HOT TOPIC: DOE Stimulus Grants
Here we list organized links to our coverage of the recipients of DOE stimulus funding under the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program and Smart Grid Demonstration Project program.
OFFICIAL LISTS: DOE's list of the grant awards were published by category and by state plus a map was offered showing the distribution of the awards.
Table of contents
These links jump to lists of stories on this page (follow the link on each list item to view the full text of the stories).
- The $2 billion taken from DOE's loan guarantee funds for the 'cash for clunkers' program (2 stories)
- Debate during ARRA policy development (1 story)
- Detailed coverage of individual SGIG award winning projects:
- What about projects that did not win SGIG grants? (2 stories)
- Green power ARRA grants with smart grid elements (1 story)
- Federal requirements that govern ARRA 2009 stimulus grants (2 stories)
- Added coverage including expert analysis, relevant policies (3 stories)
Tracking the $2 billion borrowed for 'cash for clunkers'
The Obama administration took $2 billion out of the DOE loan guarantee program, meant to secure loans for advanced and alternative energy programs including smart grid, and used it to fund the Dept of Transportation's very popular "cash for clunkers" program, with a promise that the funds would be returned -- but without announcing any particular plan for how to return the money. We tracked the story and broke news about it as it developed.
- Will DOE ever see the $2 billion it lost to DOT's 'cash for clunkers?' (2009-Nov-12)
- EXCLUSIVE NEWS: Congressman Markey commits to legislation repaying $2 billion to DOE (2009-Dec-04)
Obama administration announcements
- Smart grid stimulus cap raised ten-fold to $200 million (2009-May-19)
- Obama's DOE to list the 100 smart grid stimulus grantees today (2009-Oct-29)
- Obama's smart grid message rolls out across America, world (2009-Oct-28)
- DTE CEO Earley teams with White House to talk stimulus (2009-Nov-02)
- NYT notes lack of smart grid sizzle from White House (plus SGT 'Bottom Line' editorial) (2009-Nov-04)
- Obama's jobs plan includes clean energy, ARRA extension (2009-Dec-09)
Pre-Award Coverage of the SGIG winners
We published these stories about grant winners before the SGIG awards list was announced on 2009-Oct-27, and they detail the programs in the various applications.
- City of Anaheim, Calif, $5.9 million grant, originally reported in our story titled “California municipals share strategies for stimulus success,” (SGT, 2009-Jul-08)
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Avista in Spokane, Wash, $20 million grant, story titled “Avista to apply for smart grid stimulus,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-04);
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Baltimore Gas & Electric in Maryland, $200 million grant, story titled “Baltimore Gas & Electric reveals smart meter plan details,” (SGT, 2009-Jul-14);
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Burbank Water & Power in California, $20 million grant, “California municipals share strategies for stimulus success,” (SGT, 2009-Jul-08);
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CenterPoint Energy in Houston, Texas, $200 million grant, “CenterPoint starts massive AMR roll-out with Itron,” (SGT, 2009-Apr-06).
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Cobb Electric Membership Corp in Marietta, Ga, $16.9 million grant, “Obama's DOE to list the 100 smart grid stimulus grantees today” (SGT, 2009-Oct-27);
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Consolidated Edison in New York City, NY, $136.2 million grant, “ConEd files smart grid stimulus application,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-10);
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Duke Energy in Charlotte, NC, grants of $200 million and $4 million, “Duke picks Echelon for big AMI expansion,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-11);
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EPB Chattanooga in Tennessee, $111.6 million grant, “Tennessee utility invested in fiber optic network seeks grant” (SGT, 2009-Aug-31);
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Florida Power & Light in Miami, Fla, $200 million grant, “FPL reveals details about stimulus filing, grid plans” (SGT, 2009-Aug-18);
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City of Glendale Water & Power in California, $20 million grant, “California municipal hires KEMA to grow smart grid plans,” (SGT, 2009-Oct-22);
