Electricity Grids

What’s the Buzz on Smart Grid?

1) Current electricity grids do not provide any information about how consumers actually use energy. That makes it difficult to develop more efficient approaches to distribution. Smart grids are different than the electricity infrastructure currently used in that a smart grid uses digital technology delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers to save energy, reduce costs, and increase reliability and transparency.

The smart grid enables information to flow back and forth between electric power providers and consumers and,

• Allows both consumers and energy companies to make more intelligent decisions regarding energy consumption and production.

• Provides information that would help utilities raise prices when demand is high and lower them when demand lessens.

• Helps consumers program high-use electrical appliances like heating and air conditioning systems to reduce consumption during peak hours.

• Could possibly lead to a five to fifteen percent decrease in energy consumption.

Another difference is that smart grids are able to quickly and precisely detect the source of power outages.

 Management Issues

Information feedback would allow consumers to see how much energy they are consuming at any moment and how much it’s costing them. The information displayed would let consumers see at any given time how much they are using and the price of the energy. This way they can make intelligent decisions about how to lower their usage.

Estimated costs are running as high as seventy-five billion dollars and the cost of each meter is estimated to costs between two hundred fifty to five hundred dollars.