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Smart grid comes to EPUD District
August 31, 2010
EPUD to launch BPA pilot program to reduce energy usage during peak times.
Eugene, Ore. – Local water heaters and thermostats are getting smarter. Thanks to a Bonneville Power Administration grant, Emerald People’s Utility District will give more than 200 Customer-Owners the opportunity to participate in a pilot program to test a part of the smart grid in their homes. The two-year pilot program, titled “EPUD Power Sync” aims to assist in the management of current and future electrical demand in the area.
To begin, EPUD will install communicating programmable thermostats and water heater timers free of charge in participating homes. These instruments will help reduce energy use during times of peak electricity demand. All devices will be controlled via EPUD’s existing smart metering infrastructure and will never be activated on weekends or holidays. All participants will be notified in advance of any adjustment to their appliance and would have the option to override them if necessary, though research shows these small changes are barely noticeable.
The pilot will measure how utility and consumer cooperation can reduce strain on electric systems and control electric costs. In theory, adjusting a small amount of the electricity being used during just a few peak hours of each day can decrease or eliminate the need for utilities like EPUD to purchase expensive market-priced power to meet growing demand during peak times.
“This pilot program represents an approach to managing energy consumption that allows consumers to control how and when they use electricity, and in some cases, at what price,” said EPUD General Manager Frank Lambe.
BPA Smart Grid Program Manager Lee Hall adds, “The demand for electricity use is growing, as are demands on the region’s federal hydro system to protect fish runs and integrate variable resources such as wind. Flattening out electricity use helps keep rates lower by reducing the need to purchase more costly market energy to meet periods of higher demand.”
Installation of the devices will begin in November and results will be available in January of 2013. For more information, visit http://www.epud.org/conservation/powersync.aspx
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EPUD was established in 1983 from the grassroots efforts of local citizens to create a consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric utility. It serves 20,000 customers in a 555-square-mile territory. EPUD has always been an innovator in energy efficiency, from its award-winning headquarters building, to creation of its Short Mountain Methane Power Plant. Greenhouse gases emitted from the Lane County Landfill are captured and burned to create electricity. Most of EPUD’s electricity comes from BPA hydropower, and is supplemented with the landfill gas generation and other green sources.
Bonneville Power, headquartered in Portland, Ore., is a not-for-profit federal electric utility that operates a high-voltage transmission grid comprising more than 15,000 miles of lines and associated substations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. It also markets more than a third of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest. The power is produced at 31 federal dams operated by the Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation and one nuclear plant in the Northwest and is sold to more than 140 Northwest utilities. BPA purchases power from seven wind projects and has more than 2,800 megawatts of wind interconnected to its transmission system.
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