Read the article titled “Aging US Power Grid Blacks Out More Than Any Other Deve

Question

• Read the article titled “Aging US Power Grid Blacks Out More Than Any Other Developed Nation” under the Smart Grid terms section of the Science Corner. You can also view the article at http://www.ibtimes.com/aging-us-power-grid-blacks-out-more-any-other-developed-nation-1631086. Next, assess the efficiency of the current state of the national electric grid in the United States. Then, describe the key challenges in updating this grid to a so-called “smart grid”.
  

• Read the article titled “Aging US Power Grid Blacks Out More Than Any Other Developed Nation” under the Smart Grid terms section of the Science Corner. You can also view the article at http://www.ibtimes.com/aging-us-power-grid-blacks-out-more-any-other-developed-nation-1631086. Next, assess the efficiency of the current state of the national electric grid in the United States. Then, describe the key challenges in updating this grid to a so-called “smart grid”.
  

Explanation / Answer

In US The power grid, which could be considered the largest machine on earth, was built after World War II from designs dating back to Thomas Edison, using technology that primarily dates back to the '60s and '70s. Its 7,000 power plants are connected by power lines that combined total more than 5 million miles, all managed by 3,300 utilities serving 150 million customers, according to industry group Edison Electric Institute. The whole system is valued at $876 billion.

Also the demand for electricity is rising year on year and these electric grids are aging day by day resulting into more blackouts for longer time comparing to other developed nations and outcomes are more loss in business for every blackouts (almost in 100 of billion dollars).

The U.S. grid is aging and stretched to capacity. More often the victim of decrepitude than the forces of nature, it is beginning to falter. Experts fear failures that caused blackouts in New York, Boston and San Diego may become more common as the voracious demand for power continues to grow. They say it will take a multibillion-dollar investment to avoid them.The aging of equipment explains some of the equipment failures that lead to intermittent failures in power quality and availability,” the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) said in a report this year. “The capacity of equipment explains why there are some bottlenecks in the grid that can also lead to brownouts and occasional blackouts

The smart grid is expected to revolutionize existing electrical grid by allowing two-way communications to improve efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the generation, transmission, and distribution of electrical power.

However, Key challenges/issues associated with communication and management must be addressed before full benefits of the smart grid can be achieved. Furthermore, how to maximize the use of network resources and available power, how to ensure reliability and security, and how to provide self-healing capability need to be considered in the design of smart grids. In this paper, some features of the smart grid have been discussed such as communications, demand response, and security. Microgrids and issues with integration of distributed energy sources are also considered.

The main challenges that US can face are high operating costs and benefit constraints by the regulatory framework. Since there is a necessity for a large communications network, it escalates the capital and hardware cost to a great extent. This might prove dear to the exchequer. Moreover when calculating the benefits of the system, organisations are usually conservative when it comes to calculation of the cash benefits to the shareholders. The smart grid may be a profitable option in the short run but in due course of time misaligned policy and regulatory incentives might make the investment less attractive.

The massive amount of data generated by smart-grid technology could itself pose a practical problem. Right now, a utility with five million meters has about 30,000 devices for monitoring the grid. As the smart grid develops, that number could increase a thousandfold, with each device conveying a thousand times as much information as one of its counterparts does now, says Erik Udstuen, a general manager at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. Though so much data may be difficult to process, it could also create opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop new monitoring applications, especially if open standards are developed.

Beyond the challenge of measuring results, the smart grid raises questions about national security, says Bob Gilligan, GE’s vice president for transmission and distribution. “We hear a lot of concerns about cyberterrorism and attacks on our energy infrastructure,” he says. “As we talk about bringing more technology into the grid, providing more connections to the energy infrastructure, there are escalating concerns about protecting that infrastructure.”

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