Incorporating weather into the Smart Grid

The Smart Grid is a term that is often used to describe a market-basket of technologies that are intended to make every facet of the electric delivery system more efficient. This paper describes how Telvent, one of the leading global providers of today's Smart Grid technologies, is integrating weather information into the system. Many different aspects of weather information use are described including weather for load forecast modeling, transmission, distribution, and outage management decision support systems, and the weather challenges of renewable energy sources. The key reason for including weather information is the return on investment that weather information provides. Finally, a list of the evolving needs for weather information in the Smart Grid is outlined.