Silver Spring announced on June 23 that it had signed up another utility for its smart meter program.  The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), providing service to some 600,000 homes and businesses in the California state capital area, is to deploy a wireless smart meter network by March of 2011.

The utility’s goal is to provide energy consumers with the information they need to make better decisions regarding their energy consumption.  SMUD will also benefit from real-time monitoring of the power grid.  The utility will know exactly how much energy is demanded throughout its service area – the sixth-largest community-owned utility in the United States.

Silver Spring vice president of markets, Eric Dresselhuys, says the Sacramento project is unique because it is a municipal utility and not an investor-owned one.  “I think we’re going to see more stuff happening with muni’s” in the future, he said.

Silver Spring announced earlier this month that it is collaborating with General Electric on a smart meter pilot program with Commonwealth Edison in Illinois.  Once approved by the Illinois commerce commission, the Silver Spring-GE project calls for 141,000 smart meters to be deployed in the Chicago area.  The Chicago project will serve as a proving ground for the 3.8 million Commonwealth Edison customers in the broader region.

The Chicago program will test a Web interface and smart meter displays in the home.  Alternative pricing plans and remotely programmable thermostats will be tested as well.

The announcement will allow SMUD to claim to be the first utility in the state that has met California’s stringent clean power programs for energy providers.  The state plans to extend the guidelines by an additional 50 percent within the next ten years.  Provided by Landis+Gyr, the smart meters will play an important role in helping the utility reach its goals.  

SMUD is also considering partnerships with developers of battery technology to add to the developing smart grid.  “New battery technologies could assist in making small-scale generation a viable alternative to large power stations,” read the 2008 annual report.

SMUD introduced a preliminary energy reporting system in collaboration with Positive Energy, another start-up company, in 2008.  The system sends out letters detailing the energy consumption of 35,000 customers and compares their usage to that of others.  The program worked and customers responded to the information by conserving more energy than they did previously.

SMUD also reported last year that over the last 35 years its energy efficiency programs have saved its customers more than $550 million.  However, nothing on the scale of the Silver Spring project has ever been attempted.  “Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way for SMUD and Sacramento to move beyond carbon,” read the 2008 annual report.

Silver Spring has also been busily generating capital investment.  In March the company received $90 million from a group of green venture capitalists.  The start-up also stands to benefit from the $4.5 billion in stimulus funding that has been slated for smart grid projects announced in February.

Silver Spring Networks
575 Broadway Street
Redwood City, CA 94063
http://www.silverspringnet.com

Sacramento Municipal Utility District
P.O. Box 15830
Sacramento 95852-1830
http://www.smud.org

General Electric
3135 Easton Turnpike
Fairfield, CT 06828
http://www.ge.com

Exelon Corporation (Commonwealth Edison)
10 South Dearborn Street, 48th Floor
P.O. Box 805398
Chicago, Illinois 60680-5398
http://www.exeloncorp.com

Landis+Gyr AG
Feldstrasse 1
CH-6301 Zug
http://www.landisgyr.com
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