![]() Today the grid transmits information one way - from utility to customer - and most meters only show power usage for the current billing period. Suppliers such as utilities that deliver power directly to homes and businesses are focusing on a more visible element of the smart grid: meters. The smart grid will monitor everything at a very, very fine level of detail and reacts really fast, so operators will have time to fire up another plant if wind speed drops or a big cloud formation reduces solar output." "But if you have really up-to-date information on all the flows on your grid, you can tolerate a little more variability. "The whole power system is engineered to balance demand and supply at every second, which means that control over generators is really important," said energy consultant Peter Fox-Penner, a principal with The Brattle Group and author of Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press, 2010). Better control will help utilities add more renewable power, a challenge now because wind and solar energy are intermittent sources, and grid operators can't always react quickly when their output fluctuates. Firms that operate long-distance transmission lines, such as the Independent System Operators that manage regional grids in New York, New England and the Midwest, are adding sensors, phasors, and other devices invisible to non-engineers, that give them much more precise control over the system. ![]() The transition is already under way, although it means different things for different companies. And it must be interactive so that customers can manage their electricity use. A 21st-century grid will also have to balance fluctuating power flows from wind and solar generation, small-scale distributed sources, and plug-in electric vehicles. ![]() To shrink the electricity sector's carbon footprint, experts say, the nation needs to build thousands of miles of new transmission lines over the next 20 years to connect more renewable resources to electricity demand centers. ![]() What it cannot do is support the massive shift to low-carbon power that scientists warn will be needed to avoid catastrophic climate change impacts. The National Academy of Engineering ranks it as the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century. electrical grid is the largest interconnected machine on Earth: 200,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and 5.5 million miles of local distribution lines, linking thousands of generating plants to factories, homes and businesses. ![]()
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