A Smart U.S. Power Grid for a Reliable and Sustainable Service

To provide reliable and sustainable service and realize U.S. and E.U. renewable energy potentials, a smart US power grid should modernize both the transmission and distribution grids,  ensure an interoperable, secure, and open energy infrastructure that will enable all electric resources, including renewables, demand-side resources, to contribute to an efficient, reliable electricity network.The North American electric power grid is critical to US economy and our way of life. Although it has historically been one of the most reliable power grids in the world, relatively little investment has been made in R&D to assure continued surety in light of increasing energy demands, dependence on fossil energy sources, transmission congestion, and terrorist threats. The drivers, challenges, requirements, standards and possible conceptual models of US smart grid need to be analyzed and developed to facilitate a more secure, reliable and sustainable power grid, which enables penetration of intermittent persistent (e.g., wind, solar) and distributed energy sources, helps alleviate transmission congestion, provides an understanding of security issues and interdependencies, and enables more resistance to catastrophic outages and natural disasters including faster and more efficient reconstitution after such events.
This talk will first provide understanding as to what we consider to be the “Smart Grid”. It also gives insight into associated drivers and opportunities for the reliable and sustainable service. Then the talk will analyze the procedural and technical challenges that the Smart Grid poses as we migrate from the current grid with its one-way power flows from central generation to dispersed loads, toward a new grid with two-way power flows, two-way and peer to peer customer interactions, and distributed generation. Finally, it will develop a strategic vision on the roadmap of technological and architectural paths and destinations, and how best to deploy secure, efficient and reliable smart grid technologies.