While speaking on Tuesday at Florida Power and Light’s (FPL) DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, President Obama announced a $3.4 billion investment to spur transition to a smart energy grid.
The president described what a clean energy future would look like. “We can imagine the day when you’ll be able to charge the battery on your plug-in hybrid car at night, because your smart meter reminded you that nighttime electricity is cheapest. In the daytime, when the sun is at its strongest, solar panels like these and electricity stored in car batteries will be able to power the grid with affordable, emission-free energy,” Obama said. “The stronger, more efficient grid would be able to transport power generated at dams and wind turbines from the smallest towns to the biggest cities. And above all, we can see all this work that would be created for millions of Americans who need it and who want it, here in Florida and all across the country.”
The funding, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be the largest single energy grid modernization investment in U.S. history and is expected to create “tens of thousands” of jobs. The funding will be matched by industry funding for a total public-private investment worth over $8 billion.
Of the $3.4 billion announced, $1 billion will be to “empower consumers to save energy” by creating the infrastructure and expanding access to smart meters and customer systems that allow consumers to program appliances and equipment to run during off-peak usage times, when rates are lowest.
Approximately $400 million of the Recovery Act funds will go towards increasing the efficiency of electricity distribution and transmission by reducing the amount of wasted electricity – the power that is wasted while travelling from the power plant to the end user. Also, by deploying digital monitoring devices devices and increasing grid automation, there will be improvement in the efficiency, reliability and security of the system, and will help link up renewable energy resources with the electric grid. This will make it easier for a wind farm in Montana to instantaneously pick up the slack when the wind stops blowing in Missouri or a cloud rolls over a solar array in Arizona.
$2 billion will be used to fund the a range of projects that will incorporate these various components into one system or cut across various project areas – including smart meters, smart thermostats and appliances, syncrophasors, automated substations, plug in hybrid electric vehicles, renewable energy sources, etc.
And $25 billion will be used for building a smart grid manufacturing industry by expanding the manufacturing base of companies that can produce the smart meters, smart appliances, synchrophasors, smart transformers, and other components for smart grid systems in the United States and around the world – representing a significant and growing export opportunity for our country and new jobs for American workers.
One hundred private companies, utilities, manufacturer, cities, and other partner received the Smart Grid Investment Grant awards today, including FPL, which will use its $200 million in funding to install over 2.5 million smart meters and other technologies that will cut energy costs for its customers.
The White House says that once plans are fully implemented, smart grid technologies are expected “to reduce power outages that cost American consumers $150 billion a year every man, woman and child in the United States will save about $500 each year.” Also, consumers will cut their electricity bills through “smart meters” and America will be “on the path to generating 20 percent or more of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.”
The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that electricity usage can be reduced 4% by the year 2030 through the use of smart grid technologies. That would mean a savings of $20.4 billion for businesses and consumers around the country, and $1.6 billion for Florida alone – or $56 in utility savings for every man, woman and child in Florida, according to a statement released by the Department of Energy.
Source:
The White House
U.S. Department of Energy
