Kalispell, MT – The $178 million Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project was one of 16 regional smart grid demonstration awards announced by the Department of Energy (DOE). DOE will provide 50% of the funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The project’s participants, primarily utilities and technology companies, will provide the remaining funds.
The project team combines energy providers, utilities, vendors and research organizations and will be managed by Battelle, the managing company over the Pacific Northwest National Lab, PNNL, in Richland, WA. In addition to Flathead Electric Cooperative, the demonstration team includes a dozen other participating utilities, ranging from investor-owned utilities to municipals, rural electric cooperatives, public utility districts and the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).
Flathead Electric Cooperative’s piece of the regional project involves a voluntary residential smart grid pilot project. Flathead joined with the BPA, Battelle, and others aimed at demonstrating how improvements in Smart Grid technology can potentially save money and increase efficiency for utilities and their customers.
The Flathead demonstration project has a total cost of approximately $3.5 million, half of which will be matched with expenditures planned in concert with current capital budgets. The demonstration is planned to dovetail with some of the smart grid advances Flathead Electric is already deploying. FEC has been gradually replacing standard meters with two-way meters, which are capable of transmitting usage rates back to the Co-op.
As part of the demonstration project, communication between the Co-op and the end user (member) would be improved to four different levels, from advanced meters with real-time outage management and demand-response enabled waters heaters, to smart appliance and home energy networks. Participation in the project will be completely voluntary; will include appliance incentives; and will provide participating members with an opportunity to reduce costs for themselves and the general membership. Flathead hopes to have installed some equipment in homes by October of next year, and plans to collect at least two years of data for the regional project.
For further information contact:
Russ Schneider
FEC Senior Data Analyst
751-1828
Flathead Electric Co-op has presented Plum Creek Company with a check for $337,082 in a transaction made possible through an energy efficiency incentive program sponsored by the Bonneville Power Administration. The program encourages industrial customers to install energy-saving technology by providing significant rebates toward the cost of the new systems.
Plum Creek’s Ken Benson and Bob Hickey worked with BPA beginning in 2006 to conduct an energy audit, with results indicating that operations could become more energy-efficient if line voltages were more closely regulated.
PCS UtiliData, based in Spokane, Wash., installed an AdaptiVolt system that monitors and adjusts or “optimizes” the delivery of voltages both at the plant and at the FEC substation. After the system had been in place for a year, it became apparent that the energy savings were significant, while still maintaining operational reliability.
“Plum Creek is committed to reducing the impact of our operations”, said Benson. “By working with the BPA and FEC rebate program, we were able to reduce our energy consumption and cover a greater part of the costs of the new system.”
Ken Sugden, Flathead Electric General Manager, said the Plum Creek project is one of the largest stand-alone programs FEC has undertaken with an industrial customer.“Our goal is to encourage other members to invest in technologies that will help them achieve energy efficiencies and reduce costs”, he said. “We consider this project to be a great example of what can be accomplished.”
The Obama administration has joined the vast majority of Northwest leaders, including three governors, seven Indian tribes and most members of Congress, as well as citizens of Columbia and Snake River communities, in validating that the Federal Biological Opinion (Bi-Op or Plan) on hydro-operations is legally and scientifically sound. And that comes as good news to Flathead Electric Co-op and other public power entities whose members depend on the clean, relatively cheap energy that hydropower provides.
“Our support for the salmon plan has not come lightly, given the hefty price tag for families and businesses”, says Mark Johnson, Asst. General Manager for Flathead Electric. Johnson notes that the northwest region currently pays nearly $ 1 billion annually of fish and wildlife costs, which translates to up to 30% of the cost of power that consumer-owned utilities buy from the Bonneville Power Administration. But he says, the plan is the result of years of work and unprecedented collaboration. “Everyone’s goal is to find a balance between energy and the environment. This plan was based on science and common sense as opposed to politics and emotion and it’s a relief that the administration recognizes that.”
While the administration’s support was crucial toward actual implementation of the plan, final endorsement must come from U.S. District Court Judge James Redden, who previously struck down two plans for dealing with fish in the Columbia River Basin system. Also, a revision to the plan includes a damn breaching contingency which, although characterized as an action of last resort, would be an extreme and polarizing measure unsupported by the public or the science. These damns provide vast amounts of carbon-free energy and create an economic “superhighway” for billions of dollars in goods and services and thousands of jobs. In addition, studies strongly question the biological benefits of damn removal, suggesting instead that it could be harmful to fish runs.
“These are extremely tough economic times as is and every day of litigation puts a greater financial burden on our members”, Johnson says. “Experience demonstrates that damns and fish are not only coexisting but thriving, so hopefully we’ll finally get out of the courtroom with this plan and move forward.”
Flathead Electric Co-op could begin exploratory drilling for a geothermal development project in Hot Springs as early as 2010 if funds arrive as expected. In July, Montana’s Congressman Denny Rehberg announced that the Co-op would receive $491,000 for the project, which was included in the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee bill for Fiscal Year 2010. Rehberg, a member of the subcommittee, says the funding represents an investment in an “All of the Above” energy solution, which is the balanced approach he supports to meet America’s energy needs. In addition, Rehberg says that research is imperative in developing alternative energy sources and he’s proud to support a project that could lead to jobs in Northwest Montana. In applying for the funding, Director of Energy Services for the Co-op, Cheryl Talley, noted that almost every strategic energy plan in the U.S. calls for more renewable energy, adding that “geothermal fits the bill.”
Ken Sugden, Flathead Electric General Manager, says the geothermal project makes sense for the Co-op on a number of fronts: “It produces a steady supply of energy (as opposed to variable sources like solar and wind) so there is not a problem integrating the output into the electric system and the Hot Springs area in Lake County appears to be a good source of geothermal energy.” Experts project that adequate water and heat is available in the area for electric generation, especially when coupled with advancing technology.
Eventually, Flathead Electric Cooperative hopes to use the resource to partially supply its load growth and the geothermal activity in neighboring Lake County is well situated for distribution. FEC hopes to collaborate with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council and Mission Valley Power since the site is on the Flathead Reservation and in Mission’s service area.
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Co-op has applied for additional funding to continue exploring the feasibility of geothermal development in Western Montana.
Updated: Monday, November 30, 2009