SMECO loses out in its bid for grant to boost efficiency

Cooperative plans to move ahead with ‘smart meters'

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

SMECO, a customer-owned cooperative serving the region, requested in August 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.

On Tuesday, the utility learned that the application had been denied, spokesman Tom Dennison said.

On a visit to Florida on Tuesday, President Barack Obama announced the recipients of $3.4 billion in federal stimulus money to be used to boost energy efficiency. The only recipient in Maryland is Baltimore Gas & Electric Company, which won a $200 million grant to "deploy a smart meter network" and improve the company's control over its grid, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Despite the setback, SMECO aims to go ahead with its plan to install "smart meters" within the next five years, Dennison said. The grant would have enabled the co-op to finish the project in three years. The new 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. It will also help customers plan power use for cheaper, off-peak times and pick a rate structure, while helping the company with pricing decisions.

However, the company is postponing plans to develop a "smart grid" that would give the company greater control of its power distribution, Dennison said.

"Essentially, [a smart grid] detects everything from certain voltage regulations to faults on lines, and it is self-healing, is a good way of describing it. That's a way to try to make people understand it, is that it's a process by which the system can detect a problem, fix the problem and have it done seamlessly," he said.

Jen Stutsman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, said she could not comment on specific applications, but said the 389 requests "went through a rigorous merit review and selection process where applications were reviewed by four or five expert reviewers who examined the technical, business operability and security aspects of each application."

Also taken into account were the likelihood of job creation, geographic distribution, pace of implementation and distribution between large and small projects, she said, as well as each company's ability to match the federal funds.

emitrano@somdnews.com