Imagine the "smart home" of the future, which you control from any electronic device – your computer, cell phone or television. You can cool it down before you get home from work on a hot summer's day, or make it toasty on a cold winter's evening. You can start, or stop, your dish washer remotely with the touch of a button. If your gas or electricity service is suddenly interrupted during the day, your energy provider would be notified and could work to restore immediately without a phone call from you, unlike today.
The future is almost here.
By 2015, that should be a reality for Duke customers across the Greater Cincinnati region through technological advances that provide you, the consumer, communication tools, more control and access to information about your energy usage. This technology possesses two parts. First, there's the so-called Smart Grid, which allows the electricity provider to more accurately monitor and efficiently repair the energy grid. Then there's the smart home, which allows you to communicate with your energy provider about usage and prices so you can take control of managing your bills.
This is part of a national smart grid movement designed to make electricity delivery more efficient, helping relieve pressure on energy providers to build new power plants, and help us all to do more with less. Duke energy is one of the nation's leaders in providing this new technology.
"Many other places are waiting to implement this technology, and President Obama speaks about this constantly. We're all connected across the U.S. and have to work together to make this fully effective. Duke Energy is ahead of the game, because we have already received approval in Ohio for some of the funding to implement technology," said Duke spokeswoman Johanna Reeder.
The advantages of these evolving 21st Century systems are many: smarter and more efficient electricity consumption, which can save consumers money while helping to protect the environment, more accurate billing practices, quicker detection of outages and faster power restoration times.
"We can't prevent the weather, or a massive mother-nature effort. But we can better manage day-to-day outages, which are much more typical. Many times people hit poles, animals get on lines. We'll be able to pinpoint where those outages are, and be able to reroute electric service. So there would only be a small outage versus everyone on 40-mile-line being out," says Reeder.
Soapbox Cincinnati recently got a peek at this new technology and the house of the not-so-distant future at Duke's Envision Center in Erlanger. This $1 million, high-tech center resembles a Hollywood movie set, with model kitchen, garage, and apartment complex, all circa 2015. The 15,000 sq. ft. setting also features a substation that provides two-way digital communication between your smart home and Duke Energy. Inside the center, you also can experience a virtual thunderstorm complete with lightning and a power outage.
The main features of the smart home include a digital energy management system that controls appliances including your dishwasher, washer and dryer, water heater and thermostat. This system allows homeowners to run large appliances at off-peak energy times, driving down bills. It can be controlled in-home or remotely. It will also let homeowners set temperatures in the most energy efficient way.
The management system, which would be purchased separately through a third party seller, also allows consumers to set a budget for gas and electric use each month. If you are near exceeding that use, Duke will contact you by phone, text or email to let you decide how to proceed in your electricity use for the remainder of the billing period.
Many of these smart technologies exist today. What is new is the ability to control your home remotely and to communicate directly with the electricity provider.
Some changes are already underway to make this happen. Duke is now retrofitting electricity poles with intelligent communication equipment. A pilot program is underway where some area homes' gas and electric meters are being replaced by so-called advanced or digital "smart meters." These digital meters will also eliminate the need for an employee to come read them.
"It's a communication box sitting in the kitchen or the garage where our system talks to your home," Reeder says of these smart meters.
Duke Energy will also shore up its technological advances with a Smart Grid. During a storm, Duke will be able to find and resolve outage problems instantly. The Smart Grid technology will allow Duke to monitor and manage the power delivery system and service, especially important during high peak energy use times.
On those hot summer days when everyone is running their air conditioning, Duke's electric generation capacity is pushed to the limit. Sometimes this forces the company to buy extra energy on the "spot market," which drives up your rates. With technological advances, Duke could let you know that if you run that dishwasher and washing machine at 5 o'clock, it just might push up your electric bill. Maybe you'll decide to wash the dishes at midnight instead.
"We can talk to customers and their home can talk back to us," Reeder says. "We are deploying the advanced meters throughout Ohio and Kentucky in pockets. We're testing these meters and seeing which works the best. The technology is advancing so quickly that we don't want to deploy hundreds of thousands of meters initially."
So what does this all mean for homeowners, apartment dwellers and business owners? Soon, we'll all be able to better manage our own energy use, help reduce our impact on the environment and hopefully save a few bucks in the process.
Now that's smart.
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Feoshia Henderson is a former Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky daily news reporter. She now runs her own freelance writing business and blogs about the Cincinnati suburbs at www.cincyburb.blogspot.com.
Photography by Scott Beseler
All images taken at Envision Center in Erlanger, KY