[Zass38]

I worked for a startup, called GridPoint, that was involved in the 'smart grid" initiatives for several years.

the general concept was that if you get a group of homeowners to band together, as a group, then that group of users would then become a 'mini' electric generating plant, as each of the solar panel units would also be connected to a group of batteries. In this manner, when the electric utility needed power, such as between noon and 3PM, the utility would contact this group and take power from the batteries as the "going rate", which is as much as 10 times the sales rate. The power utilities really need this type of smart solar power. Out calculations showed that in general the investment would be returned to the owners in something like 5 years. Additionally, several utilities were amenable to contributing to the financing of the owners installations.

The KEY to this concept is that there be a cooperative of many (say 100-200) homes in the same power distribution grid.

Always a chance that a progressive utility such as SECO would go for this type of effort. SECO could then make the applications to the Dept of Energy ... this has been done in several other areas, such as Denver.

See www.gridpoint.com for some additional information on this concept.