Google, which you have to admire. The ones I’ve noted in this blog in the last couple of years include:

• The company has invested $38.8m in two wind farms developed by NextEra Energy Resources.  Located in North Dakota, they generate 169.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 55,000 homes.

• As yet it’s only in the US, but as of March 2010 Google Maps has included biking directions and bike trail data.

• In the build-up to the Copenhagen climate conference a year ago the company launched a series of Google Earth layers and tours that allowed users to explore the potential impacts of climate change.

• Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, invested $10m in a technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). While the traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam and hot water, the EGS process takes it one step further by fracturing hot rock to replicate the natural conditions. By circulating water through the system the resulting steam can be used to produce electricity in a conventional turbine.

•  And my own favourite from 2008 - Google has had a patent approved in the US around the means to power floating data centres.

According to the patent the objective is to provide data centre and telecoms facilities quickly and flexibly, given the problems of getting access to power, data connections and cooling water, but it also has big implications in environmental and energy savings.

Shiply.com – the environmentally-friendly transport marketplace (and e-bay item deliverer) – expands further into Europe

Shiply.com, ‘the UK's leading online transport marketplace’ has expanded its business into four more European countries.

For those who don’t know (and I didn’t until recently) Shiply works by providing its customers with a cost effective way to move goods using vehicles already running on appropriate routes. Since couriers and transport firms often run vehicles empty on their way to a pick-up or from a delivery, the idea is to fill the empty vehicles, making the delivery firms more fuel efficient.

Shiply.com is the hub of the operation. Users simply list the item they want moving, and the 17,500 haulage and delivery companies linked to the site bid for the work in a reverse auction. Shiply boasts over 170,000 registered users.

The business, which was set up in 2008, launched its site in Germany towards the end of last year and following its success, has recently gone live in France, Italy, Spain and Holland.

Founder Robert Matthams; “When I initially researched the concept for the business – filling under-utilised vehicles – figures revealed that 25% of trucks were running empty and 50% part full. This horrified me. Not only from an environmental point of view but a business one too.

“Further research before the European launch highlighted the issue is one common to most countries. For hauliers and consumers it's a win-win. Haulier's fill their vehicles and generate additional income – hugely beneficial with a hike in fuel duty on it's way – and consumers make big cost savings without having the hassle of calling numerous companies to get the best deal. Shiply does all of that for them with minimal effort required.”

 

I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t aware of Shiply, but this is a great idea. It’s a wonderful demonstration of ICT as a low-carbon enabler – without a central, online IT system at the heart of the operation it just wouldn’t happen and emissions could not be saved. And what’s really clever is that the company has integrated it’s system with eBay – input the eBay item number and user ID and the system will import the item's pickup location post code, description and pictures.

IBM’s role in the Australian smart grid trial

A bit more detail on IBM’s role in the $100m Smart Grid, Smart City initiative led by the EnergyAustralia consortium.

As we reported back in June,  IBM Australia is part of the winning consortium, which also includes GE Energy Australia; AGL, Sydney Water, Hunter Water and Newcastle City Council. Apparently, under the agreement with EnergyAustralia, IBM will deliver distributed generation, smart metering and demand management solutions.

The project, due to last three years, will be Australia’s first commercial-scale smart grid, covering five sites in Sydney and the Hunter (Newcastle, Scone, Sydney CBD, Ku-ring-gai and Newington). Residents will have access to real-time information on electricity usage, even down to the appliance level, on which to base decisions on energy use and efficiency, as well as helping to minimise their environmental impact.

The project will also test the use of real-time information about grid performance, which can help improve control over the network for Australian energy companies.

 

IBM is certainly getting stuck in to the ‘smart’ market. Apparently the company is involved in more than 150 smart grid engagements in mature and emerging markets and that’s just part of the company’s Smarter Planet initiative. (See the Smarter Planet ‘game’ I reported on last week - although I have been criticised for not taking it seriously enough. Sorry guys, it is informative and does make you think).

But this is a huge market, so lots of other companies are competing for a slice of the action.

EPS adds supply chain emissions to its energy management solution

US-company EPS provides energy management solutions for industrial manufacturers. The company’s flagship product, xChange Point pulls together enterprise-wide energy usage data into a form that can be used to set actions and plans.

