Will users complete smart-grid circuit? Duke Energy is planning a $1 billion makeover that might save both energy and money !!!

Duke Energy is planning a $1 billion makeover that might save both energy and money – if consumers use it.
By Bruce Henderson
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Tuesday, May. 26, 2009
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David Mohler, chief technology officer for Duke Energy, shows the energy-management system installed at his Lake Wylie home. The box houses batteries that can store 10 kilowatt-hours of backup electricity, feeding selected circuits in the house. DAVID T. FOSTER III – dtfoster@charlotteobserver.com

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Imagine an electric system that talks to your dishwasher, automatically heals outages, and not only supplies power but pulls it from rooftop solar panels and hybrid cars.

It's called a smart grid, and it's coming to your neighborhood.

Over the next five years, Duke Energy will give its aging web of power lines and substations a $1 billion makeover. As utilities across the country upgrade, a system that has changed little since Thomas Edison's time will join a digital world of wireless sensors, mini-power plants and new consumer options.

“For the industry,” says chief technology officer David Mohler, “that is just a totally different way of doing business.”

For decades, utilities focused on reliably delivering enough juice to keep air conditioners humming on the hottest July afternoon. The U.S. grid, with its 9,200 power plants and 300,000 miles of transmission lines, is the world's largest interconnected machine, the Energy Department says.

Yet utility spending on research and development lags almost every other industry. Demand for electricity is outpacing the capacity to deliver it, and the system is failing more often.

Smart grid promises to transform the electric system as powerfully as e-mail did computing.

New technology will allow two-way communication between utilities and their customers, giving consumers new insights into their energy use.

Homeowners will be able to tailor their energy use, the way they now do their cell phone plans. Instead of paying flat rates, as they now do, customers could run energy-hungry appliances when rates are lowest.

If customers take advantage of the technology – and that's an open question – Duke estimates they could shave 8 to 9 percent off their electric bills.

“After decades of selling reliability, now we have to get customers to understand and buy in to how the system works,” said Duke spokesman Tim Pettit. “And we've got to make it painless for them.”

What's in it for utilities?

Savings by reducing outages, speeding repairs and detecting inefficiencies such as the leaks of electricity from power lines.

A new ability to smooth out demand peaks, such as on hot summer days.

And broader use of solar and wind energy, which is mandated in North Carolina and will grow as the nation cracks down on emissions from coal-burning power plants.

Duke's smart grid investment isn't a gamble. The company says the plan hinges on state regulators allowing Duke to recover its costs through customer rates.

Outside experts are cautious about smart grid's potential, particularly in its energy savings. The key, they say, is whether customers take advantage of the new technology to save money.

Most consumers don't understand how they use energy, said Dan York, a utilities expert with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The hope of smart grid, he added, is that more information will change behavior, the way the miles-per-gallon readout focuses drivers of hybrid cars.

“We don't need just smarter grids and smarter meters,” York said, “we need smart programs and smart pricing” that would motivate consumers to use new technology and invest in energy efficiency.

Duke has opened a demonstration center on the N.C. State University campus in Raleigh to familiarize policy makers and regulators with smart-grid concepts.

Up to 200 customers in southeast Charlotte will also get a taste of the future this spring. Duke will begin a yearlong test of some smart-grid components to see how customers react.

For a real-life demonstration, visit Mohler's Lake Wylie home. It's the one that glows with light when storms knock out power to the rest of the neighborhood.

The solar panels on Mohler's roof only hint at what's inside. The panels are wired into a big metal box, called an energy-management system, in the garage. The box houses batteries that can store 10 kilowatt-hours of backup electricity, feeding selected circuits in the home.

In the kitchen, on a laptop computer, Mohler pulls up a window into the home's energy use.

The screen shows the house, in late afternoon, is using 900 watts of electricity. It details how much his heating and cooling system, plasma TV, kitchen range and clothes dryer are using, and shows that 54 hours of backup power is available.

Like Duke's test volunteers, the Mohlers can adjust their appliance use to save power.

“We fiddled with it when we first got it,” Mohler said, “then the novelty wore off.”

That's what most customers will do once the technology is widely available, Duke predicts – set controls and let technology do the rest.

That day will come inside a decade, Mohler predicted.

“Whatever comes next,” he said, “is whatever we haven't thought about.”