A Smart Grid refers to an improved electricity supply chain that runs from a major power plant and, with the use of a smart meter, into your home. It will allow utilities to move electricity around the grid more efficiently and reduce energy consumption. This could mean the need for fewer power plants.

The problem: Most of our grid was built in the 1890's and improved on as electric demand increased. There are now more than 9,200 electric generating units patch-worked to 300,000 miles of transmission lines. This delivery system is getting worn out. At the same time, population growth and the addition of computers, high definition TV's, microwaves, and even high-tech electronic controls on appliances are stretching the capacity of the system. In addition, new appliances are sensitive to even minor changes in electric voltage. This can result in unreliable operation or damage when outages or brownouts occur. The reliability of electrical power in the United States will decline unless action is taken.

Solutions: Adding new transmission lines will help the utilities get more power from the power plants to your home. However, many communities don't want new power lines in their areas. New power plants are not popular either. A new approach referred to as the Smart Grid can increase the reliability of the delivery system and reduce energy use without the need for new lines or power plants.

The concept adds monitoring, analysis, control, and communication know-how to the electric delivery system.
This allows utilities to move electricity around the system as efficiently and economically as possible. It will also allow you to manage your personal electric draw as economically as possible, when prices are lowest. Rather than spending 15 cents per kilowatt-hour at 2:00 in the afternoon, you may opt to dry your clothes at 9:00 in the evening for 5 cents per kw/hour.

Another advantage of the Smart Grid is that it will optimize operation of the entire grid, not just pieces of it. It will accommodate new technologies such as plug-in hybrid vehicles, solar energy, smart meters, and lighting management systems.

Smart meters may be part of a smart grid, but alone do not constitute one. These are new types of electric meters that are being implemented to provide real time metering and control of your electric use. Consumers can track their energy use and cost by the hour, allowing them to make informed decisions on electric use. Utilities set prices by season, time, and day, and can reward you with lower prices if you use energy during
off-peak periods.

Meters could also have the ability to remotely turn power on and off, detect and report a service outage, identify
unauthorized use of electricity, and even change the maximum amount of electricity that a customer can demand at any point in time. As advancements are made, utility companies may be able to use the meters to stretch electric use during outages or brownouts. By communicating with a device on your dryer, for example, the utility could pulse its electric use with no impact to your clothes or appliance. Electricity for your lighting fixtures could be reduced nominally, without you even noticing.

Issues: Some people have raised health and privacy concerns about the use of smart meters. In California, opponents claim that electromagnetic waves from meters, when added to that of microwaves, cell phones, wireless routers, and other emitters, cause medical disorders. Attorney generals in two states have come out against them, claiming their use does not provide a benefit to consumers.

Others claim electronic interference that results in noise, headaches, sleep disruption, and the loss of their wi-fi or wireless phone signals. As a result, some utilities are allowing consumers to opt out of the program, sometimes at an additional cost.

Summary: With worldwide demand for electricity soaring, the use of Smart Grids and Meters seem to be the wave of the future. In 2006, California's energy regulators approved a Pacific Gas and Electric program to roll out a retrofit to 9 million gas and electric household customers. Spain has 26 million smart meters serving a population of 46 million people. With so much effort being put into the technology, it may not be long before we see it in our own communities.