by Cate Meredith
The first electric utility in the nation to receive a Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Glendale Water & Power (GWP) is embarking on an ambitious demonstration project it hopes will lay the groundwork for a city run entirely on smart energy.
The City of Glendale AMI-Smart Grid Initiative is a $51 million project, supported to the tune of $20 million by SGIG funding. A key step in the project is the deployment of nearly 85,000 smart electric meters, which will provide GWP's customers with real-time electricity usage data to help them save on their bills.
Simultaneous water and electric deployment
Craig Kuennen, smart grid project sponsor for Glendale Water & Power, is responsible for planning and executing the project. In addition to deploying new smart meters for GWP's 84,500 electric customers, the utility is simultaneously deploying 33,400 smart water meters within its territory. The project will use a private distribution wide-area network to deliver high-speed communication between the utility and its individual meters. As well, GWP will deploy leak-detecting sensors that will continuously monitor its water system and alert staff to possible inefficiencies.
The new infrastructure will bring everyday appliances like heating, ventilating, air conditioners and even pool pumps online to the smart grid. The smart meters will display kilowatt-hour information, which can be read by GWP meter readers with a handheld device. Data and messages can be sent to customers over the network and delivered via Zigbee radio to in-home devices. Data can also be sent via web portal, SMS text, phone applications, e-mail, voice mail and snail mail.
GWP believes that by showing customers exactly where they're spending-and, in many cases, wasting-money, it will be empowering them with an understanding of how to consume less energy, which, in turn, will mean lower bills for the customers.
Three-phase implementation
The project will be implemented in three phases, according to Kuennen. So far, the project team has created some of the infrastructure, such as the communications backhaul, laid the fiber optics and upgraded the information technology infrastructure.
The second phase will be the more exciting one, when actual customers get to test the system. GWP expects to have in-home displays installed along with a web portal so that users can monitor their usage anywhere and at any time. In addition, the project team expects to complete a thermal energy storage facility to enhance on-demand responsiveness. By the end of this phase, GWP will determine how to charge customers. The municipal utility also hopes to develop other smart grid applications such as distribution automation and power outage management.
The third phase is a fully functional smart city-an idea that doesn't seem as farfetched as it did just a few years ago.
The utility is not yet sure how it will select customers, whether it will be a lottery, and whether the lottery will be voluntary, but Kuennen says he expects to have a couple hundred customers in the project before the end of the year. Presently, GWP has a test group of 10 to 20 homes that are using the AMI in-home display. So far, he says, the response has been good.
But energy customers are not the only people the utility has to impress. As a requirement for the federal funding, Glendale Water & Power has agreed to total transparency and will submit to stringent reporting obligations to ensure that federal dollars are well spent. The utility must prepare numerous plans for cyber security and project management that detail how the project will unfold. Once all those formalities are completed, the utility must then submit progress reports every month to the DOE. According to Kuennen, GWP's report on metrics and benefits has already been submitted.
Managing peak demand
For instance, while utilities have struggled to ease peak demand, GWP's smart grid initiative will use a distributed energy storage solution to help manage peak demand and more efficiently enable the utility to deliver reliable, affordable electric service to customers in a sustainable and environmentally sensitive manner. It's a simple idea that can have a huge impact. The distributed energy storage system absorbs off-peak load and dispatches it on peak. In so doing, it can reduce energy usage by as much as 95 percent. Since the unit is incorporated into a building's air conditioning system, there will be no decision required, no action on a customer's part at all. But that customer will reap the benefits of lower costs and a lighter carbon footprint.
It will also potentially be a significant stride in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The GWP project meets the guidelines set forth by California Senate Bill 17, the nation's first state smart grid law, which was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October 2007. The project models the law's objectives to reduce carbon emissions, improve system reliability, enhance security, detect and deter electricity theft and support smart appliances and electric vehicles.
Job creation
The project is expected to create about 40 jobs in Glendale for installers. But, as Kuennen points out, there are many other jobs that may or may not be counted in the official numbers because, as he says, every government agency requires the city to count the jobs differently. The project will spur additional new employment as it delves into the next phases. Kuennen expects the smart grid project to supply 600 jobs nationwide at the peak.
The benefits of modernizing the infrastructure go beyond technology for technology's sake. The project will enable GWP to be more responsive to customer issues, increase the reliability of service, and save money for the utility.
At its heart, the project seeks to change the way human beings interact with their utilities and the cities they call home. The end-game is not just a slick monitor that shows you didn't shut the refrigerator door all the way-it is an attempt to change the spirit of the city and the behavior of customers into living a more responsible, eco-friendly existence.
In its final phase, the project engineers also seek to have electrical car chargers installed as a standard in every home. With that support in place, it becomes easier for consumers to make the choice to buy a smart car.
By making it easy for customers to support such lifestyle changes, GWP hopes Glendale will be a model for all city utilities and the first to reach a new, smarter future.