Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Winter 2012
Student Team
Alan Wecker, David Fisher, Grace Yang, Adam Baillie, Evan Howell
The Company
Serving a population of 1.4 million people, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is the nation’s sixth largest customer-owned electric utility. Since 1946, SMUD has provided electricity for most of Sacramento County, as well as small portions of Placer and Yolo counties.
“It was a pleasure to work with the U.C. Davis students, and we were thoroughly impressed with their dedication and critical thinking. Their hard work and the resulting outcomes will help us continue to evolve our infrastructure and better serve our customer owners.”
Mike DeAngelis - Manager, Research and Development
Sacramento Municipal Utility District
The Project
Non-controllable renewable resources produce energy when wind and sun are plentiful. The energy supply from these resources can fluctuate dramatically in short periods of time. As SMUD incorporates a higher percentage of renewable sources into its generation mix, attempting to predict and compensate for these fluctuations will become increasingly important. The purpose of this project is to review and evaluate current knowledge and strategies for forecasting intermittent energy supply and assess the scale and potential of demand response resources in the SMUD territory to compensate for energy imbalances.
