Making the Old Electrical Grid a Smart Grid

(image: consumerenergyreport.com)

The US power grid is considered the largest interconnected machine on the planet, but it’s over 100 years old and hasn’t been modernized since the Great Depression. America still relies on the same centrally planned and controlled infrastructure created before cars and computers and demand for electricity is expected to grow twice as fast as the population over the next two decades. According to the Department of Energy, 40 percent of all energy used in the US (oil, gas, wind, solar) is converted into electricity and the current power structure increasingly suffers from power outages and interruptions that cost $150 billion per outage. How can the old-fashioned power grid infrastructure work efficiently in the 21st century?

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu have repeatedly emphasized the importance of modernizing the US power grid. In last month’s address to Congress, President Obama stressed his dedication to advancing US energy policy, including encouraging investment in renewable energy sources, creating initiatives aimed at energy conservation, and reducing carbon emissions.

While our national grid has become worn out and inefficient, the new mantra isn’t just “out with the old, in with the new.” A recent article in Wired magazine discusses the aging grid problem, the Obama Administration’s critical new energy agenda, the “Smart Grid” approach, and ways to make the aging technology more reliable, efficient and responsive—starting now. Perhaps one day, the whole world will share electricity through one giant grid. Until then, addressing problems and finding realistic ways to bring the existing electrical grid into the 21st century will keep energy flowing smoothly.  Here are the solutions the experts at Wired identified as top priorities:

Generate Electricity Everywhere
Power sources need development at the local level and businesses need green energy at a fixed, competitive rate—without additional investment.

Deliver Clean Energy to Distant Cities
New transmission lines should be constructed underground or underwater (like the future Trans Bay Cable linking San Francisco to 400 megawatts of power) to maximize delivery and avoid unsightly, costly above ground structures.

Store Power in Super Batteries
In Japan, cutting-edge sodium-sulfur battery installations can power the equivalent of at least 155,000 homes and counting.

Monitor Electrons in Real Time
A new monitoring system called Verde (Visualizing Energy Resources Dynamically on Earth) developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory tracks grid assets nationwide. So far, 30 utilities have shared some of their most precious real-time data in exchange for this grid visualization tool that helps everyone.

Commoditize Electricity
New England’s independent system operator (ISO) recently started gauging electricity demand and setting a price in advance. In its Forward Capacity Market, the ISO projects how much power the region will need three years ahead and then runs a descending-clock auction for the right to provide it.

Pay Big Users to Cut Consumption
Boston-based EnerNOC micromanages energy consumption at 3,400-plus locations from Maine to California that are willing, for a quarterly payment, to trim back operations on 30 minutes’ notice, saving multi-millions a year.

Make Conservation Simple and Easy
Modern households need smart energy meters to track and manage their power consumption in real time. Xcel Energy in Boulder, CO is building a system— Smart City Project—that lets customers manage home electricity use through a simple Web page, and Google has a new PowerMeter, a Web app designed to give consumers instant information about their energy usage.