[img:Chu.thumbnail.jpeg|Steven Chu, U.S.
Energy Secretary]Washington, DC, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 21, 2009 - U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced more than $57 million in stimulus funding for smart grid projects as well as the start of the development of a smart grid information clearinghouse.

Of this funding more than $47 million has been allocated to eight projects to further smart grid demonstration projects in seven states, while $10.5 million is available for local governments to develop emergency preparedness plans for their electrical systems.

[img:asset_0.jpeg| ]Liberty Lake, WA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 20, 2009 - The latest version of the integrated data management and analysis platform, Itron Enterprise Edition (IEE) v7.0, has been released by Itron Inc.

IEE v7.0 includes many new features to support advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) business processes and help utilities realize the full benefits of their smart grid deployments. With special consideration given to the scalability and performance requirements required for large scale deployments, IEE v7.0 is well-positioned to enable successful AMI installments for existing and new customers.

[img:Tom Fryers.thumbnail.jpg|Tom Fryers,
Commercial Director,
Sentec]Cambridge, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 20, 2009 - Smart meter development company Sentec has announced the launch of a smart water meter based on its Sterling technology for the Australasian, European and Middle Eastern markets.

The announcement comes less than one month after the launch of the Sterling-based iPerl meter by Sentec’s long term partners Sensus in the U.S.

[img:Brazil.jpg| ]Rio de Janeiro, Brazil --- (METERING.COM) --- July 20, 2009 - Approval to deploy the first advanced metering solution to be used in Brazil has been granted to Landis+Gyr, the company has said in a statement.

The Landis+Gyr SGP+M system will allow Brazilian utilities to provide up-to-date energy information to help Brazilians control their energy use, cut energy costs, reduce environmental impacts and better protect against energy theft. Following the system’s certification by INMETRO (the National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality), Landis+Gyr plans to install 200,000 new endpoints by the end of this year.

[img:oncor.thumbnail.gif| ]Dallas, TX, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 17, 2009 - Oncor has announced that the Smart Texas initiative has completed a major step in its advanced metering system deployment with the first 15-minute interval, billing quality electricity consumption data reporting to the Texas market.

The data, which makes it possible to support innovative new programs and pricing options, represented a successful information technology integration involving over 200,000 advanced meters. Oncor anticipates the service will expand to close to 700,000 meters by year-end and to 3.4 million advanced meters, every meter in the company’s system, by 2012.

[img:ed%20mil_0.jpg|Ed Miliband,
U.K. Energy &
Climate Change
Secretary]London, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 16, 2009 - As part of its plan to transition to a low carbon future the U.K. government has recommitted itself to rolling out smart meters in every home by the end of 2020 and also to developing a smart grid.

Noting that smart metering is one of the building blocks for creating a smart grid, the government says that later this year it will publish a high level vision for a future smart grid and subsequently a plan for delivering this.

[img:Western_0.JPG| ]Perth, Australia --- (METERING.COM) --- July 16, 2009 - Western Australian utility Western Power has issued a tender for the provision of 10,500 smart meters, as part of a four year smart grid trial.

The smart meter trial is the largest in the state, with installation expected to start in early 2010.

Once the project gets underway, 8,500 smart meters will be rolled out in Perth’s Eastern Corridor, which includes the cities of Belmont, Bayswater and Swan, the town of Bassendean, and the shires of Mundaring and Kalamunda.

[img:leadershipgb_0.thumbnail.gif|Guido Bartels,
General Manager,
IBM Global Energy
& Utilities]Amsterdam, The Netherlands --- (METERING.COM) --- July 16, 2009 - IBM and networking company Cisco have announced that they are teaming on a pilot with the Dutch utility Nuon and the city of Amsterdam to make smarter use of energy by enabling consumers to make more informed decisions about their energy consumption.

[img:Spanish%20flag_0.jpg| ]Madrid, Spain --- (METERING.COM) --- July 14, 2009 - The Malaga SmartCity initiative has been launched introducing a new urban energy management model in a bid to improve energy efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and shift consumption to renewable energies.

The €31 million project involving eleven companies under the leadership of Spanish energy company Endesa, aims to provide a holistic response to the environmental challenges facing consumers.

[img:Defontes.thumbnail.jpg|Kenneth DeFontes,
President & CEO,
BGE]Baltimore, MD, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 14, 2009 - Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) has announced the filing with the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) of a comprehensive and advanced smart grid initiative, including the planned installation of 2 million residential and commercial smart meters, that could potentially save BGE electric and gas customers in excess of $2.6 billion over the life of the project.

[img:MCE.thumbnail.jpg| ]Canberra, Australia --- (METERING.COM) --- July 13, 2009 - Australia’s Ministerial Council on Energy (MCE) has endorsed a distributor led rollout of smart meters and has released the second draft of the proposed smart meter bill for the country's national electricity market.

This new draft bill incorporates the MCE’s Standing Committee of Officials’ (SCO) policy response to the submissions received on the first draft bill.

[img:CharlesNewton_0.gif|Charles Newton,
CEO, Newton-Evans]Ellicott City, MD, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 13, 2009 - In spite of the weakened economic conditions globally, electric power utilities around the world are continuing to make significant financial commitments in smart grid building blocks and related automation programs.

In a new survey of 118 electric power grid officials from 36 countries by Newton-Evans it was found that the majority are poised to continue many of their long term capital investment programs as had been originally planned back in January of 2008. However, in several instances, the projects have been deferred from their initial planned start-up dates.

[img:hforbes.thumbnail.jpg|Harry Forbes,
ARC Advisory Group]Dedham, MA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 10, 2009 - The North American market for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) has hit some bumps in the road, in spite of the best efforts of utilities, suppliers, government, and regulators, and will show only limited growth over the next year.

In a new report manufacturing and supply chain solutions analyst ARC Advisory Group predicts that the North American market for AMI and smart grid will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of over 20 percent during the next five years, but 2009 and 2010 will see only a limited portion of that growth. The market was $1,839 million in 2008 and is expected to grow to over $4,684 million in 2013, according to the study.  

[img:UK.thumbnail.jpg| ]London, U.K. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 10, 2009 - A trial smart meter home study project bringing together the technology and resources of GE Energy and Scottish and Southern Energy is helping to prove the value of a smart grid in the United Kingdom as part of a government sponsored Energy Demand Research Project (EDRP).

Using smart meters as information collection and reporting devices the EDRP study tracks energy use by time of day. The in-depth research is uncovering the effects of various savings strategies on household energy consumption. The strategies include: reporting consumption to households via a visual display, reporting consumption on the household’s TV screen, making consumption information available via the internet, using alarms that go off when consumers reach certain consumption levels, tariff rewards for reducing overall energy consumption, and lower rates for consumers who move energy consumption to “off peak” hours.

[img:Okan_0.jpeg| ]Okanogan, WA, U.S.A. --- (METERING.COM) --- July 9, 2009 - The Okanogan County Public Utility District (PUD), which has served the largest county in Washington State for over 60 years, recently began a two-year advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) project to deploy the Aclara™ Two-Way Automatic Communications System (TWACS®).

The PUD, the 300th customer for TWACS technology, will use the system to collect interval data from 22,000 electric meters, perform outage management, and do engineering analysis.