A complete smart grid program is planned at this year's IEEE PES T&D Conference to highlight lessons and identify opportunities as experts reflect upon the most recent smart grid developments.
The Smart Grid Day opens on Wednesday, May 9 at 8 a.m. with Wanda Reder, IEEE Smart Grid chairperson addressing the IEEE approach for coordinating smart grid activity and reviewing the IEEE Smart Grid day.
Next up is "Smart Grid Standards: Development and Gaps," with John McDonald, GE Energy and NIST SGIP Governing Board chair moderating. The session covers recent standards developments and efforts to address interoperability gaps. The harmonization of standards and how international coordination impacts trade barriers will also be discussed. It will also address the importance of utility participation in standards development including the benefits to the utility and their personnel who are involved in the process.
Panelists include:
- George Arnold, NIST
- Damir Novosel, Quanta Technology and IEEE PES
- Chuck Adams, IEEE
- Richard Schomberg, IEC
- Lynda Ziegler, Southern California Edison
Lessons that have been learned from real smart grid installations around the world will be shared in the next session at 10:45 a.m. Speakers will discuss the benefits, metrics, process changes and considerations that are needed to truly translates smart grid technology into a people-driven real grid. Chris Irwin, U.S. Department of Energy, will moderate.
The good intentions of utilities and all the best practices in the world don't mean a thing if consumers don't believe what they are hearing from their energy provider. The panel, Connecting with the Community at 1 p.m., will discuss different strategies to reflect and build a groundswell of public support for grid modernization. The panel will discuss the barriers and solutions to making effective public connections.
In addition they will address how technical and business teams communicate the value of the technology to support goals and aspirations of communities, rather than viewing the technology as the goal in itself. The importance of forming partnerships with other stakeholders to actively listen, share control with other messengers, provide greater transparency to engaged citizens of varied perspectives, and provide a credible case for SG investment will also be examined.
"The Future of Smart Grid: Technology, Policy, Standards and Consumer Behavior" will be at 3:15 p.m. Motivations, venture funding, national and state policies and job growth are some of the factors that will be addressed. In addition, this panel will share their thoughts on where technology is headed, how and when policy might change, how standards will affect our future and best practices that have successfully moved the smart grid forward.
