Estimating the Benefits of the GridWise Initiative

Abstract : This report presents the initial (Phase I) results of a two-phase project undertaken to characterize and estimate the benefits of applying advanced communications and information technologies, through the GridWise(TradeMark) initiative, to bring the aging U.S. electricity grid into the information age. GridWise is a vision, a concept, and a national initiative developed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and participants from the electricity industry. GridWise seeks to link electricity suppliers and end-users with high-speed networks that provide real-time information about system capacities, demand, prices, and status. Its proponents anticipate that the integration of communications and information with the electricity grid will facilitate competitive, efficient markets for power, enable each participant to actively manage its own production and consumption decisions, help the system balance supply and demand under both normal and stressful conditions, and in general provide diagnostic information and tools to better manage both system operations and end-user applications.