Contact Information: Contact: John Moore (202) 683-3110 JMoore@qorvis.com
CURRENT: Investment in Smart Grid Stimulates Economy, Creates Thousands of Jobs
| Source: CURRENT
GERMANTOWN, MD--(Marketwire - February 17, 2009) - CURRENT Group, LLC, the nation's leading
provider of Smart Grid technology, congratulates President Barack Obama on
the signing of the landmark economic stimulus bill into law today at the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science. CURRENT Group is prepared to create
tens of thousands of jobs immediately for Smart Grid projects that will
modernize the nation's electric system while reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
One key aspect of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is the $4.5
billion specifically allocated for Smart Grid grants to transform the
nation's aging electricity grid. A Smart Grid is an intelligent system
that incorporates widely distributed sensors and employs real-time
communications to automatically sense and correct inefficiencies and
disturbances on the electrical distribution system. The Smart Grid
transforms the existing grid into a self-healing, self-optimizing 21st
Century power system capable of supporting the wide spread use of
renewables. A Smart Grid will create the Electric Internet, with comparable
levels of performance and enabling as yet unimaginable electric services --
the Google of Electricity cannot be invented without a Smart Grid.
"Smart Grid produces the most near-term and long-term jobs per dollar spent
of any clean energy provision in the stimulus package. In fact, job
creation starts with the Stimulus itself, as companies prepare and gear up
to apply for and receive funding, generating as many as 150,000 sustainable
jobs within the first year of funding," said Tom Casey, President and CEO
of CURRENT. "CURRENT's solutions are available today and we are ready to
work with utilities across the nation to deliver on the President's job
recovery program with Smart Grid projects that are shovel-ready within 12
weeks of funding."
Smart Grid has been called the single greatest information technology
solution to the problem of global warming because of its role in improving
the performance of the existing network, enabling greater customer control
of their energy usage and bringing solar, wind and other renewables online
as sources of electric power. Smart Grid enables us to reduce the costs of
delivering electricity on the utility side of the equation, even before the
energy actually reaches the end user.
The CURRENT Smart Grid solution is already in service in Dallas, TX and
Boulder, CO where it is improving the efficiency of our electricity
distribution network, reducing consumer costs, increasing security and
reliability by reducing outages, and creating the foundation for the
large-scale use of renewable energy. The solution, which combines sensing
and analytic software with a variety of low latency communication (fiber,
DSL, wireless, cable and broadband over powerline) and open Internet
Protocol standards can be deployed on a modular basis by electric utility
to achieve immediate results.
About CURRENT (www.currentgroup.com)
CURRENT provides electric utilities a Smart Grid solution that increases
the efficiency and reliability of the electric grid while reducing the
environmental impact of electric usage. CURRENT's scalable solution
combines advanced sensing technology with low latency IP based
communications and enterprise analysis software and related services to
provide location-specific, real-time actionable data that is easily
integrated into a utility's existing IT infrastructure.
The CURRENT Smart Grid solution is being used by utilities around the
world. For example, in the United States, Xcel Energy is using CURRENT's
technology in its SmartGridCity™ project in Boulder, Colorado, the
nation's first fully integrated Smart Grid community. The CURRENT Smart
Grid solution also serves more than 100,000 homes and businesses served by
Oncor Electric Delivery Company in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the 5th
largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area. CURRENT is also a participant
in several European Union-sponsored projects, including one led by
Iberdrola, the world's 4th largest electric utility, to expand the use
Smart Grid technology to benefit electric utilities and residents of the
European Union.
CURRENT, a private company, has received several awards, including the
World Economic Forum 2009 Technology Pioneer; Dow Jones 2008 Ten Most
Innovative Clean Tech Companies in Europe; 2006 Platts' "Global Energy
Commercial Technology of the Year" for its technology in relation to
emissions reduction, practicality, reliability and overall commercial
success and Red Herring's 2006 "Top 100 North America."