SMART GRID BY SUMMER

"Smart grid" draft standards seen available by summer
Ayesha Rascoe (w/Christian Wiessner), March 3, 2009 (Reuters)

"Initial draft guidelines for the development of "smart grid" technology to modernize electricity transmission across the nation may be available by summer…

"'What's desperately needed is an overall road map,' said Patrick Gallagher, deputy director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in testimony at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"Gallagher's agency has the primary task of coordinating the adoption of a framework for smart grid devices and systems. Many of the standards will be set by the private sector, but Gallagher said his agency would help coordinate that process…to provide some draft standards for smart grid development this summer."

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"Smart grids utilize computers and sensors at power plants to create more efficient and less costly methods of moving electricity.

"The economic stimulus package passed by Congress last month provided the Energy Department with $4.5 billion for electricity delivery and energy reliability, but Gallagher and other federal regulators at the hearing said standards should be developed to help guide these investments…

"Suedeen Kelly, a commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission…said guidelines must be created to address cyber security issues associated with smart grids and possibly to promote uniform software communication throughout the industry…[T]he framework should allow system operators to offset inconsistent power generation from sources such as wind energy and to support the use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles."