EVERETT—
It's a sign of the season. As the weather gets colder, our heating bills go up. But what if you could see how much your bill was before you paid it, and only use as much heat as you could afford? One local utility, Snohomish PUD, has just received a huge grant to put that plan in motion right now.Snohomish PUD just received almost $16 million to update its system to include what are called ''smart" meters. It will be a few years before you have one of these at your home. But when you do, you'll be able to see how much energy you use, like you watch the gas tank in your car. The hope is that you'll conserve energy, before your wallet and our natural resources run on empty.
The power meter outside your house is a part of history that's been around for more than a century. As Steve Klein, general manager of Snohomish PUD puts it, "If Thomas Alva Edison walked with me and took a look at our system, he'd recognize virtually all the components." But Klein just received about $16 million dollars in federal stimulus money to make some big changes. He says, "We're laying the foundation for the future."
The money will pay for a ''smart'' power system that controls the delivery of electricity remotely, by computer. Imagine if your utility could tell your hot water heater to turn off while you're at work and fire up again before you come home. Klein says, "That would be a benefit to your utility. Therefore it lowers our cost, therefore it lowers the consumers cost." It's not a bad deal for a lot of us who have enough trouble paying the power bill right now. Jennifer Zavala, who lives in Everett, says, "It's one of those bills where I have to push it off as long as I can, because I've got to pay the rent first."
The next step is a smart meter at your home. It lets you schedule a dishwasher to run at night when cheaper rates might be in effect, and see, minute by minute, how conserving energy will impact your bill. Zavala says, "That would be really cool to be able to see how much it's affecting it. You know, putting in energy efficient lights and seeing, oh, these last two days, I did way better than the two days before that."
Snohomish PUD will have some of the first smart meters in our region, saving you money, and even helping find power outages instantly. Klein says, "So we're going to be able to more quickly route around the problem, dispatch crews to exactly where the problem's at, and restore the power in a much more cost effective and efficient manner."
It's a sign of a new age. As more utilities rely on more sources of power, like wind and solar, they need a new grid, and new meters to make smart choices about energy. If you'd like to learn more about this smart meter and smart power grid project with Snohomish PUD, follow this link.
