Smart Power

A smart grid could allow manufacturers more control over their power consumption.

Could the day come when manufacturers adjust their production schedules according to real-time electricity price rates? That's the hope of Gridwise Alliance, a consortium of automation and utility companies exploring technologies that will revolutionize the nation's electricity grid. While still in the development stages, the eventual goal is to utilize information technologies that will result in a "smart grid" that will provide flexible and adaptive power for all consumers.

For manufacturers, this might mean the ability to monitor electricity prices hourly, much like the stock market or an eBay auction, says David Hardin, technology officer for Invensys Process Systems Eastern Operations and a member of the Gridwise Architecture Council.

"Pricing information will be richer than it is now, and fluctuate more in real time, with fluctuating price information entering the manufacturing equation," explains Hardin. "Then, intelligent systems can take that information and do some online energy management relative to the pricing information that's coming from the utilities. So it adds another dimension to power management and energy management in a plant."

http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=15947&SectionID=16