Smart Grid Three part series

Smart Grid 1.0

In the early days of smart grid—before the term “smart grid” became popular—one of the most frequent conversations in the industry was how to “futureproof” the implementation of smart meters. In early days smart meters were generally not outfitted with remote disconnect/connect capabilities, and the only operational discussion was in regard to reducing truck rolls. In terms of customers, everyone was focused on how to limit the changes required in utilities’ massive customer information systems, since, instead of having a single meter read per month, metering data would be on a per-minute and in some cases sub-minute basis.. Although at the time it concentrated exclusively on meters given that high capital costs were associated with their implementation, the future-proof discussion in the present context revolves around higher evolutionary phases of smart grid focused primarily on operations and the customer. Indeed, meters constitute only the foundation for the innovation available through smart grid. It is through these operational and customer innovations that the true value of smart grid will be realized.

A Smart Grid is the seamless integration of many parts: an electric grid; a communications network; and hardware and software to monitor, control, and manage the creation, distribution, storage, and consumption of energy. The Smart Grid of the future will be distributed, interactive, self-healing, and capable of reaching every device.

A Smart Grid uses the latest technologies to increase energy dependability and customer service by:

Managing supply and demand

Controlling use

Monitoring outages

It helps operators “see the system” in its entirety. It allows them to avert trouble spots and re-route power as necessary. If sections of the electric system approach overloading, the Smart Grid automatically redirects load to restore balance.

“Smart Grid 1.0” is a meter-centric smart grid, and is the first phase of implementation for the vast majority of utilities implementing smart grid. It’s quite mature from the perspective of the many details and intricacies that had to be discovered and created over the course of an implementation. All of the business cases for Smart Grid 1.0 are remarkably similar across utilities, and the technology has become generally stable and more feature-rich than the earliest implementations.