At Oscar”™s Delicatessen on Main Street in Westport, a countertop orb changes colors from one hour to the next.
The device doesn”™t tell you when your Reuben is piping hot ”“ rather it serves owner Lee Papageorge a reminder on sweltering days to cut electricity use where possible, reducing his restaurant”™s strain on the grid and keeping power flowing.
Oscar”™s Deli was one of 1,500 commercial businesses to participate in Connecticut Light & Power”™s Plan-it Wise program, which wrapped up a two-month pilot test of a “smart meter” system at the close of August.
At Oscar”™s Deli and other sites, CL&P is testing smart meters that gauge electricity use hourly, as well as programmable thermostats; control switches to turn air conditioners on and off; in-home displays to help customers eyeball their electricity use; and perhaps most interestingly, the “energy orb,” an eye-catching tabletop sphere made by Massachusetts-based Ambient Devices Inc. that changes color according to prevailing electricity rates.
CL&P hopes the combination of technologies will eventually allow it to use peak-time pricing on a widespread basis, where electricity used during peak periods like hot summer days will cost more than off-peak, encouraging some customers to cut their power use.
Â
Those that did so for a four-hour block would receive a rebate on their bill, an incentive some commercial customers of CL&P already get by participating in demand-response programs that reward them for cutting power use on hot days.
Â
In time, CL&P would like to institute a time-of-use model that would charge customers less for running major appliances like washing machines on weekends or evenings.
“We hope to learn from this pilot if our customers will change their peak-time energy usage in response to clear price differences during peak times (through) the use of the smart technology,” said Mitch Gross, a CL&P spokesman.
In addition to commercial businesses, Plan-it Wise participants included 1,500 homeowners in Stamford and Hartford.
CL&P plans to file a report with the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control by year end; earlier this summer, the company applied for federal funding to support a broad rollout of the technology in its service areas.
Â
The vast majority of ratepayers are accustomed to purchasing electricity on a static, flat-rate basis ”“ an easy enough system for homeowners and small business owners to understand, but one that can lead to overconsumption during peak periods when energy costs are highest and customers lack incentives to pare back use of air conditioners, industrial coolers and other devices.
Â
The savings are not huge ”“ last year the Washington, D.C.-based Edison Electric Institute estimated the average homeowner would save between $4 and $8 monthly.
Still, in a separate study with the California-based Electric Power Research Institute, the Edison Electric Institute determined that 37 percent of the growth in electricity sales through 2030 could be offset through energy-efficiency programs, and 52 percent of peak-demand growth could be offset by a combination of energy-efficiency and demand-response programs.
It takes more than advanced meters to reap the full benefits of a “smart grid,” however ”“ electricity companies must update their software and billing systems to make real-time and peak pricing a reality.
Ideally, utilities will be able to draw on far more esoteric information to predict ideal load levels ”“ for instance, the Ridgefield-based Valley Group sells systems to monitor the load on overhead power lines by measuring line tension and local weather parameters, and feeds that information to the supervisory control systems used by utilities. In 2007, Valley Group was acquired by France-based Nexans.
And companies like Bethel-based Apollo Solar are developing off-grid technologies to produce, store and control power in areas that lack easy access to power supplies, with Apollo Solar hoping its systems will eventually be used generally for electricity conservation.
