Lakeland Awards $13 Million Smart Grid Contract to SAIC (SAI)

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)

today announced it has been awarded a prime contract by the City of Lakeland, Fla., to lead its new Smart Grid Initiative program. The contract has a 30-month period of performance and is valued at more than $13 million. Work will be performed primarily in Lakeland. Through the city's Smart Grid Initiative program, Lakeland is seeking to reduce its annual carbon footprint by 14,000 tons while installing a smart grid infrastructure to facilitate future demand response and distributed automation capabilities. The city also expects the program to help improve operational efficiency, optimize capital investments to minimize energy prices, and facilitate time-of-use pricing to give consumers more control over their energy bills. These improvements will create an enhanced power grid with higher reliability and more dependable energy delivery than the current system. "Lakeland Electric is embarking on an exciting project where in the near term our customers benefit with new rate options, improved metering operations, and enhanced outage management," said David Kus, Lakeland Electric assistant general manager. "Long term, the installation of a core Smart Grid system positions Lakeland Electric for the future." Benzinga highlighted bullish put selling in the name recently; the stock is 2.1% higher since that call. SOURCE: SAIC