One element of the stimulus package generating a lot of attention: How to modernize the nation’s power grid. Although the U.S. still relies on old technology to generate and distribute our electricity, investments are being made to digitize the grid, to make it smarter and more efficient.

Out of the roughly $787 billion stimulus spending President Barack Obama signed into law this week, $4.4 billion is marked to help modernize the electricity grid.

A digitized electric grid would require a robust broadband system, so that home meters and appliances could communicate with one another, and information could be sent back to utilities.

A digitized smart grid could benefit in ways such as these:

• Better manage peak and off-peak electricity use, so to cut costs by reducing waste;

• Prevent widespread blackouts such as the infamous power grid failure of 2003;

• Allow appliances to communicate with each other and the grid, in order to adjust energy use to take advantage of off-peak use. (This is akin to making a cell phone call after 9 p.m. to save money.)

The point: Making broadband access widely and cheaply available is much more than just providing broadband for broadband’s sake. Broadband access is vital to the success of modernizing America, whether through an updated power grid or by bringing any number of other public and private services into 21st century capabilities.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2009-01-29-smart-grid-energy_N.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/06/news/economy/smart_grid/index.htm?postversion=2009010818