Wednesday, November 25, 2009

NStar, Premium Power win smart-grid DOE grants

By Jackie Noblett

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NStar and Premium Power Corp. were two Massachusetts companies named recipients of U.S. Department of Energy grants to deploy smart-grid technologies.

The awards are a part of a $620 million DOE Smart Grid Demonstration and Energy Storage Projects program funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Combined with a previously announced award to Beacon Power Corp., Massachusetts received a total of $39 million of smart grid funding.

NStar, the Boston-based utility, received two awards for smart grid projects across the state. Some $2.3 million of funding will go toward a planned smart grid pilot program in Newton and Hopkinton — where the utility will use advanced meters to determine exactly how much power a home or office is consuming at a given time and developing pricing based on whether power is consumed at peak or off-peak power consumption periods.

A separate, $5.3 million grant will add sensors and monitors to the downtown Boston electric grid to allow for more wind, solar or on-site renewable energy systems to be constructed on high-rises and other large buildings.

Premium Power won a $7.3 million grant to demonstrate the use of flow-batteries to store large amounts of power from the grid. The North Reading battery startup will install seven systems in Massachusetts, New York and California.

The awards are the latest in a string of smart grid fundings in 2009.