South Kentucky RECC Awarded a $9.5 Million Grant by Department of Energy
South Kentucky RECC has been awarded a more than $9.5 million grant from the U. S. Department of Energy to automate its electric metering system to an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) for its more than 66,000 members. This was the only such grant awarded in the state of Kentucky.

The matching grant South Kentucky RECC was awarded was part of the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act – President Barack Obama unveiled a total of $3.4 billion in stimulus grants for advanced electricity grid projects. These grants will be used to begin revamping the national’s system of electrical generation and distribution.

According to the Department of Energy, grants ranged from $400,000 to $200 million and will lead to the installation of at least 1.8 million advanced digital meters, or “smart “ meters, like the ones that SKRECC will be implementing. Smart meters can tell members how much power they are using and how much it costs at a particular time, so they can use their appliances at a different or better time in an effort to avoid peak use periods.

South Kentucky RECC CEO Allen Anderson said the news of the grant is very welcomed by the co-op.

“We are very excited to have been a recipient of a Smart Grid Investment Grant for Kentucky. This is a real gain for our members, because now they will be better able to make energy-efficient choices and shift their usage from more expensive on-peak power to lower cost off-peak power. This will also give them access to real-time information about their usage. Members will now have the power to reduce their energy usage in direct response to pricing or voluntary load reduction events. And, South Kentucky RECC will have the ability to remotely read meter data in intervals so members can be billed on time of use, which will shift the demand from on-peak to off-peak periods.

“This will also enable the co-op to be more environmentally friendly, reducing its carbon footprint by shifting members’ time of use of electricity.” In addition, Anderson says the new AMI system will be directly tied to South Kentucky RECC’s outage management system to better manage outages and verify restoration quickly and accurately.

Benefits of the new system include:
  1. Better service and more accurate billing due to better monitoring and greater detail of electric usage.
  2. The ability for member service representatives to call up a member’s recent detailed consumption history.
  3. The elimination of physical visits to premises to read meters and the costs associated with that. This also removes vehicles from the road, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
  4. Member access to their own usage data through the Internet.
  5. Reduced potential for equipment damage for members due to low and/or high voltage conditions, as these will be alarmed and investigated.
Anderson says that even though South Kentucky RECC has been awarded the grant, several other regulatory approvals must be obtained before work begins, but he is hopeful that installation will begin by early next year, with total installation estimated to take three years.