A story on CNET offers insight into a day in the life of a smart grid operator. The piece spotlights a company called ISO New England.

ISO New England is one of the nation’s independent system operators, also known as  regional transmission organizations. It operates a building at which megawatts of energy flow from state to state; employees get energy based both on demand forecasts and real-time requirements; and technicians monitor energy-related gear to ensure things are running smoothly. And now it also is involved in a Department of Energy project involving synchrophasors.

These devices are high-speed sensors that will be installed at various major substations to collect detailed information as current, voltage, and the phase angle. While in the past this data had been gathered about once every four seconds, these phasor measurement units will gather data 30 times a second, which is then synchronized with a GPS clock.

For ISO New England, this move to embrace synchrophasors and the smart grid involves a three-year, $18 million project.

To learn more about the smart grid, TMC invites you to attend the Smart Grid Summit, collocated with ITEXPO from Oct. 4 through 6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.