What is the Smart Grid

I am sure there are a lot of people who don’t know just what the Smart Grid is or does. The term is thrown out there a lot, but I don’t see it ever get explained often enough. I don’t think enough of the general population has a clear understanding of how and why this is important. The main goal of the Smart Grid is to provide real time feedback to energy producers and distributors. During peak usage power plants will turn on auxiliary power stations. These auxiliary power stations are typically less efficient, more costly for the power generated. The intent of the smart grid is to help smooth out electricity consumption so that some of these plants don’t need to be turned on and off so often. During the course of a normal day the power consumed will follow a sine wave to some degree. By providing near real time feedback of the loads seen on the power grid it helps enable intelligent decision making to play a role in which power stations need to be on. It can also include such things as in home meters letting the customer know how much electricity they are currently consuming. This may also be accompanied by real time pricing during peak hours when more expensive electricity is generated. In my area my electricity provider has the ability to cycle my thermostat during heavy load times. Not everyone is required to participate in this but it gives them more flexibility in managing the power load. From the consumer end it might include web based applications to be able to remotely change their thermostat. This would allow consumers to lower or raise the thermostat when out of the house to not waste as much electricity. All of this and more will enable power companies to be able to better react during power surges like those during immense heat waves in the summer.