The U.S. Department of Energy and M2M Communications of Boise, Idaho have signed a final agreement today and M2M has been awarded a grant of $2,171,710. This award is a part of the Department of Energy’s Stimulus Funding Opportunity Smart Grid Investment Grant program.
This project will deploy a Smart Grid compatible irrigation load control system in the central valley of California through agreements already in place with Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison. M2M’s agricultural load control program called Peak Energy Agricultural Rewards (PEAR) will facilitate the shifting of a large peak electric load and significantly reduce the need for peak power.
Project Overview
M2M Communications is a specialist and industry leader in irrigation load control for the purpose of lowering peak demands for electricity. In 2009, M2M’s web-to-wireless irrigation load control product called Lodestar controlled over 500 Million Watts (MW) of power in four states.
This project will provide an immediate opportunity to significantly reduce the peak electric demand in California. Agriculture is a significant component of the nation’s peak load and about one-sixth of our irrigated land is in California. PG&E and SCE power over 160,000 irrigation pumps using 4,000 MW.
The proposal directly supports the core purposes of the stimulus funds: to accelerate the deployment of Smart Grid technologies and to stimulate the economy by quickly providing new and accelerated opportunities for businesses and significant new jobs for workers.
M2M’s PEAR program benefits everyone involved – grower, utility and the general public. Among other benefits, this Smart Grid initiative will help M2M and the California utilities achieve:
- A significant reduction of agricultural peak demand
- Improved reliability of the electric power system
- Reduced likelihood of future electricity shortages
- Reduced customer energy bills
- Reduced requirement for additional power generation facilities, transmission, and distribution networks
- Reduced air pollution
- Reduced dependency on foreign oil
As a part of this project, M2M will:
- Demonstrate the program benefits to California growers
- Enroll participating growers into load control programs
- Install intelligent control equipment at the irrigation pump sites
- Reduce electricity demand on a daily basis as needed
- Maintain the Network Operations Center, web site, and all field equipment
For more information, please visit us at www.m2mcomm.com and www.pearcalifornia.com
Contact person: Steve Hodges, 208.947.9500 x100