Grant to allow grid upgrade

Friday, Aug. 14, 2009

Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, a customer-owned cooperative utility company serving the region, has requested a $40.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, half the expected cost of installing sophisticated power meters and other hardware and software upgrades designed to distribute power more effectively and encourage customers to conserve, it announced Aug. 7.

New "smart" meters on homes and businesses will be able to report power usage hourly to the company to be analyzed by computer. This will allow SMECO to track use remotely and make it easier to provide up-to-date meter readings to customers, according to a release. It will also help customers plan power usage for cheaper, off-peak times and pick a rate structure, while helping the company with pricing decisions.

SMECO has been working with Enspiria Solutions to design the upgrades. The use of information technology in power distribution was already under consideration at the company but "the [grant] application was the first time that SMECO was able to look at a ‘smart grid' holistically. We had several components planned out and under development … but when the stimulus money became available it offered us the opportunity to look ahead, bring all these programs together and put together what we believe is a very compelling application to be considered by DOE," said SMECO spokesman Tom Dennison.

The company cannot predict how much energy could be saved because the result depends on consumer behavior, according to Dennison. But the new system would help the company identify outages and direct power more efficiently, saving time.

Regional energy companies Baltimore Gas & Electric and Pepco have applied for grants for their own "smart grid" projects, and in pursuing the technology "I think bottom line is we would be moving ahead from where we are today," Dennison said.

If the government springs for only a portion of the grant, SMECO will consider which parts of the program to keep and which to discard. The business plan will require the approval of the Maryland Public Service Commission for the company to recoup the cost of its investment, according to SMECO.

Under the terms of the grant, the project must be completed in three years; without it the upgrades will likely take years longer, according to SMECO. The project will create "several" full-time jobs, Dennison said.

Ken Robinson of Swan Point praised the application.

"I think that any effort that utility companies make to be more efficient is move right direction," he said. "The technology is there. I'm quite gratified to see SMECO taking advantage of this. I think it's obvious that so much of the energy we produce is wasted because of an unreliable and antiquated power grid."

Robinson, a District 1 Democratic candidate for Charles County commissioner, has championed alternative power by erecting a wind turbine next to his Swan Point home as a protest against Mirant Mid-Atlantic's coal-fired power plant in Morgantown.

emitrano@somdnews.com