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A conversation with IEEE on Driving Smart Grid Initiatives
John McDonald, IEEE Fellow
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In July 2009, IEEE Fellow and GE Energy Transmission and &Distribution marketing general manager, John McDonald, and severalIEEE members participated at FORTUNE magazine’s prestigious FORTUNE Brainstorm: TECH in Pasadena, Calif.. As part of the conference, McDonald served on a panel discussing “Smart Grid: Making it a Reality.” The high-profile panel focused on the next steps the power and energy industries need to take to ensure the viability of the world’s energy grid.
Key takeaways from the panel include:
1. For the smart grid to be a reality, we need smart citizens, a smart planet and smart regulations.
The smart grid starts at the power plant and ends at the user, and everything in between must ‘talk’ to each other. The smart grid is more than mere metering. Every aspect of the smart grid is part of an overall plan and can’t be viewed as an individual investment.
The panel also found that standards are the linchpin to bringing together all necessary entities, so that all of the various groups can work together to drive the smart grid initiative – one goal, one vision. Cost-effective technology, technology standards, technology interoperability and incentives for home owners are what are needed to take advantage of the smart grid.
2. The smart grid needs to bring together the information and electrical infrastructures.
One of the key challenges for the successful smart grid implementation is to get electric operations groups and IT teams working together. Valuable data can be captured that will have enormous benefit for the utilities if managed and utilized efficiently. The panel concluded that it is imperative for the two entities to work together to marry the electrical and information infrastructures. In order to do this, utilities must establish smart grid steering committees that can take a holistic view.
3. Consumers need to understand the benefits of smart grid.
At this point, consumers in the U.S. do not interact with their energy. They do not know how to manage it beyond paying their bill and monitoring their usage patterns. In order for consumers to proactively take advantage of the smart grid, they must understand how to harness technology benefits involved and make adjustments to their power usage. This will save consumers money and help alleviate the worldwide energy crises by reducing energy consumption.
Consumers need to learn all they can about the smart grid so that they can reap as many benefits as possible from more efficient energy utilization. People need to be informed about their energy usage and its impact on the environment. Most importantly, they need to understand how monitoring and controlling their energy use will save costs.
Additionally, the smart grid can prevent and remediate problems, such as brownouts and blackouts, by isolating the issue. Utilities can be notified as soon as an energy issue arises with pinpoint accuracy as to the nature of the problem, so it can be resolved promptly. This allows the energy and utility companies to be more proactive in their approach to problem solving, as opposed to reacting to customer complaints.
