IBM and Hydro One Team to Improve the Power Grid in Ontario

Smarter technologies to be tested on Hydro One's distribution power grid

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ARMONK, N.Y. and TORONTO - 27 Mar 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its Business Partner Telvent announced that they have been selected by Hydro One, the largest distributor of electricity in Ontario (Canada), for a new smart grid project that will help transform the province's electrical system. Together, the companies will run simulations and tests to determine the smart grid technologies that have the potential to improve power efficiency and reliability.

Installed in the 1950s, many components of Ontario's current electricity distribution system have reached the end of their service life. More recently, technological advancements, provincial governmental policy, market forces and increased environmental awareness have added pressure to the demands on Ontario's electricity distribution system.

"As equipment on our distribution system ages, it needs to be replaced. This creates an opportunity to create a world-class network with new, intelligent and sophisticated technologies to meet the changing needs of our customers," Rick Stevens, Vice President, Asset Management, Hydro One. "Our collaboration with IBM and Telvent will help Hydro One assess the next generation of distribution equipment and make the right choices for our customers looking for more reliable electricity, particularly in rural areas."

The Advanced Distribution System (ADS) project will help the utility identify and assess equipment, test new delivery models for electricity, validate the costs and benefits anticipated with a new smart grid and recommend changes to cost effectively modernize Ontario's distribution system.

The project intends to enable an increased amount of Distributed Generation into the grid as well as help increase the reliability of the current distribution system and improve outage management during large scale situations. By taking advantage of the insights gained from new data sources based on analytics, Hydro One will be able to optimize energy utilization and management for greater efficiency while accommodating consumer demand.

"Utilities around the world are investigating new smart grid technologies to help solve complex challenges caused by an aging infrastructure and increasing demand," said Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM's Energy & Utilities Industry and Chairman of the Global Smart Grid Federation. "Together with Hydro One, we are paving the way for transformation by testing new sophisticated monitoring and control technologies that will enable the integration of renewable energy in the distribution grid while improving its reliability and responsiveness, and ensuring customer satisfaction. This will prepare Hydro One and the province of Ontario for further growth and deliver more affordable and reliable renewable energy for Ontarians."

As the overall system integrator, IBM will provide expertise in smart grid technologies, planning and implementation to oversee the reliability of the network solution. Hydro One will use the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), from Telvent, a real-time solution that will provide complete functionality for planning, operation and analysis of its distribution system. This will allow Hydro One to more accurately manage and plan their grid investments.

According to Telvent's Chairman and CEO, Ignacio Gonzalez, "In addition to the ADMS solution, Hydro One will benefit from the strategic collaboration between Telvent and IBM. Over the years, we have provided solutions to several large utilities to help make mid-project technology adjustments while increasing the speed of the solution development."

The project is in line with the requirements of Ontario's Green Energy and Green Economy 2009 Act ("GEGEA"), which fosters the growth of renewable and cleaner sources of energy while promoting a greener economy.

About Hydro One Hydro One provides services to 1.2 million residents of Ontario with the vast majority of its rural customers in low-density areas. Hydro One is the largest distributor of electricity with about 120,000 km of distribution lines over a rural service territory of about 640,000 square kilometers covering 75% of the province.

About IBM

IBM is involved in more than 150 smart grid engagements around the world, in both mature and emerging markets. IBM is the founding member of the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition, a unique collaboration of utilities from around the globe who are working to accelerate the use of smart grid technologies and move the industry forward through its most challenging transformation. More about IBM's vision to bring a new level of intelligence to how the world works—how every person, business, organization, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts, can be found here: http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet. 

For more information about Smarter Energy at IBM, please visit:www.ibm.com/press/smarterenergy. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

News Release from Dell - Improve IT Efficiency

Dell Helps Insteel Industries, Inc. Improve IT Efficiency While Reducing Costs

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Date : 3/7/2012

Round Rock, Texas

• Manufacturing company chooses Dell and Dell Services for solutions from the desktop to the data center
• Dell enables Insteel Industries, Inc. to increase IT flexibility and agility, allowing for a rapid, two-business-day systems transition during an acquisition
• Insteel moves from RISC architecture to Dell x86 standardized platforms

Dell is enabling Insteel Industries, Inc., one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of steel wire reinforcing products for concrete reinforcing, to drive IT efficiency while providing a flexible infrastructure that can adapt quickly to immediate and changing demands. By implementing Dell solutions and services, Insteel increased manageability and reliability across its data centers, and will save more than $70,000 on maintenance costs by replacing aging equipment with new servers.

Insteel relies on technology solutions in the manufacture of its products 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Faced with a client refresh cycle and integration of a recent acquisition, the company selected Dell to help drive technology standardization across its nine manufacturing facilities to have better control over manageability and reliability of IT assets.

The infrastructure consists of Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers, Dell PowerVault™ Storage, Dell Latitude™ laptops, Dell OptiPlex™ desktops and is complemented with deployment processes and onsite support from Dell Services.

