BG&E Submits an Amended Smart Grid Proposal to Maryland PSC
Jul 12, 2010
Baltimore Gas & Electric has resubmitted its Smart Grid metering proposal that was rejected three weeks ago by Maryland regulators. The original proposal had consumers taking on most of the initial costs of the project. According to the Baltimore Sun, the amended proposal submitted to the Maryland Public Service Commission Monday afternoon still seeks to pass startup and upgrade costs on to ratepayers, but the bulk of those would come through regular rate increase requests to the PSC rather than an upfront surcharge for the full amount. BG&E is also said to be asking for voluntary time-of-use (TOU) rates rather than making mandatory as the original proposal did. Utility officials are seeking a quick decision by regulators to avoid the potential loss of $200 miliion in federal stimulus money awarded the project.
Quick Take: Good for BG&E ... Maybe this will mute some of the wild speculation that the PSC order was a rejection of all things Smart Grid and would bring progress to a halt. The fact that the utility was able to return with an amended proposal that addresses the regulators' primary concerns quickly suggests the flaws weren't so serious. And stay tuned: It'll will be interesting to see what this same commission does with the Pepco filings which are also in front of them.
How soon will a decision be made by the PUC to move forward on this new proposal?
Joseph Battaglini - 07/13/2010 - 09:18
Cost/Benefit Analysis Versus SG Transformation Part 1
Below is a comment I posted under Phil Carson's article "Consumer Concerns About Smart Grid (http://bit.ly/IUI05)," where it is spelled out that the smart grid process is bound to fail for a lack of putting the customer first.
Cost/Benefit Analysis Versus An Emergent Transformation
Jul 13, 2010 - 9:20 AM
Hi Phil,
Behind the consumers concerns about the smart grid there is one relative to the restrictions imposed by a broken regulatory system. The underlying assumptions of the century old mandate to state regulators no longer hold for the new economy. With a lot of respect for the leadership of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), cost/benefit analysis are insufficient when there are non-trivial matters involved, like demand response investments to be made by customers.
With the article Who ‘Believes’ In Smart Grid?, you first reported about a very long dialogue in the Smart Grid Executive Forum (SGEF) group in LinkedIn to the general public and because of the work I have been doing got me very interested in the story. Seen it as a generative dialogue, the issues of the smart grid have gone well beyond those of smart meters and into the discovery of a lack of a transformation effort which has considered the customer as an unforgiving afterthought.
As NASECA suggest, customers should have the full right to choose whether a smart meter or any other gadget. I add that the ability to choose in the emergent world should be made in accordance with the Technology Adoption Life Cycle. As you can see next, state regulators need new mandates that transform the power industry to the emerging world.
After reading all the posts on that LinkedIn dialogue, I added three posts to it. Then, I followed your lead and made them available to the general public in the EWPC Blog with the serial article Initiating the Smart Grid Transformation Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The summary of the three posts and that article says:
José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, Ph.D. - 07/13/2010 - 12:21
Cost/Benefit Analysis Versus SG Transformation Part 2
“By following John Kotter’s suggestions about why transformations efforts fail, it becomes crystal clear that the smart grid undergoing process lacks a clear vision as it was not designed as a transformation effort, but to make use of the financial opportunities given by the stimulus package. A vision that puts customer first is urgently needed to initiate a transformation process. The emerging vision leads to two systems that mutually reinforce each other: the regulated Smart T&D Grid and the competitive Smart Enterprise that put customers first. The vision integrates the two systems into a smart grid only at real-time operation.”
The valuable dialogue that followed on the SGEF since then, led me to write six posts on the LinkedIn generative dialogue, which then became the second EWPC serial article A Strong IEEE Coalition Might be Required to Start Transforming the Power Industry Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. The summary of those six posts and the second article says:
“Applying the IEEE tagline Advancing Technology for Humanity to the power (and maybe gas and water) grids is the mean to propose the need for a strong coalition to initiate a transformation for Advancing Grids for Customers. It is very urgent and important for the IEEE Smart Grid Group of LinkedIn to start a practical coalition in every way, as soon as possible, to advance this technology for humanity, since “IEEE is the only organization able to thoroughly provide the diversity of expertise, information, resources, and vision needed to realize the Smart Grid’s full promise and potential.” Relative to humanity, we IEEE members able to contribute should go the IEEE Code of Ethics to reflect if we like the person we have become.”
Best regards,
José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, Ph.D. - LinkedIn
P.D.: To use the hyperlinks of the comment, please go to Phil's article by pasting the link on a browser.
José Antonio Vanderhorst-Silverio, Ph.D. - 07/13/2010 - 12:25
Date of decision
Because of its desire not to miss the DOE deadline for the stimulus grant, BGE has asked the commission for a quick decision, hopefully before the end of July.
We're getting mixed signals about the vitality of the smart grid market. On the one hand, the recent DistribuTECH conference was one of the most successful ever. On the other, a well-known Wall Street analyst recently told his clients that the smart metering sector is "facing several headwinds," including weak regulatory support in the U.S. and delays in European adoption. Taking the pulse of the smart grid industry is this week's Tuesday Topic.
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