Third-annual Smart Grid Electronics Forum – call for papers

Third-annual Smart Grid Electronics Forum – call for papers

Corona, California, April 10, 2012 –A Call for Papers has been issued for the third-annual Smart Grid Electronics Forum (SGEF ’12) to be hosted by Darnell Group, October 16-17, 2012, at the Doubletree Suites Fort Shelby, Detroit, Michigan. A key question to be explored at this year’s event is: “Are microgrids the key to the successful development of the smart grid?” Coupled with this inquiry,

delegates at the third-annual SGEF will have an opportunity to tour two unique microgrid facilities: the Next Energy Technology Demonstration facilities and Nextek Power Systems. Mouser Electronics is once again, the Marquee Sponsor for SGEF.

Control, Communications and Security will be three of the major themes of SGEF ’12. The successful deployment of the smart grid will be dependent on numerous technology and standards developments for electronic equipment. For the smart grid to have benefits, it must be able to reliably communicate to the downstream loads and also be able to turn these loads on/off or turn them up/down as appropriate. You’ll find the call for papers at: http://smartgrid.darnell.com/call4papers.php

“Simply producing a ‘smarter grid’ will not be sufficient to solve the problems with today’s electricity transmission and distribution systems,” stated Jeff Shepard, president of Darnell Group. “Key enablers will include the development of advanced energy measurement and control capabilities coupled with machine-to-machine communications incorporated into ‘smart’ electronic devices ranging from appliances to electric vehicles, industrial equipment and even smart buildings. Maybe most-important will be the

deployment of highly sophisticated intelligent microgrids including energy storage and generation to take the load entirely off the grid, instead of merely tying to ‘manage’ existing loads and centralized energy generation resources with so-called ‘smart grid’ technologies,” Shepard concluded.

This focused three-day international forum will serve the needs of an audience of decision makers and technology developers who are interested in learning about and contributing to practical advancements related to the emerging smart grid. The SGEF will be broadly targeted at all segments of the electronics industry including: Communications, Security, Computing/Storage, Consumer, Power Conversion, Vehicle Charging, Alternative Energy, Energy Storage, and so on. Stake holders in the electric utility industry, regulatory bodies, government agencies, and standard-setting organizations will also be included in the target audience.

Among the major constituencies served by this unique event are: Individuals interested in networking/embedded processing, circuit design requirements, communications standards and protocols, development and integration of smart appliances and loads, enabling demand side management, the integration of distributed generation resources, micro grids, power systems communications, power

quality, instrumentation and monitoring, supporting plug-in hybrid vehicles, large-scale energy storage, advanced metering infrastructure, visualization technologies, real-time control methods, and so on.

The primary areas of coverage will be the need for Control, Communications and Security for deployment of the smart grid and the impact of those requirements on the design of future generations of electronic equipment. Within those broad areas, specific focus (paper topics) may include: Integration of distributed generation resources, micro grids, power systems communications, power quality, instrumentation and monitoring, networking/embedded processing, circuit design requirements, communications standards

and protocols, development and integration of smart appliances and loads, enabling demand side management, supporting plug-in hybrid vehicles, large-scale energy storage, advanced metering infrastructure, visualization technologies, real-time control methods, and so on. In each case, the types of papers being sought include:

Case studies/industry examplesDesign techniques and toolsTechnology developmentsStandards development activities

Darnell Group is the leading source for worldwide strategic information covering the full spectrum of power electronics, energy storage and generation. The company specializes in the economic/business analysis of emerging power markets and technologies.

Complete information on the third-annual Smart Grid Electronics Forum is available at: http://SmartGrid.Darnell.com

■