NIST - Final report Strategic R&D opportunities for the Smart Grid
Conclusions
The smart grid has enormous potential to modernize and
transform our electricity system, producing positive impacts
on the economy, the environment, energy security, and many
aspects of everyday life. Realizing the potential of the smart grid
requires new technologies, measurement science, standards, and
even new market paradigms. Collaborative efforts of multiple
stakeholders are also essential to these efforts. The result will be
planning and operations that take full advantage of smart grid
capabilities.
The smart grid will rely heavily on a central computational
system that is tightly linked and coordinated with components
in the physical world. Achieving this system requires advances in
systems science and engineering that will enable effective design
as well as improvements to communication and networking
infrastructure. Multidisciplinary R&D efforts will encompass
computer science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, and a
full spectrum of physical sciences—even extending into ethics,
psychology, and a broad array of human factors.
This report is a call to action. Progress has been made, but there
are many challenges ahead. Overcoming these challenges creates
exciting opportunities to ensure that the United States is a leader
in the design, development, and adoption of a smart grid. The
benefits to the nation from a modernized grid will be immense.
Significant opportunities outlined in this call to action include
the following:
- Optimize smart grid capabilities for system planning
and operations—essential for utilizing the capabilities of
the smart grid to streamline and improve the efficiency of
generation, transmission, and distribution.
- Develop smart tools and technologies to utilize DR, load
control, and EE—key to the greater and more efficient use
of alternative sources of energy and balancing the ebb and
flow of power on the grid.
- Expand and upgrade infrastructure to improve
communications and interconnectivity—makes possible
real-time monitoring and scheduling of electricity,
collection and dissemination of massive amounts of data,
and pervasive networking of multiple components.
- Develop infrastructure to assure security and
resilience—secures the grid against cyber and
physical attacks, while ensuring the protection of
information.
- Create models to foster smart grid investment
and inform regulatory frameworks—essential for
spurring future investment, understanding the costs
and benefits of the smart grid, and creating effective
regulations.