Contact:
Tracy Warren
Phone: 703-907-5746
Mobile: 703-517-3411
The Department of Energy today awarded National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Cooperative Research Network (CRN) $33.9 million for a unique, nationwide demonstration project that will bring together 27 rural electric cooperatives in 10 states varying in size, operation, and region, to install more than 153,000 smart grid components.
Authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the smart grid grants, together with the $3.4 billion in smart grid investment grants announced in October, are part of a federal initiative to test and develop technologies that operate together to make the grid more efficient and reliable.
CRN submitted a request for half of the project’s total cost of $67 million to the Department of Energy.
“Cooperatives, who are leading the industry in the deployment of smart meter infrastructure, have the potential to drive the national effort to understand which smart grid technologies work best and are cost effective,” said NRECA CEO Glenn English.
“Electric cooperatives are proud to be included in the Administration’s smart grid initiative and look forward not only to deploying new technologies but also to advancing how to best extend the smart grid to rural America,” English said.
At its core, the research project by CRN and the cooperatives represents the first opportunity to conduct a nationwide pilot extending and testing end-to-end connectivity – from the power plant to the consumer’s home – and interoperability using MultiSpeak®, a specification developed by CRN through the association’s MultiSpeak Initiative.
The project will examine deployment of an array of smart grid technologies across a wide range of circumstances. The breadth of this proposal will allow CRN and the cooperatives to conduct, in 27 different regions, real-world testing and business feasibility of demand management and grid automation, including all of the necessary software interoperability and cybersecurity.
Rural electric cooperatives own and maintain 42 percent of the nation’s distribution infrastructure – any effort to create a nationwide smart grid must be conducted in partnership with rural electric cooperatives.
Cooperatives are well-positioned to advance the implementation of a smart grid. According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), cooperatives’ advanced metering penetration increased from 3.8 percent in 2006 to 16.4 percent in 2008 – well above the industry as a whole. According to research conducted by NRECA, approximately half of cooperatives have installed at least some advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) on their systems, and some 30 percent of cooperatives have begun to integrate their AMI with other systems on their grid.
By implementing the installations in four successive tranches, the cooperatives will be able to apply lessons learned during initial installations for the benefit of successive installations.
Cooperatives have already made important contributions to interoperability of smart grid software with the MultiSpeak® Initiative, launched 10 years ago by the Cooperative Research Network (CRN) and leading software vendors. If funded, this project would enable extending the MultiSpeak specification to new functions and applications. Respected cybersecurity consultants SAIC and Cigital will work with the cooperatives to explore security issues surrounding enhanced interoperability and connectivity.
The core of the project comprises installation of the following:
- 131,720 smart meter modules
- 18,480 demand response switches
- 3,958 in-home displays/smart thermostats
- 2,825 ZigBee gateways
- 169 voltage sensors
- 247 fault detectors
Highlights
Time sensitive pricing and in-home energy usage pilots in low-income areas
Maintaining affordable electricity is a core objective of consumer-owned electric co-ops and NRECA. Co-ops serve a disproportionate number of consumers who live below the median income level. Seventeen cooperatives are pursuing pilot programs that focus on educating consumers with energy use portals, in-home energy displays and time-sensitive pricing. These efficiency programs may help cooperatives avoid the cost of building additional peaking capacity or purchasing power at very high costs during peaks – costs that are passed on to the consumer-members.
Self-healing feeders for hurricane and flooding-prone regions
Louisiana-based Washington-St. Tammany Electric Co-op has been ravaged by three hurricanes in the last four years: Katrina, Gustav, and Ike. Clarke Electric Co-op in Iowa is still in the process of rebuilding more than 200 miles of line damaged by an ice storm. Part of Adams Electric’s service territory is located in the Mississippi River flood plain; flooding there can wash away electric facilities and require lines to remain de-energized for 2-3 months until waters recede.
To this end, Washington-St. Tammany, Adams, and Clarke are all deploying self-healing feeders.
Demand response and automated meter reading technologies to reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint
The 10 participating distribution cooperatives who belong to the Corn Belt Cooperative in Iowa have densities that range from 1.7 to 3 meters per mile; 90 percent of the meters located on farms. Many of these cooperatives still send staff around their large service area to read meters. An AMI system will allow these cooperatives to reduce vehicle emissions.
Installing the AMI system will also allow Corn Belt to initiate a demand response program to control the 50 MW of distributed generation currently on its system. The cooperative will be able to better manage the demanding agricultural loads, especially in the fall when the system peaks due to high demand from farms drying their crops.
Recently Iowa became the number two state in installed wind capacity. AMI will provide Corn Belt and its members with better intelligence on the costs of wind and the output of facilities throughout the day. This data will be used to better take advantage of this vast renewable resource in Iowa.