Seattle City Light is partnering with the University of Washington in a portion of a regional smart grid demonstration project to build a micro-grid for its new campus housing. The US$10 million project, which received $5.1 million in federal grant money, is one of 11 subprojects that are part of the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project managed by Battelle.
The UW Smart Campus Demonstration Project, which began in early 2010, installed approximately 235 smart meters that began collecting data in July 2012 on real-time electricity use in 178 buildings. The project included construction of a secure communications network (FacNet) to gather meter data; a central meter data warehouse to archive historical energy use; a meter management system to retrieve, validate and monitor meter data in near real time; and custom energy analysis, reporting and visualization tools. Seattle City Light contributed $600,000 toward the project for data collection, automation controls and additional metering.
Visit www.pnwsmartgrid.org.
