Public Power - May 2008 - (Page 28)

Journey to the Smart Grid the horizon, capital investment in energy efficiency and demand response has never looked better. The beauty of the smart grid is that once the essential communications backbone is in place, there are efficiencies to be wrung from the entire system, from fuel use to maintenance to asset management. In fact, Austin Energy, one of the nation’s leaders in smart grid implementation, says it is reducing fuel consumption by between 2 and 5 percent because of gains in operational efficiencies. When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission analyzed the cost/benefit ratio of the smart grid, it showed a 10year cumulative investment of $45 billion to $60 billion (roughly half for smart homes and commercial buildings and half for network infrastructure), followed by a stream of savings after 2015 of $14 billion to $21 billion per year. For 130 years, there has been only one company whose name is associated with the highest level of product quality and excellence: The Okonite Company. Time has strengthened our resolve to bring our customers uncompromising programs in service and technology. We are not content to rest on our past achievements and are always developing innovative ways to keep us in the forefront of leadership in the industry. So, if you have not tried Okonite Cables, it's time you found out why we have been the leading supplier of wire and cable products since 1878. For additional information please contact: THE OKONITE COMPANY 102 Hilltop Road, Ramsey, NJ 07446 201.825.0300 Fax: 201.825.9026 E-Mail: okonite.com visit us on the web at www.okonite.com This level of savings is roughly equal to the projected electricity industry investment in T&D (distribution about $14 billion per year, transmission about $8 billion per year), or roughly 2 percent of the replacement cost of the current grid. Typical payback on limited smart grid investments, to date, is between two and four years, although many close observers, looking at the long-term potential of an end-to-end intelligent infrastructure, believe that payback time could become much shorter. The definition of the smart grid is by no means consistent. Some confine it to the operations of the traditional delivery system that stops at the meter. Others confine it to the distribution system and automated meter reading. And still others narrow it to the distribution system, a smart meter, and the flow of power within the household. But, increasingly, it is viewed in a more comprehensive light. “The smart grid vision is the infusion of information and communication into every aspect of the generation, delivery and consumption of electricity. It is the merger of two infrastructures, power and communications, or in short, the merging of electrons and data,” said Don Von Dollen, program manager of Intelligrid for the Electric Power Research Institute. “The smart grid really provides a more strategic view of the future of utilities, more so than trying to gain some quick return from new equipment,” said Joe Nowaczyk, Salt River Project’s manager of electronic systems. “All of us today have these things that give us quick gains, but to truly establish a smart grid we would have to roll all of these together to integrate and enhance efficiency all the way from generation to the customers’ premises.” Integration is the operative word, and it remains the key to all of these broader visions largely shared by smart grid leaders in public power, from LIPA and SRP, to BPA, the New York Power Authority and Austin Energy. But integration is more difficult to achieve than people realize, for two reasons. First, it means interoperability, the PUBLIC POWER 28 MAY 2008 http://www.okonite.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - May 2008

Public Power - May 2008 Contents Perspective LEEDing the Way Ontario Moves to Mandatory Time-of-Use Pricing Journey to the Smart Grid Right-Sizing Transformers Energy Audits for Large Industries Economic Development Community Broadband Reliability Hometown Connections Parting Shot

Public Power - May 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.