Senator: Smart Grid Project Will Need Common Standards, Consumer Support in Addition to Funding

Senator Lisa Murkowski of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (image: energy.senate.gov)

A major component of President Obama’s stimulus bill and his speech to Congress was the building of a “smart grid” to help move electrical energy around the country more efficiently.

Although it may sound simple, upgrading and expanding the existing electrical grid in the US is incredibly complicated and will be quite difficult.  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, emphasized the difficulty and crucial importance of the task.  “We are playing more than a game of catchup here.  This is too important to get it wrong,” she told the New York Times.  The stimulus bill has marked no small amount of funds for the project, $4.5 billion, but requires common operation standards and the support of the energy-consuming public to be effective.

On the technical side, the key goal is interoperability–creating a grid platform that can support diverse technologies and allow those technologies to work together.  Two federal agencies, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (part of the Commerce Department), and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are currently at work prioritizing goals and compiling standards for smart grid construction.  Furthermore, the new smart grid needs to have an “open architecture” that would allow the technology to be easily updated to prevent it from becoming obsolete.  To give an idea of the timetable of these developments, the CEO of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association estimated the his industry could come to a consensus on standards within nine to 12 months.

According to Senator Murkowski, public support for the smart grid is also crucial, mostly because consumers will be paying for at least part of the grid upgrades through higher electricity bills.  “Consumers have yet to ‘buy into’ the concept of the smart grid, and when they see any associated rate increase, they are more than likely not going to be pleased,” said Frederick Butler, president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and a commissioner on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. “Pilot programs must be carefully structured in such a way that creates a ‘buzz’ and excitement, not a ratepayer revolt.”

To sum up, before actual work begins on the new smart grid, common operation standards must be prioritized and then agreed upon; a platform on which many different technologies can operate together must be created; those technologies must be easily-upgraded; and consumers must understand and support the smart grid plan.  Not an easy task by any measure, but at least the responsible parties know what lies ahead.

With so much to do, it seems like a fair bet that demonstrable progress on the construction of the smart grid is at least a couple of years away.