Energy.gov

It’s #GridWeek on Energy.gov. We’re highlighting our efforts to maintain a reliable, resilient and secure electric grid across the country, and what that means for you. We’ll be hosting a Twitter chat on How the Grid Works on Thursday November 20 at 2 PM EDT. Send us your questions on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ using #GridWeek.

Over the next five days, the Energy Department will highlight some of the exciting progress in transforming our nation’s power grid into a system that is more resilient, reliable and better able to meet the changing demands of our 21st century society.

Some of the work has been catalyzed by the Recovery Act-funded Smart Grid Investment Grant and Smart Grid Demonstration programs. Thanks to the Department’s joint investment with industry of over $9 billion, the electricity industry has rolled out millions of advanced technologies that can help prevent outages, reduce storm impacts and restore service faster. The lessons learned from those deployments are being shared across the nation. On October 27, for example, I joined representatives from the Electric Power Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina to hear about utilities’ experiences with making the grid smarter, the benefits that consumers are seeing and what comes next.

We are also continuing to improve the security of our energy infrastructure and protect the grid from all hazards, including cyber incidents. Because the components of the electric grid are owned and operated by many entities, both public and private, partnerships are critical in making the grid more secure and to our ability to respond to energy emergencies when they do occur. We’ve also seen successes at the state level as communities look to further enhance the resiliency of the local energy infrastructure through advanced technologies like microgrids and energy storage.

In the future, our nation’s electric grid must deliver reliable, affordable and clean electricity to consumers where and when they want it. In order to carry out this vision, the Department of Energy has launched the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, a strategic partnership between the Energy Department and our National Labs to work together to modernize the grid. The Consortium performs an integrated approach to ensure that Department-funded studies are efficiently coordinated to get the most bang for the taxpayers' buck.

Through this Consortium, the Department aims to become a resource and convener for the diverse and fragmented set of stakeholders including the electricity industry, state and local governments and other federal agencies. Visit the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium page to learn more about the official launch.

Follow Energy.gov throughout the week to learn more about how the nation is building a smarter, more resilient and reliable grid.