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Memphis Light, Gas & Water in Tennessee, $5 million grant, “Gloomy outlook for grid projects not shared by utilities we called,” (SGT, 2009-Oct-23);
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The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator -- also known as MISO, based in Carmel, Ind, $17.3 million grant, “With grants awarded, utilities look to DOE loan guarantees,” (SGT, 2009-Oct-28);
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OGE in Oklahoma City, Okla, $130 million grant, “Oklahoma IOU plows ahead with system-wide project plans,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-25);
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PECO Energy in Philadelphia, Pa, $200 million grant, “PECO files $650 million plan with Pennsylvania PUC” (SGT, 2009-Aug-17);
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Pepco based in Washington, DC, grants of $104.8 million and $44.6 million, “Pepco, taken to task on some bills, feels need for smart meters,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-25) and “Pepco to apply for $250 million in smart grid stimulus,” (SGT, 2009-Jul-17);
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PJM Interconnection based in Norristown, Pa, $13.7 million grant, “With grants awarded, utilities look to DOE loan guarantees” (SGT, 2009-Oct-28);
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Progress Energy in Raleigh, NC, $200 million grant, “Progress Energy describes half-billion dollar smart grid plan,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-13);
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Salt River Project in Tempe, Az, $56.9 million grant, “Salt River Project boasts head start on dynamic pricing,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-20);
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San Diego Gas & Electric, $28 million grant, “SDG&E: Smart grid is key to hitting 33% green power goal,” (SGT, 2009-Sep-18);
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Snohomish County PUD #1 in Everett, Wa, $15.8 million grant, “Gloomy outlook for grid projects not shared by utilities we called,” (SGT, 2009-Oct-23);
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Southern Company Services in Birmingham, Ala, $164.5 million grant, “Southern Company files for smart grid grant,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-12), and
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Wisconsin Power & Light, a unit of Alliant Energy and based in Madison, Wisc, $3.2 million grant, “WPL to submit 4 ARRA applications,” (SGT, 2009-Aug-06).
Debate during ARRA policy development
- Bingaman, Schwarzenegger weigh in on DOE grant cap debate (2009-May-04)
Detailed coverage of individual SGIG award winning projects
Once the awards were announced, we targeted our reporting to the details of the projects that DOE chose to fund. We are organizing these articles under categories that DOE used in listing the projects.
AMI
- 5 of DOE's 31 SGIG picks for AMI, from Oregon to Maine (2009-Oct-29)
- Central Maine Power wins $95.9 million
- Cleco to see $20 million
- Mississippi co-op wins, too
- Florida municipal was ready
- Oregon co-op goes all out
- SGIG AMI awardees plan for big goals, plentiful apps (2009-Nov-13)
- (South Kentucky Rural Electric) to use 66,000+ smart meters
- South Dakota has three (Black Hills/Colorado Electric Utility, Black Hills Power and Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power)
- Reliant/Tendril tackle Texas
- Hitachi takes on Texas co-op (Denton County Electric Cooperative aka Coserv Electric)
- Details of more winning SGIG AMI projects revealed (2009-Nov-16)
- Arkansas co-op (Woodruff Electric) teams with Hunt Technologies
- Sioux Valley (SD) sends signals
- Entergy: AMI to help poor
- Fulton (Mo) includes water pumps
- Marblehead (Mass) to study pricing
- SGIG awardees reveal more details about winning projects, plans (2009-Nov-24)
- Atlanta automates substations (Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia)
- HECO avoids new lines (Hawaiian Electric)
- Minnesota Power adds AMI
- Navajo Nation to use DA (Navajo Tribal Utility Authority)
- Quincy, Fla, uses TOU rates (City of Quincy)
- Midwest Energy upgrades relays
- SGIG grants to bring AMI, prepay services to Pennsylvania, Texas towns (2009-Dec-10)
- Wellsboro upgrades to AMI
- Tri-State finds safety in AMI
Customer Systems
- Customer systems projects pivot on tiny slice of SGIG pie (2009-Nov-04)
