Woodruff Electric Smart Grid Project
| Project Lead | Woodruff Electric |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Headquarters Location | Forrest City, Arkansas |
| Recovery Act Funding | $2,357,520.00 |
| Total Project Value | $5,016,000.00 |
| Coverage Area |  |
| Coordinates | 35.0081°, -90.7897° |
| References | ARRA Smart Grid Investment Grants[1] Woodruff Electric Award[2] |
Woodruff Electric, located in Forrest City, Arkansas, will receive $2.3 million in funding to develop a smarter energy grid. The U.S. Department of Energy selected Woodruff Electric as one of 100 companies to receive federal stimulus funds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[2] Woodruff Electric Cooperative’s (Woodruff) Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project provides two-way communicating smart meters to all of its residential customers and selected commercial customers. The primary objective of the project is to gain efficiencies related to metering operations. The AMI system provides time-of-use data, outage information, and distribution load data, which is used to improve system reliability. In addition to the meters, Woodruff provides remote disconnect/reconnect switches that operate on the same existing power line carrier infrastructure as the smart meters and allow for bill prepay options for customers, remote firmware upgrades, and remote demand reset. [3]
Equipment
- 14,450 Smart Meters
- AMI Communication Systems
- Meter Communications Network
- Backhaul Communications
Targeted Benefits
- Reduced Meter Reading Costs
- Reduced Operating and Maintenance Costs
- Reduced Electricity Costs for Customers
- Reduced Costs from Theft
- Improved Electric Service Reliability and Power Quality
- Reduced Truck Fleet Fuel Usage
- Reduced Greenhouse Gas and Criteria Pollutant Emissions