LISA VAN PAY: When people talk about green energy, they're usually talking about how we can turn things
like this, or this, into this. But that's only part of the story. Now that we've got electricity, how do we get it from
here, to here?
This isn't a new problem. When everyone wanted electricity in their homes,
electric companies had to figure out how to get the power from the plant to their customers.
So they built big grids of power lines.
HILARY BROWN: Well, the technologies and methods that we use in the distribution system,
basically have been around since the days of Edison and Tesla. That's over 100 years.
LISA VAN PAY: Really? We have new ways to generate electricity but we're still using
the same 100-year-old technology to get it where it needs to go?
Maybe we need to update that.
Hillary Brown at the Colorado School of Mines is working on doing just that. She's on a team that
studies electric power systems and they've come up with some really cool ways to keep the power flowing.
But because our current system is already so established, we can't just start from scratch.
So how do we improve it without replacing everything?
HILARY BROWN: So we have to look at what changes we can make.
LISA VAN PAY: Okay.
HILARY BROWN: So, um, what we do is we create a computer model that expresses the
system which would be, say, your house or a business. And to the generation sources,
which are renewable, so photo voltaic panel or a wind generator.
LISA VAN PAY: Okay.
HILARY BROWN: And then you have different power lines that connect them. Then you try and
minimize the cost that you're putting into the system or maximizing the benefit you're getting out.
LISA VAN PAY: So an update, that should work. Take what we've already got and make it better.
But what are some of the changes we could make?
HILARY BROWN: One of the reasons we would wanna switch to a smart distribution system is
because we wanna be able to use what's called distributed generation. So instead of having a huge
coal plant way over here and your city over here, you can have lots of tiny little generators at the
different locations in your city, so in an office building or at your house--
LISA VAN PAY: Okay.
HILARY BROWN: --for example.
LISA VAN PAY: But adding renewable resources and updating power lines isn't gonna solve all
our problems. A lot of the time, renewables are far away or unpredictable. That's where the
Smart Grid comes in.
So Sid, a lot of people have been talking about the Smart Grid lately. Why is it such a big deal
and how is it gonna make our lives different?
SID SURYANARAYANAN: Well, the issue with renewable energy, largely solar and wind,
is the variability in the input.
LISA VAN PAY: Okay.
SID SURYANARAYANAN: So we need new devices, new technologies, new methodologies to achieve
that and that is the Smart Grid.
LISA VAN PAY: Okay. So your lab is working on ways to make sure that we have a reliable,
constant stream of electricity even though the ways that we're getting the electricity
might not always be constant.
SID SURYANARAYANAN: That's right.
LISA VAN PAY: Ted Song at UT-Austin is an engineer working on a new piece of technology
that regulates the power that comes from different sources so we can use it in our homes.
TED SONG: Okay. So, when you are trying to connect different sources of energy into
one system, we have control issues. We have to solve a lot of equations and we have
to do computer simulations. Also after computer simulations, we make designs for converters.
LISA VAN PAY: So, you actually had to build this entire converter.
TED SONG: Yes.
LISA VAN PAY: Look at all these cool things.
TED SONG: Right, you know, so it's like-- yes, they go, like having fun with,
you know, different (laughs) components.
LISA VAN PAY: What's that? But it must be fun to be able to build it--
TED SONG: Right.
LISA VAN PAY: --however you want.
TED SONG: Right.
LISA VAN PAY: Kids, you need math.
TED SONG: (laughs)
LISA VAN PAY: Smart grid won't just help us use renewable energy; it will also help us
control the flow of energy to and from our lives. Think about it like a highway. Only right now,
things only move in one direction. All the energy is going from the power company to your house.
But what if we added another lane in the other direction and built some on-ramps? Suddenly,
things are moving back and forth and the whole system can work more efficiently. That seems smart.
JOSUNE ARMAS: The price of energy isn't actually constant during the day, so what happens
is it gets more expensive when more people are trying to use it. So the price of electricity is a bit
higher then . So you have a certain amount of loads that you can't adjust.
They're just--they are what they are.
LISA VAN PAY: So by loads, you mean like big draws of electricity.
JOSUNE ARMAS: Right. Like your dishwasher, your washing machine, your clothes dryer,
things like that that, you know, that if you ran them at 6:00 pm or at 2 o'clock in the morning,
yeah, you don't really like--you're not really gonna care.
LISA VAN PAY: So this information about when I wanna do my laundry or run my dishwasher
ends up directing the flow of traffic on the electricity highway. So it's a lot of times easy
to explain what you work on if you build something that at the end you can
show somebody, "this is what I made".
JOSUNE ARMAS: At the end, the light turned off.
LISA VAN PAY: Yeah. So, for you, what would be success?
JOSUNE ARMAS: Success for me would be having something that's user-friendly,
doing what they call shifting the peak load--
LISA VAN PAY: Okay.
JOSUNE ARMAS: --which is during that time when everyone gets home from work and turns
everything on. If you can move it, you save a lot of money, is really what it is.
LISA VAN PAY: So your definition of success is helping people save money.
JOSUNE ARMAS: Yep, helping people save money.
LISA VAN PAY: I like it.
JOSUNE ARMAS: One house at a time.
LISA VAN PAY: And it's not just about saving money. Let's say your house has solar panels on the roof
and you're actually converting more energy than you need. You could sell that excess
electricity back to the power company. That's good for you and the environment. Electricity:
our lives are all about it. More than ever, we need better ways to keep the energy moving so it can
keep us moving. We've been doing it the same way for so long that we almost forget how the power
for our laptops and cellphones even gets there. Smart Grid will help us change where our
electricity comes from and how we all use it. Because the power that charges your smartphone
should be just as smart.