DTE Energy planning major 'smart grid' investment
Electricity customers in the Ann Arbor region will receive an infusion of "smart grid" technology for their power-monitoring equipment within five years.
Detroit-based DTE Energy today landed an $83.8 million grant to accelerate expansion of its SmartCurrents program, which involves installing various high-tech power monitoring technologies to replace outdated analog meters.
The upgraded infrastructure will allow users to save money by digitally monitoring and managing their own electricity usage. It will also allow DTE to remotely read meters and determine power outages. Right now, most utilities have to rely on customers calling to report outages.
"We'll know before they do" with the new infrastructure, DTE spokesman Scott Simons said.
The U.S. Department of Energy grant, delivered through the $787 billion economic stimulus package, comes as President Barack Obama is placing increased emphasis on the importance of investment in the electrical grid. The DOE today is announcing the distribution of $3.4 billion in stimulus grants, to be matched by industry funds, for electrical grid improvements.
The term "smart grid" is often used to refer a range of technologies, including metering infrastructure and high-powered, long-range transmission lines to transport electricity from renewable energy sources to major population centers.
The DTE grant, which the utility will match, will allow it to install 660,000 smart electricity meters over the next two years as the program begins.Â
Customers in Washtenaw will have to wait longer. Their meters will be upgraded within five years.
"We're going to roll out this program to all our customers, but what the DOE grant does is allows us to accelerate the program next year and in 2011," Simons said. "It allows meters to be read remotely and provides a wide range of benefits to customers as well as operational savings through increased efficiencies for us."
The SmartCurrents program, to be managed out of DTE's Detroit headquarters, is not related to the ongoing GreenCurrents program, which gives customers the option of spending extra money to fund renewable energy investments.
Political officials, utilities and renewable energy proponents generally agree the nation's outdated electrical infrastructure needs substantial improvements.
"This is a significant investment that will help improve energy efficiency throughout the state," U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, said in a statement. "In addition, the investment will be used to provide training for new clean energy technologies, and will empower consumers to save energy and money on utility bills."
Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.
Comments
B Measom
Mon, Nov 15, 2010 : 11:53 a.m.
Anyone who receives a notice of a "Smart meter" coming soon, and anyone reading this post should do their own research and they will soon realize that this is nothing other than DTE finding another way to boost their profits and cut their overhead at the expense of consumers. Although I am in favor of smart, alternative technology, as the other reader points out, having a cell tower installed on our homes will cause more harm than good. Many cities whose citizens are educated and have done their homework before the utility company tried to jam this down their throats have placed moratoriums on these Dumb Meters and have banned them. The State of California is also considering banning them or further research due to ill health effects. There is some preliminary data online that over 10% of people with new installations suffer some noticeable health effects. I am afraid this is another example of our powerless government failing to protect its citizens from big business, with a "green" marketing spin to make the poison taste better, coupled with "recovery" earmarked funds to "create jobs". Baloney... Does that mean its good because we'll be employing doctors to treat us, along with all of those electricians? Do your own research and then contact your local representatives before its too late, Ann Arbor. I live in W Bloomfield where they are forcing it upon us and we did our research too late, as now our entire neighborhood is like a "thousand microwaves". If they tell you their units emit a same amount, ask them how they calculate it. What they do is give out strong pulses periodically, then when they report it they stretch out the energy over a certain time frame to compare it to "safe" levels. That's like saying its ok to run a microwave with the door removed for a minute next to your head (or next to your baby's head, or your grandmother's pacemaker), because for the rest of the hour the unit is off. We world has gone crazy - don't let them do it before they PROVE it is safe. I may be moving to Ann Arbor soon, because it has an educated population that hopefully won't stand for this kind of intrusion upon people's health and privacy - or moving to the mountains.... Good luck. A future off-grider.
Smitherton
Fri, Jun 18, 2010 : 8:32 a.m.
