Concepts like “smart grids” and “intelligent metering” are difficult for the non-expert brain to grasp. So instead, wrap your mind around a simpler set of facts. Utilities experience peak demand — for example, on blistering hot days when air conditioners are pumping all out — just 2% of the year.
Yet to serve their customers on such days, the utilities will incur as much as 15% of their total costs for the year while using their oldest, dirtiest generating plants to satisfy the demand.
In other words, it’s a dirty, costly affair to keep us comfortable for a relatively short period of time.
Imagine, then, the benefits of an electric network – often called a grid because of the wired interconnections among power plants, homes and businesses – that “think” intelligently.
Such a smart network would tell customers things like the cheapest time to wash the dishes or charge an electric car. It would represent huge savings, financially and environmentally.
via Tech Daily: Silver Spring – the Cisco of smart grids? – Jun. 23, 2009.
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- Smart Grid on IP – Download Cisco Systems proposal
- Cisco Announces Smart Grid Roadmap — Smart Grid — InformationWeek
- China gets smart on power supply — Shanghai Daily
- Smart Grid Duel: Cisco vs. Silver Spring | Reuters
- ComEd Recommends GE Energy and Silver Spring Networks’ Smart Grid Technologies to Anchor ComEd Pilot Program
