GridPoint Inc., a provider of smart grid software, will provide storage management, renewable integration and home energy management solutions for Sacramento Municipal Utility District's (SMUD) smart grid solar project, a recipient of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.
GridPoint worked with the utility to draft the proposal, which is part of $117.6 million allocated by the U.S. Department of Energy in support of high-penetration solar deployment projects.
SMUD's project will evaluate how the integration of energy storage could enhance the value of distributed photovoltaic resources for the community, the utility and the grid by reducing peak loads, firming capacity and maximizing overall system efficiency. The project will integrate energy storage into an existing PV environment, a residential solar community in Rancho Cordova, Calif., and test new consumer control concepts and PV inverter control within an advanced metering infrastructure system.
GridPoint's software will monitor and control solar production and storage assets in real time, allowing SMUD to determine how to make them a predictable and more valuable energy resource, GridPoint notes. GridPoint's software will be used to dispatch stored energy from advanced batteries to reduce peak demand, power or back up homes' critical loads, charge the batteries or export solar into SMUD's distribution system.
SOURCE: GridPoint Inc.
