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1. What is the smart grid?
2. Are smart-grid technologies shovel ready?
3. Will the smart grid stimulus funding support job creation?
4. How will the stimulus funding be focused on smart grid?
5. How can smart grid reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and lower our CO₂ emissions?
6. If the smart grid is such a great idea, as it does appear to be, why hasn't it been built yet?
7. Do any studies demonstrate the connection between energy/cost savings and sharing information with consumers?
8. Why are Internet Protocol and open standards important?
9. Will smart grid make me give up control as a consumer?
10. How can I get a smart grid?

1. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (and how it relates to smart grid)
2. Asset optimization
3. Automation
4. Capacitors
5. Current
6. Demand response
7. Distributed generation
8. Distribution grid
9. Distribution management systems
10. Economic dispatch
11. Electric Cars and Plug-in Electric Hybrids
12. Energy management systems
13. Generation
14. Grid congestion
15. Load
16. Monitoring and diagnostics
17. Net metering
18. Peaking plants
19. Reactive load (VArs)
20. Renewable portfolio standards
21. Resistive load
22. Sensors
23. Smart appliances
24. Smart meters
25. Time of use pricing
26. Transmission grid
27. Voltage

1. What is the smart grid?
The smart grid marries information technology with our current electrical infrastructure, helping us support the energy needs of our 21st Century society. The smart grid is, in essence, an “energy Internet,” delivering real-time energy information and knowledge—empowering smarter energy choices. Considering the energy challenges we currently face, we must find a way to do more with less—and quickly. This is the role for a smarter grid, which:

• Enables the integration and optimization of more renewable energy (such as wind and solar) and plug-in electric vehicles.
• Drives significant increases in the efficiency of our network.
• Empowers consumers to manage their energy usage and save money without compromising their lifestyle.

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2. Are smart-grid technologies shovel ready?
Many smart grid technologies are "shovel ready". Here are just two examples.

• Advanced Metering Infrastructure (commonly referred to as AMI) and smart meters, which serve as the foundation for consumers and utilities to work together to maximize our current electrical resources through information exchange and
• Grid management software and grid automation technologies that can deliver significant increased energy efficiencies in our network today.

Most of what’s discussed in this site is ready for deployment today.

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3. Will the smart grid stimulus funding support job creation?
Funding deployment of existing Smart Grid technologies will provide immediate job creation. In fact, the $16 billion targeting clean, efficient American energy could create approximately 280,000 new jobs, with 150,000 being created in the first year.

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4. How will the stimulus funding be focused on smart grid?
The promise of the smart grid is the societal benefits it will deliver to our national energy security and carbon reduction initiatives. To this end, we advocate focusing the stimulus spending on the technologies that will deliver meaningful consumer and societal benefits. Smart grid technology can help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and lower our CO₂ emissions via the following four key deliverables:

• Delivery management - Increased grid efficiencies through network intelligence: conserving finite natural resources, lowering the cost of electricity, and reducing emissions.
• Demand management - empowering consumers with information to manage usage and save up to 10% on power bills and cut their power use 15% during peak hours.
• Renewable integration - reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by enabling the seamless integration of cleaner, greener energy technologies into our power network
• Plug-in electric vehicle integration - with time-of-use rates and billing mechanisms, utilities will be prepared to integrate and optimize plug-in cars, which will help decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

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5. How can smart grid reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and lower our CO₂ emissions?
The challenge today: 40% of all US CO₂ emissions come from the power generation sector¹ and America spends more than $200,000 per minute on foreign oil.²

Smart grid can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and lower our CO₂ emissions by:

• Embracing more renewables, such as wind, solar and biogas—both central and distributed generation
• Increasing the efficiency of the delivery of electricity – enabling us to do more, with less, thereby, maximizing the use of our finite natural resources
• Empowering consumers and businesses to make smarter energy choices by providing them with real-time information about their energy use
• Preparing the grid to integrate and optimize plug-in electric cars.

In order to achieve these initiatives, smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure, as well as advanced grid management and automation technologies, will need to be deployed.

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6. If the smart grid is such a great idea, as it does appear to be, why hasn't it been built yet?
The ultimate goal of a smarter grid is to deliver increased energy efficiencies and consumer empowerment through the exchange and management of valuable information.

