Tuesday, December 1, 2009

What is the smart grid?

The term “Smart Grid” describes the infrastructure required and the resulting benefits when adding network communication and computer processing capabilities to electricity generation, distribution, and management systems.

Key Smart Grid benefits:
  • Overall energy efficiency and accommodation of alternative energy
  • Service reliability that ensures consistent delivery as population density increases
  • Repair and maintenance capabilities to pinpoint issues and outages
  • Peak-load and demand-response management
Utilities are investing in Smart Grid technologies to lower operating costs, avoid building new generation plants, and allow the use of alternate sources of energy, such as wind and solar power. Utilities plan to have about 50M AMI capable meters installed within the next 4-5 years; Parks Associates projects 44 M to be installed by 2012.

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