ROCKINGHAM — What if the electric meter on the side of your home - the one with the indecipherable dials and the spinning disk in the center - suddenly became a device that could tell you clearly how much power your home were using? What if it could tell you when the cheapest power rates were available? What if it could even tell the utility company when your power was out and guide repair crews to the downed line?
Turning your electric meter into a communications device is but one element of what's known as a “smart grid,” a digitally enhanced electric transmission system that connects the distribution and transmission of energy with information about its usage.
Eventually, users would be able to gain access to information about energy consumption, and companies could pinpoint power outages simply by looking at an onscreen grid digital display on site. Customers and utilities alike would be able to track energy usage.
This futuristic system is coming soon to Vermont, and last week at the Rockingham Free Public Library in Bellows Falls, Green Mountain Power representatives Shawn Magoon and David Coriell explained what a “smart grid” means for electric users.
Magoon and Coriell repeated several times throughout the presentation that the blueprint for the smart grid will be further refined as the system is put into place over the next 18 months.
In October 2009, Vermont Transco, LLC, received almost $69 million in federal support to launch Vermont's smart grid technology. This support was part of $3.4 billion in smart grid grants across the nation that were part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
This innovative undertaking is the culmination of a joint effort by the state's utility companies, the Vermont Department of Public Service, Vermont's congressional delegation, and the Vermont Office of Economic Stimulus and Recovery. Together, these entities applied for federal stimulus funds for statewide deployment of advanced metering, new customer enhancements, grid automation, and security technologies.
Even though they were speaking for Green Mountain Power, Magoon and Coriell stressed that every utility company in the state will be deploying “smart meters” by January 2012.
Coriell explained that the substation automation is scheduled to be completed between July 2011 and January 2012. Automation of the distribution circuitry is scheduled to be done between January 2012 and February 2013.
Coriell said, “The smart grid in Vermont is mandated to be completed by April 2013.”
Customers can expect installation of the advanced meters starting in October of this year. Meters replaced before then would be of the old style, according to Coriell, in answer to a question from one resident whose meter was being replaced this week.
By January 2013, customers will be able to gain access to the customer portal online, similar to how they can gain online access to their personal bank accounts.
Improving efficiency
When asked how reducing the number of man hours that crews spend looking for outages might affect staffing levels at Green Mountain Power, Magoon said, “There's still plenty of work to go around. Most of the crew members agreed to lateral moves to another position working the smart grid. Some opted for early retirement packages.”
Magoon added that keeping crews safe and working more efficiently was part of the motivation for moving to the smart grid.
“Grid automation will reduce outage time,” Coriell explained. “Work can be done centrally, efficiently,” and would also help utilities manage their energy flow more effectively as they see, in real time, when and how people are using energy.
“We can manage the grid more efficiently to prevent blackouts,” he said.
While the smart meters are coming, Coriell assured residents that customers can choose not to have a wireless in-home device that they can read and use to adjust their power usage.
“You don't have to use the meters to monitor your energy usage,” he said. “Not everyone is going to do that.”
Coriell said the plan will “integrate renewable energy generation to reduce or push energy back onto the grid” from private and business consumers using wind and solar power.
He said one of the unknowns still ahead was how to connect private energy generators, such as solar or wind, to the smart grid. Right now, customers still need two separate meters: one for the utility and one for a private energy generator source.
Coriell said that the long-term intention is to combine data from the two household energy sources in a single meter.
Magoon noted that, with Gov. Peter Shumlin's push to get people to switch over to electric cars, the smart meters will be particularly important.
“You'll want to plug your car in when rate costs are lowest,” Magoon said, thereby avoiding premiums at periods of peak demand.
Coriell added that “new dynamic price plans” will help customers keep energy bills down.
Concerns about safety, security, cost
Security issues are a high priority, according to the Green Mountain Power Facebook page (www.facebook.com/GMPConnects).
“GMP, along with other Vermont utilities deploying smart grid, has created a cybersecurity plan which has been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Department of Energy,” it said, adding that utilities are collaborating with a “well-regarded“ national research laboratory “to review vulnerabilities and safeguards associated with smart grid technology supply chain, manufacturing, delivery, installation, and operation.“
Besides security issues, some residents are concerned by the low-frequency radio waves emitted by the new meters. Green Mountain Power addressed this issue on its Facebook page as well.
“Smart meters emit a very low level of radio frequencies,” the company said. “Studies conducted over the past 50 years conclude that the radio frequencies emitted by common household products do not pose a health or safety issue, and that the energy from a smart meter is actually less than commonly used products.”
Utility rates are heavily regulated by the Vermont Department of Public Service, and when asked “what was in it for them,” Coriell said that utilities would able to operate more efficiently.
“[Energy] rates are going to continue to go up, there's no doubt,” Coriell said. “The cost to operate will be more efficient [with the smart grid].”
However, he was unclear as to how implementing the smart grid would immediately affect the bills of Vermont energy customers. Other states, like California, have seen energy costs increase after the implementation of similar systems.
Changing habits
Mike Ghia, chair of the Rockingham Conservation Committee, which hosted the event, noted the large number of rental units in Rockingham, as well as in Burlington and other Vermont cities and towns.
“I think, realistically, getting renters to monitor their energy usage will be a hard sell,” he said.
Coriell agreed, but he hoped that continuing education through presentations, such as the one in Bellows Falls, will persuade all Vermonters to be concerned about their energy usage.
Magoon noted that the failure of smart grids to reduce energy consumption in other states, like California - where he helped implement a similar system - can be attributed to the absence of this important step.
“People need to understand what a smart grid is, and how to use it,” he said. “If you just get a smart meter installed with no instructions on what use it is to you, how you can cut your energy bill by monitoring it, habits won't change.”