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12 April 2007 - Houston-based utility CenterPoint Energy has said it plans to invest about $500 million over several years to expand a broadband-over-power-line initiative, add advanced meters to its system and bring new technologies to its transmission-and-distribution network.
CenterPoint previously had a limited BPL pilot project as part of a partnership with IBM and now that the company has seen the capabilities of the technology it is expanding the BPL network to cover its entire service territory, company officials said in a conference call.
The utility will use the BPL network solely for utility functions such as enhanced monitoring and communication with customers as part of a broader smart grid initiative, said Georgianna Nichols, group president for CenterPoint Electric Operations.
CenterPoint and IBM Wednesday announced a new "intelligent utility" coalition that will collaborate with other firms to bring smart grid technologies to users and enable utilities and other market players to have more real-time information about energy usage. Although CenterPoint is the first and only member of the coalition at this point, other utilities around the globe and technology and software firms are to be added later in the second quarter, said Brad Gammons, vice president at IBM's global energy and utilities sector.
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