SmartGrid Gives Consumers More Control Over Energy Use
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SmartGrid technology promises customers the opportunity to control the specifics of how they use electricity. NY1's Technology reporter filed the following report.Consumers have two choices when it comes to electricity - they can either use it or not. But now, Xcel Energy, Accenture and several other companies are creating prototypes for the U.S. energy market to use a SmartGrid technology, which will let customers control how they use electricity and where that electricity comes from.
"SmartGrid is the term we're applying to the digitizing of the normal electric grid," says Ray Gogel of Xcel Energy. "The grid of the future will help you enable you to understand your bill better, to make wise choices, to save money on that bill, and to make choices that have environmentally beneficial impacts. You'll have thermostats that go up and down and respond to price signals, you'll have appliances that respond to price signals as you go forward."
Eventually, SmartGrid will allow customers to enter budget constraints for energy use and the system will say what changes need to be made in order to stay within budget.
Customers can also specify whether they want to use more power when more green energy sources, like wind or solar power, are on the grid.
This summer, Boulder City, Colo. will become the first city in the world to switch entirely to SmartGrid technology.
"We are actively implementing the project right now. We have the technology in place and then by June we'll have it all up and running for the customers in their households," says Mike Donohue of Accenture. "What we're trying to do is work with the customer to try to understand what's possible - can we achieve 10, 20, 50 percent reduction? Quite honestly, we find it varies by the different customer segments."
Similar projects are also taking shape in Austin, Texas and a few pockets of New England.
Washington, D.C. is also interested in this effort as well. Barack Obama administration's has approximately $11 billion in its economic stimulus plan slated to develop SmartGrid systems.