In today’s energy-conscious world, we are consistently inundated with best practices and innovations for reducing and better managing our electric and power intake. One area in particular that has garnered extra attention as a means to lessen power demand, lead to a drop in greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately give way to new and high-skilled jobs has been the global smart grid market. But, out of all of today’s emerging smart grid trends – from the latest technologies to global utility deployments – what is it really going to take to ensure success? How exactly are today’s nations, governments and private sectors leveraging the ever-growing smart grid market to enable utilities to cost-effectively deliver power where and when it is needed? This white paper from IBM – a pioneer in developing innovative smart grid technologies for utilities – will explore and demonstrate the extent of the issues surrounding the smart grid and how IBM is helping to educate the world about the unparalleled benefits of leveraging smarter networks.

The rapid rollout of smart meters as part of the Smart Grid adoption by utilities companies has been nothing short of impressive. However, as the meters are turned on, utilities are often ill-prepared to manage the deluge of data flowing at unprecedented levels. Strategies should be put in place today to manage performance, control costs and meet regulatory requirements.

Please join speakers from IDC Energy Insights and IBM for this live webcast to hear:

- Challenges faced when managing smart meter data
- How actual utilities companies are meeting these challenges
- How to dramatically reduce storage and system costs while accommodating growth
- How to accelerate time-to-value gained from smart meter data

Smart grids are coming of age. The technology, the processes and the tools are being put in place to make them truly smart and deliver a wealth of value to utilities, to consumers, and to third parties who want to take advantage of smart grid infrastructures. This guide outlines the potential-and the challenges-and demonstrates why Oracle is the smart grid choice for OEMs and systems integrators seeking a true end-to-end solution for utilities.

Watch the video and see how IBM Informix TimeSeries database software can help your IT infrastructure process smart meter data 25-70 times faster than a traditional database. Plus you’ll be able to reduce server sprawl, as well as maintenance and other operational costs.

There are two schools of thought among electrical utilities regarding the Smart Grid. The first
is that the Smart Grid is simply an extension of current functions and that taking a business-asusual
approach is sufficient. The second is that the Smart Grid presents new opportunities for
growth and change, as well as new challenges for collecting more granular data than ever before
on customers’ energy consumption. Utilities that ascribe to the second group recognize that the
Smart Grid will be transformative in nature and can take steps to address any new issues that
may arise. I call this taking a “positive-sum” approach wherein the interests of both electrical
reform and privacy may be achieved.

A Demand Response (DR) program is a critical component, typically developed and offered by Utility companies/ISOs that offer participants to contribute effectively for better energy load management/ reduction. Typical participants include individuals as well as small and large corporations. A DR program typically ties in with a dynamic pricing scheme for electricity where participants, depending on a variety of factors (such as time of day, price etc.) can actively participate in requesting a Utility for increase or reduction of electricity demand. While this helps in cost reduction for participants, it significantly helps Utility/ISOs reduce their own cost and manage distribution of electricity (which is a finite resource) better. Several Utilities/ISOs offer incentive programs to participants for taking part in DR programs . In addition to DR, automation of DR is a key concept which helps reduce human intervention and increases accuracy and responsiveness to the DR program.

The current electrical grid is seen by some as the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century,
and is the considered to be the largest machine on the planet. However, it is increasingly out of date and overburdened, leading to costly blackouts and brownouts. For example, the 2003 blackout in the northern and eastern U.S. and Canada caused a $6 billion loss in economic revenue.1 Utility providers struggle to monitor the grid’s performance, and in many areas, they depend on customers
to report power outages. This is because the grid was designed to meet one main goal — to ensure that the lights kept glowing — before much of the technology that depends on it existed. It was not originally designed to incorporate other goals such as energy effenciency, reduced environmental
impacts, incorporating alternative energy sources, allowing for more consumer choice, and robust
cyber security.

This ROA Group white paper briefly introduces smart grid and the latest developments in the U.S., Europe and South Korea. Smart grid refers to a next generation electric
power network that makes use of IT and high technologies. Compared to the telecommunications networks, the electric power networks have not developed remarkably in terms of creating innovative technologies. However, smart grid by
revolutionizing the electric power network and being almost as powerful as the Internet, is attracting many attentions among various industries.