Thursday, July 21, 2011
Governor Peter Shumlin and regional electric and telecom utility officials announced an agreement Wednesday that they said would give Vermont residents and businesses more control over energy consumption, expand access to broadband and create jobs.  The agreement between Green Mountain Power, Central Vermont Public Service Corp., and Vermont Telephone Company calls for deployment of "smart grid" technology, in which information about electrical usage will be transmitted over a newly expanded broadband Internet system serving the state. Conversely, it also will enable VTel to deploy broadband Internet access to a territory about 20 to 25 percent larger thanks to the new access to utility customers.

So what exactly is "smart grid" and how does it affect your business?

Smart Grid refers to a power grid that actually meters and reports on energy demands in real-time and then, by virtue of it's integration with the telecom grid (that's the smart part), relays that real-time data back to subscribers.  In essence, it's having the ability to know how fast that little dial is turning on every meter on your block just by watching the gauge on your computer screen.

But whose going to care?  Admittedly, it's not all that entertaining to monitor energy consumption on my block or in my neighborhood like watching the thermometer rise in the morning.  But appliances and other technologies might be configured to do so.  For example, a server could be configured to run it's nightly back-up, but only when the overall grid demand has dropped below a safe level. 

Energy is about to be traded as a commodity with real-time, minute-by-minute price fluctuation depending on the good ole staples of supply and demand.  When the smart grid says demand is low, the price for a kWh goes down.  When the smart grid says demand is high, the price goes up.  And with smart grids come smart applications. 

Imagine a laptop that intelligently switches to battery power during hours of high-demand and then back to AC input for a recharge once demand has dropped.  That's just one computer.  Now imagine a power system for entire offices with the similar concept in place for dozens of computers.  Energy costs for large offices could be trimmed significantly. 

How would you use smart grid information if it were available in your area?

Labels: smart grid

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