XChange Point allows manufacturers to view energy use defined under Scopes 1 and 2 of the GHG Protocol, i.e. sources that they own or control (Scope 1) and emissions from grid-sourced electricity and the other utility services (Scope 2). Now, though, through an alliance with environmental accounting firm Climate Earth, EPS has added the Carbon Management Platform to XChange Point. This extends the coverage to Scope 3 emissions, which includes a variety of activities in the corporate value chain.

The new product provides a total carbon footprint for large and mid-sized manufacturing companies, including emissions from raw materials from processing to procurement. The solution can also leverage supply chain financial data to show potential energy and carbon reduction opportunities. It means that immediate issues can be addressed as well as enabling more long-term strategic decisions on materials used, procurement and supply chain activities.

 

Scope3 emissions are the hardest to quantify and many companies have gone no further than addressing business travel. But in manufacturing, the supply chain aspect of scope 3 can constitute the vast majority of emissions, so it’s good to see solutions coming to the market that can address the issue.

Apparently the software can also rank the performance of suppliers, materials, product lines and facilities by carbon intensity or by carbon emitted compared with sales and revenue generated. A useful tool and it means the supply chain will need to look to their own supply chain ….

Logica wins a £2.4m smart metering contract from OnStream

Metering solutions company OnStream has awarded Logica a £2.4m contract for the provision of communication, data and pre-payment services for 26,000 UK residential smart meters over the next five years.

The two companies will work together to deliver a number of smart metering projects to OnStream’s customers. While OnStream will procure, install and maintain the smart meters, Logica will deliver the communications, data and pre-payment services. Logica was supporting the installation of 15,000 new smart meters per month before the OnStream deal.

Through its Instant Energy service, Logica supports more than three quarters of all smart meters installed in people’s homes in Britain. The Instant Energy service enables real time communication with customers’ meters using SMS messaging and pre-payment customers can top up their credit using the same technology as pay-as-you-go mobile phones.

OnStream provides a dual-fuel residential metering service to suppliers across the UK, supporting more than four million traditional meters and 20,000 smart meters, with a plan to install more than 100,000 smart meters over the next 12 months. The company believes it will be the largest installer of smart meters in 2010.

British Gas buys a stake in home energy management solutions company AlertMe

British Gas has announced that it has acquired a stake in AlertMe, the Cambridge(UK)-based company that provides home energy management solutions.

British Gas paid £5.7m for the 16% stake, which gives the company a seat on AlertMe’s Board. It means that British Gas customers will also have access to AlertMe’s new products, particularly the Home Area Network (HAN) platform, which gives users the ability to control a wide range of home activities and appliances over the internet.

 

In April British Gas announced plans to accelerate the roll-out of its smart meter programme and install two million smart meters by 2012. At the time the company gave a list of the companies it would be working with; mobile phone company Vodafone; wireless network supplier Zigbee; SAP for the billing software; smart meter software and communications firms OSIsoft and Trilliant; and smart meter manufacturer Landis+Gyr. AlertMe looks like the final piece in the jigsaw, at least for now.

Free data centre EnergyCheck from Viridity Software

Massachusetts-based Viridity supplies software that models energy use in data centres. EnergyCenter, launched earlier this year, provides detailed energy information and trends from the usage and power consumption of servers and other devices. Based on the data, which includes average server utilisation and the number of under-utilised servers, data centre managers can work out how to reduce cost and space.

Anyway, the company has now launched EnergyCheck, basically a free version of the front end, which discovers, measures and reports on energy use and gives an overview of potential savings from the consolidation and retirement of servers.

It’s been released as a tool for customers, professional consulting companies and data centre optimisation/design people. It’s currently only available in the US, but should be launched in Europe next year.

 

 

When I spoke to Steve Keilen, VP of Marketing at Viridity, last week he pointed out just how important it is to address the problem of under-used servers. Based on Viridity customer evaluations:

• 30% of servers were monitored at less than 2% utilisation

• 35% of servers showed 2%-10% utilisation

• Only one of three servers were used more than 10% of the time.

 

 

Well the usual figures bandied about are that servers are, on average, used 10-15% of the time. These figures from Viridity aren’t precise enough to give an exact figure, but they reflect a similar overall average.

