Lockheed Martin [LMT] and the global engineering firm Black & Veatch (BV) yesterday said they have teamed to offer utility companies a range of tools such as information technology cyber security know-how, to help these companies shape their projects and request grants in pursuit of the Department of Energy’s (DoE) new Smart Grid Investment Grant Program.
The grant program is part of DoE’s Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Recovery Plan, which has $4.5 billion available for modernization of the nation’s electric grid.
“Our nation’s power grid is at a crossroads–to support a clean energy future, the grid must smartly and securely manage and distribute a new mix of traditional and alternative energies to users,” Tom Grumbly, vice president, Lockheed Martin Energy & Environmental Services, said in a statement. “With federal grants making Smart Grid a reality, and the opportunity to create new jobs in the process, utilities should not delay in shaping projects to modernize the grid.”
Lockheed Martin has been working with utility firms for the past five years, in particular on energy efficiency efforts. The company has over a dozen utilities on its client list.
Lockheed Martin brings to the table its information management, business process re-engineering, cyber security, modeling and simulation, and demand response tools. BV said it offers clients its understanding of the interdependencies of power delivery and telecommunications infrastructure to improve the smart grid.
Lockheed Martin has served the DoE and other agencies involved with energy and climate for decades. The company recently established five focus areas as part of its vision for where, and how, it can provide capabilities in the energy and climate markets. These are efficiency, alternative and renewable energies, energy management and storage, how to make traditional energies cleaner and have less impact, and climate monitoring, including the use of space-based assets.
If any of the utility companies that are helped by the Lockheed Martin and BV team obtain DoE smart grid grants, Lockheed Martin could also help these companies implement their projects, a company spokeswoman said.