The Triangle

Issue date: 10/30/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Arrison

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu awarded $200 million to PECO and its project partners as part of a stimulus grant in order to develop smart grid technology in the Philadelphia area. Drexel University and Viridity Energy, partners in PECO's smart grid initiatives, were also recognized in the grant.

According to Dennis O'Brien, president and CEO of PECO, the energy company plans to install smart meters for its 1.6 million customers in order to better manage energy resources and curtail energy production in accordance with Pennsylvania's Act 129, which requires energy companies to reduce their customers' consumption by 1 percent in 2011 and by 3 percent in 2013. O'Brien said that the smart meter installation will have a total cost of $650 million, which will be reduced by the $200 million grant awarded this week.

The smart grid being installed at Drexel in conjunction with Viridity Energy is also part of PECO's Smart Future program since it will display the feasibility and economic benefits of a dynamic monitoring system in a large setting, according to Kevin Morelock, director of IT and projects at Viridity, and Chika Nwankpa, a Drexel ECE professor working on the smart grid project. According to a Viridity press release, the company will receive $1.179 million from the $200 million grant in order to develop the smart grid at Drexel.

According to Nwankpa, Drexel's Center for Electric Power Engineering will conduct research and develop better models for distribution energy management systems with an ultimate goal of forecasting energy use. This model, along with the smart grid being installed on campus by Viridity, will monitor campus energy use, help the University efficiently manage its energy consumption, and allow resale of energy that is not used by the University.

While the Drexel smart grid is still in planning phases, Morelock and Nwankpa expect the grid to be online by early 2010, with research on the grid spanning at least three years during its use on campus.

Similarly, smart energy technology installed by PECO will help reduce energy over-production, with an estimated savings of $1.5 billion per year once the system is completely installed, according to Chu.

"The United States has a number of power plants that are only used 5 percent of the time. But we still have to pay for the creation and upkeep of the plants [because we need the power during peak usage]. If people use energy off-peak, you can reduce energy costs and also reduce the need for new power plants," Chu said.

Smart meters and grids, like those being developed at Drexel, can give more information to consumers. According to O'Brien, the smart meters to be installed by PECO offer two-way communication between PECO and consumers and thereby provide better information on energy use and cost. In effect, consumers can directly observe that high energy use at night is cheaper than using energy during the day and that behavior like using the washing machine at night is beneficial from economic and environmental perspectives.

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