Thursday, May 13, 2010

The New Smart-Grid

On the Scientific American website, there was an article about the new smart grid, so I thought I would check it out. In this article it talked about how there has been a replacement for the traditional power grid. The traditional grid is known for brownouts and blackouts, but the new grid is leaving its designers with high hopes to reduce the number of problems greatly. The new grid will allow for a "two-way flow of both electricity and data". There is however, one large problem with the new grids. They pose a huge security risk because traditional grids have the problem of cyber-security, but the new grid adds a whole new level of complexity to ensuring the people using the grid safety. The problem with is that a computer hacker who is able to tamper with the smart meters would be able to not only effect a handful of homes, but have the potential to shut down power to 15,000 homes within 24 hours.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=securing-the-smart-grid

No comments:

Post a Comment