Several North Carolina companies want federal stimulus money to help them continue to develop smarter technology for creating and distributing electricity.
The companies are looking for a share of the $4.5 billion set aside in the federal stimulus plan to improve the nation's power-distribution network and create "smart grids."
Smart grids would use digital information to adjust how much power is generated and sent out, adjusting loads as people plug in electric cars or turn off the refrigerator for a little bit while the oven is being used.
Smart grids can also adjust based on power created by solar or wind generators.
Several companies in the Raleigh area, including ABB and Black & Veatch, are working on smart grids.
The companies employ about 2,000 people in the area, said Dan Gregory, who heads a Chapel Hill smart-grid and energy-management engineering and consulting group called Plymouth Systems and Hillsborough's MegaWatt Solar. The group also makes solar power plants.
"We have become a hot spot for all things smart grid and all things energy management," Gregory said.
Area universities are working on projects too, said Terri Lomax, a vice chancellor at N.C. State University.
Lomax met with federal legislators a few days ago, looking for stimulus money for her school.
"This is a big chance to do more things than we thought we could do, a chance to really broaden our research," she said.
Two North Carolina utilities are working on getting the new technology into their power grids.
Progress Energy is installing smart distribution equipment.
Duke Energy has a pilot program that has installed 80,000 smart meters in Charlotte, said David Mohler, the company's chief technology officer.
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