What is the Smart Grid?
- Advanced Metering
- What is the Smart Grid?
- Cannon Meters
- Energy Efficiency
- Demand Response
Electric industry experts often talk about the "smart grid." In fact, many say that the smart grid must emerge if the electric industry is to meet rising demand and avoid regular outages that could jeopardize public safety and harm the economy. But what is the smart grid? What is its purpose? What is smart-grid technology? The answer depends on who you ask:
- Some envision energy efficiency at the heart of the smart grid, led by advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and load management systems.
- Others see the smart grid as intelligence distributed over wide areas as a way to stabilize aging electric infrastructure.
- Still others see the smart grid as the conduit for a buying and selling electricity as a commodity.
What types of communications technologies will support these types of transformations in the grid? Cannon AMI systems operate on power line carrier technology, in which small amounts of data travel over the electric lines in real time. But systems developers are looking at everything from common DSL and cable modem connections to future wireless broadband networks and broadband over power line as possible tools to transfer larger amounts of data.
Whether the smart grid data travels over the Internet or not, the overall concept of the smart grid closely resembles the Internet in some experts' minds. "It's just like e-mail. Shift the power to where it is needed so that you don't have to have such an excess of capacity in the system," says Roger Anderson, a senior scholar at Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, who has been closely involved in Smart Grid systems deployments in New York City.
"Right now, electricity use in U.S. homes is pretty darn dumb. Electrons come in, get eaten by TVs, heaters, light bulbs, iPod chargers, and a myriad of other devices. A meter records how much is consumed, but that's about it," a January 2008 article in BusinessWeek observes. Whatever form the smart grid evolves into, electric power companies soon could have powerful new tools to work with.