New Report Outlines Successful Strategies for Implementing Smart Grid

Arlington, Va. (May 18) — Successful implementation of a Smart Grid is critical to justifying the near $200-billion investment it will require to overhaul the nation’s power grid, according to a new report released today by the Lexington Institute.

“With electricity demand rising, Smart Grid needs to be much more than a green jobs program driven by $4.5 billion to date in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants and other big-ticket Congressional spending,” said Rebecca Grant, the report’s author.

Grant notes that 10 percent of the electricity now being generated in the United States is wasted before it even reaches users, due to inefficiencies in the current, aging system. Making the electric grid just 5 percent more efficient would reduce the nation’s energy and greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to taking 53 million cars off the road.

The report identifies and analyzes four immediate categories of challenges for Smart Grid implementation: smart consumers, cybersecurity, smart power transmission, and maintaining standards for interoperability between systems and technologies. The study also offers specific policy recommendations for each set of challenges.

Also discussed:

Safeguarding power grid infrastructure and sensitive consumer information from ever-increasing vulnerability. Both Chinese and Russian infiltrators have already been detected mapping grid infrastructure.

Installing new, high-voltage transmission lines necessary for upgrading the nation’s electric grid that both balance the needs of property owners and environmentalists and help ensure sustainable markets for renewable energy production.

A crucial factor in the success of Smart Grid will be consumer acceptance, which will largely depend on honest customer relations by electric utilities.

The 19-page report is available for free online at www.lexingtoninstitute.org.