Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has just announced another $620 million in stimulus funds for 32 smart grid demonstration projects. As we explained this morning, this latest funding combined with the $3.4 billion in smart grid stimulus grants allocated last month, is delivering $4 billion to utilities for smart grid technology. Chu said the $620 million will also be matched by $1 billion from the private sector and the investment will “create thousands of new job opportunities.”
What’s really interesting about the funding is that a substantial chunk of the cash is going to next-generation energy storage technology. The 32 projects were broken up into two sections: general smart grid tech and energy storage projects. General smart grid projects received 16 awards worth $435 million and energy storage technology received 16 awards for a total of $185 million. Energy storage tech companies that received grant money include Khosla-backed Berkeley, Calif. based Seeo (which we’ve written about here), a variety of unknown energy storage tech companies including SustainX, 44 Tech, Primus Power Corporation, Ktech, and Amber Kinetics, as well as a project that includes A123Systems batteries. Below is a table of some of the big and interesting winners (the DOE video is meant to show how the smart grid stimulus funds will be used):
| Company | Type of Firm | Amount Received | Project | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Department of Water and Power | Utility | $60.28 million | Deploy smart grid tech. | Los Angeles, CA |
| Southern California Edison | Utility | $40.13 million | “Demonstrate an integrated, scalable Smart Grid system that includes all of the interlocking pieces of an end-to-end Smart Grid system.” | Irvine, CA |
| Kansas City Power & Light Company | Utility | $23.94 million | End to end smart grid | Kansas City, MO |
| The Boeing Company | Tech firm | $8.56 million | “Project Boeing SGS: Demonstrating a Cyber Secure, Scalable, Interoperable, and Cost-Effective Smart Selection for Optimizing Regional Transmission System Operation.” | St Louis, MO, Sunnyvale, CA, and Huntington Beach, CA |
| Consolidated Edison Company of New York | Utility | $45.39 million | “Secure Interoperable Open Smart Grid Demonstration in New York and New Jersey.” | NY, NJ areas. |
| AEP Ohio | Utility | $75.16 million | “AEP Ohio gridSMART Demonstration Project” | half the state of Ohio |
| Center for Commercialization of Electric Technologies | Electric research group | $13.51 million | “Manage the fluctuations in wind power in the large Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) transmission grid through better system monitoring capabilities, enhanced operator visualization, and load management.” | Houston, TX |
| Pecan Street Project | Smart grid project | $10.40 million | “Develop and implement an Energy Internet microgrid, located in a large mixed-use infill development site in Austin, Texas.” | Austin, TX |
| National Rural Electric Cooperative Association | Coop Utiity | $33.93 million | General smart grid | Across 10 southern states. |
| Battelle Memorial Institute | Utility Group | $88.82 million | General smart grid across 5 states. | Northwest |
| Primus Power Corporation | Energy Storage Tech Startup | $14 million | “Deploy a 25 MW – 75 MWh EnergyFarm for the Modesto Irrigation District in California’s Central Valley” | Alameda, CA; San Ramon, CA; and Modesto, CA |
| Seeo | Battery Startup | $6.2 million | “Solid State Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage” | Berkeley, CA and Van Nuys, CA |
| Amber Kinetics | Energy Storage Firm | $4 million | “Develop and demonstrate an innovative flywheel technology for use in grid-connected, low-cost bulk energy storage applications.” | Fremont, CA |
| Southern California Edison | Utility | $4 million | “Deploy and evaluate an 8 MW utility-scale lithium-ion battery technology to improve grid performance and aid in the integration of wind generation into the electric supply.” |
Tehachapi, CA |
| PG&E | Utility | $25 million | “Build and validate the design, performance, and reliability of an advanced, underground 300 MW Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES plant using a saline porous rock formation located near Bakersfield, CA as the storage reservoir.” |
Kern County, CA |
| Premium Power Corporation | Energy Storage Tech Company | $7.32 million | “Demonstrate competitively-priced, multi-megawatt, long-duration advanced flow batteries for utility grid applications.” | Projects in MA, CA and NY |
| Beacon Power | Flywheel Maker | $24.06 million | “Design, build, test, commission, and operate a utility-scale 20 MW flywheel energy storage frequency regulation plant in Chicago, Illinois, and provide frequency regulation services to the grid operator, the PJM Interconnection. | Tyngsboro, MA and Chicago, IL |
| The Detroit Edison Company | Utility | $5 million | To use A123Systems batteries as energy storage for the power grid. | Projects in MI, MA and VA. |
| SustainX | Energy Storage Tech Maker | $5.39 million | “Design, build, and deploy a utility-scale, low-cost compressed air energy storage system to support the integration of renewable energy sources onto the grid. | West Lebanon, NH |
| 44 Tech | Energy Storage Tech Maker | $5 million | “Partner with Carnegie Mellon University to demonstrate a new, low cost, long-life, highly efficient, environmentally friendly, stationary energy storage battery that uses a proven and fully novel cell chemistry.” | Pittsburgh, PA |
| Ktech Corporation | Energy Storage Tech Maker | $4.76 million | “Demonstrate a prototype flow battery system that can be grid connected, charged and discharged, and scaled to utility power levels.” | Albuquerque, NM, Sunnyvale, CA and Snelling CA |
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