Smart grid
electrical grid operated by automatic control devices or controled and maintained from distance
The smart grid is an enhancement of the 20th century electrical grid, using two-way communications and distributed so-called intelligent devices. Two-way flows of electricity and information could improve the delivery network. Research is mainly focused on three systems of a smart grid: the infrastructure system, the management system, and the protection system. Electronic power conditioning and control of the production and distribution of electricity are important aspects of the smart grid.
The smart grid represents the full suite of current and proposed responses to the challenges of electricity supply. Numerous contributions to the overall improvement of energy infrastructure efficiency are anticipated from the deployment of smart grid technology, in particular including demand-side management. The improved flexibility of the smart grid permits greater penetration of highly variable renewable energy sources, such as solar power and wind power, even without the addition of energy storage. Smart grids could also monitor/control residential devices that are noncritical during periods of peak power consumption, and return their function during nonpeak hours.
A smart grid includes a variety of operation and energy measures:
Advanced metering infrastructure (of which smart meters are a generic name for any utility side device even if it is more capable e.g., a fiber optic router)
Smart distribution boards and circuit breakers integrated with home control and demand response (behind the meter from a utility perspective)
Load control switches and smart appliances, often financed by efficiency gains on municipal programs (e.g., PACE financing)
Renewable energy resources, including the capacity to charge parked electric vehicle (EV) batteries or larger arrays of batteries recycled from these, or other energy storage.
Energy efficient resources
Electric surplus distribution by power lines and auto-smart switch
Sufficient utility grade fiber broadband to connect and monitor the above, with wireless as a backup.
“Smart grid” enters the record as electrical grid operated by automatic control devices or controled and maintained from distance. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Smart, grid and electrical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q689855. The Library of Congress control number is sh2011003732. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Smart grid” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.