- PG&E, SoCalEd do pump DR
- Tallahassee to do in-home DR
- Iowa to see 32,000 thermostats
- Honeywell serves buildings
Distribution Systems
- DOE's distribution system grants fund wide array of apps (2009-Nov-02)
- NStar expands 'self-healing' from 13 to 1,000 circuits
- For NOVEC, capacitor banks
- Powder River greets SCADA
- PPL seeks optimal voltage
- SGIG awardees reveal more details about winning projects, plans (2009-Nov-24)
- Atlanta automates substations (Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia)
- HECO avoids new lines (Hawaiian Electric)
- Minnesota Power adds AMI
- Navajo Nation to use DA
Equipment Manufacturing
- Georgia G&T firm joins Whirlpool as only gear-making DOE grantees (2009-Nov-5)
- (Georgia) Nonprofit firm designs intelligence tools for co-ops
- Whirlpool enlightens appliances
Integrated Systems
- Grant-winning integrated systems now face 'brass tacks' (2009-Oct-30)
- Modesto, Calif mulls 'Buy American' clause
- It's good to be Duke (Energy)
- FPL wins maximum grant
- Big western US project awarded over $100 million for 12 states (2009-Nov-02)
- SGIG grants for integrated systems build on lots of groundwork (2009-Nov-06)
- Nebraska PPDs team up
- Progress (Energy) has momentum
- PECO's pace to double
- FirstEnergy plans advanced tech, variable rates in three states (2009-Nov-18)
- Oregon co-op's 'integrated system' covers AMI, TOU, more (Central Lincoln People's Utility District in Newport, Oregon) (2009-Nov-19)
- Pepco's SGIG awards target three service areas (2009-Nov-23)
- Golden Spread gathers 11 G&T co-ops for big SGIG-supported rollout (2009-Dec-04)
- This story reports in general on 11 projects connected to G&T co-op Golden Spread Electric Cooperative in Amarillo, Texas
Transmission
- With DOE grants, transmission officially joins 'smart grid' (2009-Nov-03)
- MISO adds 150 PMUs
- American switches to fiber
- ISO-NE adds 30 PMUs
- SGIG awardees reveal more details about winning projects, plans (2009-Nov-24)
- Atlanta automates substations (Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia)
- HECO avoids new lines (Hawaiian Electric)
- Minnesota Power adds AMI
- Navajo Nation to use DA (Navajo Tribal Utility Authority)
- Quincy, Fla, uses TOU rates (City of Quincy)
- Midwest Energy upgrades relays
What about projects that did not win SGIG grants?
- What's the best/worst thing about being denied an SGIG grant? (2009-Nov-16)
- ComEd begins install on project denied an SGIG award (2009-Nov-10)
Smart Grid Demonstration Project Program
These projects are meant to test new technologies and approaches that are hoped will push the smart grid industry forward. The winners of grant money under this part of the ARRA stimulus package, DOE's Smart Grid Demonstration Grant (SGDG) program, were announed in late November 2009. Here's how our coverage unfolded.
DOE released a detailed list of 32 demo projects
- DOE releases list of demo grantees as we gather details, insights (2009-Nov-25)
- Austin tests the big picture
- Battelle covers 5 NW states
- AEP to avoid new generation
- Beacon flywheels go to Chicago
- Demo grant awardees detail the cutting edge (2009-Nov-30)
- KCP&L DR helps poor
- Oncor monitors line sag
- LIPA offers ‘Smart Energy'
- New Mexico, Japan miss out
- LA looks at PEVs
- Duke Energy to demo big batteries at Texas wind project (2009-Dec-01)
- Compressed air storage wins DOE smart grid demo grants (2009-Dec-01)
- Kurt Yeager cites 15 most valuable grant-winning demo projects (2009-Dec-02)
- ConEd details grant-winning soup-to-nuts demo project (2009-Dec-02)
- Big battery bridges gap between peak solar output, power demand (2009-Dec-04)
- CCET reveals detailed plans for grant-winning Texas demo project (2009-Dec-10)
Green power ARRA grants with smart grid elements
- ComEd wins DOE money for solar project with smart grid element (2009-Oct-14)
Federal requirements that govern ARRA 2009 stimulus grants
- Are SGIG awardees ready to comply with Davis-Bacon Act? (2009-Nov-05)
- Experts assuage fears about ARRA's made-in-America rule (2009-Nov-06)
Added coverage including expert analysis, relevant policies
- Will DOE ever see the $2 billion it lost to DOT's 'cash for clunkers?' (2009-Nov-12)
- Yeager impressed with fewer than 20 SGIG projects (2009-Nov-10)
- Yeager describes SGIG favorites in Integrated Systems category (2009-Nov-13)
- Current CEO Casey talks about SGIG, GreenBeat 2009 Award (2009-Nov-20)
EPAct 2005 grant awards
- Infotility uses DOE grant to demo energy management software (2009-Nov-02)
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