An energy first as UK successfully transmits data via national electricity grid
New technology is a significant step towards the creation of virtual power stations that would enable smarter electricity use by homes and businesses
Data has been transmitted across a national electricity grid for the first time, in what could be a significant step towards the creation of virtual power stations, where many thousands of homes and businesses combine to manage electricity use more smartly.
The new technology could lead to lower energy bills for consumers who allow small variations in the energy consumption of their appliances, such as water heaters or freezers.
The flexibility provided by thousands of appliances combined could reduce peaks in energy use and remove the need for some large new gas or nuclear power stations or polluting diesel generator farms that are started up in times of short supply.
The new data system, created using telecoms technology by Reactive Technologies (RT) and now successfully tested on the UK?s National Grid, could also allow the optimum use of intermittent renewable energy, an important feature given the fast-rising proportion of green energy on the grid.
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Hopefully the apparent need for truck-sized resistors makes it more difficult to hack than some things - but what if someone were to hijack the control of this system? So that devices increased their consumption (as much as they can) at a critical moment when the real need is to reduce it as fast as possible? The bigger the potential benefits of any system like this, the bigger the potential problems if mis-used.