Dominion Virginia Power has unveiled a plan to invest $600 million in “smart grid” technology plus a slew of energy conservation programs that it estimates will save electric consumers $1 billion over 15 years and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12 million tons.
“This plan will provide a jump start toward meeting the 10 percent conservation goal enacted last year by the Virginia General Assembly and the governor, getting the Commonwealth more than one-third of the way there within five years,” said David A. Heacock, president of Dominion Virginia Power. “It will provide significant environmental benefits in a cost-effective manner that translates into very real financial savings to customers.”
If the plan is approved by the State Corporation Commission, Dominion said in a press release issued this afternoon, it will begin executing it next year.
The centerpiece of the plan is the installation of “smart grid” technologies that enhances the performance of the electric distribution system. The grid will allow energy to be delivered more efficiently, resulting in substantial energy savings and permitting more precise control of the energy flow.
Under the smart grid program, Dominion would replace all of its existing electric meters with Advanced Metering Infrastructure, capable of two-way communications, as well as equipment to monitor and control electric distribution. The resulting fuel savings will more than offset the cost of the capital investment. As a bonus the technology should lead to improvements in service reliability and the ability of customers to monitor and control their own electricity usage.
The plan has many other elements, including:
- Incentives for constructing energy-efficient homes that meet EnergyStar standards, whcih are 15 percent more efficient than homes built to regular standards.
- Incentives to install energy-efficient light.
- Energy audits and improvements for homes of low-income customers.
- Incentives for residential customers who allow the company to cycle their air conditioners and heat pumps during periods of peak demand.
- Power cost monitors that display how much electricity customers are using and what it’s costing them.
- Incentives for residential customers to upgrade heat pumps to more efficient units.
- Incentives for commercial customers to improve the energy efficiency of their HVAC units and to reduce consumption during periods of peak demand.
- Incentives to turn in refrigerators that are 20 years old or more.
Electricity savings could reach 2.6 million megawatt-hours annually by 2013 , the company said. That’s enough to power 216,000 typical homes — but the savings will not be big enough or kick in soon enough to mitigate the need to add enough new generating capacity to meet demand expected to grow by 4,000 megawatts over the next decade.
This is just the first wave in the overhaul of the DVP electric system. The company continues investigate other energy-conservation and demand-reduction initiatives, including rate structures that would send better pricing signals to customers and emerging technologies that would leverage the smart grid to help customers manage the cost of individual appliances. “These technologies,” states the company, “will support the integration of on-site customer generation and future plug-in hybrid vehicles.”
Bacon’s commentary: Plug-in hybrids? Hoo-ah! See comments for details.