Smart Grid Technologies

The vision of the Smart Grid empowers today’s existing grid infrastructure with numerous technologies to facilitate the integration of communications, renewable energy sources, energy storage, and two-way power flow to meet our nation’s growing electricity demand.

The Department of Energy describes five fundamental technology areas that will drive the smart grid:

• Integrated communications
• Sensing and measurement
• Advanced components
• Advanced control methods
• Improved interfaces and decision support.

Within each area are dozens to hundreds of individual technologies. Some of these technologies are commercially available, and others are still under development. As a result, the transformation of the current electric power system into a more intelligent, "smart" system will present tremendous challenges and opportunities for many industries. From technology innovation to electric infrastructure deployment to business and policy, a smarter grid will produce change in areas as diverse as:

• Grid optimization
  Developing the perfect balance among reliability, availability, efficiency, and cost.

• Demand response and demand-side management
  Incorporating automated mechanisms that enable utility customers to reduce electricity use during periods of peak demand and help utilities manage their power loads.

• Advanced utility control
  Employing systems to monitor essential components, enabling rapid diagnosis and precise solutions appropriate to any event.

• Energy storage
  Adding technology to store electrical energy to meet demand when the need is greatest.

• Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle smart charging and vehicle-to-grid technologies
  Incorporating systems through which electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles communicate with the power grid and store or feed electricity back to the grid during periods of high demand.

• Advanced metering
  Collecting usage data and providing energy providers and customers with this information via two-way communications.

• Home area networks
  Enabling home networks that allow communication between digital devices and major appliances so customers can respond to price signals sent from the utility.

• Renewable energy and distributed generation sources
  Implementing infrastructure upgrades to support the integration of a higher penetration of clean, renewable energy generation onto the grid to reduce greenhouses gas emissions, provide energy independence, and lower electricity costs.