An electrical grid is an interconnected network for delivering electricity from suppliers to consumers. It consists of generating stations that produce electrical power, high-voltage transmission lines that carry power from distant sources to demand centers, and distribution lines that connect individual customers.

Nowadays, there are 3,200 utilities that make up the U.S. electrical grid, it is the largest machine in the world. These power companies sell $400 billion worth of electricity a year, mostly derived from burning fossil fuels in centralized stations and distributed over 2.7 million miles of power lines.

And the smart grid is a modernized electrical grid that uses information and communications technology to gather and act on information, such as information about the behaviors of suppliers and consumers, in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity. Support for the smart grid in the United States became federal policy with passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The law set out $100 million in funding per fiscal year from 2008–2012, established a matching program to states, utilities and consumers to build smart grid capabilities, and created a Grid Modernization Commission to assess the benefits of demand response and to recommend needed protocol standards. The law also directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop smart grid standards, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) would then release through official rule makings. And smart grids received further support with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which set aside $11 billion for the creation of a smart grid.

Reference:

ABB, “ABB’s smart grid technologies”

Energy Gov, “SMART GRID”

Chris Martin, Mark Chediak, and Ken Wells, “Why the U.S. Power Grid’s Days Are Numbered” August 22, 2013

Wikipedia, “Smart grid in the United States”

As I read those articles about the Germany’s energy policy, I found out that renewable energy technologies have deployed rapidly in Germany since 1990 largely as a result of energy policies adopted by the German government and the European Union, and Germany is the only large economy that is taking the threat of climate change seriously, and also at the June of 2013, the Germany Chancellor announced that her aim to curb the renewable energy subsides, so that it can afford to upgrade the power grid and lower the pressure on the rising electricity prices.

I found in the article, the statistics shows that Germany’s renewable energy sector is among the most innovative and successful worldwide. The share of electricity produced from renewable energy in Germany has increased from 6.3 percent of the national total in 2000 to about 25 percent in the first half of 2012, mainly due to the robust renewable energy industry. Also the German government wants 80 percent of its energy to be produced by renewable sources by 2050; biomass, wind, and solar currently make up about 25 percent of the country’s electricity supply. The country has begun to take fossil fuel power stations offline and is planning to phase out nuclear energy by 2022.

Renewable energy policy in Germany over the past decade were successful, between 1990 and 2003, renewable energy’s share in Germany’s electric power generation fuel mix grew from less than 3% to almost 9%. Over the same period, net electricity consumption in Germany grew by approximately 5%, while carbon dioxide emissions from electric power production declined by roughly 13%. As a result of these policy pressures has facilitated the rapid growth of renewable generated electricity in Germany. Moreover, this growth has created new domestic industries that now employ more than 120,000 people directly and indirectly and has offset increasing amounts of greenhouse gases and other air emissions each year.

References

Giannoulis, Karafillis “German renewable energy policy will change”  June 12, 2013

“Germany’s Energy Policy: Man-Made Crisis Now Costing Billions” October 30, 2012

“Germany: A Model for Renewable Energy Policy ” December 12, 2012

Wikipedia “Renewable energy in Germany”