Kaine, Dominion tout energy-saving project

The Charlottesville area has become the testing grounds for a new conservation tool to help residents and businesses consume less energy.

The project by Dominion Virginia Power, called SmartGrid Charlottesville, will install thousands of high-tech energy meters for free on homes and businesses, which supporters predict will make electric service more efficient and ultimately cut energy bills.

“The modernization of the power grid has been a long time coming,” Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell said.

The program was unveiled Tuesday at a Downtown Mall event, where several state and local officials — including Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, Dels. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, and David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III and members of the City Council and Albemarle Board of Supervisors — attended in support.

The $20 million “smart grid” program includes Dominion installing about 46,500 wireless “smart”  meters in Charlottesville and the urban ring of Albemarle, 24,000 of which had been installed as of Monday. Dominion officials said every residential unit would be targeted in the city, including multi-family units such as public housing sites, as well as businesses.

Of the new system, David L. Slutzky, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said, “Its benefits will extend beyond the citizens of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.”

The new grid technology allows power customers and Dominion to monitor energy usage levels much more closely.

Customers will have the option of time-based rates instead of flat utility rates, which could allow them to use more electricity at lower rates during off-peak times. Service connections can be handled remotely through wireless communication with Dominion, outages can be reported automatically and users can keep an eye on their energy consumption on the Internet because of information collected remotely.

“Customers will be able to monitor their energy usage on a real-time basis,” Farrell said.

Officials conceded that changing energy habits can be complicated for a variety of reasons — namely, that it has not been in the interest of power companies to produce less energy because of what that would do to their profits. But because of legislation passed during this year’s General Assembly session, power companies can now list energy conservation measures as an expense as the State Corporation Commission sets their rates.

Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said that in the past, “the rate setting mechanism did not include expenses they incurred in order to conserve energy.”

Dominion expects that energy usage will be reduced by 4 percent annually for residential customers because of more efficient energy delivery, and that carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 12,000 tons per year. The reductions, to an extent, rely on whether consumers decide to closely monitor their usage.

“I think over time, yes, this is a very big component of that,” said Cat McCue, a spokeswoman for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which supports the program.

Farrell said the advances would also reduce Dominion’s fuel consumption because workers will not have to physically travel to change service or read individual meters.

Those with the utility company said the Charlottesville area was chosen to start the program in part because of its hills — wireless signals often have more problems transmitting on terrain that is not flat, so testing the technology in Charlottesville would ensure its effectiveness elsewhere.

Officials also said local residents have shown a desire to actively manage their energy use.

“We’re here for a reason and it’s because of your passion,” Kaine said Tuesday.

Kaine said Virginia was still on the early side of incorporating this kind of conservation tool. But, he added, “The United States may be a little late compared to other nations.”

Dominion has also installed several of the meters in Midlothian, but the full grid technology has not been rolled out in the area near Richmond. The company plans to spend $600 million to invest in smart meters for all of Virginia and North Carolina.