NEWS

Smarter grid, smaller bills

10/15/2009

LEESBURG—When Ted Miller received his electric bill he noticed something strange—the price.

“We were getting real high bills,” Miller, 83, said. “They would fluctuate from one month to another and we weren’t changing our habits at all.”

The Picciola Island resident saw $700 in extra electric costs over three months.

Luckily, the city had installed a smart meter on Miller’s home.

That smart meter allowed the electric department to analyze his electricity consumption and locate the problem.

The culprit?

A malfunctioning air conditioner.

Miller called his air conditioning company. They fixed it and now his bills have returned to normal.

“We were able to identify the problem and when it started,” said Paul Kalv, director of the Leesburg Electric Utility Department.

Leesburg is looking toward the future to the day when their smart meters can do much more.

GETTING SMARTER

Smart meters can send information on electricity consumption to the electric utility department every 15 minutes. And because they are monitored remotely, there’s no need to send out a meter reader.

But the city wants to go from just reading meters from a control room to turning down thermostats and giving customers the ability to identify energy-hog appliances.

Kalv said Leesburg wants to be on the cutting edge of the smart grid evolution.

The city has applied for a $20 million grant to upgrade 140 smart meters already installed, and to install thousands more throughout Leesburg.

“To me it only makes sense,” said Vincent Avery, who’s had a smart meter at his house for the past 18 months. “If they’re going to save me money, they can control anything they want.”

Avery said he looks forward to the day when he can monitor his energy consumption minute by minute from his home computer.

“In my opinion this is a great idea,” Avery said. “You’ll be able to set things up with your household computer so when you go to work it will take care of everything for you.”

Of course, the electric department wouldn’t control anything in the home without the customer’s permission, Kalv said.

But entering into a partnership with the city could mean lower electric bills.

LOWER BILLS

A smarter home and a smarter grid mean lower electric bills for the city and its customers, Kalv said.

Leesburg pays $5 million every month to its energy supplier. The city is looking for ways to make sure that bill doesn’t go up. Leesburg Electric has one of the highest rates in the state.

“We’re changing our habits; we’re changing the way we do business,” Kalv said. “We didn’t like the prices and we said ‘What can we do about it?’ We’re taking action.”

Electricity isn’t like most commodities because storing electricity isn’t practical on a large scale. As electricity is created, it is used, leading to a complex pricing system based on off- and on-peak hours.

Electricity is more expensive during the hottest or coldest hours of the day—called the peak—when people warm and cool their homes.

During the afternoon and morning peak hours, energy suppliers have to bring the less efficient, more expensive back-up power plants online to meet the increasing energy demand.

When the city approaches those peak hours of the day when it expects to use the most energy, the city sparks up its back-up generators. The city also notifies its largest commercial businesses, such as Publix and Leesburg Regional Medical Center, to turn on their generators so they can help reduce energy consumption.

The same principal can apply to the city’s residential electric customers. With future upgrades to the smart meters, city officials could eventually communicate to all of its 18,000 residential utility customers to voluntarily reduce their energy consumption, avoiding the peak-hour charges and help lower everyone’s bills.

REWARDS FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR

Those who do conserve energy by turning out lights, unplugging appliances and monitoring the thermostat pay the same price for electricity as those who don’t.

Smart meters could allow the city to reward those diligent power watchers.

Many electric utilities often charge their residential customers using one basic rate. The smart meters could also allow Leesburg to charge customers different rates for on- and off-peak electricity usage, rewarding those customers who curtail their energy usage during the peak hours with a lower rate.

“People will say that we’re asking them to change their behavior,” said Kalv. “That’s exactly right.”

However, technology makes that change easier, Kalv said.

“There’s a lot of potential in providing customers with information,” Kalv said “It’s going to completely turn the industry upside down

- Daily Commercial -