Electricity to power ’smart grid’

Global electricity networks could become smart grids that can help us monitor and control our energy usage, if plans from net firm Cisco take off.

The giant US firm, whose technology helps underpin the net, is building a two-way link into electricity grids.

Smart grids would allow devices to communicate with utility firms to give an accurate view of energy use that could cut CO2 emissions by 211m tonnes.

Cisco believes the market could be worth up to $20bn a year.

The basic premise is to link different parts of the electrical grid – from a single home to the largest of power stations – using a customised network based on internet protocol (IP).

Cisco says the proposal would be a “once in a generation capital investment”.

With the rising cost of electrical power and concerns about how that power is generated – especially when it comes to fossil fuels – a number of other firms are also making a bid to modernise the electrical networks.

IBM launched a range of embedded software applications, although these communicate through the regular internet, rather than via the mains; General Electric and a number of new start-up firms are also making bids to capture a slice of the market.

Cisco says its system is different, because it would send the IP data down the power lines themselves, rather than using the internet.

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Tags: capital investment, cisco, co2 emissions, electrical grid, electrical networks, electrical power, electricity grids, electricity networks, energy usage, energy use, fossil fuels, global electricity, Innovation, internet protocol ip, ip data

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 3:30 pm and is filed under BBC, Innovation, Project Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.