Having too much information is a commonly heard complaint today. Yet, in the energy and utility industry, millions of smart meters are being deployed with the promise of providing data at unprecedented levels.  Many agree that the ability to digest a multitude of smart grid data will be the key to success for the industry. How [...]

Significant penetrations of price elastic load and dispatchable demand response can introduce complex dynamics in the day-ahead, hour-ahead, and real-time electric energy markets. This raises interesting questions about the conditions needed for market stability.

On July 1, the three California investor-owned utilities submitted their official smart grid deployment plans to the California Public Utilities Commission. From funding structures to near-term customer projects, the plans are designed to support an evolutionary smart grid deployment.

Federal and state debates regarding customer privacy and data collected from smart meters are ongoing. Traditionally, states are the testing ground for policy and regulation—‘chaos by design’—with federal institutions exerting policy influence. Currently, different states are adopting different smart grid data policies.

New smart grid applications and functionalities often require updated communication networks. Three areas of concern for many utility and system operator executives are security, reliability, and scalability of new communication networks.