GE Energy and Silver Spring Networks to work on OG&E’s smart grid programme

30 October 2009

Energy supply company OG&E has entered into agreements with General Electric Energy (GE) and smart grid provider Silver Spring Networks, to handle its Positive Energy smart grid programme, which is deployed in Norman, Oklahoma, next year.

GE will provide the 42,000 smart meters to measure electricity use and transmit the information to OG&E for billing and service monitoring. The information will be communicated via Silver Spring Networks’ smart energy IP-based network.

OG&E began working with GE and Silver Spring Networks for its pilot study of smart grid technology with 6,600 customers in Oklahoma City, in 2008.

Ken Grant, managing director of OG&E’s smart grid programme, said, ‘Smart grid technology is important for our customers, for our employees and for our shareholders.’

The study will measure how 3,000 customers in the Norman area use price information to alter their energy consumption patterns and to lower their electric bills.

With the complete information network and smart meters in place, OG&E will receive notifications when power outages occur and reduce response time to restore service.

Grant continued, ‘We want to make sure that this technology works well before we integrate it completely into our normal operations and employee processes.

‘However, we’re confident smart grid technology is the future for our industry. We’re looking ahead with many of our employees involved in designing the processes for use in Norman and later across our service territory for all of our customers.’

OG&E’s application for $130m in smart grid stimulus funds has been approved, pending negotiations with the Department of Energy in November. The company will seek state regulatory approval for recovery of the remaining costs of the almost $300m deployment across its entire service territory over the next three to five years.

OG&E serves 775,000 customers in a service area spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. The company is a subsidiary of Oklahoma city-based OGE Energy Corporation, a midstream natural gas pipeline business with principal operations in Oklahoma.

GE Energy is based in Atlanta, Georgia, and spans all areas of the energy industry including renewable resources such as water, wind, solar, biogas, and other alternative fuels.

Copyright © 2009 NewNet

Tags: smart grid

This story was published on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 12:09 pm and is filed under North America, deals, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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