In a press release yesterday from ESRI, about their Electric and Gas User Group (EGUG) Conference, there’s discussion about the smart grid concept as the foundation for a new era of power system management.
The U.S. power infrastructure is in need of reform and refurbishment in the wake of the Northeast blackout and several brownouts in California and Texas. A smart electric transmission grid is tied to smart meters that allow interactive connectivity for shutting down sections of the grid or individual sites if great stress is placed on the transmission grid. In addition, the response of the grid can become automated for faster and more accurate response to changing conditions.
According to Cindi Salas, CenterPoint Energy’s GIS manager, “GIS technology will play a key role in the automation strategy in that it will provide the initial infrastructure data that will fuel the automated analytics. In addition, the results of analytics on the intelligent grid are best presented in a geographic dimension.â€
Congress enacted the Energy Policy Act of 2005, in which they ordered utility companies to consider implementing advanced meters. As a result, smart electric meters have been installed in Illinois, Texas and California, and are being planned and tested across the country.
The smart meters allow for energy pricing based on time of use, which can reduce individual bills and cut peak demand. The smart meters allow utilities to spot outages, read usage, and connect and disconnect customers. In addition, the need for meter readers goes away, saving considerable manpower costs. A move is also underway by manufacturers to create smart appliances (dishwashers, dryers, refrigerators) that communicatewith the smart meter to optimize energy savings.
The smart grid is an encouraging development that’s already seeing billions of dollars in investment, with payoffs for both utilities and consumers. If we could get all American utilities to credit consumers for the surplus power that they contribute to the grid with local solar and wind generators, then we’d have an even more efficient system.
UPDATE: I just posted a feature on V1 Magazine by H. Christine Anderson, senior research analyst at Energy Insights (an IDC Company) titled, “Spatially Enabling the Intelligent Grid, The Next Hollywood Blockbuster?†This feature details the necessary steps, and resulting benefits, of spatially enabling electric transmission and distribution networks.
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