NAPERVILLE
SMART GRID INFORMATION
SUMMARY: The City of Naperville / City Council has voted to
approve an $11 million dollar expenditure for the "smart grid." This money is matched by the federal
government (Stimulus Package).
FY10 ended with the City in deficit of $11 million. Furthermore, on May 12, there is news of
cutbacks in ambulances in order to save money. In January, 10 police officers
were let go, also for budgetary reasons.
So, in the purest form.. the city is spending $11 million to
place energy recording devices on our electrical usage, we are $11 million in
the hole from last year, and they are now cutting back on our safety and
security.
See below for more information.
ON TUESDAY, MAY 18, 7 PM AT COUNCIL CHAMBERS/ CITY HALL, WE
WILL GATHER A GROUP TO SPEAK OUT DURING PUBLIC COMMENT.
In Friday's SUN, they announced ANOTHER 2 ambulances are
being "pulled" because of budget constraints.
"Reaction
to the ambulance reduction has so far been minimal, according to Mayor A.
George Pradel's office. Early this week, the firefighter's union posted a
message about the reduction in the number of ambulances on the streets and
contact information for the mayor and council members. According to Pradel,
only one concerned e-mail has come in.
(NOTE: The council has voted 7-0 to move ahead on this, so
we are not sure if this vote can be reversed or "not funded" at this
point).
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CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY: http://www.naperville.il.us/dynamic_content.aspx?id=16294
Naperville
City Council Endorses Smart Grid Initiative
NAPERVILLE, Ill.— At its December 7, 2009, workshop, the
Naperville City Council endorsed Naperville’s Smart Grid Initiative and committed
financial support for the city to match an approximate $11 million grant from
the U.S. Department of Energy to install the smart grid. This action allows the
city to move forward with negotiating and finalizing the award for final City
Council approval in January 2010.
Naperville’s
smart grid project will include:
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CLICK HERE FOR FULL STORY:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=374900
Naperville
signs up for $22 million 'smart grid'
Naperville has inked a deal with the federal government for
what it calls a cutting edge energy project.
City councilmen on Tuesday gave their approval to creating a
$22 million Smart Grid officials say will lower energy costs for itself and
residents.
Half of the project cost will be funded by the city and the
other half will come from a federal stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of
Energy.
Councilman Kenn Miller on Tuesday said the Smart Grid will
have long-term benefits for the city and residents alike.
"This is an excellent project and I think it shows the
reward for the foresight and vision and smart engineering and planning that the
city provides to its electric, water and wastewater," Miller said.
The city is one of 100 nationwide to receive federal
stimulus funds to create a Smart Grid.
Councilmen voted 7-0 on Tuesday in favor of a detailed
agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy and the first project award of
$347,400 to West Monroe Partners.
Through the project, Naperville will purchase more than
57,000 "smart meters" that will let both the city and residents track
their energy use. Officials hope the ability to monitor usage will encourage
residents to use less energy and to use energy during nonpeak hours.
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http://www.naperville.il.us/emplibrary/FY10AnnualOperatingBudget.pdf
From The
City of Naperville FY 10 Annual Operating Budget
Notes
SHORTFALL OF $11.1 MILLION
Overall,
the City has seen many revenue sources decline over the past year and other
sources
increase at a slower pace than experienced over the last three years. For
FY10 the
overall shortfall amounted to $11.1 million. Through expenditure
reduction,
reduction in force, and vacant position elimination, staff has addressed
this shortfall.
-----------------------------------
Earlier this week
Naperville took one of its seven ambulances out of service to save money.
Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis
said as many as two ambulances could be shut down each month as the fire
department uses up the money allotted for overtime. The first ambulance was
removed from service Monday in a move that Puknaitis said will be evaluated
continually to make sure there are no negative repercussions.
since the start of the city's fiscal year on May 1, Puknaitis has been attempting to limit overspending by putting the department on a monthly budget.
"We ran out of our allocation for the month, so for the remainder of the month, we removed either one or two ambulances based on the staffing we have available," he said.
Reaction to the ambulance reduction has so far been minimal, according to Mayor A. George Pradel's office. Early this week, the firefighter's union posted a message about the reduction in the number of ambulances on the streets and contact information for the mayor and council members. According to Pradel, only one concerned e-mail has come in.
Naperville police officers and their supporters showed up to
a city council meeting en masse Tuesday to protest the recent elimination of 10
sworn officer positions from the department.
The group said the cuts will be harmful to public safety but
city officials argued they would not have made the cuts if that was the case
and that the city is in a time of "dire need" with regard to its
budget.
