Smart gridSmart grid runs into trouble over powerline standard, I
Published 30 November 2009
The U.S. government has awarded $4 billion in grants to build a smart electric grid; appliance makers need an easy, low cost way to plug into the grid; today they face as many as a dozen wired and wireless choices, most of them far too expensive and high bandwidth, focused on carrying digital music and video around the home rather than on helping save energy
The U.S. government is struggling with one of the first big snags in the wake of awarding $4 billion in grants to build a smart electric grid. It could take years before there are any low cost appliances for Joe Consumer to plug into an intelligent power network.
EE Times’s Rick Merritt writes that the vision of a smart grid includes smart appliances that automatically turn on or off in response to fluctuating energy prices as electric demand peaks and troughs. Intelligent fridges, dryers, and other energy hogs could help utilities reduce their needs for new power plants, help consumers save money and ease stress on the environment.
To enable this demand response application, appliance makers need an easy, low cost way to plug into the grid. Today they face as many as a dozen wired and wireless choices, most of them far too expensive and high bandwidth, focused on carrying digital music and video around the home.
In an effort to fill the gap, a senior government technologist laid down the gauntlet before a recent gathering of powerline networking engineers: create a standard to plug appliances into tomorrow’s smart grid soon—or Uncle Sam may do it for you. Industry representatives at the meeting said the government is over-stepping its boundaries. Forcing the handful of powerline technologies in the market to converge makes no sense, they added.
Merritt writes that government planners knew a lack of standards was one of the big issues preventing the move to a digital, networked power grid. Before its first economic stimulus grant went out, it spent $10 million to launch a new smart grid standards effort organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
NIST is now reviewing industry feedback on a first draft framework for smart grid standards. As a next step, NIST convened in Denver in mid-November a Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) of diverse stakeholders to drive the standards work forward. SGIP includes fifteen Priority Action Plan committees focused on some of the thorniest standards issues ahead. At the first meeting of the
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