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MID receives $1.5 million federal stimulus grant
for smart electric grid project
A computer is just a box on your desk – unless it helps you work more productively and
talks to other computers at your company.
A smart electric meter is just a round electronic box on the side of your home. That is,
until you’re empowered to use information from the smart meter to choose how you
spend your energy dollars. And your utility upgrades its equipment to productively use
data from all the smart meters at all of the homes it serves. Then the whole network
becomes a Smart Electric Grid. And with that, we all start using energy more efficiently,
together.
The U.S. Dept. of Energy announced on Oct. 27, 2009, that the Modesto Irrigation
District (MID) has been selected to receive a $1.5 million federal stimulus grant. The
grant is designed to speed up investments in smart electric grid technology – the hightech upgrades that will let MID and MID customers use energy smarter, together.
“With this grant, MID will deploy smart grid technology that saves energy and gets the cost savings from smart meters into customers’ hands sooner,” said Tom Kimball, MID
Assistant General Manager of Transmission & Distribution. “It’s especially gratifying for
MID to be one of only six California utilities chosen to receive a smart grid grant.” MID is nearing completion of a project to upgrade over 100,000 residential and
commercial locations throughout its service area with advanced digital smart meters. “We already had a follow-on smart grid project in the hopper when Congress approved
the federal stimulus package,” said Kimball.
The Dept. of Energy grant, plus a matching amount (pending approval by the MID
Board of Directors), will pay for installing smart control equipment at key points
throughout MID’s electric infrastructure. When completed, this two-year project will
reduce system-wide energy use and deliver substantial cost savings. Final estimates
are not yet complete, but MID anticipates savings in the range of several million dollars
per year. Because MID is a public power utility, all cost savings will be passed through
to MID customers.
Planned control equipment upgrades include automated capacitor bank controllers and
voltage control equipment at MID substations. This equipment, which exchanges data
with smart meters at customer locations, will provide several advantages:
- More efficient distribution of electricity to customers.
- Delivering exactly the voltage customers need with no wasted energy.
- An automated, quick-response control system to regulate and stabilize voltages.
- Reduced system-wide energy use and cost savings for MID customers.
“This grant will also help pay for the 4,000 residential smart meters remaining to be
installed and will make possible a pilot project we envision testing with a small group of
MID residential customers,” said Kimball. The proposed pilot project, currently in the
planning stages, will probably include features such as:
- An in-home display showing the customer’s personal electric use in detail.
- Tools that will enable the customer to understand exactly how his electric dollars
are spent and make choices that suit his needs.
- A rate structure that rewards the customer for using less electricity during peak hours.
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