Climate change, cap and trade, and carbon taxes seem to be "dirty words" to be avoided, but there's one term everyone seems to like - Smart Grid. Among the multinationals jumping on the smart grid bandwagon are IBM, GE, AT&T, Intel and Google, which are developing in-house technologies as well as investing in leading development stage companies.
Check out GE Energy's online ad, which promotes its Smart Grid wind turbine technology. Activate your computer's webcam and face it toward the solar panel or wind turbine icon, and the smart grid opens on your screen. Blow into your computer's microphone to make the turbines spin faster.
GE may be getting a little ahead of what the smart grid can do at this early stage, but clearly there's a lot of excitement about it. Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO calls the smart grid one of the company's most important growth initiatives.
The development of the Smart Grid is being compared in importance to the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system and the Internet, and is expected to spawn companies that rival Microsoft and Google.
What the Smart Grid Will Do
When we talk about a smart grid, we're basically talking about modernizing the electrical grid of the 1960s and 70s into a network that uses microprocessors and software to work efficiently and to connect to renewable energy generation. A true Smart Grid works much the way the Internet does, enabling multiple applications to operate over a shared, interoperable network. The challenge is to create an intelligent, efficient network among our 14,000 transmission substations, 4,500 large distribution substations, and 3,000 public and private owners.
After two-way meters are installed, wireless sensor networks and software will show utilities how much and where energy is being consumed, and where there are problems or blackouts in the network. Homeowners and businesses will see their energy use in real time and be able to adjust their consumption habits accordingly.
This will pave the way for real-time pricing - energy use will be priced at different rates based on the time of day and the amount of electricity demand. Utilities will be able to manage electricity loads more efficiently and homeowners/ businesses will be able to reduce their monthly energy bills.
Once transmission lines are built, the smart grid will deliver renewable energy from centralized plants to where it's needed and it will feed energy from distributed sources like rooftop solar and wind systems to the grid, while compensating power generators accordingly.
Stimulus Funds for Smart Grid
The U.S. Department of Energy is handing out about $4.5 billion in cost-shared grants for smart-grid technology development under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It plans to disburse grants of $100,000 to $5 million to deploy grid monitoring devices, $500,000 to $20 million for smart grid technology, and $615 million for regional demonstration projects on smart-grid storage, monitoring and technology viability. A 20-day public comment period just began on the draft plan; the DEO will use the feedback to finalize the grant program structure and subsequent solicitation.
In early May, the Departments of Commerce and Energy will convene industry stakeholders at a Smart Grid meeting in Washington D.C. They will begin the all-important discussion of setting industry-wide standards - a key to making the smart grid a reality. Participants are expected to commit to a timetable for reaching a standards agreement.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said, "A smart electricity grid will revolutionize the way we use energy, but we need standards in place to ensure that all this new technology is compatible and operating at the highest cybersecurity standards to protect it from hackers and natural disasters. The Recovery Act will fund the development of those standards so the exciting technology can finally take off."
