Battelle hopes to help further smart grid use

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

KENNEWICK — Kennewick residents could help demonstrate the smart power grid of the future if a bid by a Northwest team led by Battelle is named a winner by the Department of Energy.

DOE asked for proposals in June to create regional smart grid demonstration projects to show how smart grid technology can make energy delivery more reliable and more efficient.

Battelle has teamed with Bonneville Power Administration and 12 utilities in five Northwest states to create the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project. Its proposal was due this week and winners are expected to be named by the end of the year.

The Northwest team is proposing to spend $178 million on a five-year project, half of it provided by project participants. At its peak the project would create 1,500 jobs across the Northwest in manufacturing, installation and operation of smart grid equipment, telecommunications networks, software and controls.

DOE has a total of $615 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act money to spend on smart grid de-monstration projects to show how emerging technologies can be used.

Battelle, which operates Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland for the Department of Energy, will not discuss specifics of its proposal until winners are announced. However, Battelle will say that the team's proposal would involve 60,000 metered customers in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

Customers would be in Kennewick, Milton-Freewater and Pullman and at the University of Washington, among other locations.

Each utility, including the Benton Public Utility District serving Kennewick, would demonstrate the smart grid concepts that make the most sense for its customers, said Carl Imhoff, market sector manager for electricity infrastructure at PNNL.

Smart grid technology includes everything from interactive appliances in homes that can receive information on the state of the grid to substation automation and sensors on transmission lines. The goal is to allow two-way communication to monitor activities as they are happening, exchange data about supply and demand and adjust power use to changing load requirements.

For instance, utilities might use the smart grid to automatically be notified when a home or neighborhood loses power rather than waiting for calls from consumers who have lost power. Consumers might use appliances that can respond to the grid, perhaps switching off electricity to a hot water heater for 30 seconds if the grid needs relief.

Researchers want to learn in the study if a combination of devices, software and advanced analytical tools giving homeowners more information about their energy use and cost can change consumers' power-use behavior.

The study would analyze smart grid benefits at "unprecedented geographic breadth" and spanning the electrical system from generation to consumer use, Mike Davis, a Battelle vice president, said in a statement.

The Northwest region, including Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming and Washington, is a good place to test smart grid technologies and concepts because of its plans for aggressive use of wind power, its hydroelectric systems and its rich tradition of public power blended with other utilities, Imhoff said.

-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com.

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Friday, Aug. 28, 2009

Battelle hopes to help further smart grid use

By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer