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Technologies to be most impacted by smart grid fall into two specific areas: information and operations. Those areas of a utility or power organization are most often overseen by a chief information officer or a chief technology officer. So, POWERGRID International magazine sought out a handful of those people to discuss intelligent grid developments. We didn’t expect to hear that smart grid developments are creating such a time crunch for power executives. Still, we were able to interview four executives about what’s going on in their worlds today: Andres Carvallo, former Austin Energy CIO, Wanyonyi Kendrick, Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) CIO, Richard Dewey, New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) CIO and David Mohler, Duke Energy CTO.

Critical to the level of intelligence that can be achieved in making the grid smarter is its backbone—the network and communications infrastructure. The requirements of the communications network are demanding, encompassing issues such as scalable bandwidths, robust security, high network reliability and availability, and cost–effectiveness. Many in the industry have concluded that the most cost-effective approach to meet these requirements is to leverage the range of transport technologies available, while relying on common open standards, such as IP, to integrate into a single overall network. This article presents the value that advanced, satellite-based networks can deliver as part of the smart grid communications infrastructure, across areas ranging from substation automation (SA) and distribution automation (DA) to AMI collectors.

Seattle City Light (SCL), one of the nation’s largest municipal electric utilities, was established more than a century ago. Like many other utilities, SCL has been historically adverse to any significant technological changes. Today, many system components are simply obsolete and no longer supported. A municipal utility must walk the delicate path of educating the city council—and the customers who elect them—to the benefits of maintaining a strong utility infrastructure, as well as explaining the higher overall costs that can be accrued should the infrastructure be allowed to crumble.

For U.S. utility companies, employing a carefully constructed vegetation management program keeps transmission lines and service areas free from potentially damaging natural obstructions such as falling trees and wildfires. But they must also account for issues such as compliance standards, public pressure and environmental concerns.

Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC) is a small electric utility, so we take risks carefully but face the same communications issues as utilities with greater resources. In spring 2008, we faced three main challenges: how to link widely dispersed assets, expand automatic meter reading (AMR) and smart grid technology and maintain or increase data reliability. Like many utilities, we used various communications methods to manage backhaul, and we had definite ideas on which would best take us into the smart grid future.

The windswept landscape was awash in downed power lines and broken tree limbs lying haphazardly across wires still connected to the few remaining upright poles. Nonstop calls from customers and in-house monitoring quickly painted a picture of thousands of utility customers out of service with a few reporting live wires requiring urgent response. Clean up began as soon as it was safe for crews to traverse the devastated area.

With passage of the Energy Information and Security Act (EISA) in 2007, Congress aimed to promote the transition to a smarter grid and, at the same time, set in motion a process for creating interoperability and cybersecurity standards necessary for the success of that effort. At this point, however, the accelerated push to smarten the grid, helped along by new federal money for investments and research, threatens to outpace the standards-setting process.

Eurelectric’s policy workshop “How Will Smart Grids Change the Face of Europe’s Electricity Distribution and Consumption?” occurred April 13 & 14, 2010 in Brussels. Tucked into a large ballroom at the Renaissance Hotel in the European Union part of the city, the workshop packed a lot of information into a small, compact two-day format.