Dan Delurey: Congress providing a jumpstart to modernize the nation's electricity system

By Dan Delurey, President of the Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition (DRSG), the trade association for the smart grid industry. This blog post was submitted as part of the Democratic Issues Conference and Job Summit.

Early last year, in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), following on the heels of smart grid policy enacted in Energy Policy Act  and Energy Independence and Security Act (all of which originated in the House), Congress took its first major step to support development of the Smart Grid. It allocated over $4 billion to fund projects that will install smart meters and other technologies and provide a “jump start” to modernization of the nation’s electricity system. In reporting on the results of ARRA, Vice President Biden said that Congressional action with the Recovery Act “will likely result in 43,000 new jobs” and matching funding from the private sector “could support up to 61,000 additional jobs on smart grid projects.”

But Congress also is increasingly realizing that the smart grid may be the rare opportunity to address multiple challenges with effort in one particular area.

How?

• Economic Growth and Jobs—Numerous studies have concluded that the smart grid will create jobs, many of them high-tech and green-tech. The National Governors Association has asserted that “an investment of $10 billion annually in smart grid deployment for five years could create or save 239,000 jobs per year.”
   
• Climate Change—Wind and solar energy are intermittent and variable and most wind blows at night. Experts in the Administration say that without a smart grid we will not be able to use as much renewable energy as we want. Also, the information that smart grid will provide to customers will make customers more energy-efficient and reduce emissions. The smart grid is a green grid.
   
• Electricity Reliability—The electricity grid is the lifeblood of our modern society and business operations. Smart grid technologies enable utilities and grid operators to have real-time information about the strength of the grid, allowing them to recognize potential causes for blackouts. The smart grid and smart meters also facilitate demand response, whereby utilities incentivize customers to reduce their usage during times of excess demand, when the grid is under the greatest stress.
   
• Consumer Costs—Right now, all customers pay the costs of having a sub-optimal, inefficient electricity system and grid. For example, 10% of the costs on the system are only for the 100 hours of the year when demand is highest. When utilities turn to the smart grid, costs drop and all customers benefit. Also customers will get information, tools and incentives that they have never had before to control their personal energy bills.

The DRSG appreciates Congressional action to date but the smart grid is still in its infancy and in the early stages of development. Support for the smart grid now will not only mean good jobs today, but also a more competitive economy in the future.