Smart grid grants

Over $3 billion dollars worth of federal money will be awarded to smart grid projects in the U.S. today. President Obama has chosen a Florida solar power plant as the location for making his announcement. He'll be in Arcadia, Florida, at Florida Power and Light Co.’s DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center. That plant will generate electricity for 3,000 homes when completed.

One large grant: $200 million for Constellation Energy Group Inc.’s Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. (BGE). That'll provide new electric meters to 1.1 million households for real-time monitoring of electricity use. It's to help customers adjust their usage during peak times. BGE will add over a quarter billion of its own dollars to the project's first phase which is to cost over $2.5 billion when completed.

Sempra Energy gets $28.1 million to build a wireless system to link San Diego Gas and Electric Company's 1.4 million meters and monitor equipment across the electrical grid. Another grant will go to a utility in Marietta, Georgia, for metering customers.

This money's coming from the federal stimulus program signed into law last February. There'll be 100 government grants in 49 states. They're to be matched by $4.7 billion in private investments.