ShareThisRALEIGH, N.C. - The nation's power companies are investing millions of dollars in new "smart" technologies and creating a mini-boom in hiring
The new technologies -- collectively referred to as a "smart grid" -- will convert the nation's aging electro-mechanical power grid into an automated digital network. When fully developed, it will let customers adjust thermostats over the Internet, charge the repowering of electric cars to the owner's account from any outlet and calculate the most economical rates based on home energy usage patterns.
Some of these technologies have been available for years and offered to energy-intensive industrial customers, while others are new.
And, as a result, scores of new jobs are being created in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, considered a hub for emerging energy jobs in manufacturing, engineering and project management.
Three of the nation's leading utility meter companies have offices in Raleigh and have hired or plan to hire several hundred workers. The state's two biggest electric utilities -- Progress Energy and Duke Energy -- were recently awarded maximum grants from federal stimulus funds earmarked for power system upgrades.
"It's on the verge of taking off," said John Bluth, a vice president at Elster Group, which makes utility meters in Raleigh.
Elster's customers last month were awarded $561million in stimulus grants to develop smart meters and related technologies.
The company, which helped submit the grant applications to the U.S. Department of Energy, expects to hire more than 400 people over three years to develop and install the meters for the 19 grant-winning customers, including Southern Co. in Alabama, Navajo Tribal Utility in Arizona and Cheyenne Light & Power in Wyoming.
More than half the nation's utilities are either developing, testing or planning to develop smart grids, according to a report by Deutsche Bank. But it will take more than a decade to transition from "the current dumb analog grid," according to the report.
Because of the instant payoff, smart grid benefits have been offered to large customers that spend more than $1million a year on their power bill. Electric utilities for years had been hesitant to invest in residential smart grid upgrades because power was cheap and few incentives were available for conservation.
But homeowners will increasingly be offered similar options when smart meters gain wide currency.
"The big challenge is to change lots and lots of people's behavior because you're going to get a sliver of savings from one person," said Chris Hutter, chief financial officer of PowerSecure International, an energy services company in Wake Forest. "You're talking about a massive behavior change to get people to wash their clothes at 11 p.m. instead of the afternoon to save a few dollars, or even a few pennies."
PowerSecure specializes in utility services designed for industrial and commercial customers, which can reduce energy usage by shifting their production schedules to off-peak hours.
Elster has been making utility meters in Raleigh since 1955 and today employs more than 600 workers and contractors here, adding more than 70 this year. The privately owned company began as Westinghouse and later changed to ABB before becoming Elster. Raleigh is the North American headquarters for the German company.
E-mail reporter John Murawski at john.murawski(at)newsobserver.com.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
