Societal Actors and Dominant Smart Grid Visions - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 79

sent 500,000 comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opposing
climate regulations (NRECA 2014a ).
While they are vocal and politically motivated in opposition to climate change and
other environmental regulations, many co-ops see benefits in smart grid. Because they
serve sparsely populated areas of the country and the cost of service per customer is
expensive, rural cooperatives have invested heavily in smart metering, with 31 percent
of all co-op customers using two-way smart meters (compared to 23 percent nationally;
NRECA 2014b ) . For a smart meter project to be approved, the distribution co-op manager
needs to gain the board's approval of the proposal.
A final category of utilities is federal power agencies, such as the Bonneville Power
Administration (BPA) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These organizations
generate and sell wholesale electricity, but they have other responsibilities too. For
example, the BPA operates hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River and coordinates
with other agencies to manage flood control, agricultural irrigation, and salmon migration.
The TVA's mission is even broader; in addition to electricity generation, the corporation
manufactures fertilizer and promotes economic development in the area. BPA has long
been involved in smart grid activities, working on the “Energy Web” concept a decade
before the term “smart grid” took off and hosting several smart grid demonstration projects
(BPA 2014 ) .While TVAhas developed asmart gridroadmap, it has notyet made extensive
investments in smart grid technologies.
In our conversations with representatives from many different types of utilities
throughout the country, we found that some utility personnel displayed defensiveness when
asked about smart grid and conveyed dissatisfaction with the term. Many explained that
existing electric grid operations, which provide electricity to billions of people worldwide,
arealreadyprettysmart.Asutilitiesaroundtheworldhaveinvestedinupgradingelectricity
generation, transmission, and distribution systems, electric power has become - in most
areas - more reliable and affordable than ever before. The utility managers we spoke with
often see the suite of technologies currently labeled “smart grid” as natural “next step”
technologies in a continuously advancing system. Many also view the technologies under
the smart grid umbrella as a continuation of advancements that were already underway
before the term was adopted. Some utility representatives also demonstrated strong
appreciation for the term smart grid, explaining that it has helped utilities communicate the
importance of these advancements to those outside the industry. For them, the term smart
gridhasenabledsharedvisioningofthemanysocietalbenefitsoffutureelectricitysystems.
Several important forces shape an electric utility's business model. First, what is the
finance structure? Is the company an investor-owned utility (IOU), rural electric