Sacramento State, along with partners, received a $127.5 million federal stimulus grant to improve Sacramento’s electric grid as part of the Smart Sacramento project first introduced in September.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, a supporter of the Smart Sacramento project, announced Oct. 27 the grant given to fund the local smart grid energy project, a joint venture among the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Sac State, California Department of General Services and Los Rios Community College District.

The grant was made available by Matsui and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“This grant will help make Sacramento State a truly ‘smart campus’ by modernizing approximately 50 of our buildings,” said Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez.

Smart Grid technology will save Sac State and the CSU system millions of dollars a year with the use of new, more advanced and efficient power meters. This will give the financially struggling CSU system a break, said Emir Macari, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The millions saved each year can be used for a number of things such as scholarships, academic programs, tuition and other student related ventures, he said.

By utilizing Smart Grid technology, electricity will be supplied to the campus and Sacramento homes and businesses in a more controlled and environmentally friendly manner.

For example, the cooling and heating units as well as the lighting in university buildings will be automatically regulated through electronic devices that will adjust and monitor based on a building’s needs, Macari said.

A software package included with the meters will allow Sac State and other consumers to see their electricity usage, Macari said.

The software will also generate future forecasts of electricity usage for each consumer.

Having a forecast of the predicted power usage available gives SMUD a good estimate of what to prepare for as far as overloads and blackouts on any particular day.

The combination of the software with the meters will give SMUD a new way to price electricity during different times of the day.

Based on the data collected from all of the Sacramento area smart meters, SMUD will be able to decrease electricity costs during low-usage times.

With this system, Sac State will be able to see how it is using energy and how much of it is being wasted.

“The savings are unknown until the smart meters are installed because there is no way of know just how much electricity the campus is wasting,” he said.

Based on data from UC San Diego, which already implemented the Smart Grid technology, Macari said the savings for Sac State will be in the millions.

Until now, Sac State has relied on the goodwill of people to turn lights off, he said.

SMUD will start installing smart meters at Sac State as soon as January. The installation of the devices is expected to be completed by 2011.

The 600,000 smart meters planned to be installed in Sacramento will bring the city into the forefront of alternative energy, Matsui said.

Blazej Bruzda can be reached at [email protected].