Energy and Environment

Smart Grid: Higher Education for Electric Utilities

Smart Grid is how the world confronts the challenges that face electric utilities worldwide, and SAIC now has a complete, turnkey offering, from strategy through large-scale deployment and support, integrating grid and back-office operations. SAIC couples its expertise in cybersecurity and systems engineering and integration with BPL Global's Smart Grid software solutions and services. SAIC's unified solution provides real-time support to grid operators and represents a head start in an emerging market for adaptive and predictive tools that manage transmission more effectively. A key component of SAIC's Smart Grid Management Platform is Cyber Inside, which addresses all cyber security regulatory requirements and enables the collection, correlation, and analysis of cyber events to predict threats and eradicate potential vulnerabilities before compromises lead to outages — or worse.

Energy Consulting: Delivering Insight with Impact

Currently, the energy industry is facing several critical challenges: aging generation and transmission infrastructure, talent shortages, tightened capital markets, growing demand for energy, and need to reduce carbon emissions, among others. R.W. Beck, an SAIC company, develops sustainable solutions specific to clients' engineering, economic, financial, planning, operational, and organizational challenges related to critical energy issues.

Effective Desalination: Making Water for a Thirsty Planet

Earth is covered in water, yet only about one tenth of one percent is drinkable. Since the 1970s, R.W. Beck has provided full life-cycle services for desalination projects, from conceptual stage through construction, rate structure analyses and operations and performance evaluation. SAIC can now leverage its power production expertise and explore synergies with collocating desalination plants and power facilities.

BioFuel from Algae: Green Energy from Renewable Sources

SAIC is proving the economic and sustainability advantages of algae biomass to create clean, environmentally friendly fuels. At the core of our solution is the ability to transform algal biomass waste into feedstock for use in the production of transportation fuels, fertilizers, and animal feedstocks, and the generation of power when co-fired with coal. The SAIC team is also investigating the use of algae to sequester carbon dioxide emitted in coal-fired power generation facilities and natural gas exploration and production.

Greenhouse Gas Management: Navigating a Carbon-Constrained World

SAIC forecasts energy supply and prices to help companies prepare for a carbon-constrained world. The company is using its tools, people and experience to forecast carbon-constrained scenarios and develop strategic plans to help clients monetize their environmental assets. SAIC uses customized versions of the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) and its proprietary Optimity^SM solution. SAIC and World Energy Solutions are helping utilities procure renewable energy with reverse auction technology and conduct the first legislatively mandated greenhouse gas trades.

Energy Efficient DesignBuild: Innovative Savings, from Concept to Realization

SAIC delivers DesignBuild^SM services as a cost- and time-efficient approach to capital improvements, including energy-efficient and renewable energy projects. Because DesignBuild combines architecture, design, engineering, and construction services, SAIC can deliver a seamless project and avoid inefficiencies. SAIC is also an approved Energy Services Company (ESCO), and may obtain project financing, and then design, implement, and operate energy efficient and renewable energy projects, enabling clients to implement capital improvements using the energy dollars saved.

Oil and Gas Life Cycle: Optimizing Production and Delivery

The oil and gas industry faces an aging workforce, mature oilfields that produce less over time, increasing costs for recovery, and geopolitical instability. SAIC is investing in three key technology streams to increase production and decrease the cost of recovering oil and gas: geographical information systems (GIS) to enable visualization of the entire oilfield, 3-D gaming engines to provide augmented reality capabilities around specific pieces of facilities, and advanced knowledge management tools to capture the way that experienced but aging operators manage their environment and share that knowledge with less experienced engineers.