The Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition (DRSG), the trade association for companies that provide smart grid products and services, applauds the action taken today by the Obama Administration to award grants to 100 smart grid projects. The awards were announced today by President Obama during a tour of a smart grid facility in Arcadia, FL.

The grants are a result of an allocation of funds to smart grid projects in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The total amount of funds to be disbursed by the federal government is $3.4 billion. Each award recipient will provide matching funding, meaning that today's action represents over $8 billion of investment in the Smart Grid.

"These grants are a significant event in the development of the smart grid," said Dan Delurey, Executive Director of DRSG and Chairman of the Smart Green Grid Initiative. "Not only is the size of the total investment significant but also the diversity of the projects that will receive an award. The grants include investment in transmission and distribution systems as well as in smart meters, demand response devices, smart thermostats and home information displays. All of the latter are where the smart grid will touch and engage the electricity customer, and where many of the benefits of the smart grid will occur."

"We applaud the Obama Administration for its speed and diligence in undertaking and completing this effort," said Delurey.

About the DRSG
The DRSG is the trade association for companies that provide products and services in the areas of demand response and smart grid. Members of the DRSG Coalition include: Aclara, Advanced Telemetry, Ambient, Amplex, Bridge Energy Group, CalAmp, Comverge, Conservation Services Group, Corporate Systems Engineering, CPower, Direct Energy, Echelon, Eka Systems, eMeter, Energy Capital Partners, Energy Curtailment Specialists, EnergySolve, EnerNOC, Enfora, Enspiria Solutions, GE, Google, Honeywell, IBM, Ice Energy, Itron, KMC Controls, Landis+Gyr, LG Electronics, Lutron Electronics, Oracle, PCN Technology, Sensus, Silver Spring Networks, SmartSynch, Space-Time Insight, Steffes, Tendril, Trilliant Networks, Universal Powerline Association, Whirlpool, ZigBee Alliance, and Ziphany. More information is available at www.drsgcoalition.org.

About the Smart Green Grid Initiative
The Smart Green Grid Initiative (SGGI) has been launched to demonstrate that the smart grid indeed can be a major positive force in addressing climate change. Among the issues SGGI will seek to build an understanding of are how the smart grid facilitates both the use of renewable energy and the increase of energy efficiency. As part of its educational efforts, SGGI will be an official UN-approved participant in the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP-15) in Copenhagen in December 2009. More information about SGGI is available here www.smartgreengrid.org.