Getting Smart

With a Clearer Vision

of the Intelligent Grid,
Control Emerges
from Chaos

I
IT’S HARD NOT TO NOTICE IN NATIONAL
news and professional conferences of the last few
years all the talks and activities in the electric
power industry about smart grids. “Smart grid”
and similar phrases (“intelligent grid,” “modern
grid,” “future grid,” and so on) have all been used
to describe a “digitized” and intelligent version
of the present-day power grid. Although there is
some debate on what specifically constitutes a
smart grid, a consensus is forming regarding its
general attributes.
The following attributes of a smart grid are
commonly cited in the United States:
✔ It is self-healing (from power disturbance
events).
✔ It enables active participation by consum-
ers in demand response.
✔ It operates resiliently against both physical
and cyber attacks.
✔ It provides quality power that meets 21st-
century needs.
✔ It accommodates all generation and storage
options.

By Enrique Santacana,
Gary Rackliffe,
©MASTER SERIES
Le Tang, and
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2009.935557 Xiaoming Feng
march/april 2010 1540-7977/10/$26.00©2010 IEEE IEEE power & energy magazine 41

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 ✔ It enables new products, services, and markets. (transmission and distribution networks); and the end cus-
✔ It optimizes asset utilization and operating efficiency. tomers (residents, commercial buildings, industrial installa-
In Europe, a smart grid is described, according to a recent tions, and others).
European Commission report, as one that is The electric grid is unique in that electrical supply and
✔ flexible as it fulfills customers’ needs while respond- demand must remain tightly balanced at all times, since
ing to the changes and challenges ahead for most of the history of the electric grid there has been
✔ accessible as it grants connection access to all net- no commercial solution for large-scale storage of electric-
work users, particularly renewable power sources and ity to compensate for any excess or shortfall in power. In
high-efficiency local generation with no or low carbon the past, this balancing act was performed by the vertically
emissions integrated utilities that controlled both the generation and
✔ reliable as it assures and improves security and quality the delivery systems.
of supply, consistent with the demands of the digital Power grids in the industrialized countries are aging and
age, with excellent resilience in the face of hazards being stressed by operational scenarios and challenges never
and uncertainties envisioned when the majority of them were developed many
✔ economical as it provides best value through innova- decades ago. The main challenges are summarized below.
tion, efficient energy management, and “level playing ✔ Deregulation unleashed unprecedented energy trad-
field” competition and regulation. ing across regional power grids, presenting power
China is also developing the smart grid concept. “The flow scenarios and uncertainties the system was not
term ‘smart grid’ refers to an electricity transmission and dis- designed to handle.
tribution system that incorporates elements of traditional and ✔ The increasing penetration of renewable energy in the
cutting-edge power engineering, sophisticated sensing and system further increases the uncertainty in supply and
monitoring technology, information technology, and commu- at the same time adds stress to the existing infrastruc-
nications to provide better grid performance and to support a ture due to the remoteness of the geographic locations
wide range of additional services to consumers. A smart grid where the power is generated.
is not defined by what technologies it incorporates but rather ✔ Our digital society depends on and demands a power
by what it can do,” according to the nonprofit Joint US-China supply of high quality and high availability.
Cooperation on Clean Energy. ✔ The threat of terrorist attacks on either the physical or
Such high-level characterization of the smart grid, while the cyber assets of the power grid introduces further
helpful at the strategic level, leaves plenty of room for confu- uncertainty.
sion and very different interpretations on the part of laymen ✔ There is an acute need to achieve sustainable growth
and professionals alike, due to a lack of specifics. You are not and minimize environmental impact via energy con-
alone in wondering, “Exactly what is the smart grid?” At the servation, i.e., by switching to green and renewable
National Governors Association convention in February 2009, energy sources. We can only meet this objective by
the CEO of a major utility began his speech with the confes- increasing energy efficiency, reducing peak demand,
sion that he didn’t really know what “smart grid” meant (see and maximizing the use of renewable energy.
“Why the Smart Grid Industry Can’t Talk the Talk,” in the The growing consensus in the industry and among many
“For Further Reading” section). It’s little wonder that people national governments is that smart grid technology is the
sometimes confuse the smart grid with smart meters and answer to these challenges. This trend is evidenced by
advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) or with interoperabil- the specific provision and appropriation of multi-billion-
ity in communications. dollar amounts on the part of the U.S. government (in the
In this article we offer our perspective on the smart grid. 2009 stimulus program, for example) for research and
We will look at the drivers for the smart grid, sketch out its development, demonstration, and deployment of smart
scope, discuss what makes the smart grid smart, and envi- grid technologies and the associated standards. The Euro-
sion its distinguishing features. We will focus on the techni- pean Union and China have also announced huge levels
cal challenges that a smart grid must deal with and postulate of funding for smart grid technology research, demonstra-
the capabilities a smart grid must have in order to meet those tion, and deployment.
challenges successfully. Due to limitations of space, we will The objective of transforming the current power grid
not delve into the details of how to meet such challenges, but into a smart grid is to provide reliable, high-quality electric
we will sketch a potential example in order to give technically power to digital societies in an environmentally friendly and
inclined readers an idea of the technologies that are emerging sustainable way. This objective will be achieved through the
on the horizon. application of a combination of existing and emerging tech-
nologies for energy efficiency, renewable energy integration,
Why Do We Need the Smart Grid? demand response, wide-area monitoring and control, self-
An electric grid consists of three main subsystems: the gen- healing, HVDC, flexible ac transmission systems (FACTS),
eration sources (various power plants); the delivery system and so on.

