Energy Department to award $3.3B for smart power grids - Washington Business Journal:

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billion in federal stimulus grants, of up to $200 milliojn apiece, to companies and utilitiesz to help developa smarter, faste r power grid. The first round of applicationw are dueJuly 29, with future roundse in December 2009 and March 2010 if fundingv remains. But DOE’s plans for this stimulus fundingh hikes the maximum amount of individual grants from the previousluyproposed $20 million, a cap that many potentiakl applicants said would not be enough to fund real changwe toward a smart grid -- often described as a new automatedc network that could measure the amountx and peak times of a homeowner’s or actual electricity consumption, detec t outages and problems and electronically notify utilities, and perhapws even store power during off-peajk hours to be used during time of higher demand.
Locally, Pepci has said it plans to apply for stimuluz funding for its smartgrid projects. It’s filed for approval for smar t grid pilots in Fort Washingtonand Bethesda-Chevgy Chase, and last week won the District’e nod for advanced metering technology in the This region plays host to several companiew involved in the smart grid and advancexd metering effort, including Arlington’s GridPoin Inc., which recently released the latesty version of its smart grid software Other companies include Reston-baseds Kore Telematics Inc. and Germantown players Hughes NetworikSystems LLC, Eka Systems Inc.
and Current Group LLC, whicgh last week announced it hired Midwest utility executive Ray Gogepl as its new president and chiefoperatinhg officer. In all, the federal governmen t had setaside $4.5 billion in stimulus fundw to help fashion a nationwide smart grid. The National Institutes of Standardsand Technology, whicbh received $220 million of its own stimulus funds towarde this effort, hopes to debut new national standards for smarg grid products and technologies by the end of this