RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Virginia Power applied Wednesday to the U.S. Department of Energy for a $200 million stimulus grant to accelerate the installation of 2.4 million "smart meters" for its customers.

"The stimulus funds would allow us to have all of the 'smart meters' and related infrastructure in place by the end of 2012, a full year ahead of our current schedule," said Paul D. Koonce, president and chief executive officer. "The grant also would increase customer savings from the program, help retain or create nearly 700 jobs directly and speed up environmental benefits."

Dominion Virginia Power announced its "smart meter" initiative last month as part of a comprehensive energy conservation plan filed with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. The plan is expected to save customers more than $1.2 billion over 15 years through energy savings and deferral or elimination of the need to construct some power stations. Environmental benefits include a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to removing 165,000 cars from the road.

"The grant would reduce the $600 million cost to install the equipment by nearly a third, increasing the already-significant cost savings to the customers," Koonce said.

Letters of support to Energy Secretary Steven Chu from Gov. Tim Kaine and Virginia's congressional delegation accompanied the application.

"Dominion's voltage conservation technology is an important attribute of this grant proposal," Gov. Kaine wrote. "Voltage conservation allows the utility to more precisely match the voltage going into each customer to the needs of the customer. This creates energy savings throughout the day and concomitant savings in carbon and other emissions."

Added Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., "Dominion's smart metering efforts represent a win-win for Virginia. Consumers and businesses benefit through enhanced energy efficiency, and the deployment of smart meters across the company's service area will encourage economic activity and jobs."

"Mr. Secretary, we believe that a comprehensive approach to ensuring that our national electricity grid takes full advantage of the 'smart' technologies will provide immediate benefits to consumers," wrote Virginia Reps. Gerald Connolly, Robert Goodlatte, James Moran, Glenn Nye, Thomas Perriello, Robert Scott and Robert Wittman.

Among the ultimate benefits of the "smart meters" and other components of the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) program are:

• An automatic off-peak energy usage reduction of about 4 percent or more annually for typical residential customers through more efficient management of energy delivery by Dominion.
• The option of time-based rates that give customers the opportunities to shift electricity use to off-peak times for additional savings.
• Proactive reporting of outages, allowing for quicker restoration of service.
• The future introduction of in-home energy displays, and AMI-enabled direct load control devices.
• The integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
• The effective integration of green distributed generation.

"Dominion already has in place the necessary processes to ensure the distribution system is secure and customer information remains confidential," said Koonce. "These will remain a priority for us as we continue to add 'smart grid' technologies to our system."

The Smart Grid Investment Grant Program was created by the U.S. Congress to gain the improvements in cost and performance that will come from the deployment of smart grid technology and expand economic opportunities. The program will provide federal assistance to cover up to $200 million of investments by electric utilities and other entities for projects that promote the goal of deployment, including development of component technologies. The department has announced that it would notify grant recipients in October.

Dominion Virginia Power is a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D), one of the nation's largest producers of energy. Dominion has a portfolio of more than 27,500 megawatts of generation. Dominion serves retail energy customers in 12 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at http://www.dom.com.

SOURCE Dominion Virginia Power

SOURCE: Dominion Virginia Power

Web site: http://www.dom.com/