Featured Initiatives
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Oct 30. 2012In 2011 and 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE OE), in partnership with electric utilities, convened a series of regional smart grid peer-to-peer workshops. The workshops were designed to bring together key stakeholders to engage... (more)
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Oct 15. 2012Article courtesy of NREL News Thirty-one million American homes will be getting computer-friendly data about their electricity use from their utility companies, thanks to the work of NREL and a nudge from the White House. The new consumer tool is called Green Button, and customers can link to it... (more)
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Sep 25. 2012Download Report Federal Smart Grid Task Force, led by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE OE) convened the first meeting in the multistakeholder process. The goal of the process is to develop a Voluntary Code of Conduct (VCC) for... (more)
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Aug 17. 2012The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on May 22 that it will award nearly $3.2 million to seven Smart Grid Data Access projects. The award recipients will also contribute more than $5.7 million to the effort, bringing the total value of these projects to more than $8.9 million. The... (more)
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Jun 21. 2012Regional Peer-to-Peer Smart Grid Meeting Smart grid technologies have the potential to transform the electric system by improving utility operations and giving customers information that can help them better manage their electricity use. However, before the American Recovery and... (more)
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Apr 18. 2012The Energy Department’s first ever Apps for Energy competition is officially open for submissions. This competition challenges the American developer community to build apps that help consumers get the most out of their utility data. To register for competition updates or to accept the... (more)
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Feb 24. 2012In the 2012 State of the Union Address, President Obama called for an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. As part of this strategy and his broader agenda to repair and modernize America’s infrastructure and create jobs, the President... (more)
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Dec 02. 2011One of the first acts of the Obama presidency was to sign the "Presidential Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government," which instructed all members of the administration to operate under the principles of openness, transparency, and of engaging citizens with their government... (more)
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Jul 26. 2011Fort Collins, Colorado, has long been a leader in clean energy. The city was the first in Colorado, and among the first cities in the nation, to offer its customer the option of buying "green power"—electricity from renewable energy sources—through a contract with the... (more)
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Jul 14. 2011The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on June 13, 2011, that it plans to invest $250 million in smart grid equipment deployments in rural parts of the United States over the course of the following 12 months. To kick off that effort, the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), part of USDA... (more)
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Feb 21. 2011Building the Smart Grid in the United States is a huge and expensive endeavor. The U.S. power grid is already considered one of the most complex machines ever built, and converting it to a Smart Grid won’t be easy. It entails overlaying the current infrastructure with hundreds of millions of... (more)
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Feb 20. 2011Smart Grid technologies are steadily gaining ground in the United States. As of 2008, about 31% of electrical substations had some form of automation, and that number was expected to grow to 40% in 2010. On the customer end of the power line, however, the penetration of smart meters—... (more)
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Feb 19. 2011The constant problem with new technology is that you can never know when it will become outmoded. One particularly fast way for technology to become outmoded is a shift to a new format or standard that is incompatible with your device. A classic example of this problem happened at the dawn of... (more)
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Feb 18. 2011The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included about $4 billion in federal funding for the smart Grid Investment Grant Program (SGIG) and the Smart Grid Demonstration Program (SGDP). SGIG is focused on deployment of existing smart grid technologies, tools, and techniques while... (more)
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Feb 18. 2011The United States prides itself on the innovations that spring up from a wide variety of sources—from single inventors to large corporations—and a lot of those innovators see the Smart Grid as a potential new business opportunity. But how can these technical wizards be sure that... (more)
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Feb 18. 2011A 21st century electric grid is essential to America’s ability to lead the world in clean energy and win the future. Modernizing the electric system will: Facilitate the clean energy economy by integrating renewable power, enabling distributed generation, and facilitating the use of... (more)
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Feb 18. 2011Worldwide adoption of the Smart Grid is in the early stage. Initial investments are being made and utilities are beginning to address the strategy, management, and regulatory issues involved in transitioning to a Smart Grid. They have begun to realign their organizations to support a Smart... (more)
