Global Contact: Utility of the Future

Issue 3-2011

Global Contact is KEMA’s worldwide quarterly magazine that is distributed among 13.000 of KEMA’s clients and relations. Global Contact is a broad platform. It includes news from around KEMA as well as articles providing insight into today’s critical energy and industrial trends and topics, and the divers projects KEMA and her clients are working on.

This issue features:

“It’s all about energy management” - Miguel Stilwell Andrade is an Executive Board Member at EDP Distribution in Portugal. With a focus on energy management and smart grid development, Andrade contributed a great deal at KEMA’s recent Utility of the Future Europe & Middle East conference.

View from the top - Energy and utility industry chief executive officers highlighted infrastructure, more choices, and applications as key features that are defining the utility of the future, during a panel for KEMA’s fourth annual Utility of the Future Leadership Forum in the United States.

A challenge for the distribution sector - The road to the utility of the future is as challenging as it is uncertain. Parts of the distribution pathway are still unpaved, and it requires considerable effort to ensure that newcomers and veterans move in the same direction. The KEMA conference in Amsterdam brought industry leaders together to lay the groundwork.

Building the utility of the future - "Throughout its history, the grid has been absorbing new technologies; what makes it different today is the unprecedented rate of change,” said Paul Camuti of Siemens Energy during this year's Utility of the Future Leadership Forum. Five leaders in the energy and utility industry shared their perspectives in this discussion.

Guarding against cyber intrusion - A group of teenagers, a criminal gang, a disgruntled former employee or a crafty consumer: whatever the potential source of interference, safeguarding data traffic is no luxury for the energy sector. With the rise of smart grid, the time is ripe for a coordinated approach.

Confidence-building wind farm in Kenya - Over the next few years, a 300-MW wind farm will arise in the northwest of Kenya. To ensure efficient transmission of the electricity generated across the 400 kilometers to its destination, KEMA supports the Lake Turkana Wind Power Consortium with advice and assistance.

Using the tools - As the energy world becomes more dynamic, the risk associated with decision-making within the sector grows. Having developed numerous models over the years, KEMA is able to provide swift, customized decision-support services.

Choosing an energy storage technology - The implementation of energy storage technologies experienced a rapid growth trajectory. There are many choices available for energy storage technologies and applications, and through the continuous innovation in this field, these choices will expand.

Innovation at an attractive price - How do you ensure that your business can continue to innovate as an energy production company, without it becoming unaffordable? Should you innovate on your own, or in cooperation with others? For decades, there has been a formula for innovation that has amply proven itself in the Netherlands. The formula is now ripe for internationalization.