Lockheed Martin, a global security company, and Black & Veatch had joined forces to help utility clients improve the reliability, efficiency and interoperability of the electric power grid and protect it against cyber attacks.
Both the companies together offers integrated technology and communication solutions to help utilities shape projects and request grants being offered by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Smart Grid Investment Grant Program.
As a part of the DOE’s Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Recovery Plan, the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program has been granted $4.5 billion to support the modernization of the electric grid.
Several first-round applications have been supported by the companies, and they would continue assisting other DOE funding applications, such as the DOE’s loan guarantees for employing innovative energy efficiency, renewable energy and advanced transmission and distribution.
Tom Grumbly, vice president of Lockheed Martin Energy & Environmental Services, said: “Our nation’s power grid is at a crossroads — to support a clean energy future, the grid must smartly and securely manage and distribute a new mix of traditional and alternative energies to users.”
Martin Travers, president of Black & Veatch’s Telecommunications Division, said: “Black & Veatch provides a deep understanding of the inter-dependencies of power delivery and telecommunications infrastructure to optimize the value of the Smart Grid.”
Together, the companies are positioned to help utility clients and deploy advanced Smart Grid technologies in support of energy efficiency, distributed resources and reliability initiatives. Lockheed Martin brings its information management, business process re-engineering, and cyber security expertise to the team’s offering, as well as modeling and simulation and demand response tools.
Lockheed Martin and Black & Veatch would focus on supporting DOE applicants’ Smart Grid initiatives for Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Substation and Distribution Automation, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), Distribution Management Systems and Demand Response projects, in the areas of interoperability and cyber security.
Lockheed Martin engages in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
Black & Veatch is an engineering, consulting and construction company that specializes in infrastructure development in energy, water, telecommunications, management consulting, federal and environmental markets.