The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), charged with ensuring a reliable electric grid, will have a major impact on the operational standards and the pace of implementation of the Smart Grid. The B-Green Collaborative spoke to Laura Manz, an expert on regulatory issues affecting the Smart Grid.

The U.S. Department of Energy is funneling huge amounts of money to begin the transformation of our electric grid to a Smart Grid. Srini Krishnamurthy, a consultant for the DoE’s Office of Electric Delivery and Energy Reliability, discusses how much money is being invested, how it is being leveraged and what program areas are being selected for funding.

EnerNOC is a new, fast-growing company in the business of saving its customers money while reducing electricity peak loading demands. As an early purveyor of smart grid technology, we spoke to EnerNOC’s Gregg Dixon, Sr. VP of Marketing, to understand their business model and how the need to reduce greenhouse gases is impacting them.

The B-GC spoke with Melissa Aho, President of Ultra Geothermal, Inc., a leading residential geothermal installer in New England. Read what she has to say about using a geothermal system to more efficiently condition the living space of your home.

Recently, the B-GC reviewed the results of an EPRI-developed model called MERGE (model for estimating the regional and global effects of greenhouse gas reductions). To further understand and appreciate this model, we spoke to its principal developer, Rich Richels, an economist at EPRI. In this interview, he explains the basis of the model and its principal insights.

Nick Akins, Executive VP of Power Generation for American Electric Power (AEP), speaks about their 20 MW coal-fired Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) plant which became operational in September 2009.