It's the type of system touted by the Obama administration, which announced $3.4 billion in government grants last week designed to advance an overhaul of the country's power distribution network.
"We are deeply committed to this effort," Supervisor Charles McGlashan said Friday, when local and federal authorities gathered to celebrate the start of the test phase of the project.
Grids - the wires and other equipment that distribute electric power - can be made "smart" by adding various bits of information technology to them, such as sensors, digital meters and computers.
Smart grids can save consumers and suppliers of electricity money by managing the flow of power more efficiently. They are also considered an essential component for the use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. That is because wind and solar power sources ebb and flow - sometimes the sun shines, sometimes it doesn't. Smart grids are needed to manage the variability of such power sources.
After securing a three-year, $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2008, Infotility, a software company based in Boulder, Colo., began installing smart grid technology at the Marin County Civic Center and four other county facilities, three of which have large banks of solar panels on their roofs.
The data and information from this Marin County demonstration project will be stored in a smart grid information clearinghouse" and used by others across the country, said Dan Ton, who manages the smart grid research and development program for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Marin Energy Authority, a joint powers authority formed in November to explore projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is seeking a $31.4 million grant from the Department of Energy for a much larger demonstration project that would involve more than 5,000 Marin households. The authority, which consists of the county of Marin and eight other municipalities, has offered to provide about $60 million in matching funds.
Dawn Weisz, interim director of the Marin Energy Authority, said most of the $60 million would be raised through a program that would allow homeowners in Marin Energy Authority cities and towns to finance energy-efficiency improvements and rooftop solar installations over time. Similar programs have been initiated in Berkeley, Sonoma County and Palm Desert. Homeowners use the money they save on energy to pay for the installations with slightly higher property taxes.
Weisz said the authority expects to hear back from the Department of Energy regarding the grant request within the next three weeks.
The technology installed in the county buildings make it possible to monitor precisely how much electricity the buildings are using and how much electricity the solar panels are producing. That is important to know for anyone interested in selling the electricity they produce back to the grid.
Software is also being developed that will make it possible to turn power on and off in the Marin County buildings automatically.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has a program that pays the owners of commercial buildings who temporarily scale back their energy usage when asked, said Rich Barone, Infotility's director of business development. Barone said Infotility's software has an ability "to interpret an e-mail from PG&E, parse it and then be able to calculate a bid."
Over the next year, Infotility plans to create a means of storing some of the power being generated by the Marin County buildings, as well as some charging stations for electric vehicles, Barone said.
Eventually, smart grid technology holds the promise of making it possible for household consumers to program some of their appliances, such as washing machines and clothes dryers, to switch on when electricity rates are cheapest.
