Creating a smart grid with technology and people
It’s 1882. Thomas Edison has just surpassed his breakthrough invention—the first incandescent lightbulb—by collaborating with J.P. Morgan to open the first industrial-scale power station in the United States.
Flash forward to today: Power generation, distribution, transmission, and consumption now drive business and modern life around the globe. The industry operates on a vast scale, with a complex web of relationships and technology that enables instant, reliable delivery throughout much of the developed world.
And that grid that got its start back in the 19th century? It’s sorely in need of a massive update. Utilities and their partners are searching for new solutions that can meet 21st-century energy challenges: surging demand for electricity, two-way energy flow, increased use of clean energy sources, and stairstep approaches to creating a smart grid to tackle the thorniest challenges first. Here’s a look at the digital transformation of the power and utilities industry that is picking up steam.
The current model of power production and delivery won’t sustain fast-paced business and human population growth. Power systems are already coping with spikes, surges, and even blackouts. Who can forget the Northeast blackout of 2003?
Moreover, the existing grid is wasteful, with 285 percent more power loss today than in 1984. Such inefficiency has highly negative consequences for consumers’ need for reliability, climate change, and businesses’ bottom lines.
Fortunately, new technologies are emerging to manage demand, reduce waste, and harness new energy sources and producers. Here are just a few:
All of these developments—and more—are making it possible to deliver electricity to the right customer at the right time and in the right manner. Power companies now also can accommodate the two-way flow of energy, as grassroots producers, both businesses and individuals, deploy their own small-scale energy production. These capabilities are being amplified by a new IoT platform, Azure Digital Twins, that uses spatial intelligence to model complex relationships between people, places, and devices in the energy value chain. Let’s take a closer look.
Without question, the legacy grid needs to be modernized with state-of-the-art infrastructure to improve effectiveness and ensure a reliable flow of continuous power. Creating a smart grid is slated to cost between $476 and $880 billion, and it will take years to achieve. But new Internet of Things (IoT) digital technology can “smarten” today’s grid faster and at a lower cost.
