NC Congresswoman Launching Effort to Upgrade US Electric Grid
By: Geoff Bennett, Washington, D.C. Bureau
Time Warner Cable/ News 14 Carolina
Thursday, September 18, 2014

The U.S. electric grid is in need of an upgrade, and North Carolina Congresswoman Renee Ellmers on Thursday launched a new effort to do just that.

Outside the U.S. Capitol Thursday, Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers and a Democratic congressman from California announced the formation of a new bipartisan working group in the U.S. House.

It’s aimed at finding new ways to make the country’s electric grid more reliable and efficient.

They say technology called the smart grid will help modernize the nation’s patchwork of power plants, transmission lines and regional power lines.

“It essentially involves overlaying the electrical grid with technology instead of relying on utility workers to search for and fix broken equipment.”

“The electric grid has to evolve in order to meet American’s energy needs, our consumer’s expectations and our digital economy, which is becoming more and more dependent on the electric grid, as we saw in Hurricane Sandy,” said Becky Harrison, CEP of the GridWise Alliance.

North Carolina is at the forefront of the technology. The Research Triangle has the second-largest smart grid sector in the country.

Ellmers says she came to realize it’s potential after a recent visit to the Center of Excellence at NC State.

“I think most individuals do not know what the smart grid is and how it will actually work to save money into the future with energy resources, and how it will able to repair itself when we’re faced with a national disaster,” said Rep. Renee Ellmers, 2nd District.