The very first commercial power grid was developed by Thomas Edison and was launched in lower Manhattan in the early 1880s.  Today, America’s energy grid is a vast system covering the entire country consisting of thousands of electric generating units and hundreds of thousands of miles of transmission lines that provides homes and businesses with electrical power.  This complex ‘grid’ was developed over 100 years ago and has been continuously updated in result of technology advancements and a growing population with an ever-increasing energy demand.

Although energy is carried to all parts of the country, America doesn’t have a ‘national grid’.  Instead, the grid is comprised of three major interconnections located in western, eastern, and southern regions of America.  Electricity is generated at power stations through the use of fossil fuels or nuclear reaction.  Electric power generated by power plants is moved at an extremely high voltage, in order to travel long distances efficiently, through transmission lines to local substations.  From the substation, distribution lines and transformers are used to provide buildings with power.  Transformers lower the voltage before the electrical current enters buildings so it is safe to use as a power source in homes and offices.  Since electric power cannot be stored on a massive scale, power plants are constantly operating and adjusting their output of energy based on consumer needs.

The energy grid is viewed as an incredible infrastructure that has improved America and has helped it flourish as a nation, but we are stretching this interconnected web to its capacity and it is time to upgrade.  When it comes to energy use it is important to use it efficiently, which is why ideas around developing a ‘Smart Grid’ have been surfacing in debate.  This Smart Grid would be a engineering marvel of the 21st century.  With technology becoming more and more abundant in our everyday lives, the nation wants digital technology heavily integrated in the grid.  Such an advancement would allow for the electrical grid to respond instantly to consumer demand so only the necessary amount of electricity is being used, making energy use more efficient.  The Smart grid would incorporate renewable energy and massive batteries to store power.  Developing a Smart Grid would help shrink the United States’ carbon footprint making.

Numerous benefits accompany the installation of a Smart Grid.  To provide a few examples, benefits associated with the Smart Grid include; more efficient transmission of electricity, reduced operations and management costs for utilities, lower power costs for consumers, and increased integration of large-scale renewable energy systems.  Migrating to the Smart Grid would be a strong asset for America, but this massive project would take a lot of money and time.  This technological advancement would provide cleaner energy use and start America on the right path to more efficient and renewable energy.