How Will the Smart Grid Work?

The Obama administration lays out its plan for how smart grid standards should work














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Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500


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  1. 1. AndrewJayPollack 08:51 PM 9/24/09

    Standards are great! That's why we have so many. :-(

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  2. 2. dbtinc in reply to AndrewJayPollack 08:53 PM 9/24/09

    Well, I don't see the problem in the same light. Standards are essential whether we like it or not. This is not the same world of the 20th Century.

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  3. 3. galaxy_man in reply to AndrewJayPollack 09:28 AM 9/25/09

    Without standards there can be no accountability. It's just a fact of life.

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  4. 4. kbathom 11:56 AM 9/28/09

    Real time monitoring and reaction, anticipation & isolation are the objective pillars of smart grids.No matter how sophisticated the technology is , there is always an human touch to it. Still in this case the human touch is confined to reactive activities thats an advantage.Hence with the standardization part confines to above three pillars, and to enervate the in-compliance standards has to be made.
    It depends not only how stringent are the standards, also how
    meticulous are the down-right implementations.Working out on standards is one part and implementing them another.

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  5. 5. bitumen 05:31 PM 10/3/09

    At this point "standards" are more like "ideals" and more often then not fail to be implemented because of budget restrictions or because they're impractical in certain regions of the country. Since cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta are pushing their respective grids to the limits with varying degrees of failure action should be taken immediately to relieve stress in the way of OFF GRID BATTERY operated devices (which is bad for the environment but is necessary), wind, sun and gas generators. The private business sector should and is spear heading the transition. Why should these private sector organizations, built on super high competitive standards because of laws already in place, wait for the government for direction?

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  6. 6. WayneS460 08:54 PM 10/23/09

    The US electric power system is one of the most complicated systems in operation. It affects almost every person in the United States.

    Standards are the FIRST step to make sure that the implementation of the smart grid has been thoroughly reviewed for reliable and secure operation. The failure of proper standardization could result in power outages, safety issues, privacy issues, and damage to equipment that may take months or years to replace.

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  7. 7. TNTCrazyLady 04:42 PM 12/13/10

    Bottom Line: No Smart Grid or computer component can change, reduce or eliminate the fact that the physical components of the physical Grid are almost 100 years old and getting older every day ... the technology to transport electricity and convert it (AC/DC) is over 50 years old ... transporting and converting electricity results in a loss of 30%+ of the electricity we produce ... corporate entities are NOT doing ANYTHING to improve energy usage of their products - vampire power is the perfect example of this as well as combustion engine automobiles ... Standards, laws, acts and other such stuff won't fix our issues and will only increase costs across the board - remember the Trenton Pickle Ordinance to understand how & why ... Instead of more laws/regulations or fines and surcharges we need incentives like tax breaks and refunds for those entities (corporate & individual) that reduce their energy use, then dump all the money saved into R&D for how to get a vehicle to travel and be lubed for 500 miles on one pint of oil and recapturing the energy lost in transmission, etc. Past and current actions of our government may lead us to believe that money grows on trees, but it in fact does NOT, because of this we cannot as a nation afford to do anything that will cost more money than it will return.

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