Data Concentrators are Key to Engineering a Smarter Grid.
According to a recent Annual Energy Outlook, worldwide energy consumption will increase 50 percent by 2035, and electricity alone will increase by 30 percent during the same time. Global demand for electrical power has outstripped supply and there’s no end to the situation in sight. Unfortunately, only generating more power is not a viable solution. A more feasible way for both the short and long term is to be more efficient with the electrical power that is already being generated and distributed over the grid.
A step in this direction would be to make the grid itself more intelligent so that power utilities, governmental regulators, power distribution companies and consumers could better monitor, analyze and control energy generation, distribution and usage. Along with smart meters deployed worldwide in the last ten years, data concentrators play a key role in enabling intelligent power consumption with more robust end-to-end communications.
Learn about the challenges facing the smart grid, and technology to consider when designing a data concentrator (including communication) in this full article in EE Catalog today!
It was written by James Hao, TI's grid infrastructure expert.
For more information about TI's solutions for the smart grid, visit www.ti.com/smartgrid.
