Overview of
Programs
Overview of Programs >

Smart Grid Investment Grant Program >

Smart Grid Demonstration Program >

Workforce Training for the Electric Power Sector Program >

Consumer Behavior Studies >

Standards, Interoperability, and Cybersecurity Activities >

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provides the U.S. Department of Energy with $4.5 billion to modernize the electric power grid and implement Title XIII of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. This section provides descriptions and background information for several of the key smart grid programs, studies and activities funded by the Recovery Act.
Project
Information

Project Information >

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided funding for smart grid projects across the United States. The location, information and data for each project are provided in this section.
Deployment
Status
Deployment Status >

Program Asset Investments >

AMI & Customer Systems >

Electric Distribution System >

Electric Transmission System >

Project Specific Deployments >

Technology Deployment Analysis >

The U.S. Department of Energy is responsible for tracking investments made through the Smart Grid Investment Grant program (SGIG) and Smart Grid Demonstration program (SGDP). The status and characteristics of technology deployed is reported in this section.
Program
Impacts
Program Impacts >

Analytical Approach >

SGIG Program Impact Analysis >

SGDP Technology Performance Reports >

Case Studies >

The U.S. Department of Energy is analyzing the impacts of the Recovery Act smart grid projects on the electric system and assessing costs, benefits, lessons learned, and best practices. This analysis is an opportunity to inform decision makers about the relative merits of alternative smart grid technologies, tools, and techniques and provide a stronger empirical basis for investments and business cases.
Consumer
Behavior
Consumer Behavior >

Study Objectives >

Study Schedules >

Cross-Study Analysis >

Lessons Learned >

U.S. Department of Energy is working with several Smart Grid Investment Grant award recipients who are conducting special studies to examine acceptance, retention and response of consumers involved in time-based rate programs that include advanced metering infrastructure and customer systems such as in-home displays and programmable communicating thermostats. These studies are an opportunity to advance the electricity industry’s understanding of consumer behavior through the application of statistically rigorous experimental methods.
Recipient
Reporting

Recipient Reporting >

U.S. Department of Energy requires recipients of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to report quarterly data. Recipients access reporting databases and guidance documents in this section. Only recipients who have received a user name and password can access the databases.

Consumer Behavior Studies

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is working with a subset of the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) award recipients to examine the response of consumers to variable electricity prices, referred to as time-based rate programs, in conjunction with the deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and customer systems such as Web portals and in-home displays. The effort presents an opportunity to advance the electricity industry’s understanding of the response by consumers in terms of peak load reductions, changes in electricity use, and consumer acceptance and retention and involves carefully designed studies that apply rigorous statistical methods.

The Funding Opportunity Announcement for the SGIG program explicitly identified an interest in AMI projects that involved time-based rates and use of randomized and controlled experimental designs. DOE is working closely with the subset of projects involved in these studies to better understand the diversity of response to time-based rate programs, as well as control and automation technologies across different market segments, such as low income consumers, elderly consumers, and consumers with high energy use. The extent of consumer acceptance and retention with these technologies and programs is also part of the studies and DOE’s analysis agenda. All of the data being collected in the studies and reported by the recipients such as interval load data and consumer demographics data) will be used by DOE to perform cross-study analysis of all of the SGIG consumer behavior studies.

Learn more about SGIG Consumer Behavior Studies: