Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
showcase the critical importance of context-specific approaches to considering energy
system change.
The multifaceted diversity of perceptions of smart grid makes the Indian parable of
the elephant and the blind men a useful analogy to understand our goals for this topic.
This story is often used to demonstrate how any individual's subjective experience may be
accurate or true to themselves, but an individual's capacity to know the full truth remains
limited. In the parable, six blind men touch different parts of an elephant, experiencing
distinctly different realities. The man who touches the elephant's trunk feels a long, strong,
thin animal, while the men who touch the hind leg, the tusks, the underbelly, and the tail
eachexperienceandenvisionaverydifferentanimal.Eachoftheseindividuals'perceptions
is informed by the parts of the whole that they experience, but each man has little capacity
to understand and interpret the full magnitude or shape of the whole elephant.
Such is the case with smart grid. Just as each blind man experiencing different parts
of a large animal is unable to understand the entire elephant, different actors involved in
and influenced by smart grid development are each engaged with different parts of the
electricity system and have only a limited perspective on the potential and challenges of
broad electricity system change. Each individual or organization is able to view only a
limited part of the entire system. And the lack of a comprehensive educational approach to
energy and electricity systems perpetuates this piecemeal understanding.
The insights we share in this topic are built on six years of research that involved
talking with hundreds of different people who are engaged in shaping electricity systems.
As we listened and learned from people representing a wide range of organizations, from
grid operators in the Midwest to small cooperative utilities in Vermont, we attempted
to integrate different perspectives and priorities of smart grid with an ultimate goal of
understanding the complexity of change and evolution in electricity systems. In this
synthesis of our research, we attempt to step back far enough to enable readers to see the
entire smart grid animal, but also provide sufficient detail for those who are especially
interested in specific components.
1.2 The Grid Matters! Why We Care
Most people do not think much about electricity systems. People pay attention to “the
grid” only when the power goes out or when a monthly bill is due. System reliability
and affordability have been major tenets shaping electric system development for the past
150 years. While the first electric systems focused solely on powering lights, electricity
systems have become increasingly critical infrastructure. More than ever before, we rely
on electricity for communication, food, health, transportation, and other basic needs. If
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