Smart Grid Paves Green Energy Highway

Green jobs that will deliver the smart grid's energy saving choices to the largest user technology base through wireless networks may be the new frontier.

Imagine a monitoring device that measures energy usage in your office or home sending an alert to your cell phone, notifying you there are energy zapping devices plugged in that are not in use.  

But just when we think the tools and software will be coming available for consumer’s to monitor, the mainstream concept may be several years away. However, a step in the direction of faster implementation is on its way through wireless devices, which will enable this green energy market to open up faster through wireless networks, says SmartSynch CEO Stephen Johnston, manufacturer of smart grid wireless technologies, in a recent interview on CNBC.     

What is the smart grid? The smart grid is the transformation of the aging electric grid that is to be retrofitted with smart technologies within an environmental, social, and economic framework. The environmental driver is the call to incorporate renewable energy resources by federal government and utility providers response to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, as well as make the overarching electrical supply and distribution system more reliable and secure. What’s important at this moment is the economic funding mechanism that is part of the federal program, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act  2009. Leadership of the smart grid’s policy, standards, and implementation is overseen and conducted by the Department of Energy, Office of Electricity.  

Consumers may have some reassurance that our environmental concerns and opportunities for energy independence may actually become reality, as some states are enabling access to more utilities and energy providers. For example, in New Jersey, you not only have a choice of energy providers, but smart grid technology programs are already underway such as offered by Jersey Central Power & Light’s  EasyGreen, which is a voluntary program that enables consumers and business customers to reduce overall electricity to help adjust for peak demands.

So what’s this about the Green Energy Highway? We are now on the cusp of a new green market of green energy for gadgets and devices, too. The smart grid is to the green energy highway--as computer information systems, smart devices, and colorful apps are to the information highway of the Internet.   

What are we going to call the Green Energy Highway, the Energynet? As an extension of the Internet, this would be a great concept because the Internet could benefit with a new heavy weight or top level domain in its own right. For Energynet, this could be something like dot zap. This is really energy economics in motion, and more technological breakthroughs are happening now.