Today, the most important potential Smart Grid capabilities are centered on self-awareness and automation, managing thousands—or even millions—of inputs to optimize grid functioning.
For fiscal year 2010 the U.S. DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) Smart Grid research & development budget was $125 million, up from just $83 million in fiscal 2009. The funding request for fiscal 2011 is up almost 16% to $144 million.
Smart Grid funding is still hardware focused, particularly for the installation of smart meters. But advanced meters and other sensors are just the fingers of an emerging smarter electrical grid. Rather it is the data that these devices generate and the backend applications that will manage and use said data that will be the nervous system and brain of an active and fully capable Smart Grid.
At EIM, we are working on building an energy information hub bringing our information management expertise in this domain in a more productized fashion. Contact us for more information.