Keeping facilities running 24/7
Viewing technology as delivering a competitive advantage, Insteel relies on Dell PowerEdge servers in all of its locations. The company deployed Dell PowerVault MD storage arrays and terminal servers to support flexible computing on the plant floor with easily expandable and high-performance infrastructure. Dell is also helping Insteel save time and increase efficiency as it transitions to Windows Server 2008r2. With new virtualized architecture, Insteel does not have to deploy new hardware as it moves off the Windows Server 2003 platform.

To support its ERP system, the company is transitioning from using PA-RISC platforms to Dell PowerEdge servers. This transition is expected to save the company about $70,000 on hardware maintenance costs over five years.

Insteel relies on Dell ProSupport™ for onsite service for its servers, desktops and laptops, helping to ensure mission-critical uptime in its plants. 

Maintaining remote client management
At the close of a recent acquisition, Insteel needed to bring new employees onto its network immediately. Through the Dell Ships Fast program, the company received Latitude laptops within 48 hours. Insteel then configured the systems, sent them out and created a mobile command post at each acquired facility. The acquisition closed on a Friday and by Monday each mobile command post was connected to Insteel’s network with its products shipped out of the company’s ERP system day one after the acquisition.

For the hardware refresh in the facilities, Insteel needed PCs with a small form factor due to limited space. After evaluating several options, the company selected Dell OptiPlex small form factor desktops. The OptiPlex desktops also offered the robust remote management capabilities Insteel required, enabling IT staff to resolve issues by remotely controlling client machines in multiple locations.

To accelerate deployment of the desktops, Insteel engaged Dell Deployment Services and used Dell Factory Image Load. The OptiPlex desktops were preconfigured with the company’s image, which saved 30 minutes of configuration time for each system. Dell Deployment Services managed the onsite installation of new PCs, enabling Insteel to get a complete facility up and running in eight to 12 hours. As a result, the company rolled out more than 80 Dell OptiPlex PCs in a four-week period and avoided having to add additional IT staff.

Quotes
“We look for a technology provider who can pretty much bring the complete solution to the table all at one time, and Dell was the natural choice for the business. The simpler we can keep our environment, the more easily our small staff can deploy packages, do operating system upgrades and troubleshoot problems. IT management is simplified and we feel like that gives us a competitive edge.” - Mark Coleman, Manager of Systems and Database Administration, Insteel Wire Products

“Our work with Insteel Industries is a true example of an end-to-end partnership,” said Bill Popp, Dell’s vice president of Manufacturing Sales. “From servers to storage, laptops to desktops and Dell Services at every point in between, our work with Insteel shows that making improvements throughout the entire IT infrastructure of a manufacturer can produce even greater results around efficiency and cost-savings. We have the expertise, solutions and hardware available to help at every step of a transition, which helped Insteel’s recent acquisition process take place faster and at a lower cost.”

“With a large scale deployment of several technologies as well as the integration of new employees from an acquisition, it could have been easy for a slight misstep to create major disruptions for Insteel,” said Doug Schmitt, vice president, Dell Services. “Dell Services provided deployment services and expertise to lower costs, avoid downtime and reduce installation times. Our onsite support helped ensure production was up throughout the transition and continues on an ongoing basis.”

Security, Privacy & Reliability

Microsoft Outlines Evolved Security, Privacy and Reliability Strategies for Cloud and Big Data

