Markey: Smart grid helps Massachusetts get smart on energy independence

Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of twin climate and energy panels in the House, today hailed the announcement of over $7 million in Recovery Act funding for the deployment of new Smart Grid technologies and demonstration projects in and around Boston that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid.

“When it comes to energy independence, we need to work smarter, not harder,” said Rep. Markey, who authored provisions in the recovery package to ensure that Smart Grid technologies could be ‘open protocol,’ allowing them to use a broad range of information technologies. “And where better to start being smart than in creating a reliable, efficient, affordable Smart Grid electricity system.”

Massachusetts-based company NSTAR received the funding as part of a $620 million disbursement from the Department of Energy for Smart Grid projects across the country. The NSTAR projects will include updating homeowners’ meters to allow dynamic pricing of electricity, where homeowners can access lower prices for energy when demand is lower.

The NSTAR grant is one of 32 demonstration projects, which include large-scale energy storage, smart meters, distribution and transmission system monitoring devices, and a range of other smart technologies, will act as models for deploying integrated Smart Grid systems on a broader scale.

The Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate legislation that passed the House in June, and was co-authored by Rep. Markey, includes provisions to encourage the deployment of a Smart Grid nationwide.

“We have created a nationwide, broadband Internet. Now we must create a nationwide, efficient Smart Grid, which is really just an electricity internet,” continued Rep. Markey. “NSTAR will now be one of the companies that will light the way to a better, brighter, smarter energy future."

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