CHI UTILITY TO TEST SMART SUN

ComEd puts solar energy to the test; 100 area homes will get panels, meters and, if all goes well, become 'little utilities'
Sandra Guy, March 1, 2010 (Chicago Sun-Times)

"Later this year, the Chicago utility company [ComEd] will mount solar panels on the roofs of 100 homes in the near west suburbs and possibly the city's Near West Side.

"The utility will outfit 50 of those homes with smart electric meters, hourly electric pricing, battery solar-power storage and the ability to gain credits for emitting excess solar power back to the electric grid for others' use. The other 50 will get those same additions, except they won't be able to store their energy…ComEd will mail surveys to customers who live in single-family homes…[participation will] depend on such things as the type of house, how shaded it is by trees, and the orientation of the roof."

Which Chicagoans will win the ComEd lottery and plug in? (click to enlarge)

"The solar power experiment is being funded with an anticipated $5 million in stimulus money from the U.S. Department of Energy, plus $3 million in matching funds from ComEd and its vendors, including solar-power technology firm Gridpoint…[The] 100 homes are among 131,000 [of ComEd’s 3.8 million customers] that will gain experience with smart meters capable of transmitting data wirelessly to in-house consoles that show customers how, and at what cost, they are using electricity…

"…8,000 will test how consumers can use basic information about their electricity consumption to change their behavior to lower their utility bills and help reduce overall power-supply costs…They will be assigned to pay one of six electric rates, including [1] the utility's current flat rate…[2] a rate that increases as a customer uses more electricity…[3] an hourly rate set at the day-ahead hourly wholesale price…[4] a rate that jumps sharply at peak times…[5] a rebate rate for those who reduce electricity at the peak times, and…[6] a time-of-use rate that is high at peak times and lower at non-peak times."

click to enlarge

"About 3,100…will get a basic display device starting in May that will show them how they are using electricity and what it is costing them…Another 1,500 customers will receive a larger, touch-screen console that hooks up to the Internet and lets users not only see the details of their electric use and bill, but also is capable of Web applications that can provide anything from sports scores to news headlines…A subset of 400 customers will receive programmable thermostats that they can set to change temperatures at pre-determined times of the day when electric rates are cheapest…

"Ahmad Faruqui, who has designed smart-metering and pricing pilot programs and has worked with ComEd on this experiment, said it is the first globally to combine a variety of electric-rate pricing options with detailed information about customers' electric use on such a large scale…[Many] fear that the elderly, low-income and people who depend on special medical equipment will panic at the moment electric rates go up during the day and unplug all of their appliances, thus harming themselves…Faruqui suggests that such vulnerable customers be allowed to keep their existing electric rates…"