Electric grid

PSEG Long Island embarked on a federally funded, three-year reliability and resiliency project to further strengthen the electric grid across Long Island and in the Rockaways. More than $729 million of federal recovery funds were secured for the Long Island Power Authority via an agreement last year between Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), under the FEMA 406 Mitigation Program.

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and automaker BMW are teaming up to test the ability of electric vehicle batteries to provide services to the electric grid. If successful, the pilot program could pave the way for utility payments that could stimulate further customer purchases of electric vehicles. PG&E selected BMW to manage a minimum of 100 kW of electric demand on PG&E's system. BMW will help PG&E manage power demand on its grid in two ways.

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo awarded $3.3 million to seven research teams to develop technologies that add resiliency and efficiency to New York State's electric grid.

Dominion acquired two stand-alone solar energy developments in southwest Tennessee, currently in late stage development by Strata Solar of Chapel Hill, N.C. All power and environmental attributes from both projects will be purchased by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) under their renewable standard offer program. Interconnection to the electric grid will take place through facilities owned and operated by Pickwick Electric Cooperative of Selmer, TN.

GridSTAR brought a battery online to help improve the quality and reliability of the electric grid. The battery is part of the new GridSTAR Smart Grid Experience Center being developed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, spearheaded by Penn State and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The battery uses a special control system to inject or draw energy from the grid based on a signal from a utility.