5 million smart meters now feeding information to utility grid
The Department of Energy recently reported more than five million smart meters have been installed nationwide as part of American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)-funded efforts to accelerate modernization of the nation's electric grid. "To compete in the global economy, we need a modern electricity grid," said DOE Secretary Chu. "An upgraded electricity grid will give consumers choices and promote energy savings, increase energy efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy resources."
Nearly 90 percent of the meters installed to date are in Florida, Texas, California, Idaho, Arizona, Oklahoma, Michigan and Nevada. Two of the biggest ARRA funding recipients were Florida Power & Light Co., Miami, which received $200 million to deploy 1.8 million smart meters, and CenterPoint Energy, Houston, which received $200 million in ARRA funding for a fully integrated advanced metering system and Web portal access to over 2.2 million customers and installation of advanced monitoring and distribution automation equipment.
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Jim Lucy Blog
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.