Benefits of a Smart Grid
The latest implement that could change the entire electrical power market is the “smart grid.” The smart grid is a new form of electrical networking which employs digital technologies in company with customer participation to accomplish a more efficient and beneficial power grid system. This advanced system is made possible by using sensing and control devices equipped with a two-way communication that enables the grid to adjust in real time.
The smart grid utilizes the idea of reducing energy demand in peak usage hours, active control in response to grid conditions. In times of high demand the smart grid can turn off selected devices to lessen the requirement. It has the capability of turning off appliances, such as washing machines, which can run at illogical hours. Devices such as air conditioners, refrigerators and heaters’ cycles can be altered to avoid activation in times when the grid is experiencing a peak in demand. The smart grid replaces today’s meters with smart meters that can add continuous real time communications, which allows the use of demand response-aware devices and “smart sockets.” This allows users to analyze their energy use as it is taking place, not waiting on their bill to come at the end of the month. Most meters today are read by people, who must receive a paycheck, adding to the cost of energy. However, the smart grid’s meters can be read automatically, cutting down on cost, resulting in monies which can be used in other areas. Energy providers have charged a predetermined set price for service for years, but with smart meters they can introduce different prices for consumption based on the time of day, seasonal high and low temperatures, and grid conditions. This allows customers to make choices about when and how they use their electrical devices.
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The smart grid system is not solely based on the altering of electrical devices, but also requires the participation and involvement of customers. One suggested customer trade-off would be cooking dinner at nine p.m. instead of five p.m. to relieve the power grid at peak times.
Hopefully, an increasing amount of customers, residential and industrial alike, will become more receptive to peak time trade-offs as they are able to see the direct correlation between their lower energy costs and the trade-offs they make. The smart grid would like the customers to integrate smart appliances into their homes, so the system could run at its full capability. One United
States Department of Energy study indicated that by using a smart grid, the United States could save between 46 and 117 billion dollars over the next 20 years. To customers with solar panel roofing, small wind turbines or access to other alternative sources of power, the grid can activate these devices and put that energy to use. This would lessen an individual carbon footprint of a home, industrial, or business building.
Not only will the smart grid have the potential to save customers money, but also make them money. By providing a new workforce, the smart grid would create “green” jobs in this economic downturn. Some of the jobs one could undertake are smart grid security engineer, network engineer, field deployment technician, software engineer, and many more. The system not only provides jobs for technology majors, but to people who install equipment and work in the field.
There is some apprehension of the innovation, more from residential consumers rather than industrial. They are concerned about privacy issues, because the smart grid can read when and how much energy is used. Through the readings of energy usage, you can determine when the residents are not at home, are sleeping, how much they watch TV and how often they use the microwave. What citizens must realize is that the smart grid wasn’t planned to invade users’
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privacy, but to improve their lives. Some have even proposed that the data collected from meters could be subpoenaed by law enforcement to enhance a case against a criminal, but distributers have pledged that they will not release data by any other means without the consumer’s consent.
What many citizens do not know is that our grids today have been around for decades, and are becoming more fragile all of the time. In recent years society has become more advanced, adding more technology to the home, multiple computers, TVs, microwaves, etc., resulting in higher energy demand. The current infrastructure is crumbling under the strain of keeping up with the multiplied amount of consumers and devices in those consumers homes that have advanced technology and are more sensitive to minute fractures in the service. A smart grid would be built to handle these new obstacles and make today’s technology run more effectively and efficiently. The smart grid in theory would be able to communicate with electric cars and accommodate for the projected use of these items.
The grid is comparative to the internet, with instantaneous two-way communication, voltage readings, and remote connect and disconnect options. The goals of this internet-like system are, of course, regulating energy consumption and demand, providing auxiliary services, reducing cost, reducing carbon footprint of electrical generation, enhancing reliability, etc. It can also detect and isolate problems in the system, before it becomes a regional blackout, improving efficiency of the provider. Reducing demand will also be a way to offset energy use, since it is not used during the peak times, the energy can be deferred to later use in less demand times, like on a cloudy windless day when alternative energy sources are not apt to run.
According to a recent study by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, the smart grid could reduce carbon emissions by 12% from now through the year
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2030. The consumers can add to this number, by being able to view their energy use compared with demand via the smart grid, they can reduce their use and aid in the campaign to diminish discharge that negatively effects our environment.
The benefits of a smart grid greatly outweigh any downfalls one could ever imagine. The system will protect the United States’ current grid structures from failing under the strain of our usage, it will lower carbon emissions, save money, conserve resources, and above all project us into the 21 st century. The smart grid offers us a brighter more clean future; the United States and its citizens should embrace the smart grid and all of its benefits.
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