CenterPoint Energy has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to receive a $200 million grant for its smart meter and smart grid projects. Of these funds, $50 million will be used to begin building a self-healing smart grid that will use smart meters, power line sensors, remote switches, and other automated equipment to improve power reliability and restoration in greater Houston.

The power outages that have been a fact of life for electric consumers meet their match with the smart grid. Localized outages are largely self-healing in the smart grid. Most breaks in a power line – a tree limb falling, for example – will be detected and communicated by sensors and the associated event data transmitted using wireless and/or other communications technologies. As a result, power will be re-routed around the break or fault and service continues, virtually uninterrupted, while CenterPoint Energy personnel are dispatched to the repair site.

In the event of larger outages, such as a major storm, the smart grid will first employ self-healing techniques to restore power to as much of the system as possible. Then the damage to the system as a whole is diagnosed and mapped. Using that information, CenterPoint Energy will be able to restore the greatest part of the system in the shortest time and then continue on to full restoration. In many cases, the time to restore power through the smart grid in CenterPoint Energy’s service area will be a fraction of the current averages.

The initial smart grid deployment, covering the area inside Loop 610,  is expected to be completed in 2013.