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Smart grid may revolutionize electricity network
By H. Josef Hebert |
June 14, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THOMAS Edison, meet the Internet.
More than a century after Edison invented a reliable light bulb, the United States electricity distribution system, an aging spider web of power lines, is poised to move into the digital age.
Smart grid has become the buzz of the electric power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress. US President Barack Obama says it's essential to boost development of wind and solar power, get people to use less energy and to tackle climate change.
What smart grid visionaries see are home thermostats and appliances that adjust automatically depending on the cost of power; and where on a scorching hot day a plug-in hybrid electric car charges one minute and the next sends electricity back to the grid to help head off a brownout.
It is where utilities get instant feedback on a transformer outage, shift easily among energy sources, integrating wind and solar energy with electricity from coal-burning power plants, and go into homes and businesses to automatically adjust power use based on prearranged agreements.
"It's the marriage of information technology and automation technology with the existing electricity network. This is the energy Internet," said Bob Gilligan, vice president for transmission at GE Energy, which is aggressively pursuing smart grid development. "There are going to be applications 10 years from now that you and I have no idea that we're going to want or need or think are essential to our lives."
Hundreds of technology companies and almost every major electric utility company see smart grid as the future. That interest got a boost with the availability of US$4.5 billion in federal economic recovery money for smart grid technology.
But smart grid won't be cheap; cost estimates run as high as US$75 billion. Who's going to pay the bill? Will consumers get the payback they are promised? Might "smart meters" be too intrusive? Could an end-to-end computerization of the grid increase the risk of cyber attacks?
Today's grid is seen by many as little different from one envisioned by Edison.
The power lines that crisscross the country have been compared to a river flowing down a hill: an inefficient one-way movement of electrons from power plant to consumer. There is little way to provide any feedback to the power company running the system or those buying the electricity.
"The meter is only the beginning," said Alex Huang, director of a grid technology center at North Carolina State University.
He said instead of power flowing from a small number of power plants, the smart grid can create a system of distributed energy so electricity "flows from homes and businesses into the grid."
The cost and payback have some regulators worried.
"We need to demonstrate to folks that there's a benefit here before we ask them to pay for this stuff," said Frederick Butler, chairman of New Jersey's utility commission and president of NARUC, the national group that represents these state agencies.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the current grid prevents increasing the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
But Chu and others also worry about security.
"If you want to create mischief one very good way to create a great deal of mischief is to actually bring down a smart grid system. This system has to be incredibly secure."
More than a century after Edison invented a reliable light bulb, the United States electricity distribution system, an aging spider web of power lines, is poised to move into the digital age.
Smart grid has become the buzz of the electric power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress. US President Barack Obama says it's essential to boost development of wind and solar power, get people to use less energy and to tackle climate change.
What smart grid visionaries see are home thermostats and appliances that adjust automatically depending on the cost of power; and where on a scorching hot day a plug-in hybrid electric car charges one minute and the next sends electricity back to the grid to help head off a brownout.
It is where utilities get instant feedback on a transformer outage, shift easily among energy sources, integrating wind and solar energy with electricity from coal-burning power plants, and go into homes and businesses to automatically adjust power use based on prearranged agreements.
"It's the marriage of information technology and automation technology with the existing electricity network. This is the energy Internet," said Bob Gilligan, vice president for transmission at GE Energy, which is aggressively pursuing smart grid development. "There are going to be applications 10 years from now that you and I have no idea that we're going to want or need or think are essential to our lives."
Hundreds of technology companies and almost every major electric utility company see smart grid as the future. That interest got a boost with the availability of US$4.5 billion in federal economic recovery money for smart grid technology.
But smart grid won't be cheap; cost estimates run as high as US$75 billion. Who's going to pay the bill? Will consumers get the payback they are promised? Might "smart meters" be too intrusive? Could an end-to-end computerization of the grid increase the risk of cyber attacks?
Today's grid is seen by many as little different from one envisioned by Edison.
The power lines that crisscross the country have been compared to a river flowing down a hill: an inefficient one-way movement of electrons from power plant to consumer. There is little way to provide any feedback to the power company running the system or those buying the electricity.
"The meter is only the beginning," said Alex Huang, director of a grid technology center at North Carolina State University.
He said instead of power flowing from a small number of power plants, the smart grid can create a system of distributed energy so electricity "flows from homes and businesses into the grid."
The cost and payback have some regulators worried.
"We need to demonstrate to folks that there's a benefit here before we ask them to pay for this stuff," said Frederick Butler, chairman of New Jersey's utility commission and president of NARUC, the national group that represents these state agencies.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the current grid prevents increasing the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
But Chu and others also worry about security.
"If you want to create mischief one very good way to create a great deal of mischief is to actually bring down a smart grid system. This system has to be incredibly secure."
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