US government pumps $57m into smart grid

The US Department of Energy (DoE) once again opened up its stimulus fund war chest yesterday, awarding over $57m to eight smart grid demonstration projects across the country.

The new investment, which follows $17m of government smart grid funding awarded last year, will aim to accelerate the roll out of projects designed to demonstrate the feasibility of smart grid technologies capable of managing and reducing energy use across the grid.

"Modernising our electrical grid to make it stronger, smarter, more efficient and more secure is a crucial step in expanding renewable energy and creating jobs," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "These investments will help lay the foundation for American leadership in the clean energy economy."

Grid technology specialist American Superconductor Corporation was the big winner, securing over $12m in backing for two projects focused on restricting power surges and improving the reliability of power cables.

Meanwhile, Zenergy Power Inc received over $8m in funding towards the development of a different technology for restricting power surges and Edison received over $5m to help fund a trial of demand response technologies in New York.

Awards of between $4m and $6m were also distributed to a range of university and city government-backed projects designed to enhance the resilience of local grids, help reduce end-user energy demands, and improve the management of energy fed into the grid from distributed sources, such as solar panels and small scale wind turbines.

The awards were accompanied by the release of a major new report from the DoE, which found that while smart grids remain relatively immature, adoption of technologies such as smart metering and distributed generation management systems is growing rapidly.

However, the report warned that the roll out of smart grid systems capable of automatically managing how businesses and households use energy will require significant cultural changes that energy firms will have to be aware of if they wish to encourage adoption.

"As with the Internet or mobile phone communications, smart grid technologies have the potential to dramatically change how we experience electricity in the country," the report says. "But improvements in physical and cyber security and information privacy will require consumers, manufacturers and utilities to closely follow a range of grid best practices."

In related news, Chu also announced that $10.5m in funding would be made available to local governments for emergency response initiatives to cope with blackouts and other supply disruptions. He said that local governments could now apply for grants of between $60,000 and $300,000.