subject: Improving Energy Efficiency With Smart Grid Projects [print this page] Smart grid project will help improve energy efficiency within an energy grid and could help a lot in realizing savings on electricity and saving the environment.
The retail sector, as well as other business enterprises and entities, are implementing smart grid projects in an effort to save on energy costs, move towards energy independence and become a positive influence on the environment by reducing harmful greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.
There are a number of smart grid projects that companies can implement, depending on their infrastructure. Among the efforts are smart meters to better monitor electricity usage, energy management software to monitor, track and report all forms of energy use, and renewable generation, such as solar panels or wind power.
Federal policy makers, environmentalists and regulators are pushing for companies to observe energy efficiency. The new US administration has signified its intention to make the national energy grid modernized in line with it economic stimulus. Organizations are thereby encouraged to benefit from federal funding by state and federal initiatives which will make enhancements and improvements to enterprise energy infrastructure.
To make efforts on energy efficiency, security, and reliability a success, there will be a great dependence on automated systems and platforms as enterprises are already transforming aggressively in this stance. Information management will be of utmost importance to achieving interoperability of an entity's infrastructure of devices and systems.
Smart grid projects will be making a significant mark in making energy independence and security a sustainable legacy. There are several key factors in which entities can realize success, including tracking how power is used and being able to control their own usage; having the ability to lower their energy bills by shifting a portion of their usage to off-peak times; with the capacity to monitor use of electricity at the facility level; and being able to better fulfill energy needs through demand response.
Smart grid projects will help improve the condition of our environment as it could lead tot he reduction of water use, pollutants and GHG emissions. Action is needed in order to preserve the health of our planet in the future.
There are several initiatives underway aimed at energy efficiency and independence. For instance, the U.S. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has been directed by the Congress under the U.S. Commerce Department to define as Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Roadmap which will establish milestones and benchmarks for energy distribution and transmission; building to grid for commercial entities; home to grid for residential customers; industrial to grid for the industry sector; business and policy to address business and political issues; and cyber security. The document is expected to be released in September 2009.
As the cost of energy continues to rise, many companies are looking towards installing enterprise energy management software. This valuable tool provides a company with extensive information about their energy consumption equipment throughout all their sites and locations. By combining historical and real-time energy use data, companies are able to measure and manage their energy use and costs and identify areas where energy efficiency projects can be implemented.
