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Smart Meters

Consumers can save money, a lot of money, and prevent electrical power outages if they have the knowledge and control to do so. Smart meters and smart appliances hold the key to both knowledge and control. Smart Meters using software and computer technology, installed in homes, offices and factories, can receive a Real-Time price signal from the utility, through the power grid, and return usage information to the utility. This capability would make possible a wide assortment of products and services that could take advantage of real-time electricity prices.

Smart appliances, smart buildings and smart factory equipment can be programmed to interact with with smart meters to insure optimal power usage and give the consumer the best power price by "knowing" to shut-down or reduce consumption when prices increase. Smart meters can also measure and control water and natural gas consumption.

Key to American Energy Independence
by Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

I believe that attaining energy independence is our moral obligation to future generations. And when it comes to changing how we live and work, advanced building technologies are truly key to American energy independence.

We only need to consider the enormity of energy consumption in buildings to realize the scale of the opportunity. Let me quickly run through what we know about buildings:

• Today, residential and commercial buildings consume 39 percent of total U.S. energy. That is MORE than the transportation sector, and MORE than the industry sector.
• When you drill down by energy type, the numbers get even bigger. Buildings account for 53 percent of our primary consumption of natural gas — and a whopping 71 percent of our electricity consumption.
• The dollars involved are staggering. In the commercial buildings sector alone, the annual electric power bill in 2003 was an estimated $96 billion. When you look at the trend line in natural gas prices, as well as the pressures to slow peak electric demand growth in many communities, it is clear that energy efficiency in buildings MUST be on the front line in our battle for American energy independence. And it is clear that the returns are remarkable — not only in savings for today's homeowners and businesses, but in the aggregate for our nation, paying recurring dividends of enhanced security and prosperity of future generations.

Quoted from a speech concerning the role of buildings in attaining energy independence, titled Key to American Energy Independence, given by Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, at the Building Technologies Program Charrette, held at the Georgetown Conference Center in Washington, DC.  May 16, 2006

Smart meters mean smarter consumers By Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA)

"Currently, the vast majority of electricity consumers are not provided with a very basic piece of information - a price signal - that would enable them to become smarter energy consumers and to capture the attendant benefits.

Consumers have little incentive to conserve effectively or to alter their electricity use. For the most part, they have their electricity consumption recorded by antiquated meters, which fail to distinguish between peak and off-peak periods.

The failure to apply new technologies to electricity consumption results in lost opportunities to conserve electricity, to shift more electricity usage to the off-peak periods, to lower electricity bills and to make electricity systems more efficient.

Technological advances have now brought real-time price information within the grasp of our nation’s electricity consumers. Through the use of advanced metering technologies, consumers could have advanced meters, which would provide real-time price information, installed at their homes or businesses. Utilities and regional transmission entities would have new data and tools for optimizing the operation and expansion of their systems. By enabling consumers to access accurate data on their usage of electricity and its costs, the use of advanced meters would empower consumers to make informed and accurate decisions regarding their usage.

Moreover, by providing that monthly electricity bills be based on the data recorded by the advanced meter, a consumer’s bill would accurately reflect actual electricity usage.

Advanced meters record a consumer’s electricity usage at specified intervals during weekdays and weekends and by season.

Using advanced meter technologies, a consumer can monitor his or her electricity consumption and make informed decisions about electricity use. For example, using the advanced meter device, a residential consumer can determine that it would be more economical to run certain appliances, such as a dishwasher or washing machine, during off-peak hours, when the cost of electricity is less expensive. By using the information provided by the meter, the customer would be making wiser decisions regarding his or her consumption and the subsequent choices would result in a lower electricity bill.

Of course, nothing would prevent the customer from using any appliance at any time. Usage would remain a matter of personal choice.

