Smart Grid + Smart Energy + You

Whenever I talk to engineers about Smart Grid they get a cynical look on their face.  A lot of people feel that the name is marketing gimmick that doesn't hold any weight on actual products being produced.  And to be quite honest, I often agreed.  If we are not working in the smart grid space it became difficult to see the progress that has been made because we don't see the effects on our everyday lives.  One of the marketing stories we were told was that we were going to have energy readouts on all of our appliances in our homes.  While this has not happened for most of us, I did spend some time in California this week learning more about where it does apply. 

First off, I learned about the US power distribution systems and we looked at the various age of distribution equipment.  On average most of the infrastructure is 30-40 years old and only has a lifetime of about 40 years.  In addition to aged equipment there also has been a rise in demand and complications in dealing with smart energy sources like wind and solar farms.  The 40 year old power grid was generally constructed in a star topology and we have learned a lot in the past 10 years about how to handle external generation sources besides a typical power plant. 

Secondly, I learned where we are seeing innovation for a smarter grid.  The most obvious is in the energy meters outside our house.  These have been getting more accurate and have been able to communicate demand response in a more effective way to the distribution centers.  You can learn more about demand response and the impacts that this provided here. In addition to smarter meters we have also seen smart grid applications at commercial installations and server farms.  In large server farms like Google and Facebook they realize that their business is not only founded on their programmers but also how efficiently they use power.  Energy measurement has been growing in these industries to get to a higher page hit / watt ratio.  Finally the third area that we may not realize smart grid is taking hold is in the distribution of power.  From re-closers, to power pole fault indicators, we are seeing applications where it is important to measure the energy and do something with that information.  As our grid gets more complicated these preventative indication measurement devices become even more important.

So the final question is how does the smart grid affect you?  Any other good examples I missed? After getting to see some of these designs and installations up close and personal in California I definitely see that there is reality behind the smart grid.