What is the Smart Grid?

By Alan

If you aren't really sure what it means to have a Smart Grid, then you aren't alone. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting with several hundred of the nation's electricity industry and government leaders at Gridweek 2009, and each attendee had their own take on what the phrase "Smart Grid" meant. I'm of the opinion that it should end up like an organic system. However, most seem to agree on a few common ingredients about the Smart Grid.

Smart Meters - The AMI (Advanced Metering Initiative) is aimed at replacing the millions of old manual/mechanical power and gas meters with digital meters that can not only report total consumption over a month (just like your power billing cycle), but could also report, minute-by-minute, the current usage of the household or company back to the utility, plus a bunch of other measurements like voltage, power frequency (remember how important that is), even outside temperature. Depending on the manufacturer and the controlling utility, the meter might also be able to receive information from the utility about current and near-future prices, and even curtailment signals for "Demand Response."

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Scotty! We Need More Power!

By Alan

I was asked the other day what "The Smart Grid" was, and what it was going to do, and I had to pause a bit, because the term means different things to different people. Predictions about what it will mean are even more difficult, if not impossible. In fact, in order to know more about what's going to happen in the future, we need to understand what's there now. So, we'll do this in two parts. What we have, and what we'll be getting.

First, let's explain a little bit about the Electricity Grid in the United States.

Demand and Supply?

Unlike nearly all other products, electricity must be instantly generated as soon as it is consumed. Notice the order of importance there. Production has to keep up with consumers, not the other way around. Nearly everything else that we produce and consume is opposite: Someone creates the product, and develops inventory, and the consumer buys what's available. In the current electrical market, consumers just consume, and everything else is geared towards keeping up with that demand. Blackouts, brownouts, and sudden soaring prices are all directly related to unexpected difference between demand and supply.

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