Customers who choose time-based pricing options benefit not only themselves but other customers as well. By reducing peak usage, the overall peak demand in a local electricity market is reduced and competition among wholesale electricity sellers will drive the wholesale price of electricity lower. The partial shift in electricity consumption by consumers to off-peak periods would also reduce the need to build new generation and transmission resulting in further savings.

In addition, the need to construct fewer generation facilities would have an environmental benefit. Despite some advancements in technologies for, and the use of, environmentally sound methods of electricity generation, the environmental concerns associated with the construction of new generation facilities remain substantial. The use of advanced meters to shift a portion of the load to off-peak hours would result in significant savings, which would alleviate the need for this construction.

The benefits to the use of advanced meters are numerous and significant. It is sound public policy to provide consumers with the necessary tools and data to make informed decisions regarding their electricity consumption and to be billed based on their actual usage of electricity. Smart federal energy policy should include support for the use of smart meters."

Congressman Boucher is ranking member of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) was signed into law in August of 2005. Congressman Boucher is author of the provisions in EPACT which promote the use of advanced or smart meters. For the most part, consumers currently have their electricity consumption recorded by antiquated meters which fail to distinguish between peak and off-peak periods. The failure to apply new technologies to electricity consumption results in lost opportunities to conserve electricity, to shift more electricity usage to the off-peak periods, to lower electricity bills and to make electricity systems more efficient.

Through the use of advanced metering technologies, consumers can have real-time price information empowering them to make informed and accurate decisions regarding their electricity usage. For example, a consumer could choose to run appliances such as a dishwasher or washing machine at times when electricity is less expensive.

Customers who choose time-based pricing options benefit not only themselves but other customers as well. By reducing peak usage, the overall peak demand in a local electricity market is reduced. The partial shift in electricity consumption by consumers to off-peak periods reduces the need to build new generation and transmission facilities.

The smart metering section of EPACT authored by Representative Boucher requires states to consider the adoption of smart metering programs and additionally requires the federal government to provide technical assistance for the deployment of smart meters.

The Convergence of Technology and Market Needs: The Benefits of Combining AMR, Energy Management, Utility Remote Account Access and Information Distribution is a paper by Tom D. Tamarkin, CEO of USCL Corporation, manufacturer of the EMS-2020 Wireless in-home energy management (smart meter) systems.

Abstract:

"As energy and utility service prices rise, increasing numbers of consumers are looking for ways to manage the amount of money spent on electricity, gas and water. The fundamental problem consumers have in managing their use of utility commodities, be it water, gas, or electricity, is that there is no practical way to tell how much of each product they are using and therefore how much they are spending at any point in time. Further, they do not know how much it costs to use a given appliance, maintain a certain household temperature, or water the lawn.

Utility companies have no way to know how much electricity, gas or water customers use in real time. They can not tell what the maximum peak amount of electricity, gas or water was used nor can they develop a corollary between time of service use and amount. The overwhelming majority of residential utility accounts are billed by taking an accumulation of services used over a thirty-day period of time. As a result of these metering limitations, consumers don’t receive the benefit of flexible pricing options that more closely match their individual usage profiles.

Further, a utility typically obtains these accumulated monthly readings by sending a human meter reader to each and every account to visually inspect a local utility meter and manually record the readings in some type of hand held data terminal. Many residences have metered electric, gas and water services with local meters read once a month by different meter readers representing each utility service. This represents a significant cost to the utilities and their customers. There are also liability issues in these security conscious times.

Recent advances in microelectronics and communications technology have vastly outpaced the traditional installed means of metering, meter reading and billing. Today’s technology can provide the consumer up to the second real time and accumulated energy usage and pricing information, provide the means to manage and control such usage, and automatically transport this information to multiple utilities such as electric, gas and water. The same technology provides the utilities significant positive economic advantages based on new control ability, reduction of operating expenses and new revenue streams resulting from new value added products and services. Further, new financing alternatives are created which eliminates the necessity of the utility having to pay for the acquisition costs associated with the new metering equipment. Cash strapped utilities can use these advantages to help return to profitability."

