Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project

News: Going live with a smarter electric grid

Over the past decade, the Pacific Northwest region has been a pioneer in the nation's emerging smart grid agenda, contributing technology, utility applications, customer engagement strategies, and policy. The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project (PNW-SGDP) is taking the region's involvement in smart grid to a new and exciting level.

This project—the largest of the 16 smart grid demonstration projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA)—is a unique demonstration of unprecedented geographic breadth across five Pacific Northwest states—Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. It involves more than 60,000 metered customers, and contains many key functions of the future smart grid.

We are moving the region and nation closer to establishing a more efficient and effective electricity infrastructure that is expected to help contain costs, reduce emissions, incorporate more wind power and other types of renewable energy, increase power grid reliability, and provide greater flexibility for consumers.