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About Smart Grid

As a nation, we are setting out on a vast overhaul of our electricity systems that will help us lower costs, increase energy efficiency, improve the environment, reduce power outages, and give individual customers more control over their energy use. This new "smart grid" will take advantage of modern hardware and software technologies to build an intelligent power network across the U.S.

Why Do We Need a Smarter Grid?

The network of wires that moves electricity from generators to your home or business, called the “grid,” has served us well for years, but today, as the Department of Energy says, “the grid is struggling to keep up.” Higher energy costs, environmental concerns, reliability issues, and increasing demand for energy are driving a multibillion-dollar upgrade to transform the existing one-way grid into a two-way network where power and information flow in both directions among the transmission system, the utility, and the customer, not just from the provider to the user.

What Makes the Smart Grid Smarter?

The key to this transformation is to make the grid smarter. But how? There are four key elements:

• First, install smart devices that can tell us what is going on in the grid, such as two-way meters in homes and businesses that can read energy use more reliably and frequently and ultimately connect home appliances and home networks to the new grid.
• Second, set up a smart communication system so those meters and other devices can talk to electrical utilities and even each other.
• Third, collect detailed information into smart databases with software that can “scrub” and analyze the data while maintaining stringent data security and privacy controls.
• Fourth, enable the databases to talk to other systems such as your utility’s billing system and power generation facility.

The examples above are from the point of view of the electricity users, but the smart grid also includes improvements to generation plants, transmission systems, and other parts of the nation’s electricity network -- all adding sensors, communication systems, databases, software, and interconnection technology to build a smarter power network.

What Will the Smart Grid Provide?

When fully implemented, the smart grid will be:

• More efficient
• More reliable
• More secure
• Self-healing” and adaptive
• Able to support active participation by customers
• More capable of supporting renewable energy such as wind and solar
• Able to reduce costs by flattening energy “peaks”
• Able to support smart appliances and electric vehicles
  
  

If you have any questions about the Smart Grid, please contact NPU at
860 887-2555 or communitymatters@npumail.com.

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