Westar selected to receive $19 million for ‘smart grid’ test project in Lawrence
Lawrence homes could be the first in the state outfitted with smart electric meters, thanks to a federal stimulus package geared toward modernizing the country’s power grid. Enlarge video
Lawrence homes could be the first in the state outfitted with smart electric meters, thanks to a federal stimulus package geared toward modernizing the country’s power grid.
On Tuesday while visiting a solar energy facility in Arcadia, Fla., President Barack Obama announced that $3.4 billion will be spent on 100 grants that aim to install smart grid technologies.
Among those grants was one to Topeka-based Westar Energy, which has been selected to receive $19 million, United States Department of Energy spokesman Jen Stutsman said.
The money will help finance a $39 million test project known as “SmartStar Lawrence,” which will deploy 48,000 smart meters in Lawrence and the surrounding area.
More than half of the cost for the test project — about $27 million — would be spent on improving computer and software technology in Topeka, which would one day allow the utility to install smart meters for all its customers.
These advanced digital meters would help residents shave as much as 5 to 15 percent off their monthly electric bills.
The federal agency is still working with Westar on details of the award amount and milestones for the project, Stutsman said.
The DOE reviewed almost 400 proposal before selecting the 100 projects. Over the next two months, the money will be distributed and work should be done in the next one to three years.
Westar spokesman Karla Oslen stressed that the utility was still in negotiations with the DOE about specifics concerning use of the money. She said the utility was not yet ready to celebrate.
“We still have to just take a look at it to make sure if it were to be a different amount how much of our money or our investors’ money initially do we want to put forth for this project,” she said.
Westar picked Lawrence to launch its smart grid technology because of its size and wide range of customers, including a transitory student population.
Unlike conventional electric meters, smart meters send information back and forth between the meter and the utility company. Customers with smart meters will be able to monitor their energy usage daily on the Internet. By seeing how energy is being used throughout the month — rather than receiving just one monthly statement — customers can more easily make changes in behavior to lower their bills.
Midwest Energy also received $712,000 for a project in Hays.
Comments
LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.
mdrndgtl (anonymous) says…
Exciting news, congratulations...
thatsmyname (Richard Renner) says…
Smart phones,, smart grid....why do I feel so stupid?
zstoltenberg (anonymous) says…
This article fails to mention that westar is also raising rates to cover the additional cost as well as addind an additional monthly charge to cover the monitoring. The whol thing is an expensive invasion of privacy. I hope to move out of Lawrence before these hit.
devobrun (anonymous) says…
For those of you who are unaware of the problems involved in electric power generation, I'll 'splain.
Electrical energy flows from a generator to your home through wires. No storage or buffer exists anywhere in the electrical system. As you use or turn off your electrical energy needs, the energy in the wires changes its flow.
This causes a rise and fall in the voltage in everybody's homes. This is one reason that you put power conditioning equipment on fancy electronics. The generators at the plant also can change their output. However, they are not very fast in responding to load variation.
At 5:30 or 6:00 pm lots of people come home and turn their air conditioner on. Then they turn on their oven. Lights go off at work. Load varies rapidly.
The power company needs generating equipment up and running to meet the new load requirements. This costs money. If they have smart meters in your home, they can:
1) Increase their output, but that means more generator equipment and more cost.
2) Give you a buzzer warning that turning on your dryer while the ac and oven are on is bad. Turn something off.
3) Have an interlock on major electrical circuits in your house and not let you turn on the dryer.
This technology has been around for at least 30 years. It never really caught on, even with reduced electrical rates offered to those who agreed to the smart panels. So, now the government is getting more involved.
The government is taking your money and giving it to companies. The distinction between government and private is increasingly blurred. People are sheep. They love the security of other people doing things for them. Baaaaa.
jafs (anonymous) says…
devo,
I thought part of the "smart grid" idea was simply for the meters to provide information to the power company so that it can respond more intelligently/efficiently to the changing needs.
I don't like the idea of them being able to tell us when to do laundry much either.
down_the_river (anonymous) says…
What this article fails to report is the usage billing factor enabled by these meters. Rather than monthly kilowatt usage, your bill will be based on the highest 15 minute usage interval in the month. While it's reported in the article that it would help customers shave their bills, that will only happen after people gag on the increased bills that this metering process brings. Once you experience the big increase in Westar bills during the summer, you'll realize you can trim the bill a bit by shutting off the AC during hot July days, raising your refrigerator temperature during hot days and unplugging all TV's and computers during daytime hours. (And certainly no laundry or cooking activity before sundown.)