Trustworthy Computing Next advocates for continued focus amid new computing inflection points.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Feb. 28, 2012 — Today at the RSA Conference 2012, Scott Charney, corporate vice president of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, shared his vision for the road ahead as society and computing intersect in an increasingly interconnected world. In a new paper, “Trustworthy Computing (TwC) Next,” Charney encouraged industry and governments to develop more effective privacy principles focused on use and accountability, improve end-to-end reliability of cloud services through increased fault modeling and standards efforts, and adopt more holistic security strategies including improved hygiene and greater attention to detection and containment. Ten years ago, the computing ecosystem was at a crossroads when Bill Gates introduced TwC and called for industry collaboration. Today, technology and society are more interconnected than ever. Big data’s strain on privacy protection, the shifting relationship between government and the Internet, and the evolving threat model all raise new challenges for industry and governments globally. “We are at another inflection point, with expectations for better security, privacy and reliability growing at an exponential rate,” Charney said. “Now is the time for industry and governments to develop and adopt strategies and policies that balance business and societal needs with individuals’ choices.” The Cloud and Big Data The proliferation of devices and cloud services has resulted in a massive aggregation of global data, also known as big data. While offering many potential societal benefits, this collection of data poses unique challenges. From a security perspective, big data represents a valuable target for attackers. As the cloud and devices become more integrated with society, people also become increasingly dependent on the reliability and availability of data and services to function. Finally, the massive increase in the amount and types of data available for collection, analysis and dissemination has strained traditional rules to protect privacy. One solution for the privacy challenge is for government, industry, academia and consumer groups to collaborate in updating current privacy principles to address the world of big data. These revised principles should place a greater focus on appropriate uses of data. They should also include an “accountability” principle to help ensure organizations use and protect data in ways consistent with individual and societal expectations. Together, these principles can help reduce the burden on the consumer and shift greater responsibility to the data collector. “Microsoft has long been a contributor to the global debate and discussion on the future of privacy,” said Malcolm Crompton, managing director of Information Integrity Solutions Pty Ltd. “The global framework proposed by Scott Charney tackles head-on many of the difficult realities of today’s environment. It’s a great contribution to the dialogue.” The Role of Government The advent of big data has also been challenging for governments. Any transformative technological change that recasts the way people live will engender deeper government engagement. This is because governments’ relationship with the Internet is a complex one. In the TwC Next white paper, Charney said governments globally are simultaneously users of the Internet, protectors of individual users as well as the Internet itself, and exploiters that capitalize on the power of technology for a variety of purposes. In times of need, governments may use online services to keep citizens informed, and first responders can react more effectively than those not using cloud-based services because they have GPS devices, mapping capabilities, street views, videoconferencing and other cloud-based services. Such benefits only materialize, however, if these systems meet reasonable expectations of overall service reliability. Recognizing this fact, governments may play an increasingly active role in many aspects of the Internet. Some nations are looking at legislatively mandating the adoption of information risk-management plans for those managing information and computing systems. The Evolving Threat Landscape While the quality of code has improved and infection rates have declined for products developed under Microsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle, the threat landscape continues to evolve. Opportunistic threats have been supplemented by attacks that are more persistent and, in many cases, far more worrisome. While some of these attacks have been called “Advanced Persistent Threats,” that term is often a misnomer. Some are advanced, but many are not; attack vectors are often traditional and unsophisticated. What marks these attacks is that the adversary is willing to persist over time and is firmly resolved to penetrate a particular victim. “The new security challenges today are to some extent the same as the old security challenges. They’ve just been magnified,” said Alan Levine, chief information security officer at Alcoa Inc. “An organization may be targeted by a determined adversary who has the time, skills and tenacity to prevail.” Companies must improve their basic hygiene approach to counter the opportunistic threats and make even persistent and determined adversaries work harder. This can be accomplished by designing systems not just to prevent attacks and recover from them, but also to detect successful attackers quickly and contain them so that their unauthorized access or disruption is limited. This new paradigm of protect, detect, contain and recover can serve as a practical foundation for managing risk in the age of persistent and determined adversaries. More information about Microsoft’s vision for TwC Next is athttp://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/security. Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Energy Innovation Hubs

News release from the U.S. Dept. of Energy:

Energy Department to Launch New Energy Innovation Hub Focused on Advanced Batteries and Energy Storage

February 7, 2012

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid.  The interdisciplinary research and development through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies that can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid, to better integrate clean, renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system, and for use in electric and hybrid vehicles that will reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

“As part of the Obama Administration’s investments in science and innovation, this Energy Innovation Hub will bring together scientists, engineers, and industry to develop fresh concepts and new approaches that will ensure America is at the leading-edge of the growing global market for battery technology,” said Secretary Chu.  “With the advances from this research and development effort, we will be able to design and produce batteries here in America that last longer, go farther, and cost less than today’s technologies.”

Energy Innovation Hubs are designed to bring together teams of scientists and engineers across intellectual disciplines to rapidly accelerate scientific discoveries and shorten the path from laboratory innovation to technological development and commercial deployment of critical energy technologies. The hubs are part of the Obama Administration’s broad-based clean energy research strategy aimed at harnessing American innovation to achieve needed breakthroughs in important energy technologies to grow the clean energy economy and generate new clean energy jobs.

The goal of the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will be to deliver research leading to revolutionary new technologies.  While advancing the current understanding and underlying science around energy storage, the role of the new hub will be to develop radically new scientific approaches, including the exploration of new materials, devices, systems and novel approaches for transportation and utility-scale storage. The hub should foster new energy storage designs and develop working, scalable prototype devices that demonstrate radically new approaches for electrochemical storage, overcoming current manufacturing limitations through innovation to reduce complexity and cost. The ultimate goal will be to surpass the current technical limits for electrochemical energy storage and reduce the risk level enough for industry to further develop the innovations discovered by the hub and deploy these new technologies into the marketplace.

Letters of Intent to apply are due on March 1, 2012 with full applications due on May 31, 2012.  Universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms are eligible to compete and are encouraged to form partnerships when submitting their proposals.  The award selection is expected this summer.  The full Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is available HERE.

This will be the fourth such hub established by the Department since 2010.  Other hubs include the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, which focuses on advanced research to develop fuels directly from sunlight; the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors, which is seeking to improve nuclear reactors through sophisticated computer-based modeling and simulation; and the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy-Efficient Buildings, which is working to achieve major breakthroughs in energy efficient building design.  Information on the existing hubs can be found on the Energy Innovation Hubs website: http://energy.gov/hubs.