What surprises me is that 30% are being used less than 2% of the time. At that sort of utilisation (less than half an hour a day), it suggests it should be pretty easy to identify the miscreants and rectify the situation. And that’s what Viridity (among others) is trying to do.

Of course there’s still the question of what ‘utilisation’ means, but that’s another story.

Play the IBM game and build a smarter planet.

 

IBM has launched CityOne, a ‘Smarter Planet’ interactive game in which players have to solve business, environmental and logistical problems to improve the wellbeing of the city.

There’s four aspects to focus on; energy, water, retail and banking. So the challenge, according to IBM, is to make the energy systems more efficient, the water cleaner and more plentiful, banks more robust and customer-centric and retail stores more innovative.

IBM throws up a lot of business challenges and suggests solutions (some are IT-based and some not, but you can guess which are most likely to maximise scores!). Choices have impacts on budgets, environmental and social issues and performance is scored accordingly.

 

It’s the sort of thing that should really have been launched on a Friday, to help wind down for the weekend. I’ve only focused on the energy aspect, but my score ranked me 2,632 and labelled me as a ‘pragmatic’ leader. I’m just happy that I managed to improve the business environment and make the citizens happier. See if you can do better.

What bothers me is the game’s focus on energy, water, retail and banking. It seems the challenge is to maintain an environment where we can all shop until we drop but without the banks collapsing again. It’s just not my vision of a sustainable world.

The Global Smart Grid Federation is officially launched

It was initially announced back in April, but the Global Smart Grid Federation (GSGF) was officially launched recently.

The organisation has emerged from the various public-private initiatives that were formed as countries have initiated programs to explore the potential of smart grids. The Federation was formed to:

• Enable collaboration between the various national and international smart grid non-governmental and governmental organisations from around the world and conduct research into the application of smart grid technologies.

• Establish itself as the global centre for competency on smart grid technologies and policy issues.

• Foster the international exchange of ideas and best practices on energy issues.

• Open dialogue and cooperation between the public and private sectors in countries around the world on smart grid technologies.

The organisations that make up GSGF represent their countries' national initiatives to create smarter grids. The members are GridWise Alliance (United States), India Smart Grid Forum, Japan Smart Community Alliance, Korean Smart Grid Association, Smart Grid Australia, Smart Grid Canada and SmartGridIreland. Details of each of the members are available from the GSGF web site, but each member organization has a seat on the board of directors, which directs all activities of the Federation.

 

Sounds like a good idea, particularly since it’s likely that smart grids will need to work together in the future, e.g. for the import and export of renewable energy. But it would be reassuring to know that there was at least some private sector involvement (there are no individual corporate members) if only to get some alternative views of technology on offer. Innovation has to be near the top of the agenda and that really needs vendor input.

AVOB expands into the crowded US PC power management market

The PC power management sector just got a little more crowded with the entrance of AVOB (Alternative Vision Of Business) into the US market. The French company has opened its US Headquarters in San Francisco and released an English language version of its Energy Saver product.

AVOB claims that its solution is the only one on the market that not only maximises energy savings when PCs are not being used but also matches the power to the needs when PCs are working - processor speed and voltage are adjusted to avoid any energy waste. The company is prepared to put its money where its mouth is by only charging according to savings made by customers.

The software, which can be hosted and run as Software-as-a-Service, can also monitor and manage the energy and carbon footprint of Cisco EnergyWise-compatible devices (although it’s not unique in that).

To coincide with the US launch the company has released a free tool to help SMBs and large enterprises estimate PC energy consumption and the savings that could be made. The tool - Energy Viewer Express – can be downloaded from www.avob-usa.com/download.

AVOB is already well-established in France, with more than 60 enterprise customers for Energy Saver, including Global 500 companies such as Airbus Industries, Air France and Renault. The company was founded in 2009 and in 2010 received funding from Kima Ventures, set up by two serial entrepreneurs, one of whom, Xavier Niel, is a well-known French entrepreneur and businessman with a track record in IT and telecommunications.

 

As far as I can tell (and this is a market that I am currently researching in some depth) the only unique aspect of AVOB’s solution is the ability to manage power when PCs are in use. Charging based on savings is not a new idea, although talking to a number of vendors the view is that many customers prefer a known cap on the cost rather than a variable payment.

