Partnership Combines Industry Leading Distribution Grid Optimization Software and Advanced Analytics, Protection and Control Equipment and Communications That Will Enable Blue Grass Energy to Minimize Feeder Losses and Reduce System Load Through Voltage Reduction.
GERMANTOWN, MD, LARGO, FL, NICHOLASVILLE, KY (February 11, 2010) – CURRENT Group, Beckwith Electric and Blue Grass Energy announced today that Blue Grass Energy has selected Smart Grid technology partners CURRENT and Beckwith Electric to demonstrate integrated Volt/VAR Control and Dynamic Voltage Optimization solutions that will enable Blue Grass Energy to reduce technical losses, optimize feeder voltage profiles and reduce system load through advanced voltage optimization automation.
The CURRENT and Beckwith relationship leverages the extensive experience of two leading technology providers to deliver turnkey solutions that unlock the full operational and economic power of a smart electric grid. Blue Grass Energy is a member of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), which is also sponsoring the project by providing funding and technical resources.
CURRENT will be providing its intelligent grid sensors and its OpenGrid™ software platform that features Volt/VAR Control and Dynamic Voltage Optimization using Dynamic Measurement and Verification through a real-time power flow and grid state estimation engine. The CURRENT® applications will utilize Beckwith Electric’s industry leading regulator controls and capacitor bank controls to enable command and control of distribution system devices.
“CURRENT and our partners are pleased to be selected by Blue Grass Energy to deliver a market-ready hardware, software, analytics and communications solution that allows Blue Grass Energy to leverage their distribution grid to reduce energy consumption by 3 to 5 percent,” said Tom Casey, CEO of CURRENT.
“By leveraging strong relationships with industry leaders such as CURRENT Group, Beckwith Electric, and NRTC, we are in a strong position to continue to deliver market-leading state-of-the-art intelligent distribution solutions to utilities such as Blue Grass Energy that help them cost effectively and quickly deploy Smart Grid today and realize ongoing benefits to consumers and the environment from these investments for years to come,” said Tom Beckwith, CEO of Beckwith Electric.
“Blue Grass Energy is looking forward to working with CURRENT Group, Beckwith Electric, and NRTC as we develop our Smart Grid infrastructure. They are leading providers in their respective domains and have come together to deliver Blue Grass Energy an integrated solution that meets our business requirements for affordability, easy deployment, fast payback and demonstrable results surrounding the true benefits for distribution Smart Grid investments,” said Dan Brewer, Blue Grass Energy President & CEO.
“Grid efficiency through reduced losses and voltage regulation can create significant value for our member electric cooperatives and their consumer members,” said NRTC President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Phillips. “NRTC looks forward to working with Blue Grass Energy and the other project partners to make this deployment a success and share the results with our members,” he continued.
The integrated CURRENT and Beckwith grid optimization solution being piloted at Blue Grass Energy is designed to be rapidly deployable and can be deployed on a substation by substation or application by application basis or as an enterprise wide solution in both the Public Power and Investor Owned Utility market segments.
About Blue Grass Energy
Blue Grass Energy, headquartered in Nicholasville, KY, is a Touchstone Energy Cooperative that meets the energy needs of approximately 55,000 members in 23 counties in Central Kentucky. About CURRENT Group CURRENT Group, LLC delivers innovative and industry-leading intelligent solutions that optimize the distribution system and offer utilities new ways to monitor and manage the health of the grid. Through CURRENT’s distributed sensing, monitoring, and analytical technologies, utilities are better able to understand, predict and respond to system disturbances and faults, identify where inefficiencies are, and enable the smartest possible sourcing and distribution of power.
CURRENT’s state-of-the-art technologies are being implemented by utilities around the globe and are being utilized in the largest and most advanced demonstration projects in the world. CURRENT is engaged in European Union-sponsored projects in partnership with Iberdrola, the world’s 4th largest electric utility, among others, to expand the use of Smart Grid technology in the European Union. This year, CURRENT was honored by the World Economic Forum as a 2009 Technology Pioneer, selected by Venture Beat as one of the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Smart Grid companies, and selected by Dow Jones as one of the Top 10 most Innovative Clean Technology companies in Europe.
CURRENT is a private company founded in 2000 that is backed by leading investors including Liberty Associated Partners, EnerTech Capital, Google, Inc., and Goldman Sachs & Co.
CURRENT is headquartered outside of Washington, DC, with offices throughout the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, and has representation in Australia and the United Kingdom. Additional information can be found at www.currentgroup.com.
About Beckwith Electric
Founded in 1967, Beckwith Electric introduced the first solid state tapchanger control in 1968, and was the first to develop the microprocessor protective relay in 1981. Today, Beckwith Electric has thousands of protection and control units in service worldwide, with a reputation for cutting-edge technology, defined by its customers and refined by Beckwith. This success starts with Beckwith Electric Employees and their commitment to quality in the products, all 100% designed and manufactured in Largo, Florida, U.S.A.
Beckwith’s field-proven smart distribution automation controls for transformers, regulators and capacitor banks incorporate unique control strategies, advanced microprocessor architecture and cyber security compliant communications. Power systems protection solutions include generator, transformer, feeder, recloser and distributed generation applications. Specialized synchronizing and motor bus transfer systems are also offered.
Beckwith Electric’s customers include power utilities, heavy industrial and large institutional markets, and their consultants.
Visit Beckwith Electric online at www.beckwithelectric.com, follow on Twitter at Twitter.com/beckwithcompany or connect on Facebook at Facebook.com/BeckwithElectric.