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The process, Current says, lets a utility more efficiently manage the distribution of electricity by allowing two-way communication between consumers and energy suppliers via the broadband network on the power lines. Based on data they receive from hundreds of homes, utilities can monitor usage and adjust output and pricing in response to demand. Consumers can be rewarded with reduced rates by cutting back on consumption during peak periods. And computerized substations can talk to each other so overloaded circuits hand off electricity to underused ones, helping to prevent blackouts.

Assume for the moment that Congress will not pass a carbon cap-and-trade scheme this year but that it does pass an energy bill that streamlines the siting of new transmission lines and requires utilities to get a certain minimum percentage of their electricity from clean sources. What opportunities would this open for AEP? On the efficiency side it would allow me to put capital to work on GridSmart [AEP's smart-grid initiative]. And instead of being a net buyer of renewable energy from third-party generators, I'd begin to be a net builder of renewables. It's the same issue as always: I'm satisfying a state or federal renewable requirement, and my customers' rates are going to go up anyways, so why shouldn't my shareholders get the benefit of our building that new generating capacity rather than buying the electricity on the market? If I'm just a net buyer in the market, I'm forced to buy solar power at 30 cents, and that goes through to my customers, and I don't think that's fair. I want to make sure my shareholders and my customers get a pretty good shake out of this.

"BEIJING--CHINA will build an "industrial system" and "consumption pattern" with low carbon emissions, Premier Wen Jiabao said in the government work report delivered at the parliament's annual session yesterday. The country will work hard to develop low-carbon technologies as well as new and renewable energy resources to actively respond to climate change, Wen said at the session of the National People's Congress, adding that the development of smart power grids should be intensified. "

It's not always about numbers and science. The general appeal for this idea might make it work, even though - from an engineering viewpoint - it's like trying to build a fortune saving nickels and dimes.

Interesting idea to simulate the integration of load with renewable generation.

"What if surplus renewable energy could be stored as computation instead? That's the thinking behind "information batteries," a new system proposed by Raghavan and Jennifer Switzer, a Ph.D. student from UC San Diego, published recently in the ACM Energy Informatics Review."