The DOE’s Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) will fund half of a five-year, $9.3m project by Central Electric to enhance the reliability and efficiency of CEC’s electric system.
During the first three years of the project, CEC plans to upgrade meters, and install communications and other equipment, in the co-op’s 5,300 square mile service territory. The last two years of the five-year program will be spent in partnership with DOE, monitoring, reporting and evaluating the system, the company said.
Alan Guggenheim, member services director at Central Electric, said: “This grant is significant to our 24,600 members. We can accelerate the implementation of advanced metering technology that will improve our electric system and, in the future, provide our members with more information, enabling them to make better energy consumption choices.”
The grant, provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will enable CEC to replace more than 30,000 existing meters with advanced metering technology.
Mr Guggenheim added, “The federal grant is a testament to Central Electric’s leadership in energy innovation and shows that we are committed to the implementation of a smart grid electric infrastructure.”
The automated metering infrastructure (AMI) project is designed to improve billing and accounting efficiency. Automation of meter reading and other field services will also reduce CEC’s carbon footprint, in terms of vehicular use.
It provides a platform for new products and services, protection for CEC’s electric system from physical and cyber attack, and will eventually enable members to monitor their usage to take advantage of lower price-periods, Mr Guggenheim said.
The $4.6m DOE grant to CEC was part of a larger $19.6m DOE grant for the implementation of a region-wide smart grid system, awarded today to Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative (PNGC), a Portland-based electric generation and transmission cooperative.
PNGC was acting on behalf of 12 of its electric utility cooperative members, including CEC. The total smart grid project value, including both the $19.6m DOE grant and the 50% matching portion of the participating PNGC cooperatives, is $39.2m.
The regional project entails installation of more than 97,000 smart meters and associated equipment in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Wyoming.
