'Smart grid' making jobs

RALEIGH -- The nation's power companies are investing millions of dollars in new "smart" technologies and creating a mini-boom in hiring. Scores of those jobs are being created in the Triangle, considered a hub for emerging energy jobs in manufacturing, engineering and project management.

Three of the nation's leading utility meter companies have offices in Raleigh and have hired or plan to hire several hundred workers. The state's two biggest electric utilities - Progress Energy and Duke Energy - were recently awarded maximum grants from federal stimulus funds earmarked for power system upgrades.

The new technologies - collectively referred to as a "smart grid" - will convert the nation's aging electro-mechanical power grid into an automated digital network. When fully developed, it will let customers adjust thermostats over the Internet, charge the repowering of electric cars to the owner's account from any outlet and calculate the most economical rates based on home energy usage patterns.

Some of these technologies have been available for years and offered to energy-intensive industrial customers, while other technologies are under development. In this state, smart grid benefits are only in the beginning stages of deployment for homeowners.

"It's on the verge of taking off," said John Bluth, a vice president at Elster Group, which makes utility meters in Raleigh.

Elster's customers last month were awarded $561million in stimulus grants to develop smart meters and related technologies. The company, which helped submit the grant applications to the Department of Energy, expects to hire more than 400 people over three years to develop and install the meters for the 19 grant-winning customers, including Southern Co. in Alabama, Navajo Tribal Utility in Arizona and Cheyenne Light & Power in Wyoming.

Competitors are reporting similar experiences. Sensus, based in Raleigh, now employs 155here, up from about 50 in the summer of 2008, said JimHilty, vice president of business development.

More than half the nation's utilities are either developing, testing or planning to develop smart grids, according to a report by Deutsche Bank. But it will take more than a decade to transition from "the current dumb analog grid," according to the report.

Because of the instant payoff, smart grid benefits have been offered to large customers that spend more than $1million a year on their power bill. Electric utilities for years had been hesitant to invest in residential smart grid upgrades because power was cheap and few incentives were available for conservation.

But homeowners will increasingly be offered similar options when smart meters gain wide currency.

"The big challenge is to change lots and lots of people's behavior because you're going to get a sliver of savings from one person," said Chris Hutter, chief financial officer of PowerSecure International, an energy services company in Wake Forest. "You're talking about a massive behavior change to get people to wash their clothes at 11 p.m. instead of the afternoon to save a few dollars, or even a few pennies."

PowerSecure specializes in utility services designed for industrial and commercial customers, which can reduce energy usage by shifting their production schedules to off-peak hours.

Progress Energy is using $45 million of the $200 million it was awarded to replace 80,000 small commercial and residential meters with smart meters next year. Duke Energy has already installed 14,500 smart meters in the Charlotte area, but only 100 customers are using the technology as part of a trial.

Elster officials highlighted their new business opportunities Monday with product demonstrations and tours of the manufacturing plant.

Elster has been making utility meters in Raleigh since 1955 and today employs more than 600 employees and contractors here, adding more than 70 this year. The privately owned company began as Westinghouse and later changed to ABB before becoming Elster. Raleigh is the North American headquarters for the German company.

"I've visited so many plants where they're losing jobs and worried about the future," said Rep. Brad Miller, a Democrat on hand whose district includes Raleigh and Greens boro. "It's refreshing to see a plant that's going to hire more workers."

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