Enabling Electronics for Smart Grid Tech and Beyond

IEEE Spectrum Online and The IEEE Santa Clara Valley Section are pleased to present the first in a series of forums on today's emerging technologies. The leading software, database, and data processing companies—Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP among them—are getting seriously interested in the business opportunities that the smart grid will bring. But what are those opportunities exactly, and what engineering challenges must be met to seize the day successfully? Specifically, how do power system data differ from (say) travel, sales, or traffic data? What about storage and data security requirements? Are there processing problems that are essentially different from those encountered in other kinds of large, complex systems?

The Edison Electric Institute estimates that in the next five to six years, close to 60 million smart meters will be installed in the United States. Most of the country's largest and best-known electricity distributors will be giving their customers a tool that they can use to conserve energy and save money—and that the companies themselves can use to improve reliability, maintenance, and book-keeping. The data requirements associated with the smart grid roll-out will be prodigious and a new business opportunity for semiconductor companies and the companies which partner with them.

These are the questions that will be addressed by our panelists, representing hardware, software, energy and technology companies.