Climate & Nature...
Green Tech Mar 19, 2009
What is a Smart Grid?
New Technology Could Create Efficiencies and Save Energy
President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan includes US$4.5 billion to create a "smart grid" electrical transmission system. But many people still ask, what exactly is a smart grid?
Basically, a "smart grid" really is just that -- it's a smarter version of our national energy grid that uses advanced communication tools and a whole new range of computing technologies to make the transmission and distribution of energy more efficient.
The first step would involve deploying an infrastructure that will automate electricity metering. This is more than just putting the guy who comes to your house to read your meter out of a job. It creates a two-way communication system between customers and utilities, allowing everyone to see how much their energy use is costing them on a second-by-second basis. For instance, you'll be able to decide if you want to run your dishwasher in the afternoon, when rates are higher, or at night, when you can see that rates are lower.
The smart grid will also improve the adoption of renewable energy sources. Let's say you install solar panels on your roof, and they actually generate more electricity than you need. With a smart grid, you'll be able to sell your excess energy back to the utility and upload it into the national electrical grid.
It will also make it easier to generate electricity from wind and solar in one part of the country, and then transmit it thousands of miles to a completely different part of the country. That's not possible with today's antiquated grid, which is not set up to transmit energy long-distance.
Theoretically, a smart grid would create enough efficiences that it would actually reduce carbon emissions by 25%.
We're not going to see a smart grid tomorrow, but this technology isn't too far off, if we allow it to come to being. All it takes is willpower, and a lot of money. But think of what we'll save when it comes to pass.
Good first step
| Robb_Henshaw | Mar 21st, 2009While deploying a smart grid is a great step towards more efficient, integrated utilities delivery, we need to keep in mind that this is not the end game.
While the smart grid is certainly more efficient, it is still a separate walled garden that does not integrate with important services, such as renewable energy. Eventually, the smart grid will need to evolve and embrace the openness of renewable energy systems, which already have the capabilities to sync and integrate with many other renewable energy systems via open energy management solutions.
I work with Fat Spaniel -- www.fatspaniel.com -- one of the companies that designs these open energy management platforms. We're already working with thousands of energy systems across more than 15 countries to help them monitor and manage all of their renewable energy systems from one central platform. This increases the efficiency, performance and production of these systems significantly.
And now we're working with leaders in smart grid technology, too, to help move the industry forward. We look forward to the day where the walls are broken down between traditional utilities and renewable energy systems, so that all can be managed and monitored via one integrated platform -- which will not only maximize the production and efficiency of these systems, but also make them far more cost effective.
And that's the final point I think we all need to keep in consideration -- how do we achieve great systems like these in a cost effective manner? In today's economic climate, and with significant amounts of stimulus money being proposed for the advancement of these projects, it is no longer enough just to be green. We need to be able to pair eco responsibility with fiscal responsibility, and open energy monitoring helps achieve that.