|
|
|
|
| There is more to the smart grid than digitization |
| I tend to disagree with your statement that transmission hardware is not part of the smart grid - bits and bytes are important, but they can't stand alone. If we want to truly modernize the grid, almost every aspect of it needs to be gradually upgraded, redesigned, and integrated using a wide variety of new technologies involving electrical, chemical, civil, computer, and other engineering and physical disciplines. In the Northeast US, transmission corridor congestion coupled with a desire to build new transmission assets underground to minimize environmental impact has required the application of low capacitance cable as well as the use of advanced transmission system modeling and design techniques to validate new ways of controlling and operating such a system - that qualifies as a smart grid application in my book. Similarly, deploying superconducting cable technology in the transmission system brings fundamentally new physics and hence fundamentally new engineering practice to the grid. Such innovation opens up a new universe of how power systems can be designed and operated - now that's smart. |
| Erich W. Gunther - 11/01/2007 - 00:41 |
|
|
|
|
