A National Clean-Energy Smart Grid 101

Published By Center for American Progress

• Published February 2009
• 3 Page(s)

A national clean-energy smart grid will use long-distance, extra-high- voltage transmission lines to move remote clean-energy resources to power load centers. This expanded and upgraded interstate transmission grid will connect to a modernized distribution system— enabled with digital technology—that delivers energy and detailed, real- time information about the use of such energy to consumers. This will allow utility companies and consumers to constantly monitor and adjust their electricity use, while providing a pricing and control system to flexibly integrate new distributed energy resources such as solar and wind power, energy storage devices, and electric vehicles as the batteries in our plug-in cars become a repository for clean electricity. In other words, the grid will allow renewable energy to travel to homes around the country, and enable consumers to feed any excess power they produce back to the grid for other consumers to use.