$3.4 Billion Investment to Spur Transition to Smart Grid
President Obama recently announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history, funding a broad range of technologies that aims to spur the nation’s transition to a smarter, stronger, more efficient and reliable electric system.
President Obama recently announced the largest single energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history, funding a broad range of technologies that aims to spur the nation’s transition to a smarter, stronger, more efficient and reliable electric system.
The $3.4 billion in grant awards are part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and will be matched by industry funding for a total public-private investment worth over $8 billion. Applicants expect that the projects will create tens of thousands of jobs, and consumers in 49 states will benefit from these investments, according to the DOE.
One-hundred private companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and other partners will receive the Smart Grid Investment Grant awards.
Projects funded include:
- Making Electricity Distribution and Transmission More Efficient: $400 million. The Administration is funding several grid modernization projects across the country that aim to reduce the amount of power that is wasted from the time it is produced at a power plant to the time it gets to your building. By deploying digital monitoring devices and increasing grid automation, these awards should increase the efficiency, reliability and security of the system, and will help link up renewable energy resources with the electric grid, according to the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).
- Integrating and Crosscutting Across Different “Smart” Components of a Smart Grid: $2 billion. Much like electronic banking, the Smart Grid is not the sum total of its components but how those components work together. The Administration is funding a range of projects that should incorporate these various components into one system or cut across various project areas — including smart meters, smart thermostats and appliances, syncrophasors, automated substations, plug in hybrid electric vehicles, renewable energy sources, etc.
- Building a Smart Grid Manufacturing Industry: $25 million. These investments will aims to expand the manufacturing base of companies that can produce smart meters, smart appliances, synchrophasors, smart transformers, and other components for smart grid systems in the U.S.
According to NEMA, the combined effect of the investments, when the projects are fully implemented, should:
- Create tens of thousands of jobs across the country.
- Leverage more than $4.7 billion in private investment to match the federal investment.
- Make the grid more reliable, reducing power outages that cost American consumers $150 billion a year — about $500 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
- Install more than 850 sensors — called ‘Phasor Measurement Units’ — that will cover 100 percent of the U.S. electric grid and make it possible for grid operators to better monitor grid conditions and prevent minor disturbances in the electrical system from cascading into local or regional power outages or blackouts.
- Install more than 200,000 smart transformers that will make it possible for power companies to replace units before they fail thus saving money and reducing power outages.
- Install almost 700 automated substations, representing about 5 percent of the nation’s total that will make it possible for power companies to respond faster and more effectively to restore service when bad weather knocks down power lines or causes electricity disruptions.
- Empower consumers to cut their electricity bills. The Recovery Act combined with private investment will put us on pace to deploy more than 40 million smart meters in American homes and businesses over the next few years that will help consumers cut their utility bills.
- Reduce peak electricity demand by more than 1400 MW, which is the equivalent of several larger power plants and can save ratepayers more than $1.5 billion in capital costs and help lower utility bills.
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