Nov. 3--EL PASO -- El Paso Electric Co. will use $1.01 million in federal money and $1 million of its own money to test technology designed to make it easier for the company to detect and respond to power outages.

The money is part of $3.4 billion in federal funding awarded last week for 100 projects by companies, cities and others aimed at modernizing the nation's power grid. The money comes from the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved by Congress this year.

El Paso Electric plans to install distribution management systems at substations in Santa Teresa and at Van Horn to help identify power outages, and then reroute power so fewer customers are affected by outages, said Richard Turner, director of corporate development for the company.

"This automates a lot of manual stuff done today," Turner said.

The company often doesn't know a power outage occurs until customers call about outages, Turner said. Then, crews have to be sent out to find the source of the outage, and people at its operations center manually reroute power, he said.

"These are test projects to gain experience with the technology. This is part of the smart-grid technology," Turner said.

"Ultimately, we'd like to automate a lot of operations within most of our system."

President Barack Obama last week announced that the 100 funded projects were selected among 400 proposals. The government grants will be matched by $4.7 billion in private investment.

Obama, in announcing the grants, said

the nation's power grid runs on outdated technology.

"It wastes too much energy, it costs us too much money, and it's too susceptible to outages and blackouts," he said.

The grants will help produce a "smarter, stronger, and more secure electric grid," he said.

Most of the grants involve installing smart meters at electric customers' homes, which will allow consumers to better manage their electric consumption, Obama said.

CenterPoint Energy in Houston received the largest grant in Texas at $200 million. Much of that money is to help pay for smart meters.

Turner said El Paso Electric will look at smart meters and other new technologies "as it becomes available." But the company has no timetable or cost estimates for implementing new technologies, he said.

El Paso Electric expects to have the distribution management systems in Santa Teresa and Van Horn in place by the end of next year.

"Once we see it work as touted, we'll look at doing it in other parts of our system," Turner said.

The smart-grid grant to El Paso Electric wasn't the only energy-related money given to this area by the federal government last week.

The Department of Energy also awarded a $5 million grant to El Paso County in a partnership with Fort Bliss to explore geothermal resources at McGregor Range. The grant is part of $338 million in stimulus money given to 139 projects for geothermal development and research.

"Our region has significant potential to be a national leader in renewable energy, and this grant will help further our efforts to promote development in this area," U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said in a written statement.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.

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