Energy futureSmarter electric grid key to saving power, I

In his home in Milton, Ontario, just outside Toronto, George Tsapoitis installed a device which may show the way for a smarter — and more efficient — electrical grid. A few times this summer, when millions of air conditioners strain the Toronto region’s power grid, that pencil-tip-sized amber dot will blink. It will be asking Tsapoitis to turn the switch off — unless he’s already programmed his house to make that move for him. AP’s Brian Bergstein writes that this is the beginning of a new way of thinking about electricity, and the biggest change in how we get power since wires began veining the landscape a century ago. For all the engineering genius behind the electric grid, the vast network ferrying energy from power plants through transmission lines is not especially smart when it meets our homes. We flip a switch or plug something in and generally get as much power as we are willing to pay for. These days the environmental consequences and unfriendly economics of energy appear unsustainable. As a result, power providers and technology companies are making the electric grid smarter. It will stop being merely a passive supplier of juice. Instead, power companies will be able to cue consumers, like those amber lights in Tsapoitis’ house, to make choices about when and how they consume power. Most likely, consumers will have their computers and appliances carry out these decisions for them. Done right, the smarter grid should save consumers money in the long run by reducing the need for new power plants, which they pay off in their monthly electric bills. If people fail to react properly to conservation signals, however, their bills could spike.

Smart-grid technologies have gotten small tests throughout North America, as utilities and regulators scout how to coax people to reduce their demand for power. There is little doubt, however, that it is coming. The utility Xcel Energy plans soon to begin a $100 million smart grid project reaching 100,000 homes in Boulder, Colorado. Back in Milton, an exurb where dense subdivisions encroach on farm fields, a test with the Tsapoitis family and 200 other households reveals what will be possible — and how much more work needs to happen. Tsapoitis uses his computer to visit an online control panel that configures his home’s energy consumption. He chooses its temperature and which lights should be on or off