Duke out to transform business- with *SMART GRID* technology

Duke out to transform business
By Mike Boyer • mboyer@enquirer.com • October 12, 2008

ERLANGER - Technology couldn't prevent the hurricane-force winds that knocked out power to 90 percent of Duke Energy's 800,000 customers on Sept. 14.

But it could have helped restore power much faster.

After the windstorm, Duke frequently had to send crews back to the same areas as they learned from customers that more homes were still without power. That was the only way they could tell if homes served by a transformer or substation had power.

With new technology called Smart-Grid, a crew in the field could immediately get a report from a control center telling it which homes were still out.

The capacity for such improved service is one of the messages Duke hopes to get across this week at a $1 million facility it is unveiling where it will demonstrate and research the future of its electric-delivery system.

The new Envision Center in Erlanger, in converted office-warehouse space off Olympic Boulevard, is a first-of-its-kind demonstration center and lab to show how Smart-Grid technology will improve electric system reliability and efficiency, give consumers greater control over their energy use and provider faster response to outages like those caused by the windstorm.

Smart-Grid is a term for a network of sophisticated sensors, distributed computers and other black-box communications devices installed on a utility's existing network of wires, poles and transformers to remotely monitor power delivery in much greater detail than today.

It has capabilities as mundane as automated meter reading and remote service connection, and as sophisticated as remote monitoring and control of customers' energy use - and the size of their bills.

"This is designed to present a picture of what energy can be," Duke spokeswoman Johnna Reeder said.

"This is a demonstration site for innovation in energy.

"Today's analog grid doesn't reflect consumers' expectations for instant information," she said. "Smart-Grid will enable Duke Energy to move into the 21st century and will help transform our century-old business model."
Simulating the future

To create the Envision Center, Duke set up movie studio-style sets of a home with solar panels, an energy-management system and a plug-in hybrid car, and an apartment complex with "smart" meters.

A presenter uses a click of a computer button to trigger videos and a simulated lightning strike and power outage to show how a smart system would respond.

Inside the mock home, the energy-management system monitors high-efficiency appliances, picks the optimum times to run based on the price of electricity and alerts customers to savings by turning down or turning off power-draining devices.

Time-of-use meters have been available in the utilities industry for years, but microprocessors in today's "smart meters" and other energy-management devices allow utilities to send signals to consumer's thermostats and appliances, letting them know that the price of electricity is increasing.

Based on a customer's decision, the system can automatically reduce usage or give the customer the information so they can reduce usage or decide to pay the higher rate.

The key thing, says Reeder: "The customer is in control."
Doesn't come cheap

The solar-collector-equipped smart home in the Envision Center also includes a battery backup system. That allows electricity from the solar collectors to charge the hybrid electric car in the garage overnight and store additional power in the event of a power failure. The 10-kilowatt battery can provide up to 40 hours of backup power for the home.

"If you turn everything down but your refrigerator, you can extend that to 87 hours," said Steve Hinkel, project manager for Duke's advanced customer technology.

That kind of technology doesn't come cheap today.

The battery costs about $9,700, he said.

But as manufacturers increase production with demand, solar-battery backups will eventually become more affordable and commonplace, he said.

Duke believes the Envision Center, a demonstration site for its entire electric system encompassing 4 million customers in five states, is unique in the industry.

"Other utilities have created "smart" homes and pieces of what we have here, but no place else shows all the technology in one spot," said Reeder.

Duke is opening the 15,000-square-foot center initially to show employees, regulators and other government officials what the technology can do, but sometime next year the utility says it plans to open the facility for public tours.

The site's location near the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport makes it accessible to Duke's five-state service area, Reeder said.
Many years and millions away

Full implementation of a Smart-Grid system across Duke's 47,000-mile service area will take years and millions of dollars to complete.

But the company is launching the effort here with a pilot program to replace about 480,000 electric meters, one piece in a Smart-Grid system, in established neighborhoods in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky requiring manual or estimated monthly readings because the devices are inside homes where Duke doesn't have access.

The company has already replaced about 40,000 meters at the rate of about 5,000 a month with new ones that will allow automatic meter reading. The new meters won't be fully operational until the middle of next year.

But when the system is completed, it will allow Duke to eliminate the more than 1 million estimated bills it sends annually to customers because they aren't home when meter readers are in their neighborhood.

Other routine services, such as service connections and re-connections at apartment buildings that now require Duke to roll a service truck for each service, could be automated.

Last year, Duke handled 210,000 connection/ re-connection calls in Ohio alone, the utility says, and another 200,000 individual calls for a change in service requiring a meter reading.

Eliminating those calls would be a savings for the utility and save customers time and frustration waiting for a service crew, Duke says.

"By demonstrating the benefits of smart technology, we're hoping to gain advocates for the implementation of our Smart-Grid," said Hinkel.

"We're asking people not to focus on specific devices but the concepts involved."