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Smart Meters Versus Dumb Meters
How Smart Meters Have Improved Utility Processes and Profitability
December 1, 2008
With wider functionality come greater challenges—organizational, financial, and technological. Utility executives are using smart meters to capture efficiencies and improve performance in the meter-to-cash cycle.
Content type: Service Report | Document ID: IGS-1 | Author: Stephanie Cary and John Egan
New Competition for Energy Service Providers: Own-Operate Packaged CHP Deals
January 1, 2005
Very gradually, some owners of commercial buildings are starting to turn away from traditional energy service providers and toward companies that will develop, own, and operate a packaged combined heat and power (CHP) plant at their facility. These companies will sell CHP outputs—in the form of electricity, ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-26 | Author: Jon Slowe
Can We Connect? Distributed Generation's Courtship of Utilities in the New Century
December 1, 2004
As the trend toward small-scale power generation continues, policy pressures are pushing utilities and distributed generators closer together. Initiatives such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ interconnection standard are helping to thaw the ice. In some regions, regulators ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-25 | Author: David Van Holde
Clever Chilling: Packaged Combined Cooling and Power
August 1, 2004
Combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP)—a technique that uses the exhaust heat from distributed generation (DG) prime movers to run a chiller—is a compelling idea with the potential to greatly advance DG markets worldwide. Part of CCHP’s attraction is its ability to meet coinciding peak cooling ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-24 | Author: Christine Brinker
Emerging Technologies for Bulk Energy Storage
July 1, 2004
There are a small number of emerging bulk energy storage technologies that hold varying degrees of promise in applications ranging from protection against very short duration power quality events to peak shaving and energy arbitrage. In our second annual report, we focus on the developmental status and ...
Content type: Core Report, Service Report | Document ID: ET-2 | Author: Dan Greenberg, Kristin Kamm, Ira Krepchin
Monitoring and Targeting: Tapping the Well of Operational Efficiency
November 1, 2003
Monitoring and targeting (M&T) is a structured approach to analyzing business and manufacturing processes with an eye for improving energy efficiency. The M&T approach correlates historical energy consumption to measurable factors of business operation and other variables to develop benchmarks and goals ...
Content type: Service Report | Document ID: EIC-21 | Author: Leland Keller, Florence Lu
Distributed Energy Global Market Trends: Japan, Western Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand
November 1, 2003
Distributed energy (DE) continues to solidify its place in energy markets worldwide. Understanding trends in different distributed energy markets will help companies foresee where DE may be headed in their own market and help them take an appropriate stance. In this report, we examine how DE markets ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-23 | Author: Jon Slowe, Christine Hurley, Yasushi Santo
Some Highlights From the 6th Annual E Source Distributed Energy Summit, July 7-8 Webcast
July 1, 2003
The 6th Annual E Source Distributed Energy Summit featured an array of speakers from many areas of the industry to cover distributed energy from a variety of perspectives. The speakers' general consensus on distributed energy (DE) was one of long-term optimism. There was agreement that ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-23 | Author: David Van Holde, Christine Hurley
Cleaner Diesels: Not Just Smoke and Mirrors
June 1, 2003
Diesel engines still dominate sales of distributed generation. In the past year, 85 percent of all engines sold between 1 and 10 megawatts were diesel-fueled. But due to tight air-quality restrictions, most can only run a few hours per year. We identify engine emissions solutions that are clean enough ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-22 | Author: Gerald Cler, David Van Holde
Biogas: A Growing Niche for Distributed Generation
May 1, 2003
Biogas is a cost-effective application for distributed generation with the likelihood of continued growth. We examine biogas from landfills, wastewater treatment plants, livestock operations, organic industrial wastes, separated municipal solid wastes, and gasification of biomass. For each source, we ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-21 | Author: Jon Slowe, Christine Hurley
Maintenance Options for Distributed Generation
October 1, 2002
For distributed generation to gain wide popularity, the equipment must provide high availability with relatively low operation and maintenance costs, and developers must be able to accurately predict those costs. Currently, there is a lack of accurate data available on maintenance costs associated with ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-20 | Author: Ken Wicker
Examples of Utility-Offered Power Quality Consulting Services
October 1, 2002
Over the past few years, many utilities have started offering power quality consulting and facility auditing services to their large commercial and industrial customers. This report examines the success of some of these programs and analyzes some of the industry trends in offering PQ consulting and auditing ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: PQ-11 | Author: Melissa Tuck
Emerging Fuel Cell Technology
August 1, 2002
Fuel cells are more efficient, cleaner, and quieter than conventional natural gas generators, but those advantages are slim and they come at a high price. Improvements to proton exchange membrane and alkaline technologies have the potential to make fuel cells more competitive. A more likely winner, however, ...
