Glendale, California signs contract for federal smart grid grant

Glendale Water and Power signed a contract for a $20 million federal Smart Grid Investment Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, becoming the first city in the nation to receive smart grid funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The grant will help GWP fund implementation of $51 million for the city of Glendale AMI-Smart Grid Initiative. The first significant milestone will be a demonstration project to prove the smart meters portion of the project this spring. The demonstration project will include the installation of a meter data management system, 1,000 electric meters, 500 water meters and 300 in-home displays, with plans to have all meters replaced by September 2011. The new smart meters will allow for two-way communication between customers and the utility, and for the first time will provide customers with real-time electricity usage data to help them save on their bills.

In addition to replacing all electric and water meters with new smart meters, receipt of the $20 million in DOE grant funds will allow GWP to expand the project scope and accelerate implementation to include the following additional smart grid activities: Distribution automation, New enterprise data storage system, Residential and small business smart grid devices, Thermal energy storage, Demand response, Expanded Wi-Fi backhaul.