Every day, people use electricity without a second thought. From switching on the lights to charging devices, electricity is used to sustain the way of life. Although it is used every day, not many people understand the power it takes or where it all comes from. All of America’s electricity comes from an electric grid that is run from asset owners, manufacturers, service providers, and government officials.
As the electronic infrastructure begins to age, the Office of Electricity (OE) is looking for new ways to transform, improve the ways of electricity, and prepare for a possible power grid failure.
Demand for Modernizing Electricity
For generations, electricity has been conducted one way. The ways of old electricity must come to an end and make way for new innovative technology. There is a higher demand for more efficient and reliable electricity. This way there will be far fewer power outages and other technical difficulties. Time and time again, storms cut out power and leave the public in darkness for sometimes days. By modernizing electricity, this will be a thing of the past. Not only will service be restored faster, but consumers will also be able to manage their usage and costs of electricity with a more modern approach.
Introducing ‘Smart Grid’
In an effort to modernize the power grid, the ‘smart grid’ is now being developed. The smart grid concept uses two-way communication technologies, control systems, and computer processing with sensors known as Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) that alert operators of grid stability. It also gives consumers the ability to gain information on outages, recovers from outages more quickly through its sensors, has automated feeder switches that reroute power around problems, as well as batteries to keep excess energy to have readily available later in order to meet customer demand.
Benefits of a Modern Power Grid
Over the years, OE has put a considerable amount of investment and research into modernizing technology. Because of their efforts, the public could see a shift in the ways of the power grid. As they create innovative technologies and techniques for more reliable energy, there could be a safer and cheaper way of providing consumers energy. By having a system to analyze and optimize information to properly manage energy, less money will be put in fixing power outages and less electricity will be used irresponsibly.