Pennsylvania utility PECO has filed its US $650-million plan with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to install more than 1.6 million residential and commercial smart meters and advanced communications networks within the state.

The plan, announced last week, will install advanced metering infrastructures (AMI) to allow customer energy usage to communicate with utility operations. The communications networks—fiber optics and wireless technology—will enable two-way communication to identify and correct problems in the electrical distribution system before they impact customers.

If approved, PECO said its plan could serve 600,000 customers by 2012 and all of its 1.6 million customers in 10 years, reducing overall costs to PECO customers by about $125 each. All in all, customers are estimated to save about $1.5 billion during the life of the project if PECO’s broader smart grid agenda succeeds.

One of the largest planned investments in its history, PECO’s smart grid plan is part of “Exelon 2020: A Low-Carbon Roadmap,” the comprehensive environmental strategy of PECO’s parent company Exelon Corporation. Exelon 2020 aims to reduce, offset or displace more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2020.

Earlier this month, a $200-million grant filled with the US Department of Energy through the federal stimulus grant program was announced to make the deployment of AMIs faster.


-   Oliver M. Bayani