CPUC Supports Edison’s Request for Smart Metering Initiative Funding
Rosemead, CA: The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved $1.63 billion in funding for Southern California Edison’s (SCE) smart metering program, Edison SmartConnect.
“This decision marks a new era for our customers and for SCE,” said Paul De Martini, SCE vice president, Edison SmartConnect. “Edison SmartConnect enables customers to more effectively manage energy and supports our efforts to partner with them on building a smarter, cleaner energy future.”
In 2005, SCE began the application process with the CPUC for its smart metering program. In summer of 2007, SCE submitted an application to allow authorization of $1.63 billion from ratepayers to fund the third and final execution phase of the program.
SCE will install 5.3 million new “smart” meters for its residential and small-business customers from 2009 until 2012.
The Edison SmartConnect system will allow communicating thermostats and appliances to automatically respond during times when demand on the electricity grid peaks, and energy prices are higher. This will reduce the overall peak power consumption by an estimated 1,000 megawatts — the entire output of a major power plant.
In addition, the Edison SmartConnect system has the ability to provide near real-time information from the meter into the home so that customers can see how much energy they’re using, and how much it is costing them. The result is expected to increase sustained energy conservation that will reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and smog-forming pollutants by a minimum of 365,000 metric tons per year – the equivalent of 79,000 cars being removed from the road.
Edison SmartConnect is part of SCE’s industry-leading efforts to introduce advanced smart grid digital technologies into transmission and distribution electrical systems. The smart grid provides customers more reliable, cost-effective, environmentally responsible power, and Edison SmartConnect enables them to make the smartest energy choices, and connect with the next generation of communicating appliances, thermostats, and plug-in vehicles.
To learn more about Edison SmartConnect, please visit www.sce.com/smartconnect.
To download an illustration of how Edison SmartConnect will work, see http://www.edison.com/pressroom/hot_topics.asp.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is the largest electric utility in California, serving a population of more than 13 million via 4.8 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
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