Can We Make Our Infrastructure Smarter?

In a recent post, GOOD magazine’s website assesses the energy savings of introducing smart-grid technology to our energy grid, but the post and the study it cites fail to address the larger issues of America’s ailing energy infrastructure.  According to the American Society of Civil Engineers 2009 Energy Infrastructure report card, the U.S. received a D+, which was actually an improvement from the previous year.  This is largely due to the longstanding gap between demand growth and investment in the infrastructure.  As a result, the nation is more prone to disruptions in energy service and falls far short of its potential economic efficiency.  Furthermore, the national grid is divided into three separate sections (East, West, and Texas- I guess they had to have their own) limiting the distribution capabilities of renewable energy sources. For instance, energy harvested from a windy day in Palm Springs cannot be used to power a business in Detroit.

One partial solution to these issues is the “smart grid”. It is not a novel framework, but a set of digital sensors, controls and meters that monitor and manage power generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption in a more efficient and reliable way than our current system.  This allows energy producing companies to more effectively deliver energy to where it is needed, while giving consumers the ability to more easily gauge and control their energy consumption.  Perhaps the greatest benefit from “smart-grid” technology is its ability to enable the integration of small scale renewable energy into the national grids.  “Smart Grid” sensors combined with an integration of the three national grids would allow individuals to produce energy (hopefully renewably) and more easily add it to the pool of energy from which the rest of the nation draws.  The report cited in the GOOD magazine post highlights the improvements to efficiency that are likely to result from Smart Grid technologies, but does not capture the benefits resulting from the expanded integration of renewable energy.  By improving the energy infrastructure and adding more advanced metering systems, the viability of small scale, localized energy production can be increased, allowing the individuals to more effectively harness the power of renewable energy around their home.

Large reductions in energy use and a more fundamental shift to renewable energy is what is really required to make our energy system more sustainable, but improvements to our ailing infrastructure and the addition of “smart-grid” technology are a step in that direction.

(Photo by sxc.hu)