This technology is not beneficial for several reasons. In places they've already implemented it, power bills rise. You move from peak/off-peak, into minute by minute billing. Second, the electro-smog from these in some early tests, has proved to be fairly harmful. They are basically a cell tower in your home. Go to youtube and search "Magda Havas" and see live blood tests after exposure. In general, they seem to want to get as much of this dangerous tech into/near us as possible, and it is disconcerting. 17 minutes of cell phone exposure, including from these smart meters, is equal to 110 days of cell death. Most of these meters will be mounted on the outside of bedroom walls, and that's just not a good thing. That's aside from the study that just came out that proved microwaves from these techs kills off the bee populations. The evidence is plentiful. Finally, ITRON is the company behind this. ITRON uses software, encryption, and monitoring by "Centricom", which is a NSA front company, the NSA owns the licensing rights to smart meter software. In effect, the potential for privacy abuse, or spying, is quite high. This is a bad idea, for a whole lot of reasons.
WilliamTell
Fri, Oct 30, 2009 : 7:45 a.m.
Good observation John Galt. The smart grid will only ever be as good as the actual grid. What good will it do to find out faster about problems that can only be lessened through actual preventive maintenance on the grid? How many lineman once based in this area have been forced to travel to other areas for work while our system rots? I'm all for the smart grid and improvements but they have to be combined with actual improvements to the dumb grid. Poles, broken and rotten equipment and tree trimming will remain the problems until more cash is dumped into modernizing what is out in the field today.
WilliamTell
Fri, Oct 30, 2009 : 7:32 a.m.
DTE can't even keep the grid safe and reliable today. They are letting poles fall over, cross arms to rot to pieces, down wires to hang all over residential areas and transformers to fall offline. Where are the workers who should be out fixing these problems? Everybody and their brother knows that DTE has cut back on maintenance from tree trimming to replacing hazardous poles. Word on the streets is also that DTE has laid off most of the contractors that have in the past provided what public safety and maintenance that did get done. Take 1 look at their grid wherever you are and you will clearly see that it is only getting older and more hazardous.
Laura Bien
Wed, Oct 28, 2009 : 1:32 p.m.
Remote meter-reading would be a great plus. Though our Ypsi water meter is remotely read by YCUA, the water co., a Detroit Edison worker comes by the last week of every month on foot to read the electric & gas meters. Not that I begrudge this man his job, but it seems like a huge waste of money. Time for Detroit Edison to modernize.
Homeland Conspiracy
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 : 7:10 p.m.
Get ready for a big increase in your bill...
heresmine
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 : 4:01 p.m.
Is any of this related to the unreported power outage last Friday? It seems to me that a disruption lasting several hours is worthy of noting. While it may have affected the North Campus area, every time there was an outage there, it caused "blips" over a much wider area. I had one fellow, who lives on Pontiac Trail, tell me that the power lines were humming and vibrating and this went on for a while and was accompied with brownouts and power spikes so much so that he went around and unplugged things that might be damaged. I know the weekend into the beginning of the week was a busy time for maintenance workers at the U. With all the complex control systems, which are now so common, many things needed to be restarted manually.
Nathan Bomey
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 : 2:10 p.m.
John, thanks for the comment. Indeed, part of the plan is to eventually incentivize customers to shift power usage to periods of the day in which demand is low.
John Galt
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 : 1:58 p.m.
Some of the applications of smart grid metering: A.) No longer need to have a person manually "read" the meters. Allows for remote meter reading and reduction in headcount. B.) Allows for a "real-time" reading on electrical use. I imagine that rates would then be changed to charge more money for "high-use" times and less money for "low-use" times of the day. Also, they could implement penalty rates for homes/businesses that are considered as using too much energy. This can be customized for time of day, etc. This has little to do wth replacing the actual grid itself, rather it is largely a monitoring system that allows for variable rate charges and reduction in headcount for manual reading. I fear the outages will not be much affected. MAYBE the response time can be improved.
Cash
Tue, Oct 27, 2009 : 1:45 p.m.
I'm all for investment in smarter technology use etc....but I only have one question. When all of our money is spent, and the power goes out, and DTE knows it before we even call..... WILL IT GET FIXED ANY SOONER THEN IT IS NOW?????? Because right now, the repair times are a disgrace.