We’ve covered a lot of articles about Smarts Grids, Smart Meters, and how they potentially return money to consumers. Well, here’s yet another article on the subject from the Dallas Morning News. In the article, it talks about how Oncor got some federal funding for their smart grid initiative, which has to be great news after they were rejected for some stimulus funding a couple weeks ago.
The article then goes into the advantages of a smart grid, which we’ve already covered on this blog before. Basically, the electric service will be positively impacted by Oncor’s ability to monitor how much energy is currently on a line, as well as the demand for electricity on the grid. This in turn can affect things as far afield as regulating green electricity needs, as well as whether or not to fire up new electric plants when demand is high. Basically, the message is consistent with everyone we’ve said about smart grids and Texas electricity this entire time: Smart Grid technology and Smart meters continue to get a bigger and bigger push and aren’t a passing fad. Between increased and continued funding, plus the internal commitment from the TDSP’s like Oncor and Centerpoint, the Smart Grid technology and the Smart Meters that will take the utmost advantage of them are the wave of the future, and will revolutionize both our bills as well as our energy reserves. And Texas is first in line ahead of the rest of the country in building out and utilizing this technology to the fullest.
In fact, for those people who already have Smart Meters in the Oncor area, there’s an online application by Google called their Power Meter that allows people to monitor and measure their current electric intake in real time. I might do a write-up on that technology in a later post, so let me know if you’re interested in leanring more about it from Texas Electricity Ratings.