Duke Energy has been named to Greentech Media’s Grid Edge 20 – recognizing the company as one of the most innovative firms working to architect the electric power industry’s future.
Companies were selected based on their contribution to grid edge technology transformation – increasingly critical in today’s changing utility industry. Energy stakeholders and other thought leaders in the industry helped select the Grid Edge 20.
“At Duke Energy, we continue to promote innovation as a way to make our operations more efficient — and our customers more satisfied. We are honored with this recognition,” said Caren Anders, vice president, Emerging Technology and Transmission Affairs.
Among the emerging technology projects Duke Energy is working on: energy storage, microgrids and making the grid operate with more open standards and less proprietary protocols. These efforts will help the company and customers alike with a stronger, more resilient electric grid.
In Florida, Duke Energy is using a number of new grid technologies that have improved reliability and spared our customers from experiencing nearly 6 million outage minutes since 2014. An automated restoration project, starting in the company’s Pinellas County territory, is isolating faults and restoring a majority of customers in less than a minute.
The company also upgraded more than 75,000 analog meters with two-way communicating digital meters in the state empowering customers with more timely usage information. These meters were primarily installed at large industrial and commercial customers who would see the most benefit and in areas with frequent service connects and disconnects, such as university apartments, to improve service request response time. These advanced meters will also set the stage for new customer offerings and utility interactions in the future.
“The Grid Edge 20 is an annual benchmark for our industry,” said Steve Propper, director of Grid Edge at Greentech Media. “This year’s group is made up of technology vendors making the greatest impact on the market in terms of deploying disruptive solutions commercially. It also includes utilities making smart investments to optimize their distribution network architecture and prepare for the future architecture of the grid.”
Duke Energy representatives will accept the award in June at Grid Edge Live 2015 in San Diego.
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