POWER August 2012 - 43

2012 SMART GRID AWARD
dimensions of privacy and the seven " Privacy
by Design " foundational principles as
guidance for its privacy program. Developed
by Dr. Ann Cavoukian, information and privacy
commissioner of Ontario, Privacy by
Design was recently made an international
standard.
In March, SDG&E announced the incorporation
of Privacy by Design into its smart
grid initiative. This partnership is the first of
its kind in the U.S. and, the company said,
" emphasizes the commitment of the company
in designing, building and operating a secure,
reliable and trustworthy smart grid that
safeguards customer privacy from the start. "
Specifically, that means, for example, ensuring
that privacy is the default position of all
programs and incorporating privacy end-toend
throughout the life cycle of any personal
information.
Smart Meters Are the Foundation
SDG&E has nearly completed installation
of all 1.4 million smart meters and advanced
communications upgrades to about 850,000
gas meters in its service territory. As of June
10, electric meter change-outs were 97.9%
complete.
" Smart meters are foundational, " said
the utility's smart grid director, Lee Krevat,
" enabling technology that leads to greater
energy efficiency and more options for customers.
This includes home area network
functionality, which will allow electric appliances,
thermostats, and other devices to
receive event and price signaling information
and enable them to automatically conserve
when electricity rates are highest and activate
when they are lower, such as at night. This
enhanced efficiency reduces stress on the
grid and lowers emissions. "
Via the Zigbee HAN chip in the meter,
smart meters " are the most cost-effective way
for customers to get near-real-time energy
consumption data, " said Krevat. The smart
meters provide the hourly data that makes
Green Button (see sidebar) and other energy
efficiency efforts possible.
For example, the utility is developing its
own app that will provide usage information
and other options, such as texts that will inform
customers when they are going above
a self-identified usage maximum. " We will
also offer customers a carbon footprint calculator,
which will provide even more information
for customers interested in preserving
the environment, " said Krevat. " All of these
innovations would not be possible without
smart meters that provide the real-time energy
information that allows customers to save
money and/or conserve energy. "
The utility has launched several pilot programs
with HANs. Currently, approximately
700 HAN devices supplied by Tendril are
Push-Button-Easy Energy Efficiency
Enhancing communications with customers is an integral part of
the smart grid. To this end, SDG&E was an ardent early supporter
of the " Green Button " initiative. By clicking on the Green Button-
an online energy usage data tool-customers can access up to 13
months of their detailed energy consumption data and learn when they use energy and
how much they are using. To date, more than 7,500 SDG&E customers have downloaded
this data.
Customers can then provide the data to third parties or do research themselves to see
where they can conserve and reduce their energy use. Instead of waiting to get a bill at
the end of the month, customers can access the information to be more proactive about
how they use energy and, hopefully, take action to find new ways to conserve.
As with so many smart grid projects, the details evolve over time. Though SDG&E
originally used Itron to help support the Green Button " and get it launched quickly, we
now are using Aclara in this role as part of our broader enterprise focus to engage the
customer, " said Lee Krevat, the utility's smart grid director.
Later this year, SDG&E intends to take the Green Button a step further and launch
" Green Button Connect, " a tool that will allow customers to share their energy usage
data with third parties of their choice on an automated and daily basis. This will open
up a new market for private companies to offer innovative services to customers that
help them better manage their energy use and conserve. With access to this daily energy
usage data, private companies may in the near future develop applications that
provide this information to customers in new ways, perhaps through a cell phone app or
a personalized web portal. Third parties have already developed 64 Green Button apps,
according to the website Open Energy Information.
44
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connected directly to smart meters. An additional
500 devices were expected to be
deployed in July in a second pilot program.
SDG&E is working with the CPUC and the
other California utilities on a common process
for integrating HANs into the retail
market, which will allow this technology to
become broadly available to customers.
Peak Load Reduction
The new meters and HANs could be essential
to energy conservation this summer, especially
for as long as the San Onofre Nuclear
Generating Station, located just north of San
Diego, remains offline.
One efficiency program that aims to be a
win-win for the utility and its customers is
the " Reduce Your Use " campaign, which is
offered to most residential and small business
customers. Eligible customers are encouraged
to set up email or text alerts by visiting
the program website so that they can be notified
the day before a Reduce Your Use day
occurs, enabling them to plan ahead for steps
that save the most energy and maximize their
reward. The utility and customers both win if
peak demand drops sufficiently to avoid local
reliability issues. The smart meters provide
the real-time energy usage information that
allows SDG&E to see how much customers
conserved.
Participating customers who respond by
reducing their energy use from 11 a.m. to
6 p.m. on Reduce Your Use days will see a
credit of $0.75/ kWh on their next energy
bill and can log on to the website to view
their conservation goal. The online tool will
also display how much energy they used and
saved during the Reduce Your Use day.
Last summer's Reduce Your Use Pilot for
3,000 customers yielded the following results:
■ Average load reduction for customers who
reduced was 4.5 kWh per event (or 22.5
kWh over the pilot period) for a $3.50
savings average per event date (approximately
5% savings on the average bill).
■ SDG&E rebated a total of $24,000 to
customers.
■ On average, customers who reduced got
$17.50 back over the course of the pilot.
■ On average, each of the 3,000 customers
got $8 back over the course of the pilot.
Smart meters will also help if there is any
sort of outage. They will be able to send outage
notifications through the utility's new
outage management system (OMS), which
will be operational this summer. The OMS
will help SDG&E " identify outages more
quickly and accurately by removing the need
for customers to call us about suspected
outages in most situations. We will already
POWER | August 2012
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POWER August 2012

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