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The U.S. Government Spends $3.9 Billion to Develop Smart Grids
At the "2009 EEI (Edison Electric Institute) Annual Convention/Expo" held in San Francisco, USA from June 23 to 25, 2009, Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), announced that DOE planned to allocate a total of 3.9 billion dollars to invest in smart grids.Steven Chu introduced the dangers of global warming to the power operator executives who came to participate in the seminar, and emphasized the importance of renewable energy in preventing global warming. In addition, Steven Chu also said that “smart grids are essential if we want to further introduce renewable energy sources such as wind power.”
The US$3.9 billion in funds allocated by DOE are mainly used for projects recorded in the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act)" established in February 2009. In this release, power operators and other groups can formally apply to DOE for funding when formulating smart grid-related project plans.
The funds allocated by DOE are mainly used for 2 projects. One is the "Smart Grid Investment Grant Program", which can accelerate the commercialization of smart grid-related technologies, with an allocation of US$3.3 billion. The other is a project to pilot cutting-edge technologies for smart grids, with US$615 million allocated.
Most relevant industry personnel agree that in order to commercially operate large-scale smart grids, there must be a standard specification recognized by the industry. Steven Chu of the DOE said that the "Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007", a law established in 2007, mentioned that the government has the right to formulate relevant standards and specifications for smart grids. However, when Steven Chu took office as DOE Secretary of Energy in January 2009, this standard had not yet been formulated. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), with the assistance of DOE, officially launched the process of determining smart grid-related standards in April 2009. Zhu Diwen said that more than 80 standard specifications have been formulated. But more than 70 problems were also discovered. To solve these problems, NIST is seeking help from the industry.
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