42 IEEE power & energy magazine march/april 2010

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 The smartness of the smart grid lies in the decision intelligence
layer, all the computer programs that run in relays, IEDs, substation
automation systems, control centers, and enterprise back offices.

The scope of the smart grid extends over all the intercon- driver. Most of us consider cruise control a smart function of
nected electric power systems, from centralized bulk gen- cars. Beyond the basic speed control, high-end automobiles
eration to distributed generation (DG), from high-voltage feature collision avoidance capability, using adaptive control
transmission systems to low-voltage distribution systems, and radar technologies.
from utility control centers to end-user home-area networks, Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a basic cruise control
from bulk power markets to demand response service pro- system. Signals for vehicle speed, driver commands (set speed,
viders, and from traditional energy resources to distributed increase or reduce speed, and so on), clutch and brake pedal posi-
and renewable generation and storage, as shown in Figure 1. tions, and fuel injection throttle positions are fed to an onboard
The transition from the present grid to a smart grid and cruise-control computer. There control programs work on the
the key differences between the two can be illustrated by input data continuously and, based on control theory algorithms,
Figure 2. One can see there is
a fundamental shift in the de-
sign and operational paradigm
of the grid: from central to dis-
tributed resources, from predict-
able power flow directions to
unpredictable directions, from a
passive grid to an active grid. In
short, the grid will be more dy-
namic in its configuration and its
operational condition, which will
present many opportunities for
optimization but also many new
technical challenges. figure 1. Scope of the smart grid. (Image courtesy of ABB.)

What Makes
the Smart Grid Smart?
Before we attempt to answer this Traditional Grid Smart Grid
question, let’s look at a familiar
but much simpler example and
identify the basic components of
an engineering system that we
generally consider to be “smart.”
Consider the cruise-control func-
tion found in most automobiles.
You just set a desired speed and
leave the control of the gas pedal to
the cruise-control function. Once
set, cruise control does its job
autonomously for you. It keeps the
engine power output steady when Traditional Grid Smart Grid
the car is on a level road, increases Centralized Generation Generation Everywhere
the engine output when the car is Power Flows Downhill Power Flows from Everywhere
going uphill, and reduces engine Utility Controls Connections Anyone May Participate
output when the car is going down- Behavior: Predictable Behavior: Chaotic
hill. All this is done automatically,
without the intervention of the figure 2. Transition from the present grid to a smart grid.

