Most Energy-Efficient City in the U.S. site of Darnell’s Energy Summit 2014
The second-annual Darnell’s Energy Summit (DES ’14) to be hosted in Boston, Massachusetts, in September 2014. DES ’14 will be a combined event featuring the Eleventh Darnell Power Forum (DPF ’14) plus the Sixth Green Building Power Forum (GBPF ’14) plus the Fifth Smart Grid Electronics Forum (SGEF ’14). DES ’14 will feature the next-generation power electronic devices, architectures and systems. Separate calls for papers will be issued for each of the constituent events. Each of the individual events will maintain its unique identity and will continue to serve different groups of stakeholders. These co-located events will bring together global thought leaders across the areas of advanced power electronics, energy management, micro grids, the smart gird, and related topics of global importance. DES ’14 will leverage the successful track records of the separate events to create powerful opportunities for synergy.
“Boston is the prefect city in which to host the second-annual Darnell’s Energy Summit. Not only does the city and surrounding area include world-class power electronics, energy, and smart grid companies, it includes major universities and research organizations and the city itself was just identified by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy as the most energy-efficient city in the United States,†stated Jeff Shepard, President of Darnell Group. “The city of Boston uses advanced power electronics systems and energy management software to maximize the efficient use of energy by its 350 facilities, 64,000 street lights, traffic lights at 850 intersections, and over 3,100 vehicles. And DES ’14 will feature special content and activities related to Boston’s integrated city-wide energy management capabilities.
"DES ’14 will build on our successful inaugural Darnell Energy Summit hosted last week in Richardson, Texas. With a single registration, you can attend any sessions of interest during these simultaneous leading-edge events," Shepard continued. "Plus you'll have access to the combined Exhibit Hall and will have an opportunity to network with an outstanding group of international experts in a wide range of power electronics, DC building power, and smart grid technologies," he concluded.
DPF '14 will again be an exciting international event that focuses on "advanced power conversion technologies" needed for the successful development of next-generation power systems. There is tremendous synergy possible from discussions broadly focused on power management, energy efficiency, advanced components, energy storage, new power architectures, and more. DPF is a solutions-oriented event, with a strong emphasis on practical advances in power electronics. In addition to a strong focus on today's "best practices," DPF looks forward toward next-generation solutions and advances.
GBPF '14 will consider all aspects of building power including high-voltage and low-voltage dc distribution, hybrid ac and dc distribution architectures, and dc micro grids. A convergence of technologies is occurring that will change how buildings are powered. These technologies include the continued rapid growth of distributed generation (DG) resources; the emergence of high-efficiency lighting technologies; wireless building automation systems; demand-side management of building energy use by electric utilities; and more.
Control, Communications and Security will be three of the major themes of SGEF '14. 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.