Smart Energy News

Fremont, Calif. — Delta Products, a Delta Group company headquartered in Fremont, has been awarded a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for the development and demonstration of a residential electric vehicle charging system with smart grid communication capabilities.

Under the grant, over the next three years the Delta research project will develop smart-grid enabled residential electric vehicle chargers that will allow the quick deployment of charging infrastructure for plug-in electric vehicles.

The smart-charging system will allow utilities to reduce infrastructure costs and manage load during peak hours, according to Delta, and will benefit consumers by taking advantage of off-peak electricity rates for electric vehicle charging.

Delta’s system price is targeted to be 50% lower than today’s competing technologies, the company said.

As part of the DOE project, Delta will work in conjunction with their partners The Detroit Edison Co., Mercedes Benz R&D North America, and kVA to develop a working demonstration system.

Image credit: Delta Products

Delta Products website

Atlanta — Smart Energy Capital, a solar development and finance company, and Jacoby Development, a redeveloper in the southeast U.S., have signed a power purchase agreement with Cobb EMC to provide generation from the Azalea Solar Facility, the largest solar power plant to be built in Georgia.

The 10-megawatt photovoltaic, ground-mounted project will be built in Washington County, Georgia and is expected to be complete by the end of this year. It will create up to 75 local construction jobs, according to the companies involved.

Under the agreement, Smart Energy Capital and Jacoby Development will sell all of the power from Azalea Solar to Cobb EMC, a not-for-profit electric membership cooperative, through a 25-year purchase power agreement.

Founded in 1938, Cobb EMC started as an electric utility with 489 residential members and 14 commercial accounts. It now serves around 197,000 meters, representing more than 175,000 residential and commercial customers.

Smart Energy Capital website

Cobb EMC website

Woburn, Mass. – Gridco, a developer of energy management technology for electric utilities, has raised $8 million more in venture capital, the company disclosed in a filing on Wednesday.

The investment follows a previous $12.5 million deal for Gridco last July.

The company is still operating mostly under the radar.

Gridco’s SEC filing

Redwood City, Calif. — Silver Spring Networks, a privately held provider of smart grid technology to electric utilities, has raised an additional $6 million in convertible debt, capping off the deal’s total at $30 million, according to a new filing by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company initially raised $24 million in the deal late last year.

Silver Spring’s technology is based on open, Internet Protocol (IP) standards, allowing continuous, two-way communication between the utility and devices on the grid. The company has numerous deployments with large utilities in the U.S. and abroad, including Florida Power & Light, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, Jemena Electricity Networks, and United Energy Distribution, among others.

In 2009, Silver Spring raised $100 million in a round of venture capital that included participation from Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Northgate Capital.

Founded in 2002, Silver Spring filed in July 2011 for its initial public offering of stock to raise an estimated $150 million. The company is still waiting to go public.

Image credit: Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring’s 3/02/12 SEC filing

Silver Spring Networks website

Providence, R.I. — Slater Technology Fund, a state-backed venture capital fund in Rhode Island, announced on Wednesday it has increased its seed-stage equity investment in the smart-grid technology firm Alektrona by $200,000, to a current total of $450,000.

Founded in 2004, Alektrona offers hardware and software for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), demand side management, and other energy-related applications.

The company’s platform is comprised of an energy management hub that monitors and controls energy devices at the customer premise, and a wireless broadband energy management web service, that simplifies how providers control smart-grid applications.

Alektrona’s energy network appliance unites smart-grid open standards and management for demand response, energy efficiency, and advanced metering systems, as well as access to thermostats, meters, displays, load controllers, plug-in electric vehicles, and other devices.

Alektrona’s customers include smart grid infrastructure companies, such as utilities, energy services companies, municipalities, and energy solutions providers.

Its energy management platform is available now as a beta for utilities and partners to evaluate.

Image credit: Alektrona

Alektrona website