Dominion rolling out ‘smart grid’ in Charlottesville

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Dominion Virginia Power will outfit thousands of Charlottesville-area homes with high-tech energy meters intended to help residents and businesses reduce energy use.

The $20 million "smart grid" program will involve installation of 46,500 wireless smart meters in Charlottesville and parts of Albemarle County. As of Monday, 24,000 had been installed.

The grid technology allows customers and Dominion to better monitor energy usage.

Customers will have the option of using time-based rates instead of flat utility rates, which could let them 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.

"The modernization of the power grid has been a long time coming," Dominion President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said yesterday at a news conference announcing SmartGrid Charlottesville. "Customers will be able to monitor their energy usage on a real-time basis."

Officials conceded that changing energy habits can be complicated for many reasons, including that it has not been in the interest of power companies to produce less energy. But legislation passed during this year's General Assembly allows power companies to include energy conservation as an expense as the State Corporation Commission sets their rates.

"SmartGrid Charlottesville is a major leap forward in reducing energy consumption in our households and sets a great example for the rest of the commonwealth," Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said at the announcement.

Dominion plans to install smart meters and equipment throughout its service area over the next few years as part of a $600 million program energy-conservation plan announced a year ago.

Dominion expects energy usage will be reduced by 4 percent annually for residential customers because of more efficient energy delivery, and 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 also would reduce Dominion's fuel consumption because workers will not have to travel to change service or read individual meters.

Rachana Dixit is a staff writer with The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.