The NSTAR Electric & Gas Corporation Smart Grid Demonstration Project is a United States Department of Energy Smart Grid Demonstration Project which is based in Westwood, Massachusetts. The objective of the project which started in 2010, is to develop and implement a Smart Grid pilot program that will examine technologies to leverage existing automated home meters to include dynamic electricity pricing for homeowners (i.e., lower rates when demand is lower). By building on the existing meter infrastructure and broadband internet networks, utilities would be able to access some of the benefits of the Smart Grid - such as collecting data at meters at shortened intervals, communicating energy use data to consumers, direct load control, automatically reporting outages, etc. - while avoiding the full costs of implementing smart metering infrastrastructure or the costs associated with replacing meters prematurely.
Equipment:
, Load control switches
, Smart thermostats
, In-home energy displays
, Internet gateway
, ERT Bridge
Targeted Benefits:
, Electric bills reduced by peak load reductions and load shifting to off-peak
, Electric grid reliability improved through peak load reductions
, Achieve much of AMI’s functionality without incurring AMR stranded costs