And one of the biggest awards is coming to a Baltimore’s Constellation Energy.
Groceries are usually one of the biggest monthly expenses for any family. But it's usually second or third behind the BGE bill.
For Angela Conrad and her friend Lynn Blowers controlling how they use power is a big deal.
‘My son has a bad habit of turning on every light on in the house...so he'll cut it on and he's not in the room...yeah he has habit of doing that and I yell turn it off if he's not in there.' Conrad says
BG and E charges are too expensive so that's why we try to conserve as much energy as we can.' Blowers says.
But if you can choose how much you spend on food, shouldn't you be able to control how much you spend on electricity or gas?
The new smart grid imitative will give consumers more control over how they use power.
'They will have the information to reduce their load and their bills.' Constellation Energy CEO Mayo Shattuck III told reporters at a news conference this morning.
If approved by the Pubic Services Commission, early next year BGE will begin installing more than a two million smart electric and gas meters in homes and businesses.
The meters will allow for two way communications between consumers and BGE..
The company will let consumers know when peak demand is expected and give them a choice to cut back on power.
When you cut back and put more power back into the grid.
BGE can sell that surplus on the open market and give rebates to their customers.
The pilot program saved consumers cash during peak days last year.
'We would call customers with a text mail or an email that the following day they would have the opportunity to earn credits and customers took great advantage of that they loved it so the average savings was about 115 dollars for the four month experience.' BGE Strategic Planning Vice President Mark Case says.
Another benefit of the smart grid is that make it easier to identify and repair outages.
It will also make it easier to cut off power for non payment.
If the PSC grants its approval meter installations will begin next year with the entire BGE system converted by 2013.
The 200 million dollar federal grant will help lower the cost to consumers for installing this new system.
