Smart grid rollout starts

The morning of Aug. 11, Connecticut Light & Power was dealing with power outages to 1,600 customers in Greenwich as the region sweltered through a heat wave and its accompanying thunderstorms.

With funding for “smart grid” technology also heating up, however, CL&P and parent Northeast Utilities will soon be installing systems to ward off blackouts during periods of peak demand.

Northeast Utilities requested $127 million in federal stimulus funding to help it roll out smart-grid technology to some 200,000 customers across its territory, including customers in Greenwich and Stamford, allowing homeowners and businesses to know when to dial down their reliance on the grid to preserve power supplies and cut costs.

In June, CL&P began a smart meter trial at 3,000 customer sites, and the company said a broader rollout would support 500 jobs in its territories in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

NU said the technology will allow customers to lower their energy use and costs by:

• providing customers hour-by-hour information about their energy use;
• make outages shorter and less extensive by installing distribution system sensors and other equipment that can automatically detect outages and, in certain instances, restore power without dispatching crews; and
• allow more efficient integration and access to distributed generation options such as solar power. NU hopes also to promote the use of electric vehicles by creating 90 “smart charging” stations and kiosks allowing such vehicles to recharge.

 

NU revenue dropped 7 percent from a year earlier to $1.2 billion, partially the result of relatively cool weather in June that has limited the use of air conditioners. The company generated an $83 million profit during the quarter.

 

“One of the things that we sort of studied ”¦ is whether later this summer or this month as consumers experienced really warm weather, whether they really turn down their air conditioning when its gets hotter a number of consecutive days,” said David McHale, chief financial officer of NU, in a conference call with investors this month. “We”™ve done some recent polling of our residential customers and one thing that they tell us is, they are being more proactive in watching their thermostats more closely.”

The corporate parent of United Illuminating Co. had similar results, with UIL Holdings Corp. revenue down 7 percent to $200 million, and the New Haven-based company reporting $14 million in net income.

For its part, UIL applied for $38 million in federal funding for smart-grid functionality in its territory, which includes the Bridgeport area.

And in New York, Consolidated Edison requested $172 million to purchase some 40,000 smart meters, even as it launched a $6 million pilot test of smart-grid technology using 1,500 meters in Queens.

The smart grid investments represent a boom for companies that sell related technologies, including Fairfield-based General Electric Co. whose smart appliances Northeast Utilities will install in a Stamford apartment complex under construction with more than 300 units. The washers, dryers and refrigerators can be programmed to use less energy during periods of peak demand. GE also stands to gain from a range of smart-grid technologies it sells for use in utility operations.

The DOE funding will also benefit small innovators like Bethel-based Apollo Solar Inc., which in late July was awarded $1.5 million from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to develop smart grid technology. Apollo Solar”™s devices convert solar energy for use by appliances; the DOE project will couple its technology with battery storage and a communications platform allowing appliances to be run “off the grid” at peak periods.