Mar 14 2008
Public Service Electric and Gas Co. has announced that it will play a leading role in the research and development of "green circuits," an initiative aimed at improving energy efficiency in the electric distribution system. New Jersey's largest utility has informed the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) that it will support its Green Circuit Initiative, an 18-month research and development project.
"PSE&G is pleased to play a leading role in research and development of technologies that meet the challenges of how we produce and efficiently distribute electricity while enabling our customers to better manage energy," said Ralph LaRossa, president and COO of PSE&G. "This initiative is an important contribution to reducing the sector's carbon footprint, and, at the same time, ensuring that we continue to meet the growing demand for electricity."
Earlier this year, PSE&G hosted one of four EPRI green circuits workshops held across the country to discuss the goals and scope of such a study. The PSE&G meeting attracted about 40 participants from 12 utilities. The initial goal is to develop technology applications to reduce the loss of electricity that typically flows through distribution lines supplying power to residential, commercial and industrial customers. The initiative will later address energy efficiency improvements in transmission.
The utility's participation in the "green circuits" initiative complements a number of other steps PSE&G has taken to help the state achieve its aggressive energy conservation and renewable energy goals. The company has already begun to reduce carbon emissions by replacing 1,300 company vehicles with hybrids, and by installing more energy efficient electric delivery equipment such as transformers and electric wires. PSE&G filed a proposal with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to invest more than $100 million during the next two years to help finance the installation of solar systems on homes, business and municipal buildings. The company also proposed to provide energy-saving measures such as home energy audits, programmable thermostats, attic insulation and high-efficiency lighting upgrades through the implementation of six pilot programs. Both filings are under review by the BPU.
PSE&G and the other participating utilities will participate in distribution line field tests that will quantify the costs, benefits and risks of using various line-loss mitigation technologies. The field tests, which will include substations, represent a departure from past practices of detecting line losses through modeling analysis.
"We will benefit from additional technical and cost information to understand better how we can increase the efficiency of transmission and distribution systems, and PSE&G is among the industry leaders in addressing this issue," said Arshad Mansoor, EPRI's vice president of Power Delivery and Utilization. "The green circuits initiative will develop technical priorities that can move the entire electricity sector to a more efficient system."
EPRI expects to have the cooperation of 40 utilities during the 18-month project. Data suggests that if the electricity distribution system alone can be made 10 percent more efficient it would be the equivalent of the entire installed capacity of wind generation in the United States in 2006.