Malta to Become First Smart Grid Island
PG&E may be installing millions of smart meters in Northern California, but the nation of Malta (pop. 400,000) is about to become the world’s first smart grid island. IBM is building the island’s national smart grid network, which will consist of 250,000 smart meters placed in homes around the country.
The network will allow Malta’s national utilities to perform remote monitoring, meter-reading, and management of the network. Utilities can then use information collected from these tools to adjust electricity pricing based on the time of day. Island residents will also have the opportunity to track their energy usage online.
US citizens who want to get in on the community smart grid action can head over to Boulder, Colorado— the nation’s first Smart Grid City.
Photo Credit: CC-Licensed by Flickr user Wink
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February 5th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Smart grid technology is one of the keys to building a more efficient power distribution system around the globe. There is much that can be done by way of shifting power consumption to off peak hours and learning about energy usage patterns.
As mentioned in the article, this will often involve established companies like IBM. Now it’s up to corporate America to begin realigning their company practices to support a more sustainable planet.
January 18th, 2010 at 4:27 am
I hope this will provide the understood benefits because right now in Malta we are paying 3x the amount we consume (due to inefficient energy sector). We hope that this would create a more sustainable future…and a cheaper one. We don’t use central heating (or any form of heating) in our homes and we pay as much as the Swiss pay (and they use central heating all year).