Management Information Systems Week 1 Ip
Frank Cavazos
MGMT305-1302A-08
Cast Studies
May 4, 2013
Article 1: Smart Grids
Smart grids have plenty to offer and are very much different from the current electricity infrastructure that the United States runs on. The current grid is only a one way communication path which sends electricity from the power plant to the home or business (The smart grid, 2013). The new smart grid is a two way communicator which allows consumers to know how and where their electricity is being used vice versa for the electricity company they too know how the consumer utilizes their electricity. Having a smart grid it gives the company and clients to save energy, reduce costs, and increase reliability and transparency (Laudon & Laudon, 2012, p.36). Having a smart grid will help the energy company gather data much quicker and easily than before. Before the smart grids the company had to send their employees to get data from the meters, make sure all is working correctly and if not get it fixed. Also, the smart grids will allow consumers to manage their electricity online which in turn will reduce energy consumption by 5 to 15% overall.
With any new device on the market management issues will arise. They are going to need to appeal to the consumers so that they feel switching to the smart grid will benefit them in the long run. Organizations will need to focus on the cost and profits that could be impacted even with government assistance. Energy companies will lose money as consumers will conserve their electricity. Technology issues will arise no matter what because technology is not perfect and will always have some sort of trouble. Updating or building up power plants to meet today’s electricity need is very costly as they will need networks and switches for power management, sensor and monitoring devices to track energy usage and distribution, communication systems to relay data and so forth. All these are very expensive and time consuming when in the end consumers will
MGMT305-1302A-08
Cast Studies
May 4, 2013
Article 1: Smart Grids
Smart grids have plenty to offer and are very much different from the current electricity infrastructure that the United States runs on. The current grid is only a one way communication path which sends electricity from the power plant to the home or business (The smart grid, 2013). The new smart grid is a two way communicator which allows consumers to know how and where their electricity is being used vice versa for the electricity company they too know how the consumer utilizes their electricity. Having a smart grid it gives the company and clients to save energy, reduce costs, and increase reliability and transparency (Laudon & Laudon, 2012, p.36). Having a smart grid will help the energy company gather data much quicker and easily than before. Before the smart grids the company had to send their employees to get data from the meters, make sure all is working correctly and if not get it fixed. Also, the smart grids will allow consumers to manage their electricity online which in turn will reduce energy consumption by 5 to 15% overall.
With any new device on the market management issues will arise. They are going to need to appeal to the consumers so that they feel switching to the smart grid will benefit them in the long run. Organizations will need to focus on the cost and profits that could be impacted even with government assistance. Energy companies will lose money as consumers will conserve their electricity. Technology issues will arise no matter what because technology is not perfect and will always have some sort of trouble. Updating or building up power plants to meet today’s electricity need is very costly as they will need networks and switches for power management, sensor and monitoring devices to track energy usage and distribution, communication systems to relay data and so forth. All these are very expensive and time consuming when in the end consumers will
References: DiSavino, Scott. (24, May, 2011). A planned modernization of the U.S. national power grid will cost up to $476 billion over the next 20 years but will provide up to $2 trillion in customer benefits over that time, according to industry experts. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/us-utilities-smartgrid-epri-idUSTRE74N7O420110524 Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. P. (2012). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm . (12 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Retrieved from http://wow.coursesmart.com/9781256766964/firstsection The Smart Grid. (2013) U.S.A. Gov Retrieved from http://www.smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid#smart_grid