By Teresa Waugh, Public Affairs Specialist
Elliot Mainzer, BPA Administrator and CEO: The power system that we've built over the last 75 years is a fundamental underpinning of our way of life.
Lee Hall, BPA Smart Grid and Demand Response Program Manager: We all have a stake in this investment.
Richard Genece, BPA VP of Energy efficiency: It's an investment in the future.
Mainzer: Our grid is already intelligent; it's a very sophisticated machine. It's about making it smarter and making it more resilient.
Narrator: Teresa Waugh, BPA Public Affairs Specialist: In the Pacific Northwest, more capacity and flexibility on the system are needed to take in the growing demand for electricity, and protections for wildlife.
Mainzer: We simply can't provide all the necessary services by just relying on the hydroelectric dams anymore.
Terry Oliver, BPA Chief Technology and Innovation Officer: The sleeper issue is these aging assets.
Mainzer: We are facing very significant capital investment requirements on our transmission system in the next 10 to 15 years.
Oliver: Those kind of challenges can't actually be effectively dealt with, without trials and experiments.
Waugh: One potential solution being tested is smart grid technology. Smart Grid is simply the use of information technology to make the electric grid more efficient. Batteries, thermostats, water heaters, even electric cars are interacting with the grid.
Hall: There is no one smart grid technology; it's really an evolution of technologies that's making our smart grid even smarter.
Waugh: The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project, the largest in the nation, is testing new technologies through 11 diverse utilities.
Hall: We are very interested in how to help utilities and their customers optimize their use of energy by putting in their hands new technology that they can use when energy may be least costly, to have them contribute in their own way in helping to integrate wind and other renewables on the grid
Senator Wyden: Solar and wind are intermittent and storage gives us a chance to lock it into the base load and make it firm power.
Waugh: The project is the only one of its kind testing for a regional benefit involving both public and private utilities, five technology partners and two universities. Battelle Memorial Institute is leading the collaboration.
Ron Melton, Director of the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project: The significance of the project nationally is really the deployment of the transactive control technology across a multiple utility footprint.
Waugh: Transactive control is a two-way communication signal that shows what power is available at what price and serves as a bridge across transmission and distribution.
Melton: That's one of the reasons why there's so much interest in what we're doing.
Oliver: What actually works is all we count for the benefits that we're delivering, and it turns out that there's some awesome stuff that's worked.
Hall: We don't wanna just test -- does it work technologically, but does it work from a financial standpoint and also does it work in making sure that the end-user of that electricity, that end consumer is satisfied with the results.
Waugh: To help the region make future smart grid decisions, BPA sponsored a smart grid regional business case which includes results from the project.
Oliver: I think those are pretty interesting outcomes that I think people will study for years.
Hall: What works, what doesn't quite work... that's important too.
Genece: To make the right investment choices now, so that in the future we can reap the best benefits.
Waugh: Working together to invest in solving energy issues now, provides a framework for the challenges facing future generations.
Hall: Collectively we can contribute to those solutions which can keep the Northwest vibrant and maintain our way of life.
Mainzer: Enjoy the clean air, the beautiful vistas, that low carbon power system that we have is a legacy that we carry on in the future. That's about delivering value to customers, and at the end of the day that's what we need to be about.