AVOB has entered the US market with a splash and has a lot going for it. Although this is a huge market it’s also very competitive and not as easy a sell as you might think, at least to large corporations. PC power management is not necessarily at the top of the CIOs agenda, because despite the short payback time it’s often not the IT department that gets the financial benefit.  IT often has other priorities or is more focused on the data centre, where energy savings can be a more pressing issue with more dramatic savings.

Belkin launches smart meter gateway

Belkin has increased its range of energy-savings offerings with the introduction of Conserve Gateway, a router that pairs with smart meters to provide real-time information on home energy use via a web interface. The company is looking to partner with utility companies to implement and install the system in customers’ homes.

The interface allows people to easily track and reduce energy use. It also provides conservation tips and offers utility companies the ability to push information and advice to consumers. It supports Belkin's research that confirmed consumer desire to reduce energy consumption and that information on use was a key element in achieving it.

 

It’s a natural progression for Belkin, given the company’s existing home wireless networking and energy management products. Given the familiarity of the Belkin name on the high street, it may well have a greater appeal to consumers than less familiar names moving into this market.

The company already has a variety of devices to help manage power use around the home, but it does seem that the main focus to date has been the US market – this product looks to be aimed at the US only. I look forward to see more of these products available internationally.

There’s certainly a need for this device. According to the Belkin press release, referring to the device interface; “Its protocol was informed by extensive ethnographic research that proved most people don't know what a kilowatt-hour (kWh) is and have even less of an idea about where power comes from.”

CRC registration ends – but is it the end of the story?

Registration for the UK’s CRC Energy Efficiency cap-and-trade scheme ended last Thursday and the Environment Agency has published lists of the 12,112 companies and organisations that have declared their energy use and the 2,778 now registered as full participants.

As the chart below shows, there was a last minute rush by declarers to register their energy use, but in fact the rate of registration of participants actually slowed down in the last week. But according to a report from Business Green, a further 400 companies were finalising their registration and the Agency has said that those organisations already registered accounted for more than 90% of the electricity consumption expected to be covered by the scheme.

 

The numbers that have signed up are considerably less than originally expected by the Environment Agency – 20,000 declarers and 5,000 participants. But the Agency has lowered it’s estimates as registration has progressed. Seven weeks before the deadline it estimated that in fact just 3-4,000 companies would be actively involved in the scheme ‘as many businesses that qualify for the CRC are owned by larger conglomerates, that incorporate multiple businesses’. By the end of the registration period 3,000 seemed to be the target number, which, with the expected late registrations, has been achieved. (Why the number of energy declarers is just 60% of the original estimate is not clear).

In August The Environment Agency wrote to organisations urging them to register even if their data is incomplete or inaccurate; "We will work with you to resolve any errors in the information you supply. This will not affect your compliance." Just as well, because those that haven’t declared their electricity use face a fine of £500 for each half-hourly electricity meter they fail to declare. For prospective scheme participants the penalties are £5,000 plus £500 a day until they do register (up to a maximum of £45,000).

The does seem to have been considerable confusion about registration. Energy company npower carried out a survey a couple of weeks before the phase 1 deadline that found that one in five businesses registering for the scheme may not have submitted the correct information. The study of 100 UK financial directors showed that of those that had completed their CRC registration 23% found the process confusing. Many (24%) also reported issues with compiling data from multiple sites across their business and over one in 10 didn’t fully understand what was required of them to complete registration.  Npower concluded that the results highlight the confusion still felt by businesses and that they faced longer term problems under the scheme.

But concern is wider than that. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change (as set up by the Climate Change legislation) has recommended that the Government re-designs the scheme prior to the start of the second phase (2013-2017), in order to reduce its complexity.

The current intention is that a cap is set from 2013 with a fixed number of allowances made available to organisations through an auctioning system.  However, the Committee believes that the scheme is already complex and would become more so if a cap and auction were to be introduced. Instead the scheme could simply rely on the impact of the cost to companies of buying an unlimited number of allowances at a fixed price, together with the reputational incentives of the published performance league tables.

 

Well this is the scheme that the Environmental Agency said, in more than one presentation I went to, would be as simple as possible. In fact the quest for simplicity was given as a reason why no special provision was made for the fact that ICT is a green ‘enabler’ i.e. will help organisations reduce emissions elsewhere. ICT is in danger of being labelled as a polluter by the CRC. Clearly the ‘simplicity’ has not been effective (although I’m not sure that removing the cap-and-trade aspect from a scheme designed to be cap-and-trade is going to help).

