I attended the RichTech breakfast meeting at Dominion Resources yesterday morning. There seemed to be a full yarn of people there: techies, environmentalists, energy consultants, all of us there to hear of Dominion’s outlook on “going green”.

We were informed of Dominion’s recently announced investment in a Charlottesville, Virginia smart grid. Dominion is setting aside $20 million to install “smart meters” in homes in the Charlottesville area. Some 20,000 homes already have the meter installed, with an expected 20-25,000 additional homes to come. Here are some of the highlights:

• Those customers with “smart meters” installed are already seeing an average reduction of 4% in their energy usage, primarily due to a more efficient management of energy delivery.
• While ordinary power meters are read monthly, “smart meters” are read at least once per day.
• “Smart meters” allow for remote turn off / on as well as automatic reporting of power outages (and, conversely, when power has been restored).
• Customers are given time-based rates. This allows customers to shift their energy use to off-peak hours, thus lowering their electric bill.
• Reports are generated for customers which compare their energy usage with other customers within the same demographic / geographic region. This will allow customer to make smarter choices regarding their energy usage.
• Dominion is working on a project to test battery storage systems for possible future use with renewable sources of energy.