Miami's New $200 Million Smart Grid Program and Job Creation

Miami believes that a million smart meters will make its power grid more efficient and interactive and, importantly, will create many new jobs.

Pressreleasepoint.com reports:

"Energy Smart Miami has the potential to be the most extensive and holistic smart grid implementation in the country. The backbone of Energy Smart Miami will be the deployment of more than 1 million advanced wireless “smart meters” to every home and most businesses in Miami-Dade County. These meters will give Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) customers more information and control over their electricity usage while also providing FPL with information that will enhance system efficiency and reliability. Implementation of the smart meters will be based on open network architecture, allowing other providers to develop and deploy new applications that could, for example, help consumers better manage the electricity usage of their air conditioning and appliances.

Energy Smart Miami is estimated to generate demand for 800 to 1,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly involved in the deployment, during the two-year implementation period." See full article.

Green Job Growth, the Smart Grid and Computers

Green job development will be about many transformations including the evolution of a new "smart" energy grid that is run in a more interactive, two-way, manner with major new computer software and technology helping out. Some say this transition will make the smart grid bigger than the Internet. One company is getting ready. (illustration: CNet Greentech)

Green Biz reports:

"Cisco's SmartGrid solutions lay out an entire framework of smart energy tools, covering everything homes to data centers to electrical substations. The tools will allow utility companies and their customers manage power supplies and energy consumption more efficiently.

The company expects that the Smart Grid and its associated infrastructure needs will become a $20 billion market by 2015, and that the benefits of moving toward a system that allows for on-demand, instead of always-on, energy utilization can save the United States 10 to 15 percent or more of overall energy use, cut back significantly on the greenhouse gas emissions related to electricity generation, and create as many as 280,000 green jobs." See full article.