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Alternative Energy - Tuesday, October 27, 2009

California Scores $203M Smart Grid Dollars

President Barack Obama formally announced today that American Reinvestment Recovery Act was awarding $3.4 billion in grants with California utility companies receiving $203 million. The money is to be used to develop a more reliable energy grid that fosters the growth of renewable energy sources including wind and solar.

Of the 49 states that will be receiving money from the Recovery Act, the largest amount ever invested in the smart grid, California received the fifth highest award despite having the largest population in the United States. North Carolina ($404 million) received the most funds followed by Florida ($268 million), Texas ($258 million), and Pennsylvania ($233 million). The tiny District of Columbia received $149 million.

Of the $203 million California received, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) received the largest grant. With their $128 million, SMUD will construct a regional smart grid system that will include 600,000 smart meters, 50,000 demand response controls including programmable thermostats, and 100 electric vehicle charging stations.

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) already has an impressive smart grid with smart meters in the homes of their customers so they are using $28 million award for an advanced wireless communication system. This will enable a connection with the 1.4 million smart meters already employed by SDGE’s customers so they can offer competitive pricing and improve efficiency in their system.

Burbank Water and Power and the City of Glendale Water and Power each received $20 million. Both will be deploying smart meters with the funds and improving their existing grid technology. Rounding out the funding was the City of Anaheim and the Modesto Irrigation District who received $5.9 million and $1.5 million respectively.

Notably absent was Pacific Gas & Electric (PGE:NYSE). While PG&E is participating in the Western Electric Coordinating Council synchrophase project to install 250 phasor measurement units across the Western Interconnection, its project to provide the company with real-time energy useage data from 70,000 of its customers did not receive funding. According to PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno, the company will still implement the program but with a trial of only 10,000 customers in an area yet to be determined.

There’s still a possibility that PG&E will receive money from the Recovery Act. At the end of August PG&E applied for a $25 million grant to help build a $356 million Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) project to be located in the Central Valley of California.

The CAES project would collect off-peak energy wind energy and inject compressed air into an underground saline porous rock formation. The compressed air could then be used to generate electricity at peak periods when the renewable energy. The project will have a generation capacity of 300 megawatts. Similar plants are currently running in Alabama and Germany and if the project is successful, it could eliminate the company’s reliance on fossil fuel during peak hours.