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Tag:

smart meters

Who Owns All the Smart Grid Patents?

Who Owns All the Smart Grid Patents?

written by Eric Lane

Ever wonder who owns all the smart grid patents?  With all of the acquisitions in smart grid (see, e.g., here and here), it seems a lot of folks have been considering the question.

A recent study by patent analytics firm Relecura on smart grid patent holders seeks to answer this question.  It turns out the top five are ABB, GE, Panasonic, Siemens, and Toshiba:

Smart-Grid-Top-Patent-Holders

The study breaks out the results by six sub-technology categories (communications, software, smart meters, sensors, substation automation, and distribution automation) and lists the top large entities and SMEs in each subcategory:

Smart-Grid-Top-Sub-techs-1

Smart-Grid-Top-Sub-techs-2

The full report, which can be found here, styles itself a “preliminary survey of the Smart Grid assignee landscape and first-cut identification of patent asset holders in Smart Grid technology.”

According to Relecura, the purpose of the study is to identify potential licensees and acquisitions targets for each of the sub-technologies.  The study uses 2008 as a reference year, and defines its Potential Licensees and Potential Acquisitions Targets relative to that year.

More particularly, Potential Licensees are entities whose patent applications were filed in 2008 or later while Potential Acquisitions Targets are typically small or medium sized entities with granted patents from applications filed in 2008 or earlier.  In other words, small companies and SMEs with relatively mature patent portfolios are deemed more ripe for acquisition and those with younger patent portfolios are thought to be more amenable to licensing IP.

With so much activity in smart grid M&A, this report could be useful to a lot of people.



March 26, 2014 0 comment
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Electricity Loss and Theft: Who Pays?

written by Walter Wang

We fret about turning off the lights to save pennies on energy. Meanwhile, electricity worth billions of dollars gets lost or stolen on the world’s power grids every year.

In industry jargon, the problem is known as ‘line loss.’ A certain amount of electricity generated by a power plant never makes it to the consumer – or at least

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May 14, 2013 0 comment
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‘Energy Democracy’ Becomes More Real

written by Walter Wang

Will new technologies democratize energy much the way the Internet did information?

Industry movement seems to point in that direction with the rise of the smart grid, time-of-day pricing, distributed solar, and the electric vehicle. Together these technologies offer a vision of a less centralized energy system, one where communities and households ‘vote in’ or shape the

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October 25, 2012 0 comment
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Video Reveals Truth About Smart Grid

written by Walter Wang

We don’t think about energy until something goes wrong, and this week things went wrong on an historic level. As a result, the public and pundits are again focusing on the fragility of big electric grids.

Ten percent of the world’s population – more than 600 million people – lost their power in India on July

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August 2, 2012 1 comment
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Smart Meter Backlash Continues as Vermont Moves to Free Opt-Out

written by Walter Wang

Consumer backlash against smart meters continues to create a small but ongoing drag on utility rollouts, with new opt-out schemes aimed at allaying fears.

The issue: some consumers want nothing to do with smart meters, either because of health concerns about the wireless technology or because of the potential for privacy invasion; and they do not want

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June 18, 2012 1 comment
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What’s Undermining Energy Efficiency?

written by Walter Wang

Exhilaration swept through the energy efficiency industry as city after city, state after state and nation after nation set aggressive energy saving goals over the last several years. But with target dates nearing in certain jurisdictions, a more sober attitude now permeates. Some governments are asking: Are we reaching too high?

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April 26, 2012 1 comment
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Will Cyber-Sensitivities Reveal the Future of Energy Efficiency

written by Walter Wang

The US economy is three times larger than China’s, yet when it comes to developing a clean energy industry, China keeps besting us. The US came in second – again – to China this quarter in Ernst & Young’s much-watched renewable energy ranking released February 28.

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March 1, 2012 0 comment
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Nearly Half of Electricity at UK Businesses Wasted During Off Hours

written by Yale Environment 360

A UK report says that nearly half of the electricity consumed by British businesses is wasted when employees are not at work.

In an analysis of more than 6,000 smart meters, British Gas found that 46 percent of electricity use occurs from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., when most businesses are typically closed. Common examples of

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February 8, 2012 2 comments
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Figuring Out How to Go Green Without Going Crazy

written by Walter Wang

Utilities worry about a lot of things, such as keeping the lights on, earning a return for investors, and making regulators and customers happy with their service.

Now there is a new worry: How can they protect customers from what one utility refers to as “mental fatigue?”

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January 17, 2012 0 comment
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Steep Growth in Smart Meter Installations Predicted for Europe

written by Yale Environment 360

A new report predicts that 100 million new smart meters will be installed across Europe between now and the end of 2016 as nations continent-wide aim to achieve greater energy efficiency and increased reliance on renewable sources of energy.

According to GTM Research, European investment

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January 4, 2012 1 comment
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Fixing People, Not Just Buildings

written by Walter Wang

Electric utilities operated under a rarified business model for decades. Their customers were captive so they rarely had to think about what motivated them to buy. New government energy efficiency mandates have changed that, and done so with an ironic twist. Now utilities must figure how to get their customers to refrain from buying.

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December 9, 2011 0 comment
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The Class Warfare of Dynamic Pricing

written by Walter Wang

Dynamic pricing for electricity has long been the holy grail of the smart grid, particularly for smart metering. The rationale is that if the retail price of electricity actually reflected the true time-based costs instead of a blurred monthly average, then consumers would become more efficient buyers, benefiting themselves,

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November 8, 2011 2 comments
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Time to “Like” the Energy Internet

written by Walter Wang

We hear a lot about the upcoming democratization of energy.  But with the average consumer thinking about energy only six minutes per year, it’s fair to wonder if anyone will show up to ‘vote.’

But this week an alliance that includes the intriguing combination of Opower and Facebook offers promise that this futuristic concept may not be so far

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October 21, 2011 0 comment
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SmartSynch’s Wireless Smart Meter Patents Pay Off

written by Walter Wang

SmartSynch is a Jackson, Mississippi, provider of smart grid solutions and one of the few such companies which leverage existing cellular networks.

SmartSynch owns at least 14 patents and pending patent applications, including at least two patent families relating to wireless data transmission and

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October 13, 2011 1 comment
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