NorthWestern Energy Selects SEEsuite

Tuesday, 10 August 2010 08:28

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NorthWestern Energy has selected Lockheed Martin’s SEEsuite Smart Grid Command and Control platform to provide demand response management and integrated situational awareness for its participation in a new $178 million smart grid project. NorthWestern Energy is participating in the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project, which involves more than 60,000 customers in five states. The purpose of the project is to test new combinations of devices, software, and advanced analytical tools to improve the grid’s reliability and performance.

NorthWestern Energy’s specific role in the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of feeder automation, demand response, and dynamic customer pricing. To that end, the utility will deploy two SEEsuite applications including SEEload for demand response management and SEEgrid for smart grid situational awareness.

Gerry Fasano, president of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions-Defense, says, “We are pleased to partner with NorthWestern Energy on this important and exciting smart grid project.  SEEload will enable NorthWestern Energy to shed load dynamically across residential and commercial customers, and SEEgrid will provide real-time, multi-system situational awareness and automated reporting to streamline operations.”

According to Lockheed Martin, SEEload “enables utilities and grid operators to precisely manage demand response events across an entire distribution network, including individual substations and feeders. The application also provides complete demand response life cycle management, including program definition and customer enrollment, real-time event management, and post-event analytics.”

The SEEgrid application enables decision makers to sense and respond quickly to changing market conditions, grid disturbances, and unplanned changes to operations.  

NorthWestern Energy’s Lead Director Business Technology, Jeanne Vold, says the partnership with Lockheed Martin “was a good fit for NorthWestern Energy.  They are a recognized leader of innovative solutions, and the SEEload and SEEgrid applications will be key in achieving our objectives for the project.”

NorthWestern Energy serves approximately 661,000 customers in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is designs, develops, and manufactures advanced technology systems, products, and services. For additional information please visit www.lockheedmartin.com/energysolutions