Smart Grid - Electrical Grid Technology for the Future: Smart Grid Technology Articles: Eco20/20

Smart Grid - Electrical Grid Technology for the Future

With our ever-increasing thirst for electricity, creating a new approach to national power generation has become an issue that can no longer be ignored. Nobody likes power outages, but in the history of the United States, nothing compares to the power outage we faced in 2003. This left many without power for days during a heatwave, leaving people trapped and vulnerable. To make matters worse, many feared at first that the blackout was a result of a terrorist attack. While we later realized it was nothing more than a terrible power outage, it illustrated the outdated nature of our electrical grid and pushed updating it to the forefront of many people's minds. Power outages are costly - both in terms of lost production due to businesses being unable to open, and the human toll these outages take. So looking into a different type of electricity management and production structure is now in the mainstream.

The U.S. government is starting to research and fund projects for the development of Smart Grid technologies. The basic idea behind Smart Grid technology is the use advanced digital technology that allows for two-way communication between power producers and power consumers. This allows information to be transmitted between user and producer. Using better, super conductive power lines, we can use the new system to use computers to reroute power from places with a surplus to places facing a deficit, without the massive losses in power that we currently face when transmitting electricity across vast distances.

This would help make the grid more reliable and better able to integrate added electrical capacity from micro sources, as well as large-scale renewable energy resources. The two-way communication system would make it possible to disengage power-sucking appliances during peak times, ensuring that blackouts during vital periods do not occur. These power-sucking appliances and commercial and industrial processes could then be run during off-peak hours to reduce strain on the grid.

As the energy grid continues to face strain, these technologies will give consumers a vested interest in saving energy. We cannot continue to run power hungry appliances during peak hours in the summer when air condition is of the utmost importance. If consumers can do their laundry at night for a far cheaper rate than they can during peak hours, this provides incentive to wait. The digital communication technology will allow energy producers to monitor, analyze, and control the submission of their power to ensure that the grid is not taxed to the point of breakdown.

As population continues to expand, and the demand for electrical energy continues to increase exponentially, the US is facing the outdated and lacking nature of the current national electrical grid. In order to stay ahead of the curve in terms of production capacity, as well as addressing growing concerns over climate change and the desire to increase our use of renewable electricity resources, research into Smart Grid technology is rapidly advancing. To meet the needs of the future, as well as to fix the problems of the past, Smart Grid technology harnesses the most advanced digital and computing technologies to monitor and adjust usage. It also addresses the need for more efficient transmission lines that allow small renewable energy "farms", as well as eco-conscious users who produce excess energy, to be "plugged in" to the national grid, making that electricity available to the places that need it most.