Idaho Power Notified of Selection for $47 Million Smart Grid Investment Grant
Funding Opportunity by Department of Energy
BOISE, Idaho, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE: IDA)
subsidiary Idaho Power Company's Advanced Metering and Customer Systems
projects were selected out of 400 received proposals for a potential award of
$47 million in funding by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In a letter
to Idaho Power, the DOE stated it is "pleased to inform you that your
application in response to the Smart Grid Investment Grant [Funding
Opportunity Announcement] has been selected for award negotiations."
Idaho Power submitted a request for funding in early August to further develop
Smart Grid systems by leveraging the Idaho Public Utilities Commission's
approved Advanced Metering Infrastructure deployment. The projects outlined in
Idaho Power's proposal involved a customer-centric approach to achieving
measurable results in three integrated areas:
-- Grid reliability
-- Involved and informed participation by consumers
-- Sustainability through integration of renewable resources
"Selection of Idaho Power's Advanced Metering and Customer Systems projects
for potential stimulus funding is an opportunity to provide direct benefits to
our owners and our customers," said Dan Minor, executive vice president of
operations for Idaho Power. "Pursuing funding options, such as the Department
of Energy's Smart Grid Investment Grant Program, that further our company's
ability to provide reliable, fair-priced electric service demonstrates our
commitment to our customers and owners. It would have been a missed
opportunity not to respond to the DOE's funding opportunity given the breadth
of our existing work in Advanced Metering."
Colleen Ramsey, manager of delivery construction for Idaho Power, has been
selected to lead the Smart Grid project. "Especially during these recessionary
economic times when we are focusing on operational efficiencies and doing more
with less, we look for creative solutions to fund new technologies and
innovations that enable our business to operate more efficiently and offer our
customers the ability to make smarter energy choices," said Ramsey. "With the
support of our consultant SAIC, a leader in utility technology solutions, we
were able to highlight the value our proposal brings to the advancement of the
Smart Grid through the development of Advance Metering Infrastructure,
customer systems and transmission and distribution. These projects are
intended to assist us in managing peak energy use, increasing energy
efficiency, improving grid reliability and integrating renewable resources."
"On behalf of our company and customers, I particularly want to thank the
Governor, the Public Utilities Commission and our Idaho congressional
delegation for their support of our application," said Idaho Power President
and CEO J. LaMont Keen.
The Department of Energy used a competitive, merit-based process to select
qualified projects to receive $3.4 billion in matching grants for smart grid
technology deployments. For more information on the DOE's Smart Grid
initiative, please visit: http://www.energy.gov/news2009/8216.htm.
IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE: IDA), Boise, Idaho-based and formed in 1998, is a holding
company comprised of Idaho Power Company, a regulated electric utility;
IDACORP Financial, a holder of affordable housing projects and other real
estate investments; and Ida-West Energy, an operator of small hydroelectric
generation projects that satisfy the requirements of the Public Utility
Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. IDACORP's origins lie with Idaho Power and
operations beginning in 1916. Today, Idaho Power employs approximately 2,050
people to serve a 24,000 square-mile service area in southern Idaho and
eastern Oregon. With 17 low-cost hydroelectric projects as the core of its
generation portfolio, Idaho Power's 489,000 residential, business and
agricultural customers pay some of the nation's lowest prices for electricity.
To learn more about Idaho Power or IDACORP, visit www.idahopower.com or
www.idacorpinc.com.
Project Overview:
Idaho Power's application for the Department of Energy's Stimulus Funding
Opportunity Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program focused on the need to
strengthen and modernize the nation's electricity delivery system. The
proposal directly supported the core purposes of the stimulus funds: to
accelerate the deployment of Smart Grid technologies and to stimulate the
state, regional and national economy by quickly providing new and accelerated
opportunities for businesses and significant new jobs for workers. The
proposal also supported the program's environmental goals by empowering
consumers, fostering behavior change, and supporting the integration of
renewable resources thereby reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
The application requested half of the $94 million project cost.
At the heart of our Smart Grid initiative is the ability to empower customers
to proactively manage their energy usage and costs by providing them with time
variant pricing options enabled through smart meters and other related
technologies. Among other benefits, we believe that community participation
through this Smart Grid initiative will help Idaho Power lead the way and
achieve measureable results towards:
-- Reduced electricity consumption
-- Lower peak demand
-- Continuation of some of the lowest electric rates in the nation
-- Reduced costs of power interruptions
-- More reliability and resiliency in operating the grid
-- Reliable and efficient integration of renewable generation resources
Project scope:
-- Implement smart meters
-- Increase customer access to energy usage information
-- provide customers' electrical energy use through smart meters and
software systems
-- allow customers to view energy use, enabling them to make informed
choices regarding their energy use
-- implement a Customer Information System (CIS) and enterprise meter
data warehouse to provide territory wide time-variant-pricing
options and customer relations management tools allowing our
customer service representatives to help customers interpret their
energy use and recommend programs and options to reduce use and
cost
-- Improve electrical infrastructure
-- implement an outage management system that communicates with a
customer's electric meter to determine the extent of outages and
validate restoration of service
-- add transmission system tools enhancing reliability and allowing
the
reliable and efficient integration of renewable generation
-- install devices to minimize outage size and duration
Receipt of the grant will contribute to Idaho Power's continued strategy of
responsible planning, protecting current resources and ensuring responsible
energy usage.
SOURCE Idaho Power
Piper Hyman, Corporate Communication of Idaho Power, +1-208-388-5622,
phyman@idahopower.com
