The 100 degree flirtations of the past several weeks along the Eastern Seaboard remind me of a line from Good Morning Vietnam delivered by one of Adrian Cronauer’s (Robin Williams) voice characters, Roosevelt E. Roosevelt. “It’s Hot. Damn Hot. Real Hot.”

There have been isolated brownouts and blackouts (most vocally noted in the New York City area).  But, otherwise, I’ve not seen or heard much about severe service interruptions (blackouts) or widespread voltage reductions (brownouts) that usually accompany prolonged heat waves.  Mind you, it is only July.

 Nonetheless, could it be that after years of deregulation induced under-spending on power grid infrastructure, America has actually improved its power transmission and distribution systems?

The short answer is yes, a little, but bigger improvements are in the offing.  These improvements have been spurred by energy conservation (demand response) mandates from state public utility commissions and the burgeoning need to convert a transmission grid built for a few big on-off ramps for large power generation plants into one that can accommodate many, smaller on-off ramps for renewable energy sources (solar, wind, etc.).

According to the blog good.is, it wasn’t easy for New York City’s utility (Con Edison) to prevent brownouts and blackouts as the heat wave mounted. The utility went so far as to call individual customers, pleading with them to turn off nonessential appliances.

But, as the NY times featured, Con Ed put in play a demand reduction initiative that lets the utility reprogram thermostats in 20,000 homes and businesses outfitted with central air-conditioning systems. When the heat wave began, Con Ed sent radio signals to the thermostats, triggering them to cycle on and off every half hour. The initiative saved 25 megawatts of energy during peak demand last week—enough to at least partially prevent the grid from collapsing.

ConEd is not alone in this effort – PG&E can shave 63 MW off its peak load, Texas utility Oncor just started a partnership with energy management startup EcoFactor, and many other major electric utilities have some form of commercial (if not residential) voluntary demand reduction system in place. Consumers can even initiate their own demand reduction efforts. Smart meter-equipped customers of select utilities in the United States and Europe have automatic access to Google’s PowerMeter software, which helps users track energy use over time and predict annual energy bills. And select Duke Energy customers in North Carolina and Ohio will have access later this summer to Cisco’s Home Energy Controller for home energy management that allows users to automate energy consumption based on the time of day, participate in utility pricing incentive programs and monitor energy use of all networked devices in the home.

But this is only scratching the surface.  Smart meters and smart grids have been called “…the biggest investment of the next 50 years,” by the CEO of GE (NYSE: GE). Cisco says it will be “100 to 1,000 times bigger than the Internet.” (How’s that for a bold statement!) And a Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) analyst recently told SmartGrid, “They expect 80 to 140 million meters to be installed in the next 10 years. And they expect total smart grid investment of $215 billion in the next four to five years. Needless to say, this is going to be huge.”

So huge, GE is willing to let all of us in of the opportunity. GE and four prominent venture capital firms are offering up $200 million for winners of its Ecomagination Challenge in an effort to quicken development of a national smart grid. Until September 30, smart-grid entrepreneurs can submit proposals in one of three areas:

• Maximizing penetration of clean energy into the grid.

• Improving the efficiency of the grid.

• Helping electricity customers use energy more wisely.

Representatives of GE and the investment partners (RockPort Capital, K.P.C.B., Foundation Capital and Emerald Technology) will decide which ideas to finance. Winners may even get a partnership deal with GE to develop and distribute the technology.

Keep your excitement in check – when it comes to technology and research intensive new energy start-ups, $200 million is barely enough to fund a single company.  (Take large scale solar energy generator BrightSource as an example. They have raised more than $300 million in financing and have $1.4 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy.)

 SmartGrid and large scale battery storage are the 800 pound gorillas in the room when it comes to moving large hunks of our population to wind and solar power for base load electric power needs.  In other words, power that is always there regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. There are serious infrastructure issues that will require huge amounts of investment (including public monies) and years of development. Let’s hope we can trace dramatic movement on both technologies to this Summer of Love for the SmartGrid.

Photo courtesy of mrwaterslide