From P2P Foundation

URL = http://gridwise.pnl.gov/

Description

"GridWise is a vision for the future of the power grid, shared by a new U.S. Department of Energy program initiative and an industry alliance. They share a common vision that information technology will profoundly transform the planning and operation of the power grid from central generation down to customer appliances and equipment into a collaborative network filled with information and a myriad of market-based opportunities.

Advanced information technology has changed so much in our society the way we do business, communications, entertainment and education. But it has not yet had similar impact on our energy systems. This is about to change.

GridWise will enable distributed, real-time markets and control to integrate the traditional elements of supply and demand, transmission and distribution with new technologies such as distributed generation, energy storage, and customer load management.

The Department of Energy and the GridWise Alliance (an alliance of leading members of the power and information technology industries) have jointly declared their intention to work together to bring about this transformation sooner, with more impact and greater public good.

What is the GridWise Vision?

GridWise is a vision for the future electric system built upon the fundamental premise that information technology will profoundly transform the planning and operation of the power grid, just as it has changed business, education, and entertainment. It will form the "nervous system" that integrates new distributed technologies-demand response, distributed generation, and storage—with traditional grid generation, transmission, and distribution assets to share responsibility for managing the grid as a collaborative "society" of devices.

To do this GridWise will:

• Provide the incentive for customer and third-party assets to collaborate with existing grid assets to control costs and improve reliability by revealing the true time- and location-dependent value of electricity.

• Provide the basis for collaboration by allowing the revealed values to be shared in real-time by leveraging broadband communications that are rapidly becoming ubiquitous.

• Provide the means to take advantage of the opportunities for collaboration so revealed, and capture value in return, through rapid advances in distributed controls and e-business applications.

What are GridWise Technologies?

GridWise technologies are summarized here in three general categories:

• Distributed Resources. These are physical, capital assets that generate, store, or consume electric power and that are not broadly considered or deployed as grid assets at present. Among these are demand response, distributed generation, and electricity storage.

• Communications Technologies. These are the mechanisms for transporting information among all participants collaborating in the operation of the power grid. These include communication media, information security, privacy and authentication, machine to machine, and E-commerce.

• Control and Software Applications. These are the controls and software that utilize information provided through the communication technologies, and an extended set of sensors, to operate existing grid resources and the distributed resources as an integrated system to make the grid more cost effective, reliable and robust. There are many, many potential applications; among these are: customer information gateways, smart meters and automated meter reading, demand response and energy management systems, Grid-Friendly appliances/equipment/processes, distribution automation, market operations, autonomous agents for power purchasing, load forecasters, transactive control for distribution and transmission systems , and emergency end-use curtailment.

What is the GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC)?

The GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC) is an independent effort stemming from a number of related endeavors, including the DOE's GridWise Program. The GWAC is not a formal DOE advisory board. In the context of its engagement in the GridWise vision, the DOE is providing limited financial and logistical support to the Architecture Council. The GridWise Architecture Council assembles a focused team of experts to articulate the guiding principles that constitute the architecture of a future, intelligent, transactive, energy system and see that GridWise evolutionary directions remain true to these principles. The GWAC Bylaws describe the roles, responsibilities, policies and procedures that govern the operation of the council; the GWAC Terms of Reference overview the goals, missions and scope of the Architecture Council." (http://gridwise.pnl.gov/moreinfo/faqs.stm)