Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW)

Customer volunteers interested in having smart meters installed their homes in 2010 for a Smart Grid Demo should email smartgrid@mlgw.org.

There is no particular part of town that is being targeted for this effort right now, though MLGW would prefer concentrated areas or neighborhoods in order to minimize the amount of communications equipment needed.

Demo volunteers will receive a smart meter that will provide them with hourly information about their energy usage and additional energy saving tools through MLGW's My Account feature online. Customers without Internet access will receive an in-home display that will provide them with energy usage information.

Things are probably getting confusing, so here's a handy breakdown of the grants we have been pursuing and where we stand:

(1) Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) : This grant has been received by the City of Memphis. Of the $6.76 million awarded to the City of Memphis, $5 million will be distributed through MLGW, largely for low-income residential programs. More information will be available about this soon. This grant does not have anything to do with Smart Grid.

(2) Smart Grid Investment Grant Downtown/Medical Center Grant (Part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009):

--MLGW is receiving about $5 million in stimulus funds in order to bring automation and reliability improvements to the downtown and medical center areas.

--The total cost of the project is a little over $10 million, with the grant covering half of this total and MLGW providing the other $5 million. This $5 million is in the 2010 MLGW budget.

--This will allow MLGW to monitor circuits and transformers that serve the downtown and Med Center areas.

--This will help with preventative maintenance because we will know more about what is happening with the system at any given time.

--MLGW's SCADA operators will be notified immediately of problems on the system.

--No MLGW employees will be affected by this grant.

(3) Smart Grid Phase II Grant (Also Part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009):

-- In June 2009, the Department of Energy announced that applications for this grant would be accepted in August 2009, October 2009, and March 2010. They later pushed back the dates for Phase 2 and canceled Phase 3, then recently canceled Phase 2 as well.

--MLGW never got the chance to submit its grant application.

--Because MLGW did not receive this federal funding, there will not be a large-scale implementation of smart meters inside the I-240 loop in 2010.

--MLGW does plan to implement a smaller Smart Grid project that will add 40 automated switches that would help to reduce the number of customers affected by a particular outage. The switches would allow power to be automatically redirected in order to minimize an outage's effect.

--MLGW is targeting those circuits that have had the longest average restoration times for these automated switches.

--At some point in 2010, MLGW will seek 1,000 customer volunteers for a Smart Grid Demo project, in which smart meters would be installed at these customer's homes. There is no particular part of town that is being targeted for this effort right now, though MLGW would prefer concentrated areas or neighborhoods in order to minimize the amount of communications equipment needed.

--These demo volunteers would receive a smart meter that would provide them with hourly information about their energy usage and additional energy saving tools through MLGW's My Account feature online. Customers without Internet access would receive an in-home display that would provide them with energy usage information.

--No MLGW employees would be affected by the Smart Grid Demo.

--In addition to energy usage information, these customers would not have to report outages (they would be automatically detected) and would not be subjected to estimated bills.

--Other utilities such as Chattanooga's Electric Power Board (EPB) that received larger grants were already in the process of implementing Smart Grid enhancements.

From today's Commercial Appeal...

MLGW scales back 'smart grid' project

Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division plans to implement a scaled-down version of its "smart grid" project, now that it's clear that the utility will get less federal grant money than it had hoped for.

Instead of installing sophisticated energy meters for 70,000 business and residential customers throughout six local ZIP codes, the utility will offer 1,000 in-home metering devices to volunteers at sites to be determined, said Laura Campbell, MLGW's assistant manager of energy resources.

"Our customers use 40 percent more electricity than the national average," Campbell said. "We as a community have a great opportunity to learn more about how we use energy and use energy more wisely."

The in-home monitors would give people rapid feedback about how much energy they're using.

The utility also plans to put in place switching devices that are meant to reduce the size of power outages, as well as new equipment to help watch the functioning of the electric grid in the medical center district and Downtown.

The new measures should be in place by the end of 2010, Campbell said.

The federal government is pouring huge sums of money into infrastructure projects meant to bring old utility equipment into the modern age. Current utility equipment is based on decades-old technology that relies on analog techniques, such as hiring people to read meters.

MLGW recently received a $5 million grant to upgrade the grid in its medical center district and Downtown.

But the federal government also announced that it wouldn't be giving out a pool of money that MLGW had planned to apply for.

"They canceled it before it even got to the date to turn in the proposal," Campbell said.

As a result, MLGW is scaling down its 2010 budget for smart-grid projects which had anticipated spending $13.8 million for the project, with $6.8 million reimbursed by the federal government.

Now the utility plans to spend $6.3 million, with $1.9 million reimbursed by the federal government, said controller Dana Jeanes.

-- Daniel Connolly: 529-5296