News

EMerge Alliance Sponsors Third-Annual Smart Grid Electronics Forum

August 23, 2012 by Jeff Shepard

The EMerge Alliance has become a Supporting Sponsor 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 here.

"We are excited to have the EMerge Alliance as a Supporting Sponsor again this year for Darnell’s Smart Grid Electronics Forum," stated Jeff Shepard, president of Darnell Group. "Simply producing a ’smarter grid’ will not be sufficient to solve the problems with today’s electricity transmission and distribution systems. New powering concepts such as the dc power distribution standards being developed by the EMerge Alliance for use across a variety of areas including; occupied spaces, data centers, building services and outdoor applications, will be a critical component in enabling next-generation dc microgrids," 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.

Complete information on the third-annual Smart Grid Electronics Forum is available here.

The EMerge Alliance is an open industry association leading the rapid adoption of safe dc power distribution in commercial buildings through the development of EMerge Alliance standards. These innovative application standards integrate building infrastructure, power, controls and devices (such as lighting) in a common microgrid platform to facilitate the hybrid use of ac and dc power throughout buildings for unprecedented design and space flexibility, greater energy efficiency and improved sustainability. We believe that ongoing and increasing demand for improved reliability and energy efficiency across all areas of commercial buildings provides the need for the EMerge Alliance family of power distribution standards in Occupied Spaces, Data Centers, Building Services, and Outdoor Applications. The not-for-profit Alliance is accepting new members at various levels. For more information, please visit.