Oct. 26, 2009: Two Michigan companies will receive grants totaling $103,158,878 for projects designed to ease the nation’s transition to a smarter electrical system, U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, both D-Mich., announced last week.

The Detroit Edison Company will receive $83,828,878 and the Whirlpool Corporation in Benton Harbor will receive $19,330,000. The funds were made available by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Funds for the Detroit Edison Company will go to its SmartCurrents program, which includes the deployment of a large-scale network of 660,000 smart electricity meters and implement the Smart Home program, which provide customer benefits such as dynamic pricing to 5,000 customers and smart appliances to 300 customers.

Funds for the Whirlpool Corporation support the manufacturing of smart appliances to accelerate the commercialization of residential appliances capable of communicating over a home network with other smart technologies. These appliances allow customers to defer or schedule their energy use, which can lower consumer costs and reduce peak electricity demand.

For more information on the smart grid, please visit www.oe.energy.gov/smartgrid.htm.