GMP Pilot Program to Use the Span Smart Panel as Replacement for Traditional Meters

Green Mountain Power (GMP) launched a new pilot program to empower residential customers with new technology to simplify the transition to clean energy for home heating, vehicle charging, solar generation and energy storage. GMP is the first utility in the country to work with Span to offer the Span Smart Panel. The panel replaces the traditional home electric panel, and will give customers an easy way to understand and control energy use from anywhere. The smart panel is designed to do more than a traditional home panel, including replacing the meter to also measure energy use.

"Most of us pay little if any attention to our electrical panel except for when we trip a breaker but these panels can be a game-changer for customers who are eager to gain more control over their energy use," said GMP President and CEO Mari McClure. "Imagine there`s an outage at your home while you`re away. This device alerts you and you can immediately and easily access your electrical panel through an app on your phone to prioritize how to deploy the energy in your Tesla Powerwall or other backup battery. This type of technology is the future and we`re excited to be the first to share it with our customers."

The panel is the first full replacement for the traditional home electric panel with all the functionality and safety features, plus smart technology for metering, monitoring and device control integration. The smart panel was developed by a team of former Tesla engineers who recognized that the main electric panel in everyone`s homes can also be a barrier to easy adoption of sustainable technologies like solar panels, electric vehicles, heat pumps and home batteries. By reinventing the panel to be intelligent and integrated with those devices, they aim to radically reduce the cost and complexity for customers to shift from fossil fuel to clean electricity-powered resources for their homes.

The pilot program will enroll 100 customers, who will receive a Span Smart Panel installed at no cost, to test electrical load management and metering capabilities, as well as integrating the panel with distributed resources like batteries, EV chargers and solar panels. Customers will benefit by seeing real-time circuit-level data on usage to empower them to make smart energy choices at home, while all GMP customers benefit through additional resources made available for grid flexibility, like reducing peak energy demand.

GMP will reach out to customers to form a representative sample, to help determine how the technology can benefit all GMP customers and the Vermont grid - including customers with solar panels, EV chargers and other technologies at home.

Local solar and battery companies are partnering with GMP to do the installations, and Green Mountain Solar of Williston, Vt. is the first to become a certified installer for the pilot.

More details about the Span pilot program are on GMP`s website.

_{Source: Green Mountain Power
Photo: Green Mountain Power}

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