But the facts are it notes are ominous, namely  a recent CapGemini report, which indicated that electricity output has fallen to its lowest level in ten years.

Technical support manager at Chloride (right) Rob Tanzer also pointsto National Grid figures showing that there were 49 instances of power loss to customer premises last year. "While this highlights the potential risk to business continuity, it must be remembered that brownouts, spikes and surges can all harm sensitive electronic equipment," he adds.

Earlier this week, SimCorp StrategyLab revealed that risk management is losing status at many UK organisations, with just 31% having structures reporting directly to the board of directors.

US sees its smart grid as stimulous
In the US, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has just released its roadmap for producing Smart Grid standards, an aggressive three-phase program to develop key technical standards for an intelligent power distribution grid by the end of the year.

The Smart Grid program established in the Energy Independence & Security Act of 2007 has been identified as an important element of the Obama administration’s economic recovery program, with the promise of creating jobs, contributing to energy independence and curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

With money for developing and fielding new electric grid technology  becoming available with the economic stimulus law, industry now needs standards for interoperability and security. “We are working with a sense of urgency to expedite the development of standards critical to ensuring a reliable and robust Smart Grid,” said NIST deputy director Patrick Gallagher.

The NIST  three-phase approach:

• Develop a consensus among utilities, equipment suppliers, consumers, standards developers and other stakeholders on needed standards; and producing a Smart Grid architecture, an initial set of standards to support implementation and plans for developing remaining standards by early fall.

• Launch formal partnerships to develop the remaining needed standards.

• Develop a program for testing and certification to ensure that Smart Grid equipment and systems comply with standards.

The Smart Grid would use intelligent networking and automation to better control the flow and delivery of electricity to consumers. It is “a fully automated power delivery network that monitors and controls every customer and node, ensuring a two-way flow of electricity and information between the power plant and the appliance, and all points in between,” the Energy Department said in its National Vision for Electricity’s Next 100 Years report.

 “Its distributed intelligence, coupled with broadband communications and automated control systems, enables real-time market transactions and seamless interfaces among people, buildings, industrial plants, generation facilities, and the electric network.”

The Energy Independence and Security Act gave Energy the overall lead of the Smart Grid program and assigned NIST the job developing a framework of standards and protocols to ensure interoperability and security. Final standards will be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has regulatory authority over the interstate industry.

NIST established a full-time position to lead Smart Grid activities in March and named George Arnold, (right) NIST deputy director of technology services to head up the effort. Arnold formerly with Bell Laboratories, was chairman of the American National Standards Institute. He says the timeline is doable because much of the work already has been done by industry, and NIST’s job will be to prioritise needs and identify existing standards to meet them.

NIST has already awarded a $1.3m  contract to the Electric Power Research Institute of Palo Alto, Calif., to help develop an interim report on Smart Grid architecture and a standards roadmap. A stakeholders’ summit to help develop a consensus on needs is being scheduled for May 19 and 20 in Washington and the interim roadmap expected by early summer.

The stimulus law provides $4.5bn to help Energy  jump start Smart Grid. NIST will use part of its own appropriation under the recovery act together with $10m from Energy to carry out the standards development program.

Spain & UK team but only on renewables integration
Back in the UK the consuming needs it appears is how to distribute power  from small scale community renewables with technology experts from the UK’s leading renewable energy R&D centre at NaREC working with their counterparts at CENER, National Renewable Energy Centre of Spain to research new ways of generating and distributing power from small-scale renewables within local communities.

Working with Spanish and UK communities of between 10 and 25,000, the project aims to demonstrate the most appropriate way to integrate low carbon power generation technologies into a localised, community-based electrical system. Such technologies could include small-scale wind turbines, solar power, fuel cells, reciprocating engines and many other innovative sustainable energy technologies.

They will also be looking at the best options for storage, control, transmission and distribution of this power on a localised electrical network, which could be an alternative to connecting to the national electrical grid network.

Dr Keith Melton, (right) director of Technology and Innovation at NaREC is excited by the possibilities. “This is an important project for us," he says. "We are addressing renewable solutions at a community level in a way which has not yet been previously attempted by the energy industry. We can pool our expertise to identify more effective, innovative solutions which can hopefully be implemented in both countries in the future.”

His counterpart at CENER, Mr Fernando Sanchez Sudón is equally enthused: “The current energy situation is a global problem. It is only through international partnerships such as these, which develop practical solutions to be implemented at a local level, that we can truly evolve the way we generate and consume power.”

Grid becomes political issue?
Alas the idea of actually revamping the UK's main grid to make it smart seems to have become a political issue. The UK Conservative party is calling for a Smart Grid, in what US observers see may be an attempt to out-green the party of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with a Smart Grid proposal covering electricity, gas, and electrical customers.

According to Metering.com, the plan also includes “a system of feed-in tariffs for home renewable generation,” incentives for improvements in home energy efficiency, and a series of recharging stations for electric and hybrid vehicles.  Because distribution of electricity and gas are controlled by a single company in the UK (the National Grid), implementation (if it ever gets the go-ahead) is likely to happen far faster than in the United States reckon the observers. 

Here's hoping.

British Standards Institute Newsletter
NIST Smart Grid
UK & Spain smart with energy
UK Smart Grid
NaREC