Viewing posts tagged "4.5 Billion"

Smart Grid Stimulus Guidelines Coming Today?

Could the Department of Energy's rules for spending its $4.5 billion in smart grid grants be coming out today?

That's what Suedeen Kelly, commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said Thursday morning.

"A lot of us are waiting to see what the DOE is doing — and some of the scuttlebutt is that we’ll find out today," Kelly told an audience at the Edison Electric Institute's annual convention in San Francisco. 

It isn't the first time that the DOE has been predicted to come out with the rules, only to disappoint the utilities and smart grid companies waiting for a piece of the pie — a similar expectation that the DOE was just about to release its rules last week passed without a peep from the department (see Green Light post). 

Still, several sources at the convention this week seem pretty positive that DOE may be ready to move this time around. 

There are lots of questions about how the DOE will manage the 50-50 grants for smart grid projects established by the stimulus package signed into law in February.

Most recently, utilities and companies that want to use the grants to do more expensive projects were cheered when the DOE lifted the caps it had previously proposed for investment-scale projects from $20 million apiece to $200 million (see DOE Lifts Smart Grid Stimulus Cap to $200M). 

But many questions — including much confusion about how the issue of standards for the smart grid will be dealt with in the department's rules for what it wants to see out of applying projects — remain to be worked out. 

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is set to address the conference some time this afternoon. That may be a speech to pay attention to... stay tuned.