OG&E selects GE Energy and Silver Spring Networks for Smart Grid Program
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, October 29, 2009 – OG&E announced today it has entered into agreements with
General Electric Energy (GE) and Silver Spring Networks to handle key aspects of its Positive Energy®
Smart Grid Program to begin with full deployment in Norman, Okla. next year.
The program is the next step in OG&E’s initiative to use smart grid technology to provide customers with
more information to help manage their energy use and save money, without compromising their
lifestyles. It also will help OG&E maintain reasonable electricity rates and continue highly reliable
delivery of electricity to its customers.
GE will provide the 42,000 smart meters in Norman, Okla. The digital devices will measure electricity
use in the home or business and transmit the information to OG&E for billing and service monitoring.
The information will be communicated via Silver Spring Networks’ Smart Energy Network, a secure, IPbased network. In the summer of 2008, OG&E began working with GE and Silver Spring Networks for its
pilot study of smart grid technology with 6,600 customers in Oklahoma City. (Information about the
Oklahoma City study and interviews with customers are available on the home page of
www.itsyoursmartgrid.com by clicking on the video entitled “Oklahoma Gas & Electric”.)
“Smart grid technology is important for our customers, for our employees and for our shareholders,”
said Ken Grant, managing director of OG&E’s smart grid program. “After more than a century of serving
our customers, it is important that we partner with companies who have successful track records with
this new technology.”
As part of the Norman deployment, 2-3,000 customers will be recruited to receive information in almost
real time regarding the price of electricity by time of day and the amount being used. The study will
measure how many of those customers use price information to alter their energy consumption
patterns and to lower their electric bills. With the complete information network and smart meters in
place, OG&E will be able to remotely connect or disconnect service to homes or businesses and receive
notifications as soon as power outages occur, reducing response time to restore service.
According to Grant, in the next few weeks OG&E will select the company to install the smart meters and
the companies to coordinate with OG&E on customer support and installation of devices in homes or
businesses participating in the Norman study. “We want to make sure that this technology works well
before we integrate it completely into our normal operations and employee processes,” said Grant.
“However, we’re confident smart grid technology is the future for our industry. We’re looking ahead
with many of our employees involved in designing the processes for use in Norman and later across our
service territory for all of our customers.”
OG&E received notice on Oct. 27 that its application for $130 million in smart grid stimulus funds has
been approved, pending negotiations with the Department of Energy in November. The company will
seek state regulatory approval for recovery of the remaining costs of the almost $300 million
deployment across its entire service territory over the next three-five years.
OG&E is Oklahoma's largest utility, serving more than 775,000 customers in a service area spanning
30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. OG&E is a subsidiary of Oklahoma city-based
OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE), which also is the parent company of Enogex LLC, a midstream natural
gas pipeline business with principal operations in Oklahoma.
GE Energy (www.ge.com/energy) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy
delivery technologies, with 2008 revenue of $29.3 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy works in
all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy, as well as renewable
resources such as water, wind, solar, biogas, and other alternative fuels. Numerous GE Energy products
are certified under ecomagination, GE’s corporate-wide initiative to aggressively bring to market new
technologies that will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges.
Silver Spring Networks is a leading smart grid solutions provider that enables utilities to achieve
operational efficiencies, reduce carbon emissions and empower their customers with new ways to
monitor and manage their energy consumption. Silver Spring provides the hardware, software and
services that allow utilities to deploy and run unlimited advanced applications, including Smart
Metering, Demand Response, Distribution Automation and Distributed Generation, over a single, unified
network. Silver Spring’s Smart Energy Platform is based on Internet Protocol (IP) standards, allowing
continuous, two-way communication between the utility and every device on the grid. Silver Spring
Networks has successful deployments with leading utilities in the US and abroad, including Florida
Power & Light, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, Inc., CitiPower PowerCor, Sacramento Municipal
Utility District, American Electric Power, Jemena Electricity Networks Limited and United Energy
Distribution,
among others. In 2008, the World Economic Forum honored Silver Spring Networks as a Technology
Pioneer. For additional information, please visit www.silverspringnetworks.com.
-Alisa Weinstein
Senior Advocate
Blue Practice
www.bluepractice.com
alisa@bluepractice.com
(415) 308-5338
Twitter: @BluePractice
Communications for a Sustainable World