Under the Recovery Act we are making the largest ever investment in a smarter, stronger and more secure electric grid. – President Barack Obama

On October 27 2009, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) was selected to receive a $200 million grant (of the total $3.4 billion) for Smart Grid innovation under the Recovery Act.

In this video provided by U.S. Department of Energy, Ken DeFontes, CEO at Baltimore Gas & Electric explains how a Smart Meter will help people to become more aware of their everyday electric consumption. He compares the Smart Meters with a grocery store where you as a customer know exactly how much that bag of apples is going to cost you. Instead of a monthly or annual manual read value you can get real time feedback from your meter or online at an Internet web service. With the new Smart technology we are able to monitor when electricity is used. This enables customers to use electricity when prices are lower. The consumption understanding will also help customers to save energy. With old meters we can only calculate how much electricity is being used from one manual reading to another.

Selected parts from President Barack Obama’s Smart Grid announcement at the Generation Solar Energy Center is also in this clip.

Take a look at these links for more information:
Pressrelease from U.S. Department of Energy
Smart Grid Regional Demonstration, list of all selected projects
Baltimore Gas and Electric

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