Technologies of Smart Grid - Smart Grid (R) Evolution: Electric Power Struggles - page 70

control system software for islanding (individual households, organizations, or
communities protecting themselves from the grid) and the creation of standards. Other sets
of smart grid technologies include the institutional integration of Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) and protection and control technologies. Enhanced weather-prediction
technology is another key technological component of smart grid, as the data from this
technology facilitates integration of wind and solar power into the system (mentioned in
more detail in Chapter 6 ).
3.4 Conclusions
In this chapter we have reviewed an array of different smart grid technologies. This review
highlights the critical point that smart grid is not a single technology, but is rather a
broad set of technologies offering different functionality to fulfill different priorities. For
the general public, the smart meter is the individual smart grid technology that is most
well-known and recognized. Our research on how the media represents smart grid shows
that more than half of all articles mentioning smart grid focus on smart meters, which
are a key component of the bidirectional utility-consumer relationship of smart grid. But
clearly smart grid involves multiple other technologies, including renewable generation,
communication software, advanced sensors, energy storage, and multiple grid-integration
technologies ( Table 3.1 ). This diversity in smart grid technologies contributes to both the
flexibility of the concept and the ambiguity of the term. Different societal actors involved
insmartgriddevelopmenthavedifferentperspectivesandprioritiesinrelationtodeploying
and using these technologies. In the next chapter, Chapter 4 , we provide a systematic
review of these different societal actors and their dominant smart grid visions.
A few additional points emerge from this chapter on smart grid technologies. First, the
diversity of different technological components means that each technology has varying
levels of salience in different places and among different actors. While the smart meter
is the most widely recognized individual smart grid technology for electricity consumers
(discussed in more detail in Chapter 5 ) , many other less prominent and less visible smart
grid technologies also have potential for important system change. Another key point
relates to dynamic linkages between smart grid technologies and the legacy system. In
some instances, a specific technological change could be considered a key smart grid
advance, while in another context that same technology could be considered an older,
legacy technology. For example, while some utilities have been using power transmission
analysis software for decades, others are only now considering this valuable
transmission-management technology.