Smart grid gets a boost

Current Group hires utility veteran Ray Gogel to promote smart grid vision.

By SOURCE: Wall Street Journal June 24, 2009

The Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog reported that for Current Group, "getting utilities to deploy its sensors, communications systems and software can be frustrating." Therefore it "has hired a utility sector veteran, Ray Gogel, to serve as its president, with an eye to winning over more utilities to its smart grid vision.

Gogel was instrumental in creating Xcel Energy Inc.’s SmartGridCity project in Colorado that’s putting advanced technology to work for 50,000 utility customers." Gogel noted that "’a lot of companies focus on meters as a blunt instruments’ with which they are attempting to reduce energy demand," while Current Group "thinks the better approach is to deploy sensors and other tools in utilities’ distribution networks."

Current CEO Tom Casey said that "smarter electric infrastructure will make for a more nimble grid, able to toggle between resources that will fluctuate."