Toward Social Awareness in the Smart Grid

Advances in power electronics, communications and control technologies employed by Electric Utilities, have been gradually shifting the way the grid is being operated for many years. These, together with small scale renewable energy and micro-generation capabilities are now forcing the philosophy of grid operation to be rethought from the ground up. The future is likely to be a network of power prosumers (producer-consumers) who must be managed by a central coordinating body. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that increased data can give us not only additional information about the system but also about customers. This paper posits the idea of building more social sensitivity into the the operation of the grid to enhance demand side management, emergency management and building Rawlsian principles into prosumer interactions with the utility. It also gives a conceptual overview of the infrastructure topologies required to enable this shift, but does not concern itself with auxiliary matters such as cyber security.