On the brighter side, the fact that the scheme has not been straightforward in its introduction does mean that discussions around the legislation will rumble on and awareness can only increase. The legislation could even turn out to be more effective if ICT’s role as an enabler is recognised and we should certainly see a continued take-up of carbon management software solutions as the ongoing debate continues to give the CRC high visibility.

Sixteen more firms sign up to the EC’s ‘Digital Agenda for Europe’ codes of conduct

On Tuesday it was announced that 16 more ICT firms have agreed to reduce the electricity consumption of their broadband equipment and data centres.

It’s all part of the Digital Agenda for Europe, adopted by the European Commission in May 2010. The Commission wants to ensure that the ICT sets an example in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, given that ICT equipment and services consume over 8% of electrical power in the EU and produce about 4% of its CO2 emissions, figures that are set to double by 2020, according to the Commission.  The EC scheme is voluntary, but 36 major ICT companies had already signed up.

The initiative is based round two codes of conduct:

• The code of conduct on broadband equipment (which accounts for around 15% of the ICT sector's overall energy consumption)sets maximum power consumption for many different types of equipment, such as modems, switches, routers and home gateways.

Ten telecom operators and manufacturers are already participating, covering around 25 million broadband lines, 27% of the EU total. The new companies to join are A1 Telekom Austria AG, Belgacom, British Telecom , KPN, France Telecom-Orange, OTE, Portugal Telecom, Telefonica, Telenor and Turk Telekom. As a result, the coverage will raise to 65 million broadband lines in the EU (72% of the total) plus 10 million more in Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

• The code of conduct on data centres, introduced in 2008, aims to improve design practices to make data centres more efficient. This year a series of best practice recommendations on design, purchase and operation in areas like software, IT architecture and IT infrastructure were added. Data centres account for around 18% of the ICT sector's energy consumption and they are expected to grow faster than any other ICT technology. 

Six new companies signed up on Tuesday, joining the existing 26 participants (with 42 data centres). The new companies are: Belgacom, France Telecom-Orange, TDC Services, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Turk Telekom.

In addition, the ICT4EE (ICT for Energy Efficiency) Forum is working to develop methodologies to measure the sector's energy and carbon performances and the quantification of the benefits that ICT solutions bring to other sectors such as buildings and transport.  It was established by the ICT industry following the European Commission's 2009 Recommendation to facilitate the transition to an ICT-based low-carbon economy.

 

It’s good to see the ICT sector setting an example in this way. It’s getting to the point where companies will become noticeable by their absence (the full list of companies taking part is in the press release)

Whilst encouraging ICT companies to be greener in their operations is commendable, I’m particularly looking forward to the ICT4EE fulfilling its remit. When I reported on its launch back in February I made the point that ‘It may sound like just another gathering of ICT interest to promote green action, but if it fulfils its demanding remit the forum could have a decisive role in Europe.  Reflecting its Smart 2020 roots, it’s looking at the wider opportunities for ICT to help reduce emissions.  But it also anticipates ensuring that it has input to green policy making where ICT can make a difference, both at the EU and country levels.  Ambitious, but needed’.

HP has won a $21m deal for a smart meter pilot in the Czech Republic

HP has announced that it has signed a a $20.6m, two-year application services agreement with CEZ Group, an electricity generation and distribution conglomerate based in the Czech Republic, to implement an advanced meter management (AMM) pilot programme.

HP will lead a consortium of companies to install more than 40,000 smart meters. The pilot programme will enable consumers to monitor household energy usage and change consumption habits to lower costs, as well as giving them a role in environmental sustainability. It also allows CEZ Group to manage the meters from four vendors in preparation for full-scale AMM deployment. HP Utility Centre software will manage event and alarm management over the network to ensure security and minimise disruptions.

One reason for the pilot is to help CEZ Group comply with the new EU policy that prohibits utilities services from billing upfront. “As a result of new EU regulation, companies now need to find a cost-effective and resourceful way to provide customers with real-time monthly billing,” said Jan Zadak, Senior Vice President HP Enterprise Business EMEA. HP expects to complete installation of the smart meter technology by the end of next year.