march/april 2010 IEEE power & energy magazine 43

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 going and whether it is accelerating or decelerating. The control
• Vehicle Speed algorithms (applications) are where the smartness of the system
• Steering Wheel Controls lies. The control algorithms make intelligent decisions based
• Clutch Pedal
on the information provided by the communication infrastruc-
• Brake Pedal
ture, the available controls, and the desired control objective
(maintaining constant speed). But without the actuator system,
Cruise Control we can only observe the system passively and helplessly, for the
Computer actuator system provides the means of actually making changes
(differences) in the physical system. After all, it is a physical
car, not a virtual one, that the cruise function controls.
Vacuum Valve Control
The four basic building blocks identified here can easily
be mapped to electric power systems, as shown in Table 1.
The focus of the industry effort so far has been mostly
Vacuum Actuator on the interoperability of the communication and information
model, as suggested by the National Institute of Standards
Cable-to-Throttle Valve and Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Interoperability standard
Throttle Position road map and the International Electrotechnical Commission
Throttle Valve (IEC) documents on smart grid standardization. In “Under-
standing the Smart Grid from Definition to Deployment,”
the Edison Electric Institute rightly suggested that “advanced
figure 3. Schematic diagram of vehicle cruise control. controls provide the ‘smart’ in smart grids.” To borrow a
phrase from the real estate business, the three value genera-
generate control signals for the vacuum actuator. The vacuum tors for the smart grid are “application, application, and appli-
actuator increases or reduces the throttle valve by means of a cation.” To enable smart applications, we need not only good
cable. The changes in the throttle valve position change the business logic, control, and optimization theory, we also need
engine power output and in turn the speed of the car. new hardware components that can control power flows in the
We can identify four essential building blocks necessary network, as well as the output and the consumption of power.
in this system:
✔ a sensor system to measure system states (automobile What Will the Smart Grid Be Like?
speed, brake and pedal position, throttle position) To average consumers, the smart grid, for the most part, will
✔ communication infrastructure (wires to collect sensor remain under the hood, working silently and invisibly. Some
information and propagate control signals) interfaces will be exposed to consumers, such as the proto-
✔ control algorithms (also known as applications that type iPhone interface by which users will be able to check
digest the information and generate control signals the current electricity price and electricity consumption and
intended to change the state of the system) remotely turn home appliances on and off. Though fascinat-
✔ actuators that effect desired changes in the physical ing, such technologies represent only the tip of the iceberg.
system (in this example, the throttle valve position and The really important and advanced technologies of the smart
the engine power output). grid will remain unnoticed by the general public.
All four building blocks are needed for this smart function to When we look beyond the horizon, we envision some
work. The sensor system and the communication infrastructure salient features of the smart grid that set it apart from the
let the driver know what is going on, i.e., what speed the car is traditional power grid. It is clear that as the system’s supply

table 1. The four building blocks of vehicle cruise control mapped to the electric power system.

Building Blocks Power System Mapping

Sensor system Current transformer (CT), voltage transformer (VT), phasor measurement unit (PMU),
smart meter, temperature, pressure, acoustic, and so on
Communication infrastructure Power line carrier (PLC), wireless radio, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), home
area network (HAN), fiber-optic networks
Control algorithms (applications) Wide-area monitoring and control; microgrid management; distribution load balancing
and reconfiguration; demand response; optimal power flow (OPF); voltage and var
optimization (VVO); fault detection, identification, and recovery (FDIR); automatic
generation control (AGC); interarea oscillation damping; system integrity protection
scheme (SIPS); and so on
Actuator system/physical system HVDC, FACTS, DG, energy storage systems, reclosers, automatic switches, breakers,
switchable shunts, on-load tap changers, hybrid transformers, and so on

44 IEEE power & energy magazine march/april 2010

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Multiple benefits could result
from a SIM-based architecture; energy loss
would be reduced to a minimum.

and consumption become more decentralized and distrib- Distribution of Production

