Building a Smarter Grid

According to Pike Research, global spending on Smart Grid infrastructure will total approximately $200 billion from 2008 to 2015. Photo: Lewis Stewart

The Smart Grid represents a vision for a modern electric system that uses the latest sensing, communication and automated control technologies to help utilities and their customers make better-informed energy decisions and create a smarter and more efficient and reliable electric grid.

PG&E continues to lay the groundwork for the long-term development of a Smart Grid, beginning with the phased-in deployment of approximately 10 million gas and electric meters with SmartMeter™ technology and our active support for the underlying standards, systems and technologies.

For example, PG&E played a leadership role last year in the utility industry's effort to align on "open standards" for integrating the many devices that will one day constitute the Smart Grid. By ensuring these various devices are compatible as the Smart Grid takes shape, open standards will enable new products to emerge that serve both national and international markets—leading to enhanced competition and new jobs.

Also in 2009, PG&E established a laboratory for testing and evaluating emerging Smart Grid technologies that may one day be available for our customers. This includes prototypes of in-home energy management systems that will enable customers to automate when and how appliances in their homes use energy.

PG&E also completed a study that showed how, using automated equipment, large customers can reduce their electricity demand when asked to do so by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the non-profit organization that operates the state's electric grid. The study demonstrated that CAISO can depend on these customers to reduce load when needed to help ensure the ongoing balance between electric supply and demand on the grid.

Finally, in late 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded federal stimulus dollars to two PG&E-sponsored projects aimed at accelerating the development of a Smart Grid in the United States.

The first, a compressed air energy storage facility, will enable PG&E to store 300 MW of energy for up to 10 hours to help integrate a growing portfolio of intermittent renewable resources into the grid, most notably wind power produced late at night when demand is lowest.

The second will give regional system operators a tool to better monitor and control the electric transmission system. Through a project spearheaded by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, PG&E and other large utilities in the region will test synchrophasor technology—high-speed communications and sensor technology to help monitor critical points in the transmission grid and identify problems before they happen or more quickly after they happen.

Looking ahead, PG&E will continue working collaboratively with key stakeholders both in California and across the nation, to lay the foundation for a Smart Grid that will—over time—deliver new opportunities for customers and provide core infrastructure for clean and sustainable energy supplies.