Tough Choices Require Smart Solutions, Phillips Says
November 5, 2009--NRTC President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Phillips shared his vision of the smart grid with attendees of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association regional meetings that took place across the country this fall. Phillips talked with electric cooperative general managers and board members about the need to “make the grid smarter” while providing the greatest benefit to the American consumer.
In his remarks, Phillips said that the smart grid is a two-way communication system between the utility and consumer that operates similar to the Internet. He said, “Just as every computer that accesses the Internet has an Internet address, the smart grid would have a Web of access points that could be identified, contacted and controlled. Through these contact points, the grid would automate the flow of electricity, identify and isolate load problems and seamlessly handle supplies of energy from renewable sources like wind or solar—or from storage devices.”
Phillips painted a vision of a grid that would allow customers to automatically interact with it, to respond to price signals or enable the utility to impose peak load control, if necessary, and also engage the consumer on the supply side.
Phillips predicted that “within the next 10 years” electric cooperatives will have:
- A “smarter” grid, created through two-way communications, that is always on, more robust and moving to broadband to facilitate a smart grid that is cyber secure.
- Engaged consumers that make decisions based on real-time information received from their cooperative or remotely through Web-enabled tools.
- A dynamic grid that can deliver and receive power and operate efficiently with self-diagnosing and self-healing capabilities.
He concluded by calling on cooperatives to create a long-term technology plan and budget, and invited members to call on their NRTC Regional Business Managers for assistance, as well as the support of other national organizations like Touchstone Energy, NRECA, CRN and REMDC.