Earlier this month, the city eliminated 49 positions
citywide, including 27 that were already vacant. The move saved the city $3.6
million for the upcoming fiscal year that once had a budget hole of $14.1
million.
by David Craddock, April 7th, 2010
Midwest ISO
aims to find out: armed with a $17.3 million stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Midwest will
install more than 150 smart grid measurement units over the next three years.
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http://greeneconomypost.com/smart-grids-smart-investment-studies-show-3468.htm
Instead, this new study applies load control and pricing program impacts directly to individual customer end-use loads such as air conditioning, water heating and so on to determine utility-level impacts. The study revealed that the total savings potential, after cost, is $48 billion for the 200 largest US utilities.
However, individual utility savings range from negative savings to $3.2 billion. One out of 10 utilities may lose money with comprehensive smart grid deployments and the benefit/cost ratios of comprehensive smart grid systems depend on a complicated mix of factors (such as dwelling unit age and size) and vary widely across utilities.
http://greeneconomypost.com/smart-grid-9294.htm
The DOE also states that if each US household replaced one
incandescent light blub with a compact fluorescent light bulb, the energy
savings would allow us to light 3 million homes and save more than $600 each
year. Basically, this would enable us to not build additional plants and
infrastructure.
A key benefit of the Smart Grid is providing people access to real-time detailed data, empowering smart decisions that will help save the environment and money.
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http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2009/11/13/3
A lawsuit from customers saying their rates have shot up 200 percent since the smart meters were installed, as well as a new California law preventing dynamic pricing, is evidence of weakened consumer confidence in a policy hailed by utilities and lawmakers as a major solution to climate change and tight energy supplies.
A consumer advocate group, the Utility Reform Network, or TURN, is asking PG&E to stop installing smart meters until the CPUC comes to a conclusion. "Regardless of who is right on this, there is a huge crisis of consumer confidence on this," said TURN Executive Director Mark Toney, citing hearings in Bakersfield and Fresno that drew upward of 200 people each.
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Jan 13, 2010
The first step in
implementing a Smart Grid is building an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (
AMI). A key component of AMI is the smart meter, which is a digital meter
capable of processing and reporting usage data to providers and households via
two-way communication with the utility offices.
"2-way communications allowing utilities and/or consumers to control energy consumption." (embedded in graph)
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http://mddailyrecord.com/2010/03/08/smart-grid-is-closer-than-you-think/
Larry Easton, Lockheed’s Smart Grid ventures director, said the software will allow utility companies to create energy-use programs specific to each customer’s needs.
“People get nervous about the idea of a utility reaching into their home and turning off their water heater,” Easton said, so “the preferred approach is for people to voluntarily sign up for programs.”
The current grid is “dumb” by comparison, running near maximum capacity all the time and costing everyone. On hot days when everyone uses air-conditioning, utility companies must purchase extra energy at extremely high rates to meet demand.
If customers can choose their own energy-use programs, it will help utility
companies better forecast needs and keep prices lower, said Asher Epstein,
managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University
of Maryland, College Park.
Epstein joked that companies could even create a “deadbeat power package” so the utility company could prevent television watching for a non-paying customer, while still providing basic services like heat.
Loss of privacy may be the downside, Epstein said.
“The utility company is going to know exactly when you wake up, when you
shower, when you wash your clothes,” he said. “They’ll have a very intimate
profile of how you live your life.”
Still, Epstein said utility companies are taking appropriate safeguards.
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http://www.off-grid.net/2010/05/09/smart-grid-doubts-grow/
PG&E Corp., a San Francisco utility, estimated the cost
of its meter program at $1.74 billion in July 2006, but recently got permission
to spend an additional $467 million, pushing the cost to $2.2 billion for 5.4
million electric meters. It has installed 557,000 meters so far with the
capability of letting consumers go online and read energy data. So far,
however, only 12,000 consumers have taken advantage of it.
The smart grid simply shifts demand, with no benefit to
society (but plenty to utilities).
“My case has been for a strong grid — more robust
interconnections between and among the existing grids, without regard to how
smart those interconnections are.
“There is no doubt in my mind that a smart grid would not have protected the
nation in the most recent regional blackouts. Indeed, the cascading grid
collapse might also have collapsed the information-based grid, and exacerbated
the outage.
“As best I can tell, it’s a con. The utilities recover the costs of the smart
grid in rates, benefit from load smoothing, and consumers have to pay for the
infrastructure and buy intelligent toasters and the like on their own accounts.
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NEXT CITY COUNCIL MEETING:
Tuesday, May 18
Municipal Meetings
7:00 PM - 11:55 PM
Council Chambers, Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St.
There is a public comment section where citizens can speak
on any subject.
City
Council meetings are held every first and third Tuesday of the month unless
otherwise noted. Dates are subject to change.
For more information, visit http://www.naperville.il.us/ccinfo.aspx