Smart Grid
ABB is installing static VAR compensators in Hydro-Québec’s Nemiscau substation.
Hydro-Québec awarded a $50 million contract to ABB to upgrade components of an ultra-high voltage transmission system to transport hydroelectric power from northern to southern Quebec. The two static VAR compensators (SVC) in the Nemiscau substation, about 1,000 kilometers north of Montreal, provide reactive power compensation in the 735 kv network. The upgrades are scheduled to be completed by 2014.
Pecan Street Inc. announced that nine companies will join it in creating a consumer-focused smart grid built around home applications and consumer electronics. The companies—Best Buy, Check-It, Chevrolet, Freescale, Intel, Landis+Gyr, Sony, SunEdison and Whirlpool—will test consumer products on a smart grid platform and dedicate researchers to Pecan Street’s smart grid demonstration project in Austin, Texas.
Oracle Utilities integrated Echelon’s smart metering solution into its smart grid gateway. Echelon head-end software aggregates and pre-processes the data from control nodes, and passes it to the smart grid gateway, which presents the data in a unified fashion to Oracle’s applications.