This will be easier for you by taking advantage of the Westar programable thermostats that allow the company to shut off your AC at your home when they want to even out peak electric usage in the statewide system.
There are many details not disclosed in this article/press release from Westar. The basic story is: our tax dollars are going to Westar to implement a program to increase our electric bills. The "Smart" term may apply to Westar's role in this, but certainly not to us as customers.
average (anonymous) says…
@devo -
They're installing meters. That's it. No one is coming in your house and installing any interlocks or buzzers or Pavlovian shock collars or anything.
What *may* happen as a result of it is some degree of price-based incentives. If electricity is 10c/kWh in the day and 6c/kWh from 10pm-6am, people will be encouraged (not forced, encouraged) to do things like set their dishwasher to a delayed overnight run or install a programmable thermostat that sets the AC temperature in the house higher during weekdays. And, that's only if the KCC gets around to allowing time-of-day discounts.
FreshAirFanatic (anonymous) says…
average -
You're right. It's just a little nudge. If Westar [or the gov't] came out and said, "that's it, you're not doing enough to curb electric usage, we're going to do it for you" people would revolt. Instead, they just do a little at a time and disguise it as the customer saving money. We'll save because "they" will alter our behavior. But just a little at a time...won't hurt a bit.
This came out last week...don't think many are rejoicing or saying "congrats" in SF.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
average (anonymous) says…
@FreshAir
Couldn't see the link. Westar is a regulated utility. Their profit is fixed and darned near guaranteed. They'll make basically the same whether people use more or less, time-of-day pricing or not.
Time-of-day pricing is simply a matter of more precisely assigning the costs (which really are higher at peak times) to those who are more costly. Suggesting that this is a bad thing, now that the technology is adequate to meter those distinctions, seems somehow socialistic.
FreshAirFanatic (anonymous) says…
average...
Their profit does not stay the same whether people use or not. When use goes down, so does their profit and vice versa. Even they say so...
http://www.westarenergy.com/corp_com/...
Unless you see a variation of $10M [about 50% of their total earnings] as fixed. I'll give that they are guaranteed a profit, that's what investor-based companies are supposed to do. No qualms with that.
Time of day has nothing to do with generation. Burning coal to generate electricity costs the same at 2 pm as it does at 2 am. The problem is peak load at 2 pm on July 15th when A/Cs are cranking. When environmental restrictions limit growth and increased "smart" generation [nuke and cleaner coal], Westar has a problem. That means force customers to either use less or pay more. The only way to do that is to install a tracking mechanism which can penalize for time of day use.
Wouldn't it be a nice change to see Westar come out and say, "look, we know you are all pissed at increasing rates, poor quality and lack of control over your electricity. We understand. We're pissed to. Pissed that we are being forced to use wind and solar which are horribly ineffective and will only be a supplement at best. We're pissed that we can't keep up with demand and that environmentalist wackos and a corrupt gov't officials are limiting our ability to serve the free market. Please call your representatives [remember, they work for us] and tell them to stop trying to control our lives"
Not sure why the link isn't working since I'm looking at it right now, but to summarize.
- Pacific Gas and Energy installed SmartMeters, just like what Westar is going to begin.
- Customer's bills have doubled
- PG&E now faces a revolt in Bakersfield over the SmartMeters
- Angry homeowners repeatedly booed PG&E representatives during a public hearing on the meters earlier this month.
- State energy regulators agreed to investigate the meters' accuracy
This summer should be interesting.
hipper_than_hip (anonymous) says…
It's all about making money for Westar. If they can get people in Lawrence to cut their usage, they can put more out on the grid to sell at a higher price to someone else.
average (anonymous) says…
@FreshAir -
If their profit went down because use was down, they wouldn't be discouraging use, would they?
Time of day has a *LOT* to do with the cost of generation. Coal, nuke (at least the existing classic PWRs), and hydro simply don't follow load. Thus, at peak times, Westar and other providers fire up dozens of natural gas burning peak generators. Which, even at low gas prices, cost much more per kWh than baseload plants. Why not build more baseload, then? Because they would be unneeded at off-peak times, it's more efficient to build 'peakers'.
Solar and wind is barely a rounding error, both as a percentage of power generation and of Westar's budget. It's ridiculous to blame anything on it.
Properly attributing the cost of generation to the users is "controlling our lives"? Hardly. If a proper and real attribution of costs changes behaviors, good.