Tuesday, June 29, 2004

'MICROGRID' POWER NETWORKS
Next-generation architecture for the new energy landscape:

The summer 2003 blackout in North America that affected tens of millions of people was the eighth such area-wide outage in seven years and the worst in the United States' history. More than a wake-up call, the blackout was a telling statement on the widely acknowledged weaknesses in the US national electric power grid.

Not surprisingly, the blackout prompted, among other things, calls for massive investment in the grid infrastructure. Avoiding such catastrophes in the US and elsewhere around the world will certainly require substantial investment to improve the hardware, software and human elements of transmission and distribution systems. But it will also take a willingness to embrace new solutions - including cutting demand through energy efficiency and increasing the use of innovative distributed generation strategies - to ease electrical system strain.

LIGHTENING THE LOAD

In peak load periods, when electricity supplies are tight and the system is at the greatest risk of failure, demand reductions can help the system absorb an unexpected shock from equipment failure, maintenance mistake, or an intentional disruption of power supply.

Over the last two decades...(Full Story)

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