October 16, 2009
Bill Opalka
Editor-in-Chief
Energy Central
From smart meter pilot programs to plans for electric vehicle charging stations, utilities are moving from concept to reality as the ways in which electricity is used and delivered is radically altered in the early 21st Century.
Northeast Utilities, based in Hartford, Connecticut, is venturing into both directions with perhaps the largest smart meter pilot program in the United States and with preliminary plans to develop charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles. The smart meter pilot is for Connecticut Light & Power Company (CL&P) customers. The vehicle charging venture is proposed for CL&P and Northeast's Massachusetts subsidiary, Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO).
With 3,000 customers in the meter pilot during this summer -- 1,500 residential and 1,500 commercial and industrial customers -- the company says it is the largest customer-focused pilot of its kind in North America to date.
Some of the impetus came from the Connecticut legislature and state regulators, the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control. Another driver is the fact that the southeastern corner of the state is one of the more notorious transmission-clogged corridors in the country, and any effort to reduce peak demand and congestion like the promise that smart meters offer has an immediate and willing audience.
But CL&P took a go-slow approach as it observed nascent pilot programs in California, Ontario, Canada, and elsewhere, according to Steven Testa, program manager for CL&P. He believed state regulators, vendors and other utilities viewed smart meters as primarily a technology issue, when many of the challenges an early adopting company might face revolved around customer behavior and preferences. "We wanted to do a pilot program first. The best thing is take a small bite. Let's see what no one else can tell you about our customers," Testa said. "This pilot is not about technology. It's about the customers in the state of Connecticut."
For an adequate customer sampling, consultant The Brattle Group determined 3,000 customers were needed. For the 1,500 residential customers, CL&P chose energy-strapped Stamford and its base in Hartford. About 160,000 were contacted and volunteers were screened to meet certain qualifications. Those with medical devices that need an uninterrupted power supply, for example, were not included. The customers were divided into three groups of 500. Peak time pricing for four afternoon hours on the 10 heaviest usage days of the summer; a peak-time rebate for customers who respond by cutting use during these events; and time-of-use rates , with slightly higher prices from noon-8 p.m. on weekdays. The entire CL&P territory in Connecticut was included for the 1,500 commercial and industrial customers in the pilot.
"We are recording hourly data and gave the customers a website to look at their hourly usage. That's a very versatile tool to allow customer to get that much more knowledge and to become savvy about their usage," Testa said.
Customer Attitudes
The devices use a fixed radio frequency to communicate with infrastructure that has been deployed on cell phone towers. Some participants were randomly selected to also receive either a smart thermostat or a control switch, which allows CL&P to turn their air conditioner on and off during predetermined periods of time to help the customer manage their electricity usage; or an energy orb, which alerts the customer of a change in electric rates by changing color, thereby giving the customer the ability to adjust their energy usage.
Accenture is managing the pilot program. A report to the DPUC will be made by the end of the year. The study of customer attitudes about time-based rates and decisions about wider adoption of smart meters would be made at a later date. Northeast Utilities applied to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for matching federal stimulus funds to support the installation of smart grid technology and expanded access to advanced meters for at least 200,000 customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The total cost of the project is estimated to be between $100 million and $150 million.
While the smart meter venture is more immediate, Northeast Utilities is literally looking down the road at the time when electric vehicles are projected to grab a larger share of the automotive market. The company is now in the initial stages of developing infrastructure for charging stations for plug-in hybrids or fully-charged electric vehicles.
"Our level of interest goes back many years. But it rose to a new level last year when General Motors and the Electric Power Research Institute announced an initiative. We weren't part of that original effort but quickly joined on," said project manager Watson Collins. "Automakers don't really know how utilities work and while we all drive cars, utilities don't really know the ins and outs of the car companies."
Northeast Utilities applied for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant for two operating companies in Connecticut and Massachusetts. They are proposing to build a network of 575 charging stations over the next two years, in a combination of home-based, workplace and publicly-accessible sites in the service territories.
"Connecticut and western Massachusetts certainly have the demographics, income levels and people who want to buy EVs. There's also the growing interest in their state governments and municipalities," Collins said. The station would primarily be at homes and centralized workplaces, especially where fleet vehicles create efficiencies. There is also interest in creating publicly visible and accessible stations.
While the project is seeking government funds, the company may pursue a version of the infrastructure build-out on its own, if necessary.
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