Content type: Core Report, Research, Service Report | Document ID: ET-1 | Author: Jay Stein, Rachel Reiss, Heather Stroud, Ira Krepchin
Moving Beyond Pilot Projects: Utility Business Models for Distributed Energy
July 1, 2002
The market conditions for distributed generation have drastically changed in the past year, but distributed generation still has a role in helping utilities profitably meet customer needs. In this report we examine some of the most common and some of the most creative business models for regulated utilities ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-19 | Author: Christine Hurley
Liquid Electricity: Flow Batteries Expand Large-Scale Energy Storage Market
June 1, 2002
Flow batteries are being commercialized and are attracting interest from the power business. Excitement about this relatively new electricity storage technology derives from flow batteries’ attributes: they are relatively inexpensive for batteries, highly scalable, and can optimize for either power ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-18 | Author: Chris Lotspeich, Yasushi Santo
The Real Costs of Emerging Distributed Energy Technologies
June 1, 2002
By analyzing manufacturers’ and analysts’ cost predictions alongside real-world case studies, we estimate high- and low-scenario electricity production costs for fuel cells, Stirling engines, microturbines, and sub-10-kilowatt-electrical gas engines for 2007. For the most familiar technologies, we ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: EUDE-5 | Author: Michael Brown, Jon Slowe
High-Temperature Fuel Cells for Stationary Power: A Long, Hot Road to the Promised Product
March 1, 2002
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) are two high- temperature technologies that will eventually be providing power for stationary applications. Though they aren’t quite ready for commercial release, developers have had promising results, and some manufacturers are ...
Content type: Service Report | Document ID: DE-17 | Author: Ken Wicker
What's In the Deal? Selling Distributed Energy in Competitive Markets
February 1, 2002
By offering finance packages coupled with innovative ways to mitigate technical, price, and investment risk, small-scale distributed energy developers are bringing forward successful projects that would have failed under more conventional deal structures. These developers are well placed to respond to, ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: EUDE-4 | Author: Jon Slowe
Economic Evaluation Tools for Distributed Generation
December 1, 2001
Back-of-the-envelope cost calculations are insufficient for any more than a single, simple distributed generation project. E source has identified nearly a dozen software or Web-based tools that help evaluate the economics and perform feasibility studies for distributed generation. These tools range ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-16 | Author: Christine Hurley
The Heat Is On: What's Cookin' with Large DG
September 1, 2001
Media coverage of distributed generation tends to focus on small and glamorous technologies such as fuel cells and microturbines of less than 100 kilowatts. For now, however, most developers are installing larger and more prosaic reciprocating engines and combustion turbines. What are the characteristics ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-15 | Author: Joan Gregerson, David Van Holde
The Way Forward—Distributed Energy in Europe
September 1, 2001
Bernd Kohlstruck, managing director of Alstom-Ballard, told a European distributed energy (DE) business audience in mid-2001 that, "Alstom, ABB, Siemens and others all see the future as likely to be decentralized, with lots of technology options and the need for intelligent energy management and control ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: EUDE-3 | Author: Stewart Boyle
Advances in Distributed Energy Control and Communication Systems
March 1, 2001
The successful deployment of distributed energy resources hinges on the robustness of new control and communication systems that can control hundreds or thousands of dispersed small resources, including generators, loads, and storage.
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-14 | Author: Joan Gregerson and Jay Mariyappan
Dynamic Market Opportunities and Barriers for Standby Generators
December 1, 2000
Distributed energy is increasingly being used by utilities and independent companies as a means to meet peak demand and to provide profit in energy, delivery, and ancillary service markets. This report provides an overview of the issues that are driving the use of distributed energy, such as price volatility ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-13 | Author: Joan Gregerson
Distributed Generation for Delivery System Capital Deferral: A Small Market with a Large Impact?
September 1, 2000
Much of the recent interest in distributed energy was born out of utility efforts in the early 1990s to defer capital upgrades for their transmission and distribution systems. Though it sagged during the focus on restructuring in the electric power industry through the 1990s, interest in using local ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-12 | Author: Daniel Engel, Christine Hurley, Nicholas Lenssen
Residential Markets and Technologies for Distributed Energy in Western Europe
May 1, 2000
Despite substantial activity in industrial and commercial markets, distributed generation has yet to capture a real market in western Europe. The expectation of technology developers and energy service providers, however, is that a combination of trends—from technological improvements to liberalisation ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: EUDE-1 | Author: Deborah Brown, John Parsons, Isobel Reo, Adrian Richardson
Dual-Fuel Engines: Friend or Foe of Distributed Energy?
May 1, 2000
Converting the large stock of existing diesel-fired, standby generators to dual-fuel operation may shift the future evolution of distributed generation markets. This report provides a review of the technology options available and explains how this different approach could splinter the growing coalition ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-11 | Author: Gerald Cler
Optimal Deployment of Reliability Investments
April 1, 2000
Managing distribution system reliability and power quality has never been an easy job, but with the ever-increasing likelihood of getting sued for damages caused by power supply problems, and even the prospect of having one’s career end prematurely due to an embarrassing supply interruption, utility ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: PQ-6 | Author: Richard Brown, William Howe
Strategic Market Assessment for Distributed Energy: Scenarios from a Venture Capitalist
March 1, 2000
Past efforts to scope out the size of distributed energy markets have failed to accurately portray just how much and how fast markets will develop. This report reviews past efforts to size the market, explains why such efforts failed, and employs a scenario approach to anticipate future market developments ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-10 | Author: Dominic Geraghty
Packaging Distributed Energy Solutions
December 1, 1999
Focusing on reciprocating engines, turbines, microturbines, and fuel cell prime-mover technologies, this report updates readers on packaging options for small-scale cogeneration, high-efficiency, and portable power generation options. The up-to-the-minute information will be useful for energy service ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-9 | Author: Gary Cler
Shifting the Balance of Power: Grid Interconnection of Distributed Generation
October 1, 1999
Are current interconnection rules, as utilities often state, simply meeting their needs for protecting the grid and ensuring the safety of linesmen? Or, as independent developers of distributed generation claim, are the rules anticompetitive measures designed to block the spread of on-site generation? ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: DE-8 | Author: Brendan Kirby, Nicholas Lenssen
