POWERGRID International Magazine Names Projects of the Year Award Winners at DistribuTECH 2011

TULSA, Okla., Feb. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- PennWell Corp. – The editors of POWERGRID International magazine (formerly Utility Automation & Engineering T&D magazine) and PennWell Corp. have announced four winners for the magazine's annual Projects of the Year Awards program.

The winners were selected for four specific categories: Best Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project, Best Grid Integration of Renewables Project, Best Smart Grid Project and Best Smart Metering Project. This year, there was one major trend for winners: They put the customers first.

The awards were given out today during the keynote presentation at the DistribuTECH 2011 conference in San Diego, Calif.

For more details on these award winners, see the April issue of POWERGRID International magazine.

Best Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project

The winner of the Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project of the Year Award is National Grid for the utility's Comparative Home Energy Reporting Program.

National Grid is an international energy-delivery company that delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA).

In October 2009, National Grid became the first East Coast utility to launch one of the most innovative energy efficiency programs in the U.S., based on the comparative home energy reports program of OPOWER Through this program, National Grid expects individual electric customer savings to average as much as 260 kilowatt-hours annually—more than 32,500 megawatt-hours of saved electricity annually—through behavioral changes and by employing the energy-efficiency tips offered in the reports.

Finalists in the 2011 Energy Efficiency/Demand Response Project of the Year category include Glendale Water & Power's Energy Storage & HVAC Replacement Program and the California ISO's Demand Response System for Managing California Proxy Demand Resources.

Best Grid Integration of Renewables Project

The winner of the Grid Integration of Renewables Project of the Year Award is ESB Network for their EPRI-assisted Smart Grid Demonstration Project.

Ireland's 200,000 km of electricity transmission and distribution networks serving its population are owned by ESB Networks (ESBN), which also operates the distribution system. As part of the country's commitment to climate change, the government has targeted 40 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020.

ESBN's smart grid project began in 2009 and will continue until 2012 before it completes all aspects of the initiative (with 2010 being a productive year for renewable integration in the project). The wind integration portion of ESBN's effort comprises three projects which investigate novel wind farm control strategies:  control of reactive power, control of wind farm voltage rise using voltage regulation close to demand and design of a low cost substation interface between larges amounts of medium voltage connected wind.  

Finalists in the 2011 Grid Integration of Renewables category include PSE&G's Solar 4 All Program and the Midwest ISO's Real-time Integration of Wind Energy Initiative.

Best Smart Grid Project

The winner of the Smart Grid Project of the Year Award is Salt River Project for the utility's Smart Grid Consumer Initiatives.

Salt River Project (SRP), the third-largest public power utility in the United States and the largest provider of electricity to the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, wanted to implement a smart grid solution that would increase customer satisfaction, improve services and lessen energy consumption during peak hours.

As an early adopter of AMI technology, SRP has deployed approximately 580,000 Elster REX residential and ALPHA commercial and industrial smart meters and is utilizing the data collected to support customer service as well as significant cost and environmental savings. SRP customers are now able to monitor and manage their energy use. SRP estimates that their smart grid solution has saved more than 341,000 hours  in labor, avoided more than 1.7 million driving miles and conserved 169,000 gallons of fuel.

Finalists in the 2011 Smart Grid Project of the Year category include EDF's Project PREMIO and OG&E's Positive Energy Smart Grid Program.

Best Smart Metering Project

The winner of the Smart Metering Project of the Year Award is Southern California Edison (SCE) for the Edison SmartConnect program.

SCE serves a population of more than 14 million people in a 50,000 square-mile area of central, coastal and southern California. Edison SmartConnect is the company's $1.6 billion dollar advanced metering program that will replace approximately 5 million traditional electric meters with smart meters and other advanced technologies that will empower customers to conserve energy and save money.

Edison SmartConnect smart meter installations began in September 2009. As of July 2010, Edison SmartConnect achieved its targeted deployment of one million meters. As deployment efforts continue, Edison SmartConnect is also focused on customer engagement. The customer outreach and education approach to date has been multi-pronged in order to achieve the goals of generating awareness and understanding of the program's progress and customer benefits. One of the highlights of Edison SmartConnect's customer communications was the May 2010 unveiling of the Carl & Eddy "edutainment" video vignettes now appearing on www.YouTube.com/SCE. The ten English and Spanish vignettes, offer a unique and ground-breaking approach to educating customers and stakeholders about Edison SmartConnect in easy-to-understand concepts and messages.

Finalists in the 2011 Smart Metering Project of the Year category include Portland General Electric's System-wide Wireless Smart Metering System and SDG&E's  2010 Smart Meter Program.

About POWERGRID International

POWERGRID International magazine (formerly Utility Automation & Engineering T&D magazine) celebrated its 15th year as the voice of the electric T&D industry in 2010 and is the power industry's leading source of information on electric power transmission and distribution automation, engineering and information technology. It reaches 40,000 electric utility professionals, managers, engineers and other qualified subscribers who count on POWERGRID International to present the information they need to make on-the-mark business and technical decisions every day. The magazine and DistribuTECH are owned by PennWell Corp., a worldwide media company based in Tulsa, Okla.

About PennWell

PennWell Corporation is a diversified business-to-business media and information company that provides quality content and integrated marketing solutions for the following industries: oil and gas, electric power, water and wastewater, renewable, electronics, semiconductor, contamination control, optoelectronics, fiberoptics, enterprise storage, converting, nanotechnology, fire, emergency services and dental. Founded in 1910, PennWell publishes over 100 print and online magazines and newsletters, conducts 60 conferences and exhibitions on six continents, and has an extensive offering of books, maps, web sites, research and database services. In addition to PennWell's headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma the Company has major offices in Nashua, New Hampshire; Houston, Texas; London, England; Mountain View, California; Fairlawn, New Jersey, Moscow, Russia, and Hong Kong, China. In 2010, PennWell celebrates 100 years in business.

SOURCE PennWell Corp.