EETimes.com – DoE gets 400+ proposals for smart grid grants

Posted by Derek on August 19, 2009
News

The U.S. Department of Energy has received more than 400 proposals for economic stimulus grants to deploy smart electric grid systems. The DoE is still tallying the total amount of funds requested, and will start selecting winning proposals in early November.

A top executive at Duke Energy discussed the utility’s partnership with meter maker Echelon Corp. (San Jose) as a part of its proposal. Many more partnerships between utilities and vendors and much more work on smart grid standards lies ahead, but the focus now is on moving quickly to deployments, he said.

“What’s critical for industry is we get out of pilots, and start building smart grids,” said Todd Arnold, senior vice president for smart grids at Duke Energy, which serves four million customers in the Midwest

For its part, Duke requested the maximum $200 million allowed under the grant proposals that closed August 6. Duke’s proposal essentially aims to shave two years off an original six-year plan to build networks linking smart meters and distributed automation systems to more than 1.5 million users in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

Duke will submit a separate proposal for another $14 million for pilot systems demonstrating advanced features such as home energy management systems and services for plug-in hybrid cars. Those grant proposals are due in late August.

Earlier this week, Duke announced it struck a partnership with Echelon Corp. (San Jose) to purchase $15.8 million of its Networked Energy Services systems with deliveries starting before October. Echelon said the deal could ultimately represent sales of up to $150 million for its powerline-based NES systems.

via EETimes.com – DoE gets 400+ proposals for smart grid grants.

Related posts:

  1. PG&E Seeks $42.5M in Stimulus Grants | Greentech Media
  2. Echelon To Supply Meter System Under Duke Smart-Grid Plan | WSJ.com
  3. Duke Energy, Echelon team up on $1 billion smart grid project – Fortune Brainstorm Tech
  4. Smart Grid Gold Rush: Echelon Lands First Big US Contract | Triple Pundit
  5. Duke’s Smarts (Energy Priorities)

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