INSIGHTS INTO SMART GRID

Smart Grid Technologies; Networking and Communications, Energy Management, Grid Automation, and Advanced Metering Infrastructure
Jevan Fox, Bob Gohn, Clint Wheelock, 4Q 2009 (Pike Research)

"The worldwide electrical grid is perhaps the greatest technical innovation of the 20th century, delivering the life blood for more recent technical advances in computing and communications…[T]he days of taking the grid for granted are coming to a close, as economic, technical, environmental, and political challenges call for fundamental changes in how electricity is generated, distributed, and used.

"The [4 categories of] key market issues driving change in the electric grid…[1]Improved reliability and security…[2] Reducing waste through operating inefficiencies…[3] Responding to the growing imbalances between worldwide supply and demand in power generation and distribution capacity, generation fuels, and the associated price volatility…[4] Reducing the overall electrical system’s impact on climate change…"

click to enlarge

"…[Taking] full advantage of the integrated intelligence of the computing and communications technologies that [enable the grid…represents tremendous opportunity to transform the current infrastructure into a Smart Grid that can deliver more efficiency and capacity…[I]mplementing such a large scale transformation… is analogous to switching engines on an airplane mid-flight…[Barriers include] lack of a common vision and/or standards, outdated and fragmented business and regulatory models, and lack of awareness (and often trust) of the consuming public. However, government and industry bodies are coming together with newfound urgency…

"...Pike Research has found…the Smart Grid [has] three key dimensions…[1] Functional characteristics, including: end-to-end integrated communications infrastructure…[including] integration of distributed, renewable generation resources…and support for electric vehicles…[2] Component technologies, including: smart meters…networking…demand response systems…and vehicle-to-grid technologies…[3] Application use cases, such as: consumer empowerment and incentives…time-based pricing, and utility-based demand controls; net metering for consumer-based renewable (wind, solar) generation…and support for home and mobile plug-in electric vehicles."

From Pike Research. (click to enlarge)

"An important goal of the smart grid is to enable informed choices by consumers…[including] the economic realities of peak vs. off-peak generation costs (for example)…Pike Research’s surveys have found that consumers’ willingness to participate in managing their energy use is quite high, within certain constraints…the heart of the smart grid is the communications technology that is required to link everything from high-voltage transmission systems and utility control centers to a consumer’s individual appliances…[C]ommunications ‘silos’ need to be linked into a common, consistent, and flexible communications architecture…[N]ew technologies will make up this infrastructure…[which] can also make it more vulnerable to cyber-attacks unless the proper security technologies are included…high voltage transmission lines, enabled by new materials and voltage control technologies, promise to reduce line losses…as renewable generation plants are often far from consuming population centers…

"In many ways, the smart grid represents the melding of traditional industrial grid companies, communications equipment and services firms, and IT hardware, software, and services companies. The result will be no less transformative than the integration of the voice, data, and video communications industries that rocked the previous decade…[It] represents a large market opportunity, with worldwide revenues growing from approximately $10 billion in 2009 to a peak of $35 billion in 2013…The transformation, and ultimately the success, of to the Smart Grid…[has risk but] as electricity is the life blood of our modern world, the forces pushing for ultimate success are strong."