Living Green

President Obama uses FPL solar electric plant to announce $3.4 billion for smart energy grid projects

ARCADIA, Fl. — Invoking America's construction of an Interstate highway system half a century ago, President Obama today called for creation of a "clean energy superhighway" in remarks at what Florida Power and Light Co. bills as the largest photovoltaic solar plant in the nation.

The president announced $3.7 billion in federal grants for "smart grid" projects aimed at boosting the efficiency of the nation's electricity network and enabling consumers to conserve energy and cut their utility bills. The $3.7 billion includes $200 million to FPL and more than $44 million to five other Florida recipients.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) President Barack Obama speaks during his tour of the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, Fla., Oct. 27, 2009.

Standing amid 90,500 solar panels at FPL's $152 million Next Generation Solar Energy Center on 180 acres in DeSoto County, Obama compared improving the national power network to President Eisenhower's push for a national highway network in the 1950s.

"It's time to make the same kind of investment in the way our energy travels, to build a clean energy superhighway that can take the renewable power generated in places like DeSoto and deliver it directly to the American people in the most affordable and efficient way possible."

Obama is touring the DeSoto County plant, billed as the largest solar farm of its kind, and using it as a bacmdrop to announce the grants for "smart grid" projects. The solar center produces 25 megawatts of power, or enough to supply about 3,000 homes. By comparison, FPL's gas- and oil-fired plant in Riviera Beach plant provides energy for 190,000 homes.

The Obama administration says the grants, which are part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved this year, will create or save "tens of thousands" of jobs while making the nation's electricity network more reliable and efficient and more compatible with renewable energy sources.

FPL's $200 million grant will be used at least in part to install more than 2.6 million "smart meters" in homes to provide more detailed consumption information to customers and enable them to reduce energy use and cut their bills.

Carol Browner, a former head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection who is now an assistant to the president for energy and climate change, said FPL's DeSoto County solar plant is an example of integrating renewable resources into the power grid.

During a Monday night briefing for reporters on the grants, Browner called the nation's current power system "outdated" and "dilapidated."

She noted that some have compared the development of the smart grid to the building of the Interstate highway system in the 1950s.

"That was about building so many miles," Browner said. "This is about more than building miles of wires. This is about really making something function in a modern way so consumers can have better choices, we can manage the flow of electricity and we can bring renewables into the system."

The recipients of the $3.4 billion in smart-grid grants are matching the federal money with a combined $4.7 million in private investment, Browner said. FPL is putting up $380 million for to match the $200 million federal grant.

"With these grants we're going to unleash the vast potential of our economy to develop the infrastructure that will support the president's goal of replacing demand for foreign fossil fuels with renewable energy produced here at home," said Jared Bernstein, the chief economic policy adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.

The administration cited an analysis by the Electric Power Research Institute that says smart grid technologies could reduce electricity use by more than 4 percent by 2030 and save more than $20 billion in energy costs.

The grants will be used to pay for 18 million smart meters, administration officials said. Other consumer-focused measures include installation of more than 1 million in-home displays, 170,000 smart thermostats, and 175,000 other load control devices to enable consumers to reduce their energy use.

For power companies and grid operators, the grants will pay for more than 200,000 "smart transformers," 850 sensors and 700 automated substations that will provide more information and help prevent minor disturbances from cascading into major outages or blackouts.