LOS ALTOS, Calif., Jan. 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Under an agreement announced today, New Power Technologies Incorporated will provide Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) an integrated transmission and distribution (T&D) modeling tool powered by New Power Technologies' Energynet® and GRIDiant Corporation's Advanced Grid Management (GRIDiant® AGM™) technologies. [NOTE: GRIDiant Corporation will exhibit its AGM software applications, including its new Reliability Analysis and Diversion Analysis modules, at DistribuTECH 2013, January 29-31 in San Diego, in Booth 3042.]
The integrated T&D modeling tool will combine the high-definition grid simulation and visualization capabilities of New Power Technologies' Energynet platform with the advanced grid analytics and optimization applications of GRIDfast™ technology licensed by GRIDiant. The combined technologies represent a new class of software tools for modeling networks and producing actionable intelligence from strategic data resources contained in legacy utility systems and Smart Grid investments.
SMUD is the sixth-largest publicly-owned electric utility in the U.S., serving approximately 600,000 customers in Northern California. The utility has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to implement a smart grid in Sacramento that serves as a model for California and the rest of the United States.
"Our objective with the Integrated T&D Modeling Tool is to utilize the field monitoring and system modeling data available from legacy and new Smart Grid systems to provide high fidelity, quantifiable displays and analysis under specific system conditions," said SMUD Project Manager Jeff Berkheimer. "It will allow SMUD to more accurately assess, visualize, and manage current and future system impacts from electric vehicle deployments, energy storage systems, demand response programs, distributed generation, and solar PV generation within SMUD's service territory."
A portion of SMUD's ARRA funding will be used to install Distribution Automation (DA) systems, comprising intelligent switching and monitoring equipment on feeders, retrofitting of substations with new SCADA equipment, and intelligent monitoring. The funding will also be used to provide Advanced Operations Management Systems (AOS), including Conservation Voltage Reduction, Volt/VAr optimization, and Automatic Sectionalization and Restoration (ASR). SMUD also has completed installation of smart meters to all customers throughout its service area.
Peter Evans, president of New Power Technologies said, "This enterprise-class software will provide SMUD with advanced grid visibility and analytical tools that will help maximize the value of the utility's smart grid investment. It will also capitalize on its SmartSacramento partners who are participating in innovative distributed energy resource and smart grid initiatives, while enhancing grid efficiency and reliability. Our goal with GRIDiant Corporation is to provide SMUD unprecedented detail, accuracy, analytic power, and speed in simulating and displaying network conditions and analytic results in its T&D power networks."
GRIDiant CEO Andy Colman added, "A combined transmission and distribution system model, driven by GRIDfast's ability to optimize, analyze, and rank resources and customer loads on both a system-wide and a node-by-node basis, offers SMUD a powerful new analytic approach. SMUD engineers will launch analyses and view results on interactive interfaces using diverse graphic, tabular, and geospatial displays. With New Power Technologies, we expect to deliver SMUD a next-generation toolset that will offer unique engineering and utility business intelligence to complement one of the most comprehensive grid modernization programs in the world."
About New Power Technologies
New Power Technologies is dedicated to developing and delivering advanced energy technologies with practical applications. The company's Energynet® platform enables power delivery network analysis and management with unprecedented transparency, precision, and ease of integration to support high-performance and high-efficiency network operation and planning at utility scale. The Energynet power network management platform supports a variety of solutions and applications.
For more information see www.newpowertech.com.
About GRIDiant
GRIDiant provides the Advanced Grid Management (AGM™) suite of simulation, analytics, optimization, and display software, comprising a unique platform of applications for electric power networks driven by its patented GRIDfast™ engine. Developed and validated over 10 years, GRIDiant AGM allows electric utilities to optimize in real-time the operations and planning of transmission, distribution, and combined T&D networks, and to see the analytic results displayed graphically and geospatially on state-of-the art, interactive UIs. GRIDiant AGM allows electric utilities to leverage data from GIS, SCADA, OMS, AMI, and DTM systems and equipment to realize savings through improved reliability, reduced line losses, heightened operating efficiency, increased asset utilization and enhanced demand response.
For more information see www.gridiantcorp.com.