EleQuant launches new era in managing power flow on nation's electricity grid system
Formerly Known as Group AIA, Inc., EleQuant Offers New Solution that Dramatically Improves Reliability, Expands Capacity, and Offers Quick Restoration
San Francisco, June 5, 2002 - The U.S. electric industry is facing a number of challenges—an aging infrastructure, growing demand and rapidly changing markets—that threaten to reduce the reliability of the nation's electricity supply. EleQuant, Inc., a new San Francisco-based energy technology company, today announced a product suite that will help solve many of these industry challenges.
According to the North American Electric Reliability Council (NAERC), transmission congestion is expected to continue over the next decade. Growth in demand and the increasing number of energy transactions continue to outstrip the proposed expansion of transmission systems.
“Industry leaders are concerned about future electricity shortages as demand continues to grow without any substantial increase in power production,” said Roberto Torres, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan. “Hopes of major new investments are dimming as investors warily watch companies grapple with the impact of deregulated markets and financial problems brought to the forefront by the collapse of Enron.”
Nation's Transmission Aging Infrastructure No Match for Growth in Demand
Industry experts are concerned about the increasing congestion on the nation's electricity grid. According to Thomas Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, the U.S. transmission system requires nearly $56 billion in new investment over the next decade, but only $35 billion is likely to be spent. According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), total transmission congestion costs nationwide add up to several hundred million dollars.
One action FERC is taking to improve coordination on the nation's grid is to create Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs). Yet, even this important step towards nationwide coordination raises concerns about transmission reliability.
In its report, “Reliability Assessment 2001-2010,” the NAERC stated, “The transition period from existing grid operation arrangements to the new world of RTO-managed grids may create some negative system reliability impacts. New system and organizational structures will need to be implemented over very aggressive time lines.”
“Companies involved in power transmission and distribution, RTOs and other regulatory and monitoring organizations should be looking at technology solutions that can help improve reliability and maximize the existing bandwidth of the electrical grid,” said Eric Freeman, EleQuant Inc.'s general manager.
Blackouts Cost Power Customers Billions, Give Power Providers Headaches
Electricity providers try to avoid any level of disturbance to their customers. Any disturbance—from momentary interruptions of power to actual blackouts—costs money and creates public relations nightmares.
According to a July 2001 report released by the Electric Power Research Institute's (EPRI) Consortium for Electric Infrastructure to Support a Digital Society (CEIDS), $45.7 billion is lost annually to outages affecting three sectors of the U.S. economy that are particular to power disturbances: digital businesses, continuous process manufacturers and all other manufacturing industries.
California seized the nation's attention in 2001 with its rolling blackouts brought about by deregulation, and increased demand balanced against reduced generation. The blackouts not only made the energy crisis the public's number one public policy concern, but business leaders complained loudly about the cost of the rolling blackouts to elected officials, government regulators and the media. The San Jose Mercury News estimated that six days of rolling blackouts in 2001 cost Silicon Valley businesses more than $1 billion.
About EleQuant
Founded in 1988 and based in Barcelona, Spain, GRUPO AIA is a technology and software development company that specializes in solving complex problems for the energy, banking and telecommunications industries. The company is known throughout Europe for developing innovative solutions in areas such as intelligent observation and management of electrical grids electricity demand forecasting, and river basin hydro-generation optimization. The company employs more than 100 physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, electrical and telecommunication engineers.
AIA's energy management division has developed new technology for real-time intelligent observation and management of electricity flow. Public and private power companies use the company's solutions to dramatically improve efficiency of electricity generation, transmission and distribution.
In 2002, the company launched its U.S. operations with the formation of EleQuant, headquartered in San Francisco. EleQuant will focus on providing the company's energy products to utilities, independent system operators, regional transmission operators and other organizations involved with management of electricity grids in the U.S. and Canada. EleQuant Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of GRUPO AIA.
Contacts:
John Sell
EleQuant
415-981-7000
john.sell@elequant.com