Bringing the Electric Grid into the 21st Century

How antiquated is our nation's electric grid? It is so backward and inflexible that in order to integrate more sources of renewable energy, such as wind and solar, the current grid requires that we build more power plants. That's right, in order to burn less fossil fuel, we need to build more fossil fuel-burning plants. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are working on a project that would modernize the grid and essentially bring it into the Internet age by using automated control software to manage demand in real time. The project has been awarded $2.865 million by the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, whose mission is to invest in potentially transformational energy technologies. Berkeley Lab scientists are working with AutoGrid Systems, a Palo Alto, California-based startup which was the prime recipient of the ARPA-E grant, and Columbia University, which has deep expertise in computer algorithms. The proposed new system is an advanced form of "demand response," a scheme that allows customers to adjust their electricity usage automatically in response to price or other signals. Using demand response allows utilities to reduce their peak loads and thus build fewer power plants.