Monday, April 27. 2009

Intergraph, KEMA Examine Smart Grid Opportunities from Stimulus

Intergraph and KEMA are both investigating Smart Grid opportunities that are expected to result from economic stimulus funds. Intergraph, a global provider of engineering and geospatial software, and KEMA, a business and technical consultancy for the energy industry, both view the optimization of the operations control center as key to Smart Grid success. In a report released by KEMA, the company believes that of the stimulus money going towards infrastructure that at least 10% will be dedicated to advanced IT programs of which operation control centers will be a major portion. From the report (download; registration required):

KEMA's projection anticipates that a potential disbursement of $16 billion in Smart Grid incentives would act as a catalyst in driving associated Smart Grid projects that are worth $64 billion. The impact of these projects would result in the direct creation of approximately 280,000 new positions across various categories, of which more than 150,000 will be created by the end of 2009. Furthermore, KEMA estimates that nearly 140,000 new direct jobs would persist beyond the Smart Grid deployment as permanent, on-going high-value positions.

Tony DiMarco of Intergraph believes that his company is well positioned to support the growing demand for infrastructure improvements, specifically surrounding Smart Grid, outage management, mobile resource management and field force automation. Intergraph is also hosting a webinar with Stellar Grants to educate utilities on how to obtain Smart Grid stimulus money. In the area of critical infrastructure, Intergraph can also assess the vulnerability of utility networks. DiMarco emphasized that Intergraph is very focused on improving location-based situational awareness for utilities.