The outage brought darkness to NYC, the city that never sleeps. That happened in 2003 when the demand out passes the supply. The way we receive energy haven’t changed very much for the past hundred years. Coal, nuclear, or hydropower plants send electricity through transmission lines to substations on to transformers. The voltage becomes smaller and smaller until it reaches our homes. “For all automated manufacturing processes, if the computer resets, it shuts down the process. If you’re a plastics manufacturer, and your machines cool down, plastic solidifies in your machines,” says Boyes. If a lighting strikes a power line it’ll knock it off, or if a day’s events exceed utilities’ effort you experience a blackout, like what happened in the Northeast back in 2003.
Most of electric-power around the world have similar outdated infrastructure. “The Grid” basically referred to the combination of power generation, transmission, conversion and distribution. Governments around the world are working on modernize this outdated infrastructure making them more intelligently efficient.
“Smart Grids” are the 21st century’s innovation, where suppliers can monitor and communicate more accurately with demanders making energy flows more securely preventing any blackouts and shutdowns. What makes them smart is the ability to measure, process, and communicate in order to sustain and balance power flows.
Pros:
- It can detect faults and repair them.
- It help producers to better balance supply and demand.
- Reduces the chance of having a blackout.
- Eliminating manual meter reading.
Cons:
- Processes of the transition to a new technology.
- People’s reaction of accepting the new meters.
- More expensive to assemble.
On the other hand pros are outweighing cons, “According to the International Energy Administration, the deployment of a smart grid can result in a 0.9 to 2.2 gigatonne reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.”
References:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/grid-energy-storage1.htm
https://www.smartgrid.gov/all/news/2_minute_expert_briefing_smart_grid_technology
http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/apps/smartgrid/gridinfrastructure/overview.page