May 15, 2008

Smart Grid requires clearing mental gridlock

By Mike Carlson

In mid-2006, a Google search of the term “Smart Grid” generated around 2,000 responses. The same search this past month yielded more than 500,000 hits from a wide variety of sources. The explosiveness of the concept is especially interesting because there is no universal agreement on what constitutes a smart grid—much less agreement on what value a smart grid will provide to the industry and its customers.

 

The challenges we face in defining and constructing a smart grid are deciding if we are designing a comprehensive smart grid and determining what about our design makes it smart.

Companies pursuing smart grid strategies have defined them as everything from smart meter/advanced meter infrastructure solutions to automated distribution management or integrated SCADA systems. The components being used to build various parts of the smart grid appear to be existing technologies that could be defined as vertical solutions for any number of challenges and opportunities facing our industry. But if we are truly building a smart grid, we need to explore the entire grid, from generation through transmission and distribution—all the way to consumption. Further, though creating additional data and information to supplement our operating models will no doubt improve industry performance, does that really make our grid smart?

When you consider other industries and the “smartness” of their products, you look to a cell phone. It identifies where it’s located, selects its signal from multiple options to maximize connectivity performance, and can repeat that process continuously while changing its location in a vehicle moving at 60 miles per hour. Though we now take this capability for granted, you’ve got to consider the cell phone “smart,” especially when you look at the size of the package that performs this feat and the lack of human intervention required to accomplish it.