{"id":759,"date":"2011-03-11T10:06:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T16:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/texasenergyexchange\/?p=759"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:46:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T18:46:27","slug":"talking-smart-grid-in-the-land-of-lincoln","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/03\/11\/talking-smart-grid-in-the-land-of-lincoln\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Smart Grid In The Land Of Lincoln"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, I participated in a joint hearing of the Illinois Senate and House Public Utilities Committees. \u00a0It was a packed house, full of people like me who had made the 3-hour trek from Chicago to Springfield, past vast corn fields and — I was excited to see — a large wind farm. The topic: a bill<\/a> that would authorize the state\u2019s largest electric utility, Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), to spend at least $1.5 billion over the next ten years on \u201csmart grid electric system upgrades.\u201d \u00a0Of course, as with most utility investments, it\u2019s the utility\u2019s customers who will ultimately foot the bill. \u00a0So the crucial question of the day was, \u201cWhat will ComEd\u2019s customers get for their money?\u201d<\/p>\n

Our friends at the Illinois Citizens Utility Board, or CUB, asked EDF to testify at the hearing on \u201csmart grid done right.\u201d \u00a0We\u2019ve done a lot of thinking on the subject<\/a>, with experience engaging in smart grid policy and projects in California, Texas, North Carolina, and elsewhere. \u00a0And we are working closely with CUB and other partners on a variety of smart grid-related projects in Illinois, including a look at the health and environmental impacts of ComEd\u2019s smart meter pilot in the Chicago area.<\/p>\n

The potential benefits of a smart grid<\/a> are significant. \u00a0A smart grid will enable the use of a wealth of clean energy resources, including more energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation, and renewable energy. \u00a0By doing so, a smart grid will reduce our need for dirty fossil fuel-powered plants, including the expensive peak power plants that run only a few hundred hours a year but are often close to urban centers. \u00a0A smart grid will also enable us to make the shift to electric vehicles, reducing our dependence on foreign oil imports and the damage to our economy when oil prices spike, as they have in recent days. \u00a0EDF believes that a well-designed smart grid can cut air pollution from the electric power sector by more than 30% and transportation by more than 25% by 2030.<\/p>\n

Best of all, a well-designed smart grid will deliver all of these benefits while giving homeowners and businesses the power to manage their energy use and save money. \u00a0With easy-to-use tools\u2014such as simple online displays of the information smart meters provide about use and prices, and set-and-forget home energy management tools\u2014consumers will be able to make choices that lower bills and shrink their environmental footprint.<\/p>\n

But a smart grid won\u2019t deliver on that promise if the policy behind it doesn\u2019t set the right goals from the get-go.\u00a0 Smart grid policies must be designed with clear performance targets, metrics, and milestones \u2013 and utility compensation should be directly tied to their achievement.\u00a0 \u00a0Unfortunately, the draft bill now being debated by the Illinois General Assembly does none of this. \u00a0In fact, the only mention of energy efficiency I found in the language was a requirement that a new employee training facility be LEED certified! \u00a0ComEd\u2019s President Anne Pramaggiore acknowledged as much in the hearing. \u00a0CUB, the Illinois Attorney General\u2019s Office, and others raised similar concerns. \u00a0EDF will continue working with CUB and other Illinois allies to ensure these critical targets for energy efficiency and other environmental goals are included.<\/p>\n

A smart grid requires smart policy. \u00a0The deployment of smart grid technologies and infrastructure has met with controversy in places where the policies (or sometimes, the lack thereof) have failed to place utility customers first.\u00a0 Customers need access to information to make good choices about their energy use; without it, a \u201csmart grid\u201d won\u2019t be so smart.\u00a0 As Lincoln said, \u201cCalling a tail a leg doesn\u2019t make it so.\u201d\u00a0 This is why it is critical that Illinois get the policy right from the start. \u00a0EDF is joining forces with CUB and the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition to host a smart grid briefing in April for Illinois legislators and others, to help make the smart grid a reality here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, I participated in a joint hearing of the Illinois Senate and House Public Utilities Committees. \u00a0It was a packed house, full of people like me who had made the 3-hour trek from Chicago to Springfield, past vast corn fields and — I was excited to see — a large wind farm. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5355,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84830],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grid-modernization"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTalking Smart Grid In The Land Of Lincoln - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/03\/11\/talking-smart-grid-in-the-land-of-lincoln\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Talking Smart Grid In The Land Of Lincoln - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this week, I participated in a joint hearing of the Illinois Senate and House Public Utilities Committees. \u00a0It was a packed house, full of people like me who had made the 3-hour trek from Chicago to Springfield, past vast corn fields and — I was excited to see — a large wind farm. 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