Word: grid
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That's the good news. It means that we can make enormous advances in national energy efficiency - and controlling carbon emissions - simply by improving the grid, before we even begin to clean up our energy sources. The key is to add 21st century speed and intelligence (i.e., the Internet) to the 20th century infrastructure of the power grid - voilà, a "smart grid." The result would be a system that allows power utilities to remotely detect and respond to outages; that lets consumers program their appliances to use electricity when it's most abundant, allowing power companies to reduce waste...
...need an upgraded electrical grid to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country," Vice President Joe Biden said last week in Jefferson City, Mo., outlining a $3.3 billion Department of Energy plan to develop smart-grid technology...
Utilities have been experimenting with small smart-grid initiatives on their own - for example, wiring 50,000 homes in Boulder, Colo., and installing 100,000 smart meters in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. But creating a truly nationwide smart grid - a goal for the Obama White House - won't be cheap and it won't be easy. That's why the news on April 20 that the city of Miami was launching a $200 million smart-grid initiative that would connect virtually every home and business in Miami-Dade County by 2011 was so important. Led by the greenish utility giant Florida...
Silver Spring is by far the smallest player in the Energy Smart Miami initiative, but its contributions are key. The Silicon Valley startup will supply the software that will make the smart grid smart, using the open technology platform Internet Protocol to send data through the system. Although using an open platform has made some experts concerned about the security of a smart grid, Lang points out that his company's software will make it easier to adapt the grid to new technologies - smart appliances, plug-in cars - that might arise down the road. "This is going...
About 1,000 homes will be enrolled in an advanced trial that will turn them into smart buildings, with smart control panels and thermostats that will help manage electrical loads and reduce energy use during peak periods. (One of the biggest potential benefits of the smart grid is the ability to manage the electrical load; today utilities need to have enough capacity to meet rare days of peak demand, but if a smart grid could smooth out those peaks, it might reduce the need for new power plants.) "We invested a lot in this technology," says Lewis...