Light Plant Looking for a Few Smart Customers

Concord Municipal Light Plant is looking for volunteers to participate in a pilot program for a state of the art energy management system this summer.

This pilot program is part of Concord’s implementation of its new Smart Grid. It’s a digital network that will help the town manage energy demands and costs, and help customers improve their own energy conservation and usage.  Concord’s 2009 Town Meeting approved a $4.5 million bond to deploy a Smart Grid in Concord, and things are right on schedule.

Carole Hilton, Customer Service Coordinator at CMPL said the pilot project needs residential and commercial customers who will allow the Light Plant to monitor and control their central air conditioning or swimming pool pumps for when a peak demand hour is anticipated.

The goal is to test how best to use the Smart Grid to manage the Town’s summertime peak electricity demand. 

How the load is managed is critical to how much we all pay for electricity. Concord’s electricity provider uses the one hour with the highest electrical consumption of the year - usually during one of those dog days of summer from 1:00-4:00 P.M. - to set its rates for the town for the entire year.

According to CMLP, pilot participants can choose control strategies such as pre-cooling or cycling on/off air conditioners during these hours. The Light Plant will provide smart meters that record usage data participants can access, and a smart thermostat that they can control remotely.

 “This is all voluntary. We’re looking for between 40-50 residential and commercial customers,” said Hilton. “We hope to discover what folks’ tolerance is with each strategy, what the possible load reduction can be per home, and if the load reduction makes this program worthwhile. We can make adjustments to the strategies with each volunteer customer as we go along  to make sure it works for them.”

The Smart Grid project has been organized into four phases. Construction for underground and aerial networks for Phase 1 began October 12, 2010 with a goal of having fiber network construction and Smart Grid infrastructure in place by late May 2011 for all four phases and the entire Smart Grid project completed by August 2011.

The pilot, and initial Smart Grid capabilities are just the beginning.  With automatic detections of faults and outages, CMLP’s line division can locate and repair things more quickly. In the future, smart thermostats may trim a few degrees off central air conditioning to lower the demand on the system.

To participate in this pilot, contact CMLP’s Carole Hilton at chilton@concordma.gov. or call 978-318-3158 or click here. 

Click here to learn more about the Smart Grid

Note: Even if you are not part of the pilot program, you can help keep our energy rates in check by reducing your use during peak demand days. Just when are they?  Sign up to receive News and Notices and you'll get an announcement in your e-mail box.