Community Corner
Smart Grid, Meters, No Magic Bullet for Damage Done by Major Storms
'Electricity with brains' can speed customer recovery times, help cut consumer bills
In the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, some policymakers and legislators say the state needs to create a smarter power grid, making the system more resilient and quicker to recover from major storms.
According to experts speaking yesterday at an event in Trenton sponsored by the New Jersey Energy Coalition, a smarter grid would help restore power to many -- but not all -- customers in less time. But it is not a panacea to cure all the problems created by such storms.
But there is no question that New Jersey, as well as the rest of the nation, ought to take steps to modernize its power grid, they argued.
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“Without these advanced technologies, we’re not going to meet the demand of the future,’’ predicted Karen Lefkowitz, vice president of Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI), the energy conglomerate that owns Atlantic City Electric, one of four electric utilities in the state.
A smart grid is viewed by proponents as a planned nationwide network that uses information technology to deliver electricity more efficiently and reliably -- so much so that advocates have called it “electricity with a brain.’’
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