EPRI's Global Vision for the Future Entails a Smart Grid, Clean Power, and Power for All

Palo Alto, Calif. — August 11, 2004 — Over the past century, electricity has been the well-spring for technical innovation and a prime mover for the creation of new industries, jobs, and services. According to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the non-profit, collaborative science and technology development center and think tank for the electricity industry, its impact in the 21st century can be even greater if critical development and investment decisions are made now to transform the electricity system for the pressing needs of the new century.

Kurt Yeager, president and CEO of EPRI, notes that there are three high-priority goals essential to assuring global economic health and well-being:

• meeting the precision-power requirements of the emerging digital economy
• accelerating the development of clean-energy technologies to reduce air pollution and address climate change
• developing policies and tools to ensure universal access to the benefits of electricity for people throughout the world

According to the latest edition of the Electricity Technology Roadmap, spearheaded by EPRI in collaboration with more than 200 organizations including energy companies, environmental groups, academia, government agencies, financial organizations, and trade associations, the societal benefits of meeting these goals will far outweigh the costs.

Yeager says, "For instance, development and full deployment of a modern 'smart' electricity system in the U.S. would cost the average household less than $5 per month. This cost could be offset many times over by immediate reliability and efficiency improvements. In fact, modernizing the electricity infrastructure could translate into at least $3 trillion per year in additional U.S. GDP by 2025."

A truly smart power system would include automated capabilities to optimize its own performance, anticipate problems, find robust solutions, and heal itself instantaneously without the need for outside intervention. Such a system would deliver the high-quality power needed by sensitive digital technologies while giving consumers much more control over their electricity use. Over time it would also evolve to support dynamic two-way communication with advanced electrical appliances. Architectural design and demonstrations of this smart power system are already underway.

- Jackie Turner - EPRI News

American voters need to tell their elected representatives to support smart meters.

Smart Meters:
GridPoint Central
DRAM Coalition.org
Real Time Pricing (RTP)
USMeterReading AMR Sites
Making the Power Grid Smarter
SMART METERS CAN HELP CONSUMERS REDUCE ENERGY COSTS

Smart Appliances:
The Grid Friendly Appliance™ Controller
Projects Assess Impact of Smart Grid Technologies
GridWise Initiative to Demonstrate New Electric Grid Technologies
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Unveils GridWise™ Initiative to Test New Electric Grid Technologies
—'Smart' Energy Devices and Real-time Pricing Information Enable Increased Options for Consumers, Bringing Power to the People
Glossary

High-Voltage Composite Electricity Transmission Lines:
Cables and Conductors
Composite Technology Corporation
Composite-Reinforced Aluminum Conductor (CRAC)
CRAC-TelePower: Electricity and Data over the same line
Produced by the California Energy Commission
The 44 page report is a 238 KB Adobe PDF document.

High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission:
GE HVDC technology
ABB HVDC technology
High-voltage direct current
High-Voltage Transmission Lines
Superconducting Transmission Lines
Nanotechnology leads to discovery of super superconductors

Efficiency, Co-Generation and Distributed Energy:
Cogeneration Systems
Energy Efficiency Software
Cogeneration and Trigeneration
Cheaper Energy by Going to Waste
Ounce of Efficiency, Pound of Freedom
A nickel investment for future’s grid will pay off
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
Microturbines Provide Big Potential With Opportunity Fuels
Distributed-Energy Resources: A Key Element of Grid Modernization
More Than 200 Hospitals Nationwide Are Recycling Energy for Peak Performance
Cogen Hits the Big Time: Cheap Onsite Power Arrives in the Industrial Heartland

A White Paper on the Benefits and Challenges of Kinetic Energy Storage

Recommended reading:
Our Energy Challenge by Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard E. Smalley
Zero Interest Financing —Investment Capital for American Energy Independence Projects

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