PNNL

Abstract

While efficient, affordable electricity serves as a cornerstone of American prosperity, the nation's electrical system suffers from aging infrastructure, security vulnerabilities and operating instabilities and inefficiencies. Ratepayers must foot the bill for costly mortgages on large capital assets sized to meet peak demands that occur only a few hours per year. Furthermore, in an effort to keep costs down, the grid is being forced to operate beyond what it was designed to do. For the last few decades, leading-edge industries have been using abundant real-time information, e-business systems and market efficiencies to minimize the need for inventory and infrastructure and to maximize productivity and efficiency. However, the power grid has been slow to embrace the transforming potential of information technology to gain these benefits. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's vision for the energy system transformation, the benefits it can bring, and the role the Northwest can play in the growing smart energy sector will be discussed.