California Public Utilities Look to SAIC for Smart Grid Planning

Science Applications International Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary R. W. Beck, was awarded a contract from the California Energy Commission to develop a smart grid technology road map for the state’s publicly owned utilities (POUs). Legislation requires many of the state’s utilities to consider employing smart grid technologies to help achieve state-wide energy objectives of generating electricity from renewable resources, implementing dynamic pricing for electricity, and reducing electricity consumption through increased energy efficiency and conservation.

SAIC will assist these utilities through a stakeholder-driven technology road-mapping process that will establish their vision of the smart grid in 2020, assess their current plans to deploy smart grid technologies, and define strategies to overcome gaps and barriers to achieving their smart grid vision.

“Public utility priorities are driven by the communities they serve, which creates a wide range of perspectives of how smart grid technologies should be employed to meet both their own goals and the states’ goals. These perspectives must be thoughtfully considered to make sure that we can achieve state and regional objectives while providing real value to the utility customers who ultimately bear the costs,” said Steve Rupp, R.W. Beck’s program manager. “We are excited to apply our industry and technical expertise to help the California Energy Commission and California’s public utilities define strategies that support their visions for a smarter grid.”