ABSTRACT
Before we can seek to understand what it means when we say Smart Grid, an already loaded term with numerous meanings, we ˜rst need to understand the electrical grid itself that we’re trying to make smarter. “The U.S. power supply network is the largest, most complex machine ever created and engages the most complex enterprise. It involves some 5,000 corporate entities, 100 million customers, four distinct forms of ownership and multiple levels of regulatory oversight.”1 In essence, it is a mechanism to deliver electricity from generation plants to homes and businesses that use the electricity, leveraging long-distance transmission lines that eventually usher power to local distribution grids that step down electricity to a voltage that is usable. Along the way, sensors, switches, capacitor banks, and reclosers use manual and automated controls to properly route the electricity and protect against harm and outages. In particular, special protection systems or remedial action schemes2 are in place to ensure that disruptions in one part of the electrical grid do not cascade to affect the rest of the grid.
