Smart Grid – The Good, Bad and Ugly

Smart Grid – The Good, Bad & Ugly

From earth2tech.com

“There’s good news to report about the public’s perceptions of the smart grid . . . and then there’s bad news.”

“The good news is that people who know a little or a lot about smart grid technology are overwhelmingly in favor of pursuing and adopting it as soon as possible. The bad news is that the number of smart grid enthusiasts is only a small fraction of all people.”

Ok, what is the Smart Grid? Let’s look at what it takes to get electricity to your home. First, there is the generator – let’s use a natural gas electrical plant. The natural gas heats water, produces steam, runs the steam through a steam generator and electricity is produced. To use the electricity, it needs to get to your house over the tens of thousands of miles of electric wires (you know, telephone poles, etc).

The poles with all the wires that carry electricity is called the grid. The grid has the ability to send more electricity in one direction ( California ) and less in another direction (Wyoming) depending on where the need for electricity is greater.

When a computer controls the amount of electricity going in various directions, that is called a Smart Grid. When the power companies install Smart Meters on our homes, the power company will have a better idea where electricity is needed and the computer controlling the Smart Grid will have some good data to base it’s decisions on.

Now, that’s good because electricity does not go where it is not needed. Electrical shortages, black outs, should be eliminated.

It’s also bad, because the improvement of the electrical delivery business is going to cost the end user money. We all are going to need some smart money to help pay for the smart meters and smart grid.