Table of Contents

Consumers are the key to a smarter grid. Along with the growing intelligent technology on the utility side, the smart grid increasingly brings in customers, average guys and gals at the end of the switches. To educate them about their power use and make power management easy and fun, vendors have developed services, programs and technologies ranging from utility demand response initiatives to in-home devices that can break down savings into candy bars and movie rentals. Knowing the players will be the key to navigating this new smart grid subset.

Some 70 percent of Americans have not heard of the smart grid, according to EcoAlign, a strategic marketing agency focused on energy and the environment. EcoAlign’s findings, published in May, underscore the need for education about energy delivery, demand management and pricing changes.

During April’s GreenNet conference in San Francisco, a keynote session panelists made a statement that was to echo as a theme in the conference: The world’s not waiting for the next best technology in smart grid. We already have it, and our technology is fairly advanced. What’s next in the smart grid landscape and how fast we’ll move to full implementation is a matter of standards, standards and standards. In addition to the standards debate, I would add regulation, regulation and regulation, but his point is well-taken. As networking and information technology standards were essential to the Internet’s mass adoption, likewise, standards will be necessary to ensure a smooth transition to the intelligent grid.

Smart grid and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) implementation is intensifying around the globe, but important differences distinguish particular international markets.

From 2004-06, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) experienced 12 power outages. Each cost up to $500,000. Because IIT owns the 4.16 kV on-campus distribution system, it decided in 2006 to solve its costly reliability problems by exploring advanced technology. At the same time, the university was planning to launch a major sustainability program. These issues led to an opportunity to merge reliability and energy efficiency upgrades as it investigated smart grid technology for IIT’s distribution system.

On April 1, 2009, the California Independent System Operator Corp. (California ISO) launched a new, improved market design and new computer systems to keep the market running.

During the past three years, 3M’s aluminum conductor composite reinforced (ACCR) overhead conductor has gained popularity in international markets. Used primarily but not exclusively for transmission upgrades in places where environmental sensitivity or densely populated urban centers pose severe impediments to tower construction, the ACCR is a high-temperature, low-sag conductor that uses wires composed of alumina oxide fibers embedded in an aluminum matrix to replace traditional steel wires in the conductor’s core, reducing weight and sag. As a result, capacity can be substantially upgraded without bigger towers or expanded rights of way.

The world’s largest technical professional association honored Carlos Katz with the 2010 IEEE Herman Halperin Electric Transmission and Distribution Award for his “pioneering and vital research on moisture prevention in power cables (that) has extended product life and saved utility companies substantial money worldwide.”

The evolution of the power grid into the smart grid will involve the expansion and integration of advanced communications and information technology into all aspects of utility operations, from power generation to the point at which power is used. Utilities will have a whole new level of visibility and control of applications and devices that will help improve grid reliability and efficiency. Data will be available and will benefit customers and utilities. Centralized visibility and control of systems and devices will help increase overall grid reliability and enable more real-time decision-making. With the evolution of the smart grid, data volume is vastly increased and highly distributed, making a utility’s approach to security a new challenge that requires a new approach.

Copper wire and cable have been used in the U.S. for many decades as the standard grounding conductor in substations, transmission, generation and distribution systems. Copper wire offers high fusing current (see section on fusing current vs. ampacity) to discharge lightning and fault currents into the ground. It might be time to re-evaluate this method for best practices.