Infotility Partners with Marin County on $90 Million Dollar DOE Smart Grid Demonstration Grant Proposal
Boulder, Colorado – October 27, 2009. Infotility, Inc., provider of distributed intelligent agent software that enables utilities and communities to increase the efficiency and utilization of electric grid assets such as solar and wind power, has partnered and recently submitted a $90 million dollar Smart Grid Demonstration Grant Proposal to the DOE. The project proposal called “Smart Communities Empowering Smart Customers” (SC2) seeks approximately $30 million in ARRA stimulus grant funding and is matched with approximately $60 million in funding from the community and other industry partners including GreenBox, Xtreme Power, and Coulomb Technologies.
This large-scale demonstration project integrates a wide array of smart grid and renewable energy technologies that will reach over 1,000 commercial customers and over 5,000 residential customers and grow to thousands more after project completion.
The Marin Energy Authority (MEA), a coalition of 9 communities in Marin County, California, seeks to become a sustainable and renewable community working in concert with the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). The MEA will manage a renewable energy portfolio and community energy consumption based on key data such as locational marginal real-time pricing signals and market availability of renewable energy. This project will employ cutting edge Smart Grid technologies, resource management and optimization.
The SC2 project is being planned in one of the strongest enabling environments in the country (Marin County), is being executed by a world-class alliance of proven technology partners (not only smart grid technology avant-garde, but also gold standard security, interoperability and measurement/monitoring firms) and is replete with renewable resources and energy platforms representative of the entire region.
The availability of local and regional renewable energy sources and the focus on planning, management and optimization of those resources through the use of powerful emerging technology make this project unique. The SC2 project will fulfill all of the objectives of the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program. Some notable highlights include:
Demonstration of how community-based automated demand response and renewable portfolio management can be implemented using state-of-the-art software technologies from Greenbox and Infotility. These Smart Grid features will be optimized and based on real-time locational and market price signals, local conditions, and other grid contingencies, changing the behaviors not only of individual customers, but also the behaviors of aggregated communities.
Development Demonstration of the additional grid management synergies and capabilities gained with the inclusion of large-scale 4 MW / 10 MWh distributed, dynamic power and energy storage system and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) charging station technologies.
Illustration of how these new Smart Grid approaches can be used by various levels of aggregated communities to reduce their energy consumption, carbon footprint, and costs. These approaches will be based on local objectives beyond those of the Distribution Utility, in a manner that can be replicated and used by communities and aggregators in every region of the nation.
In addition, the SC2 project will lead to several Smart Grid metric advancements including:
Quantifiable economic and energy benefits of optimized local decision-making based on real-time locational marginal pricing signals.
Quantifiable demonstrations of the value of coordinated battery storage and V2G charging strategies, based on local renewable availability, and local market pricing signals.
Quantifiable demonstrations of the economic and energy benefits of coordinated community programs focused on HAN (Home Area Network) technologies and automated demand response.
Quantifiable demonstrations of how local DER technologies can be coordinated and blended into the overall community power purchase strategy, to minimize cost, and maximize reduction in carbon footprint and GHG production.
The proposed four-year project will test the integration of several crucial Smart Grid technologies in order to allow the community to maximize the penetration of renewable energy, seamlessly manage intermittent energy resources, and make intelligent energy decisions that minimize carbon footprint, GHG, and energy demand/usage.
The SC2 project will leverage matching funds from a range of sources within the community to generate a substantial number of new green-collar jobs, and to enable customers to manage energy consumption through Smart Grid advances.
The following key partners are committed to participating in the SC2 project:
Marin Energy Authority (applicant) – Project oversight, management, participant recruiting, and operations
Infotility – Smart Grid Software for community energy management, also technical project manager
Greenbox Technology (recently acquired by Silver Spring Networks) – Smart Grid Software for residential customer energy management
Xtreme Power Solutions – Community-scale power and energy storage system vendor
California ISO (CAISO) – Real-time local area nodal pricing, and curtailments
IOActive – Cyber security and interoperability contractor
Xanthus Consulting International (Frances Cleveland) – Interoperability, standards, and cyber security
Home, Building, and Utility Systems (Dr. Kenneth Wacks) – Cyber security and interoperability advisor
Coulomb Technologies – Vehicle-to-Grid charging station vendor
Navigant Consulting – Baseline, Measurement and Verification Plan and Implementation
Marin Climate and Energy Partnership – Community engagement and V2G coordination
Descom Studios – Public outreach, education, and marketing
Sustainable Spaces, Inc. – Building performance improvement services
Workforce Investment Board of Marin County
Marin Employment Connect
Infotility Inc., headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, a software company founded in 2000, is the leading provider of distributed intelligent agent software that enables utilities and communities to dramatically increase the efficiency and utilization of grid assets. Its GridAgents software has specific applications on SmartGrid based energy networks used for integration of communities of renewables and distributed energy resources, microgrid management, intelligent load control and smart charging applications coordinating photovoltaics & storage, load control, and future assets such as plug-in electric vehicles.
Website:
www.infotility.com, Contact James McCray at jim@infotility.com,
Phone: 415-867-3495