The unfortunate reality is that today, utilities’ revenues are based on the amount of electricity sold, putting the energy efficiencies delivered through a smarter grid in direct conflict with utilities' bottom line. Ultimately, policy will be needed to encourage and reward utilities for driving efficiency and conservation.

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7. Do any studies demonstrate the connection between energy/cost savings and sharing information with consumers?
Yes, a yearlong DOE study showed smart grid consumers were able to lower overall consumption 10% and peak consumption 15%.

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8. Why are Internet Protocol and open standards important?
Internet Protocol is an open, standardized foundation for networking America's next great infrastructure—the smart grid.

Open standards are the hallmark of modern American industry and commerce. By spurring innovation through the adoption of open technology standards, we have built remarkably interoperable foundations that drive our economy, ranging from the familiar electricity socket to the transformative information superhighway that is the Internet.

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9. Will a smart grid make me give up control as a consumer?
No. Smart grid is all about choice, and empowering consumers to make smarter energy decisions. Utility programs involving applications in your home will likely be optional and incentive-based.

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10. How can I get a smart grid?
Smarter grids will be deployed at different times by different utilities across the nation and all over the world. While you can’t purchase a “smart grid” for your home, you can reach out to your local utility or public utility commission and tell them you are interested in smart grid and how it can provide you with additional choice and control over how you use and pay for electricity. You can also opt to make smarter energy choices today – whether it’s purchasing ENERGY STAR® appliances or changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

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1. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (and how it relates to smart grid)
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law. This economic recovery package represents the largest effort to stimulate the economy in United States history. This includes $4.5 billion for activities to modernize the electric grid.

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2. Asset optimization
Asset optimization refers to maximizing asset performance and reducing unexpected failures of primary equipment (i.e. transformers) through alerts, detection, diagnosis, and prognosis. Asset-optimization technologies help maximize asset performance and life for just a small fraction of what it would cost to replace them altogether.

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3. Automation
Automation is bringing “intelligence” to the grid, much as Internet technology has brought intelligence to computers. It allows for remote monitoring and control assets on the power grid.

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4. Capacitors
Capacitors on the grid will ultimately help improve grid efficiency by minimizing electrical losses. Technically, a capacitor is a passive electronic component consisting of a pair of conductors separated by a dielectric. They can be used to store charge in an electrical circuit. A capacitor functions like a battery, but charges and discharges much more efficiently.

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5. Current
Current is the flow of electrons in an electrical conductor, such as power lines or a power cord. The amount of movement of the electricity is measured in amperes.

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6. Demand response
In the electrical grid, demand response (DR) allows the management of customer consumption of electricity in response to supply conditions. For example, letting electricity customers opt into programs that reduce their consumption at critical times, or in response to market prices.

Demand response is generally used to refer to mechanisms used to encourage consumers to reduce demand, thereby reducing the peak or overall demand for electricity.

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7. Distributed generation
Currently, most generation of electricity is centralized and electricity is sent one way – from utility to consumer. With a smart grid, the generation of electricity can be distributed – such as solar panels on rooftops. Energy can then enter the grid from many more locations.

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8. Distribution grid
The part of the electric grid that is dedicated to delivering electric energy to end-users. After traveling through transmission lines and distribution substations, electricity reaches the distribution grid, where distribution lines deliver electricity to industrial, commercial and residential electricity customers.

Today, the distribution grid operates with little automation and intelligence, which will be required to manage distributed renewable generation, support grid efficiency technologies, control the isolation and restoration of outages, and more. Without intelligence, maintaining a reliable supply of power to customers will become increasingly challenging.

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9. Distribution management systems
A Distribution Management System (DMS) is a smart grid automation technology that provides real-time information about the distribution network and allows utilities to remotely control devices in the grid.

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10. Economic dispatch
This is a method of determining the most efficient, low-cost, and reliable operation of a power system by dispatching available electricity generation resources to supply demand. The primary objective is to minimize the cost of generation while honoring the constraints of the available generation resources.

