Building a Smarter Grid

More than 60,000 electricity customers in the Pacific Northwest will soon take part in a new effort to create a regional "smart grid" for power distribution. The customers will test new combinations of devices, software and advanced analytical tools that will help enhance the power grid's integration, reliability and performance. And the Tri-Cities will be one of the centers of the new initiative.

Smart grid technology is about promoting energy efficiencies with the help of an interactive system connecting energy distributors and consumers. Many electric utility companies, as part of their efforts to make the transition to a smart grid, have installed "intelligent" meters on the premises of their customers. These meters, with their two-way communication capabilities, allow the utility to monitor power usage remotely, easily connect or disconnect services, and manage peak demand.

But to achieve any real gains, the system needs to be integrated at a much wider level. That's why the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced multimillion-dollar grants for 16 regional smart grid demonstration projects. The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project, which aims to develop a more cost-effective and reliable electric supply, is one of them.

The $178 million project is intended to validate new smart grid technologies and business models, as well as to study the real-time data flows across the electric grid, including adjustments of power consumption when the grid is under stress.

The project, spread across Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, will quantify cost benefits; develop standards for the interoperability of equipment to integrate transmission, distribution and customer interface systems; and plug renewable generation resources into the grid.

The project is a partnership between the Bonneville Power Administration, regional utilities including Seattle City Light and Portland General Electric, technology companies such as IBM, AREVA USA, and 3Tier Inc., among others, and institutions like the University of Washington and Washington State University. The project will be led by Battelle, which manages six national laboratories for the DOE, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. The federal government will provide $88.8 million and the rest of the investment capital will be supplied by project partners.

"The demonstration project will help us learn what works and what doesn't," says Ron Melton, the project director in Richland.  "It's about learning regionally to apply it nationally." 

As part of the study, utilities will install new equipment for demonstration applications during the next two years, and the partner organizations will collect data from 15 test sites.

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