The Grid's Next Step

November 18, 2008

People are starting to realize that it is crucial to update the grid before any new technologies can be implemented. A grid that is 30 years old will no-way, no-how be able to support the massive changes that are about to take place, fingers-crossed.

Matt Wald at the NY Times wrote a piece about it last week. How "adding electricity from the wind and the sun could increase the frequency of blackouts and reduce the reliability of the nation's electrical grid" and "unless appropriate measures are taken to improve transmission of electricity, rules reducing carbon dioxide emissions by utilities could impair the reliability of the power grid." (full article here)

Not only the national press has pinpointed this issue, but several companies are working to solve the problem as well.

Earlier this year Google announced plans to join in on the project to build a smarter grid, and this week, as reported by Martin LaMonica over at CNET, they joined a smart-grid trade association (full article here). With major companies such as Google joining in to update the infrastructure, change seems to be in the air.

Wind, solar, hydo, etc are great. In another thirty or forty years. Until then, we need more companies to join in and more attention to be paid to revamping and preparing the grid.

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