The world’s largest chipmaker has been looking at the smart grid for about a year. But the slow speed of the market and hesitancy utilities have to swap out older equipment for new is giving it pause.
The smart grid is a mulit billion dollar opportunity for chipmakers.
The smart grid offers a gargantuan opportunity for a company interested in finding new uses for its computer and consumer-electronics chips. Buildings consume about 40 percent of the nation’s power and are responsible for more than 40 percent of its CO2 emissions.
Clearly new ways of doing things need to be found. At the heart of this change is the need for grid devices to have more intelligence and therefore the ability to channel information and control to utility administrators and consumers. It is the ideal job for today’s powerful semiconductors.
But equipment in the grid is typically designed for a 10 to 20 years lifespan. That makes it difficult to quickly incorporate new generations of chips that come out every year or two.
At the same time, adopting technical standards is critical, says Lorie Wigle, general manager of Intel’s eco-technology program office.
Wigle says Intel has 20 people working on an opportunity that for chipmakers of all stripes (not just those making computer chips) could be billions of dollars. Part of the task so far has been to identify where chips might go. Smart substations, plug-in hybrids, in-home displays and renewable energy systems are just some of the spots she has earmarked.
But she is convinced the utility mindset must change. So far, utilities are focused on installing smart gear to reduce costs, putting in a smart meter, for instance, to eliminate the need for a meter reader to drive to a home.
They are not yet thinking of supplying information to consumers, she says. “A lot of the utility activities are moving a lot slower than we might like,” she adds.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