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11. Electric Cars and Plug-In Electric Hybrids
An electric car is just that—a vehicle that is powered primarily by electricity rather than gasoline. The power is stored in batteries that are recharged by plugging the car into an electrical outlet. Some electric cars may also use a gasoline-burning engine to supplement their range and allow the batteries to be recharged as the vehicle is driven. Such a system results in a plug-in electric hybrid vehicle (PHEV).

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12. Energy management systems
The Energy Management System acts as the central nervous system for the transmission grid, giving utilities or independent system operators the ability to control generation and aggregate, manage, and dispatch power at the transmission level.

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13. Generation
The process of producing electric energy by transforming other forms of energy, whether it is the burning of fossil fuels or the wind turning a wind turbine.

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14. Grid congestion
Congestion is a condition that occurs when insufficient transfer capacity is available in power lines to allow for scheduled transmission of electricity.

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15. Load
Load is the amount of electric power delivered or required at any specific point on the system. The electric power required comes from the electricity-consuming equipment of the consumers.

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16. Monitoring and diagnostics
Smart grid monitoring and diagnostics technologies help utilities maximize asset performance and reduce unexpected failures of primary equipment (i.e. transformers) through alerts, detection, diagnosis, and prognosis. By monitoring different gas levels within the transformer, for example, smart sensors will detect and report potential problems back to the utility in real-time. The information sent to the utility can be stored and analyzed by advanced software, helping predict and prevent potential transformer failure before it happens.

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17. Net metering
Under net metering, consumers who own renewable generation (such as solar on rooftops) can receive retail credit for at least a portion of the electricity they generate.

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18. Peaking plants
Peaking plants are power plants that generally run only when there is high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity. In the U.S., this often occurs in the late afternoon and early evening, especially during the summer when air conditioning is required. The peak power load generally occurs when people return home from work, start cooking dinner, and turn up the air conditioning. The time that a peaking plant operates may be many hours a day or as little as a few hours per year, depending on the condition of the region's electrical grid.

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19. Reactive load (VArs)
Along power lines, a combination of electrical losses takes place due to the complexities of how power is currently delivered. These losses take place due to something called reactive load, or VArs, and also “resistive load”, which is more like friction and has to do with the length of the line.

More technically, reactive load (VArs) establish and sustain the electric and magnetic fields of alternating-current equipment. Reactive load must be supplied to most types of magnetic equipment, such as motors and transformers. Reactive load is provided by generators or equipment such as capacitors, and it directly influences voltage. It is usually expressed as VAr (Volt Amp Reactive).

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20. Renewable portfolio standards
Renewable portfolio standards are regulatory policies requiring the increased production of renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energies.

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21. Resistive load
Resistive load is electrical waste that is transformed into heat or other energy. Unlike the losses due to reactive load, it cannot be regained or mitigated. It can be compared to friction that the electricity encounters as it moves across the lines.

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22. Sensors
Sensors, in this case, refer to smart equipment placed at key locations on the power grid. They sense what is happening with the electric load or with the assets on the grid and communicate this status back to the utilities.

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23. Smart appliances
Smart appliances can be programmed to operate when it is most cost effective to do so based on time-of-use pricing signals from the utility. For example, a smart refrigerator would only enable the defrost cycle to occur when electricity prices are lowest, without compromising a consumer's lifestyle.

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24. Smart meters
Smart meters are among the fundamental building blocks of smart grid deployments. They track and report energy usage by time of day, enabling utilities to charge less for electricity used during off-peak hours. As a result, consumers can choose to shift energy-intensive activities to times when rates are lower to save on energy costs.

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25. Time of use pricing
Most consumers don’t realize the cost of electricity varies based on demand. Electricity is cheaper to produce during off-peak hours and more expensive during peak hours when additional generation is needed. Yet most residential electricity customers pay one set price — regardless of the time of day. Smart meter technologies enable “time of use” pricing in states where variable pricing rates are available, offering lower prices during off-peak periods.

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26. Transmission grid
Electric power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical power from a generation facility to a load or distribution substation center, which then distributes power to the end user.

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27. Voltage
The difference is electrical potential between any two points of an electrical circuit, expressed in volts. Voltage is analogous to water pressure through a pipe.

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