IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, today launched the IEEE Smart Grid Web Portal,
an integrated gateway to Smart Grid intelligence, education and news
from IEEE and other expert sources. The Web Portal is designed for
manufacturers, policymakers, educators, academics, governments,
engineers, computer scientists, researchers and other stakeholders in
the power and energy, information technology (IT), and communications
industries.
The IEEE Smart Grid Web
Portal is the first phase of IEEE Smart Grid, created to bring together
IEEE’s broad array of resources to provide expertise and guidance for
those involved in Smart Grid worldwide.
“Contributions from across the global power and energy, communications
and IT industries, as well as government and academia, are needed to
ensure successful implementation of Smart Grid throughout the world.
The IEEE Smart Grid Web Portal is designed to be an essential resource
for anyone involved in Smart Grid, whatever their industry or technical
discipline,” said Wanda Reder, 2008-09 president of the IEEE Power
& Energy Society and chair of the IEEE Smart Grid Task Force. “With
our unmatched diversity of expertise, richness of programs and proven
standards-development capability, IEEE is the obvious global entity to
take on a unifying role in the global Smart Grid arena.”
The term “Smart Grid” refers to the next-generation, managed electrical
power system that leverages increased use of communications and
information technology in the generation, delivery and consumption of
electrical energy. The new IEEE Smart Grid initiative will organize,
coordinate, leverage and build upon the strength of various entities
within and outside of IEEE with Smart Grid expertise and interest.
“The Smart Grid is a revolutionary undertaking, entailing new
capabilities for communications and control, integration of new energy
sources, distributed generation and adoption of a regulatory
structure,” said Erich Gunther, Chairman and CTO with EnerNex and
member of the Department of Energy (DOE) GridWise Architecture Council.
“Successful roll-out requires a phenomenal diversity of expertise and
experience, proven standards-development capability and shared vision.”
Added Steve Diamond, member of the IEEE Board of Directors and past
president of the IEEE Computer Society: “Given its global
representation across the technology spectrum, IEEE is ideally
positioned to deliver thought leadership and coordination to Smart
Grid.”
IEEE Smart Grid leverages IEEE’s long-term commitment to global
modernization and optimization of the power grid to make it more
reliable, efficient, secure and environmentally neutral. IEEE leverages
its strong technical foundation to develop standards, best practices,
publications, conferences and educational opportunities in Smart Grid:
- Standards—IEEE
has more than 100 standards published and in development that are
crucial to the Smart Grid, spanning digital information and controls
technology, networking, security, reliability, assessment,
interconnection of distributed resources including renewable energy
sources to the grid, sensors, electric metering, Broadband over Power
Line (BPL) and systems engineering. - For
example, IEEE. C37.118 is the standard specifying how phasor
measurement units (PMUs) are interconnected to help manage the
transmission system. According to the DOE, $348 million of U.S.
stimulus funding plus matching funds for a total investment of $877
million will go to 11 projects involving installing PMUs. That
translates to over 668 PMUs using the IEEE C37.118 standard to ensure
interoperability is achieved. Also, IEEE P2030 working group is
creating a guide for understanding and defining interoperability of the
electric power system with end-use applications, and work is underway
for the formal recognition of Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) as an
IEEE standard designed to promote interoperability in Smart Grid and
other applications. - Conferences—IEEE
annually hosts more than 850 conferences throughout the world where
information and best practices are exchanged. Over the last four years,
more than 100 Smart Grid technical sessions have been offered. The IEEE
Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference continues today through
Jan. 21 at NIST in Gaithersburg, Md. Attendees are discussing power and
energy-system applications, cyber- and physical-security systems,
wide-area protection in energy systems, smart sensing and advanced
metering infrastructure and smart-grid standards. - Publications—Nearly
2,500 papers focused on the smart grid have been published in more than
40 IEEE journals, and IEEE this year will launch two new
cross-disciplinary and archival journals, “IEEE Transactions on Smart
Grid” and “IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.” - Educational
programs—IEEE courses, webinars and public outreach forums on Smart
Grid technology and public policy take into account the needs of
various audiences throughout the world, including technical and
non-technical professionals and students.
