Smart Grid Library

One of the largest US-based industry conferences for electricity, gas, and water utilities just wrapped up in San Antonio, Texas.  The entire value chain for electricity was well-represented there – you could find products for generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of electricity.  These products modernize the grid – making it the Smart Grid.  The profusion [...]

On October 29, a significant portion of the population of the Northeast USA was inconvenienced by a loss of power caused by an unusually early winter storm.  As the worst case scenario played out, overburdened trees created multiple breaks in the transmission and distribution networks, toppling poles and lines.  The state of Connecticut was particularly [...]

The cards dealt to the energy storage industry are looking better now than in the past. Here are three of them, all played because of the growing presence of Smart Grid technologies that enable solutions and policies that encourage energy storage markets. One wild card is also listed here, and it could have significant influence [...]

Distributed generation (DG) is one important realization of the Smart Grid to improve grid reliability and add jobs to local economies.  At residential, microgrid or utility-scale levels, DG increases options for powering the distribution grid in the event of centralized generation or transmission failures.  Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) clarified an earlier [...]

The entire electricity grid is undergoing innovations, and one interesting change is occurring in electricity markets and the way we value electricity consumption.  The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is the not-for-profit corporation charged with operating the majority of California’s high-voltage wholesale power grid.  It serves as the link between power plants and utilities, and [...]

Do you know what demand response is?  If not, don’t worry – unless you are employed by a utility, it’s probably not a term you’ve seen or heard before.  It is utility-industry terminology for certain types of programs targeted to customers.  Here’s the Smart Grid Dictionary definition of Demand response programs:  “Utility programs designed to [...]

Defining the asset treatment for energy storage is vital to its rapid deployment in distributed generation as well as traditional utility applications.