uted, the system’s condition will become more dynamic and DG (from solar, fuel cell, small wind turbine, and other
less predictable. The development of demand, supply, and sources) and energy storage (battery, thermal, and hydrogen)
power flow control technologies will thus become essential are everywhere in a smart grid. They are not marginal play-
in protecting, managing, and optimizing the new grid. In the ers but highly influential and integrated parts of the energy
following sections we summarize certain other features of web. They provide energy diversity, reduce demand for cen-
the future smart grid. tral fossil-fuel power plants, and increase supply redundancy
and system reliability. The distribution of energy production
Tightly Integrated Renewable Energy from renewable sources also increases the resilience of the
In the smart grid, energy from diverse sources is combined grid in the face of widespread disturbances (e.g., blackouts).
to serve customer needs while minimizing the impact on the
environment and maximizing sustainability. In addition to A New Level of Controllability
nuclear-, coal-, hydroelectric-, oil-, and gas-based genera- In the future smart grid, a new generation of power trans-
tion, energy will come from solar, wind, biomass, tidal, and port and control technologies will have become mature
other renewable sources. The smart grid will support not only and widely adopted. Current-limiting and current-breaking
centralized, large-scale power plants and energy farms but devices based on solid-state technology will help protect
residential-scale dispersed distributed energy sources. These valuable grid assets and isolate faults. Power electronics–
renewable and green sources will be seamlessly integrated into based transformers will be common. FACTS technology will
the main grid. enable system operators to route power flows along the most
efficient paths and find the best power production mixes and
Proliferation of Energy Storage schedules. Advanced applications in the control center will
A smart grid has numerous energy storage centers, large continuously check the state of the grid and determine the
and small, stationary and mobile, that it can use to buffer best control strategies from among billions of possibilities
the impact of sudden load changes and fluctuations in wind in real time.
and solar generation, as well as to shift energy consumption
away from peak hours by providing energy balancing, load Real-Time Grid Awareness
following, and dynamic compensation of both reactive and Massively deployed sensors will continuously collect end-
real power. The recent development of quick-response battery user energy consumption data, weather data, and equipment
energy storage systems (BESSs) with voltage source convert- condition and operational status and perform real-time rat-
ers (VSCs) has demonstrated the promise and potential ben- ing in the context of actual distribution and transmission line
efits of energy storage. flows. The information will be disseminated through highly
available, flexible, open (but secure) two-way communica-
Growing Mobile Loads and Resources tion infrastructures to any point in the grid where it can be
Many loads and resources connected to the future smart grid used to monitor the status of the grid, predict what will hap-
will no longer be stationary. Breakthroughs in battery tech- pen next, and develop optimal control strategies.
nology are making plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) commer-
cially viable. At all times of day, tens of millions of EVs will The Smart Prosumer
be connected to the future grid at parking lots near homes, and the Grid-Friendly Appliance
workplaces, and shopping malls. These EVs will represent End-user equipment will no longer consist of dumb devices but
both mobile loads and potential sources of power. The bat- will form interactive and intelligent nodes on the smart grid.
tery systems in these vehicles will be charged or discharged End-user energy management systems will monitor the energy
via sophisticated coordination protocols in order to smooth consumption situation in residences, office buildings, and shop-
out fluctuations in power demand in different parts of the ping malls. They will know the consumption patterns and pref-
grid, avoid power transmission bottlenecks, and render the erences of the occupants, as well as real-time conditions (e.g.,
grid more stable. Controllers will be able to respond to power market prices, grid stress). They will use the collected infor-
system condition signals such as voltages and frequencies as mation to autonomously interact with the grid to determine the
well as market signals such as real-time electricity prices. charging and discharging cycles of plug-in electric vehicles,

march/april 2010 IEEE power & energy magazine 45

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 schedule washer and dryer cycles, and optimize HVAC opera- to the body’s muscles; the sensor/actuator layer corresponds
tions without sacrificing occupants’ comfort. Appliances will to the body’s sensory and motor nerves, which perceive the
continuously monitor voltages and frequencies. When the sys- environment and control the muscles; the communication
tem experiences distress due to unforeseen disturbances, the layer corresponds to the nerves that transmit perception and
appliances will modulate the power consumed to reduce the motor signals; and the decision intelligence layer corresponds
stress on the system and help prevent service disruptions. to the human brain.
The smartness of the smart grid lies in the decision intel-
The Resurgence of DC ligence layer, which is made up of all the computer programs
Advancements in materials, power electronics, and sensor that run in relays, intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), sub-
technologies will transform the design and operation para- station automation systems, control centers, and enterprise
digm of the smart grid. At the generation, transmission, and back offices. These programs process the information col-
distribution levels, ac and dc technologies will work together lected from the sensors or disseminated from the communi-
harmoniously. HVDC networks embedded in ac networks cation and IT systems; they then provide control directives or
will power the world’s megacities but will use only a frac- support business process decisions that manifest themselves
tion of the land required for transmission a generation ago. through the physical layer. Some application examples are
HVDC transmissions will link clean and renewable power at given below:
remote or offshore generation sites to the main power grid. ✔ microgrid control and scheduling (demand response
Distribution buses in office and residential buildings will sup- and efficiency)
ply dc power to digital appliances without the need for power ✔ intrusion detection and countermeasures (cybersecurity)
adapters. Hybrid grid (ac/dc) architectures for distribution ✔ equipment monitoring and diagnostic systems (asset
systems will make the grid more flexible and reliable. management)
✔ wide-area monitoring, protection, and control
Real-Time Distributed Intelligence ✔ online system event identification and alarming (safe-
In the smart grid, advanced grid-monitoring, optimization, ty and reliability)
and control applications track the operating conditions of ✔ power oscillation monitoring and damping (stability)
grid assets, calculate their ratings, and dynamically balance ✔ voltage and var optimization (energy efficiency and
load and resources to maximize energy delivery efficiency demand reduction)
and security in real time. The increased interactivity among ✔ voltage collapse vulnerability detection (security)
producers and consumers will mean demand is dynamic ✔ autonomous outage detection and restoration (self-
rather than static; the grid’s operating environment will healing)
appear chaotic, and power flow directions will change in ✔ intelligent load balancing and feeder reconfiguration
response to market conditions. A new generation of protec- (energy efficiency)
tion and control technologies will be called on to maintain ✔ self-setting and adaptive relays (protection)
the safety and security of both the system and its personnel. ✔ end-user energy management systems (consumer par-
ticipation, efficiency)
The Four Technology ✔ dynamic power compensation, using energy storage
Layers of the Smart Grid and voltage source inverters (efficiency and stability).
The four essential building blocks of the smart grid can be For the decision intelligence layer to work, data (infor-
depicted using a layered diagram, as shown in Figure 4. mation) need to be propagated from the devices connected
An analogy can be drawn between these layers and those to the grid to the controllers that process the information
that make up the human body. The bottom layer is analogous and transmit the control directives back to the devices. The
communication and IT layer performs this task. The IT layer
serves to provide responsive, secure, and reliable information
dissemination to any point in the grid where the information
Decision Intelligence
is needed by the decision intelligence layer. In most cases,
this means that data are transferred from field devices back
Communication to the utility control center, which acts as the main repository
for all the utility’s data. Device-to-device (e.g., controller-
Sensor/Actuator to-controller or IED-to-IED) communication, however, is
also common, as some real-time functionality can only be
Power Conversion/Transport/Storage/ achieved through interdevice communication. Interoperabil-
Consumption ity and security are essential to assure ubiquitous commu-
nication between systems of different media and topologies
and to support plug-and-play for devices that can be autocon-
figure 4. Smart grid technology layers. figured when they are connected to the grid, without human

