Ga. town chooses smart grid as a service

• By Donald White
• Nov 16, 2011

The town of Norcross, Ga., is looking to the smart grid as a service to upgrade its electric grid and boost energy efficiency, Government Technology reports.

The Norcross City Council unanimously voted to join a partnership with Electric Cities of Georgia and General Electric Energy that will employ advanced technologies to give the town access to state-of-the-art tools that will improve management of electric services.

According to a news release on the town's website, the new system will provide "faster response to power outages; access to more energy usage information; pre-payment options to better understand and control energy usage; online access to information such as home energy usage, usage patterns and billing; and automated meter reading."

The technology, which will use GE's Grid IQ: Solutions as a Service offering, will be deployed starting in the spring of 2012, the city's press release states. It will cost approximately $80,000 a year, which will be paid for by a monthly charge of $1.36 to customers of the municipal energy system.