$20 million awarded for Avista upgrades

The Department of Energy Tuesday awarded Avista Utilities $20 million for upgrading its distribution system.

The grant was one of 100 that will dedicate $3.4 billion in federal stimulus money to “smart grid” technology designed to save electricity and create thousands of jobs in 49 states and the District of Columbia.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman and Itron Inc. of Spokane Valley, both major makers of smart grid components, will be indirect beneficiaries of the grants announced by President Barack Obama.

Avista, which will put up $22 million in matching funds, plans to install sensors on 58 “feeder” lines throughout its grid in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The sensors will detect outages and reroute electricity around the problem equipment.

“Normally, we have to wait for a crew to go find where an outage occurred, whereas this system is monitoring it and will automatically be able to determine where the outage is and get as many people back on as soon as possible,” said Heather Cummins, who oversees Avista’s smart grid projects.

By monitoring customer power consumption, the system will also allow Avista to use its generating plants more efficiently, said company spokesman Hugh Imhof.

“Bottom line: it boils down to generation we don’t have to produce in the long run,” he said.

Imhof said the investments are unlikely to have a significant effect on rates but could help minimize future increases.

Project Manager Josh DiLuciano said Avista estimates the investment will directly create 45 jobs in Spokane, including construction and engineering work. Another $30 million will be spent on equipment and supplies. Most of the high-tech sensors will be purchased from Schweitzer, he said.

DiLuciano said Avista hopes to begin work soon after receipt of the federal money expected in mid-November.

Itron Vice President Deloris Duquette said the company already has $300 million in contracts with three utilities receiving the DOE grants. Two have said the federal funds will allow them to accelerate installation of Itron “OpenWay” technology that gives homeowners more information about their energy use and gives utilities greater ability to disconnect homes or appliances in an energy emergency.

Most major utilities are Itron customers, she noted, but competitive bidding among all smart grid vendors will determine how much additional business might come the company’s way.

As of June 30, Itron had a $1.6 billion order backlog.

The list of grant recipients also includes many Schweitzer customers, Vice President Eric Newman said, and many will be installing company equipment. But he said he could not estimate how many new sales the grants might fund.

“There’s a lot of good work to do” improving grid efficiency, Newman said.