46 IEEE power & energy magazine march/april 2010

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
intervention. The accelerating deployment of AMI around system architecture can be envisioned, like the one shown
the world is a big step in building a two-way communication in Figure 6. The new architecture requires the introduction
platform for enabling demand response and other advanced of new building blocks. We shall refer to the new building
distribution applications. block technology as the smart integration module (SIM).
The physical layer is where the energy is converted, SIMs will have the following functionality:
transmitted, stored, and consumed. Solid-state technology, ✔ connection to the grid (feeder)
power electronics–based building blocks, superconducting ✔ ac bus for ac loads
materials, new battery technologies, and so on all provide ✔ dc bus for dc loads and connection to energy storage
fertile ground for innovations. and distributed generation
✔ voltage regulation in steady state and in transient
Example of a New ✔ fast real and reactive power compensation
Controllable Component ✔ fault detection and fault current limiting and isolation
On the journey towards the smart grid, there will be many ✔ autonomous distributed intelligent control for short-
technology breakthroughs that will have game-changing time-scale control
effects on its evolution. What follows is one plausible new- ✔ coordination and optimization for longer-time-scale
technology scenario, described here as an illustration of one control.
of the many potential smart grid technologies that could
change the grid’s design and operational philosophy in fun- New Concept of Smart Integration Module
damental ways. Advancements in power electronics design and fabrication
technology make it possible in principle to design smart inte-
Traditional Grid Design gration modules (SIMs) with the aforementioned function-
and Premises ality at a competitive cost. If shown to be technologically
The design and operation of the traditional power grid is and commercially viable, SIM technology could change the
limited by the basic network components (lines, switches, design and operation philosophy and practice in the distribu-
transformers with on-load tap changers, switchable capaci- tion and transmission systems in profound ways.
tors) available. The traditional grid is built on the following
five premises: Benefits and Impacts
1) The components are predominantly dumb conductors Multiple benefits could result from a SIM-based architec-
and are not controllable. ture. Energy loss would be reduced to a minimum due to
2) Even if they are controllable, they cannot react quick-
ly enough.
3) There is no energy storage; an interruption on the
Voltage Regulator
transmission or distribution grid means an interrup-
tion of service. SS
4) Customer demands are not controllable, and the grid Cap
can only react passively to the change in demands ac Bus ac Bus
with centralized control. Transformer Transformer
5) The grid can only react to the changes by continuously
balancing the output of the central power plants in or- Load Load Load
der to remain in a dynamic equilibrium.
The lack of energy storage, fast reactive and real power
regulation, and distributed generation leads to the traditional figure 5. Traditional distribution system architecture.
system design. Figure 5 shows the traditional distribution
system architecture.
The main function of voltage regulators is to compensate for
the voltage drop on the feeder and to maintain feeder voltage
SS
within acceptable range at the service point. The main function
of the switchable capacitor banks is to provide reactive power Load Load Load
close to the loads and reduce reactive power flow on the feeder
ac Bus
and energy losses. SIM
dc Bus
New Architecture Energy
Load Load
Storage DG
and Enabling Technology
With distributed generation, energy storage, and fast-
acting converter/inverter technology, a new distribution figure 6. New distribution system architecture with SIM.

