BPL Global Wins Metropolitan Edison Direct Load Control Project

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- BPL Global®, Ltd. (BPLG), a smart grid technology company dedicated to leading the transformation of energy efficiency and reliability, has contracted with FirstEnergy's Metropolitan Edison (Met-Ed) Company to deploy our EasyGreen® Direct Load Control technology using the Power SG® Foundation smart grid software platform and the Power SG® iDER distributed energy resource management application. Met-Ed expects voluntary participation by 20,000 to 24,000 residential customers to deliver more than 30 MW of peak load reduction as a part of its overall energy efficiency program. Customers who choose to participate in the EasyGreen® program will receive an incentive payment for each year of participation, in addition to saving money on their electric bill.

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The project is approved by the US Department of Energy as part of the Smart Grid Investment Grant awarded to FirstEnergy in October 2009. Under the terms of the contract, Met-Ed will deploy first-mover technology from BPLG that enables integrated management of renewable generation, energy storage and customer load as smart grid resources, resulting in a more efficient and reliable grid with reduced carbon emissions. The program is designed to support the efficiency, reliability and conservation goals of PA Act 129 enacted in 2008.

"We are pleased to offer this program to our Met-Ed customers in the York area as part of our overall effort to help our customers save energy and money," said Doug Elliott, FirstEnergy's president-Pennsylvania Operations. "Reducing electricity usage, particularly during peak demand days also helps delay the need for costly new generating plants."

The Power SG® iDER™ solution is the core technology enabling Met-Ed to more efficiently manage customer owned central air conditioning systems during peak periods. It provides 100% verification of connected load reduction with nearly twice the effective yield compared to conventional demand management solutions, delivering an average of 1.4 kW per connected residential air conditioning load. In addition to measuring actual load reduction, the BPLG system returns detailed metrics at the customer premise level including voltage, current, active power, reactive power, power factor and frequency. This additional data adds valuable information to enhance advanced smart grid applications such as Volt/VAR control, distribution automation, outage management and outage restoration systems.

The BPLG solution includes Power SG® Foundation software that serves as an enterprise class Integrated Control Platform (ICP). The ICP enables cross-collaboration between smart grid applications from generation through customer premises and provides a value multiplying effect as other smart grid applications are added to the system. In addition to direct load control, the ICP can also be utilized to support the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and other smart grid applications. The value multiplying effect is accomplished with the ability of all applications on the ICP to share data and information.

"This project utilizes the iDER™ technology that we co-developed with FirstEnergy and successfully demonstrated in the deployment for Jersey Central Power and Light," said Keith Schaefer, BPLG's CEO. "Our smart grid technology transforms operation of the electrical network and is designed to improve reliability and efficiency while helping Met-Ed meet the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's goals to reduce peak load and energy consumption. We are working with innovative utilities and regulators in progressive states like California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to accelerate adoption of our smart grid technology to more effectively manage load, storage and renewable energy resources for cleaner more affordable electricity. BPLG is also engaged with utilities and regulators in a number of other states interested in capitalizing on our new technology."

The technology allows real-time management of the energy delivery system and its load based on the changing conditions of the distribution network. By incorporating historical data and detailed local weather forecasts, this system improves capacity and load prediction capabilities while simultaneously managing customer load. Utilizing the Power SG® iDER™ solution from BPLG, enables Met-Ed to gain system reliability and efficiencies as well as help customers save money by better managing their energy use.

Co-development projects between leading technology providers and forward thinking electric utilities are vital to advancing the state of smart grid technology. By working together, BPLG and Met-Ed are driving innovation designed to benefit the entire electricity delivery value chain from generation through distribution and into customer premises.

About BPL Global® BPL Global, Ltd. (BPLG) is a smart grid technology company dedicated to leading the transformation of energy efficiency and reliability. The company provides software solutions and services to electric utilities and energy service companies enabling an intelligent grid to more efficiently manage demand, integrate distributed energy resources, improve service reliability, and optimize cost and capital productivity. BPL Global partners with local utilities, communications providers, equipment suppliers and financiers to create end-to-end solutions integrating the best in software, communications, hardware and managed services to aggressively deploy smart grid solutions around the world. Part of the clean technology sector of the electric utility industry, our applications provide the critical foundation for a coordinated, intelligent grid to deliver energy more efficiently and reliably for a greener environment. www.bplglobal.net.

About Met-Ed

Met-Ed, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), serves approximately 550,000 customers in 13 Pennsylvania counties.

SOURCE BPL Global, Ltd.