The grant, which was sought after by over 600 national utilities, is expected to speed up the smart grid build out and to help EPB add more points of automation on the electric system and provide smart meters to every electric power customer’s home in its service area.
In August, EPB submitted a proposal to DOE’s Smart Grid Investment Grant program. In cooperation with Tantalus and Medium, EPB requested $111.5m in matching funds to support the completion of EPB’s smart grid network.
Harold DePriest, president and CEO of EPB, said: “In an era of rising energy costs, it became clear that we could not afford to not build a smart grid. Information technology and new approaches to managing customer relationships is the key to managing energy costs and environmental impacts in the future.”
EPB has a network already under construction and has made investments in electric system automation. Smart or advanced metering technology, developed in cooperation with Tantalus Systems, will be able to communicate customer consumption data from the current 11 million to over 80 billion data points per year. In cooperation with Medium, an integrated design and communications firm in Chattanooga, the network will then be used to provide consumers with real time information on electric use and pricing options, EPB said.
With help from the recently awarded DOE grants, EPB would be able to complete system wide switching automation and integration with automated metering faster than originally planned, creating a smart grid at the distribution, sub-transmission, and customer levels.