march/april 2010 IEEE power & energy magazine 47

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Society in general and the power industry in particular are faced
with the challenges and opportunities of transforming the power grid
ushered in by Nicola Tesla some 120 years ago into a smart grid.

Conclusion
We live in a very critical and exciting time in the evolution of
ac Load
the electric power industry. Society in general and the power
industry in particular are faced with the challenges and
UPS dc Load
ac/dc opportunities of transforming the power grid ushered in by
Battery Nicola Tesla some 120 years ago into a smart grid. A smart
grid will help the world manage demand growth, conserve
energy, maximize asset utilization, improve grid security
figure 7. Traditional solution.
and reliability, and reduce its carbon footprint. Smart grid
technology is not a single silver bullet but a collection of
existing and emerging standards-based, interoperable tech-
ac Load nologies working together. Controllable technologies for
SIM
dc Load supply, demand, power flow, and storage provide the means
to implement decisions made by smart control algorithms
Battery and thus create value. ABB already provides its customers
with many of the smart grid technologies described here and
continues to research and develop power control technolo-
figure 8. Solution based on SIM technology. gies as well as smart grid applications.

1) maximum utilization of the distributed generation to reduce For Further Reading

the real power flow on the grid and 2) provision of reactive J. Berst, “Why the smart grid industry can’t talk the talk,” Smart
power where it is consumed to reduce the reactive power flow Grid News, Mar. 5, 2009.
on the grid. The power electronics–enabled voltage regula- U.S. House of Representatives, (H.R. 6), Energy indepen-
tion capability of SIMs will ensure a high-quality power sup- dence and security act of 2007,” 2007.
ply at every load connection point by maintaining optimized US Department of Energy (2008), The smart grid: An intro-
voltage levels and compensating for voltage dips, swells, and duction, [Online]. Available: [Link]
flickers. The fast fault current detection and limiting capabil- [Link].
ity will reduce the fault-breaking needs of circuit breakers on European Commission, “European smart grid technology
the feeder. The energy storage will provide a short- to medi- platform,” Luxembourg, 2006.
um-term power supply buffer so that customer service will Joint US-China Cooperation on Clean Energy (JUCCCE),
not be interrupted in the event of short-term disruption on the “Smart grid-future grid?—A basic information report on smart
distribution or transmission grid. This will relax the design grid,” Dec. 18, 2007.
requirements on the transmission grid. National Institute of Standards and Technology (Sept.
2009), “NIST framework and roadmap for smart grid interop-
Data Center Application erability standards,” Release 1.0 (Draft), [Online]. Available:
SIM technology could greatly simplify the supplying of [Link]
power to data centers, a growing market segment, as well as [Link]
improve reliability and reduce energy losses. Figures 7 and Edison Electric Institute, “Understanding smart grid. From
8 illustrate this solution. definition to deployment,” Washington, D.C., Mar. 2009.

Incremental Transition Path Biographies

SIM technology is migration-friendly. It can be deployed Enrique Santacana is president and CEO of ABB Inc.
incrementally and is compatible with the existing distribu- Gary Rackliffe is vice president of smart grids at ABB Inc.
tion system. This is a desirable characteristic, for it allows Le Tang is a vice president and head of the U.S. Corpo-
today’s system to be transformed gradually into tomorrow’s rate Research Center at ABB Inc.
intelligent system, the smart grid, by changing out tradi- Xiaoming Feng is executive R&D consulting engineer at
tional transformers one at a time. ABB Inc.’s U.S. Corporate Research Center. p&e

48 IEEE power & energy magazine march/april 2010

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of the Phillippines. Downloaded on August 17,2020 at 07:32:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.