The Smart Grid has Something to Say

Here at the magazine, we're just putting the finishing touches on our August issue, which will feature an article on extending green data-center concepts beyond IT to benefit the whole building. Just as technology workers have expertise to offer by reaching out, utilities can reach into our offices and homes with smart-grid projects that aim to instrument and automate energy supply and use from the power plant to--in some cases--the appliance.

A new website can help you understand these projects. With a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Virginia Tech has created a the Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse to catalog smart-grid efforts around the country. The projects, most of which draw on funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, integrate digital information onto the electrical grid to enable consumer control and awareness, increase efficiency and conservation, and reduce carbon emissions.

The site is in beta, so if you visit this summer, you can send comments to its developers while you investigate the heaps of information already available. You can drill down into the icons on a project map to see what utilities near you are doing to upgrade infrastructure. A deployment-experience section carries hundreds of documents, like cost-benefit analysis and business cases gleaned from past projects. Developers plan to add performance data to help researchers determine which projects work best. Reports, slide presentations and technical papers in the site's resource library range from the esoteric ("Barrier-Immune Radio Communications for Demand Response") to practical ("A Successful Case Study of Small Business Energy Efficiency and Demand Response With Communicating Thermostats") to general-interest ("Environmental Benefits of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles").

Eventually, the site will also list smart-grid projects in other countries. The Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse is expected to officially launch this fall.

Comments

[Morgon Mae Schultz]

Also, check out this description of an electrical-grid control center by one of my science-writing heroes, Maggie Koerth-Baker:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/07/14/inside-an-electricit.html#more