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electricity delivery systems - with secure, reliable and efficient data, networks and communications.
The collaboration project will ultimately update the delivery to, and use of electricity by, Duke's 11 million customers served in five states: Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky. Throughout the term of the project, and in subsequent years, Duke will install large-scale new smart-grid technology, including millions of electric and natural gas "smart meters," in addition to hardware and software for distribution.
"Smart meters" replace analog mechanical meters with digital meters which record energy usage in real-time. Smart meters provide a communications pathway extending from generation plants to electrical outlets and other smart grid-enabled devices.
Manifold benefits await Duke Energy and its customers.
The proposed modernized electric grid will:
- Build an 'Energy Internet', which will enable decentralized power generation, so that customers may be both energy clients and suppliers; allow supplier selection of power consumption to offer flexibility to energy consumers;
- Integrate solar and other renewable energy sources into the electric grid;
- Encourage consumers to actively participate in operations of the grid; improve electricity delivery, improve systems efficiency and reliability, increase energy independence, decrease environmental impact, and help customers reduce their energy consumption, strengthen grid security and resist attack;
- Provide higher quality power that will save money wasted from outages;
- Incorporate two-way digital communication to detect power outages and be readily inter-operable, upgradeable and scalable to new emerging technologies.
Cisco has already begun sharing its networking expertise with leading utility providers around the world and is building innovative network solutions for them and their customers to monitor electricity utilization, optimize energy delivery, reduce energy usage and cost, improve system security, and lessen their impact on the environment.
Going forward, Cisco plans to continue to deliver products and services to support this initiative serving a growing smart grid communications infrastructure market projected by Cisco to reach $20 billion annually over the next five years.
Duke Energy maintains a Street analyst consensus recommendation with a Buy-rated bias; an average long-term EPS growth rate of 4.2%, within a range of 2.0% to 6.0%, and a target price of $15.48 per share, within a range of $14.00 to $20.00 per share.
Cisco Systems boasts a Street analyst consensus Buy rating with an average estimated long-term EPS growth rate of 10.9, within a range of 2.0% to 20.0% and an average target price of $22.38 per share, within a range of $15.00 to $30.00 per share.
