A Smarter Grid for Rural Utilities

From earth2tech:

Much of the news these days about the smart grid buildout comes from the country’s large investor-owned utilities, like California’s Pacific Gas & Electric, which tend to be centered around major metropolitan areas.

But Washington, D.C.-based Great American Broadband is betting that electric cooperatives — smaller, privately held electric utilities that deliver power to some 40 million people in rural America and are owned by the members they serve — will adopt smart grid technology, too.

The company tells us it’s in the process of negotiating a $3 million round of financing from a consortium of unnamed private investors. Great American Broadband plans to use the funding to help it develop its web-based dashboard, which lets utilities monitor and manage smart meters and other grid-attached devices (such as transformers)....MORE