As Record Heat and Wild Weather Tax the Power Grid, Report Looks at the Promise of Smart Meters
Dialog, a ProQuest business unit supporting professional research, has released “Smart Meters: Yea or nay?” a report exploring the potential of and controversy surrounding digital power grids and meters that monitor and regulate the flow of electricity. A particularly timely report for the U.S., where the summer's record heat and a blackout has put the stability of the power grid on the front page, it encapsulates information from Dialog’s authoritative resources, providing a uniquely comprehensive view of the issue.
"Research on power grids is on the rise as weather and increasing energy consumption strain old and outdated systems," said Tim Wahlberg, ProQuest Senior Vice President and Dialog General Manager. "There’s a wealth of good information assembled already. Dialog provides a powerful and precise way of gathering and analyzing it for smart decision-making."
"Smart Meters: Yea or Nay?" looks at the impetus of the smart grid initiative, a movement that brings together leaders and innovators from a number of established and emerging industries, as well as system integrators and consultants. Utility companies, governments, environmental watchdogs, and others are touting the updated smart grid and its meters, which lower peak demand in case of an energy-delivery issue. Enthusiasts say the smart grid is vital to the world’s economy by helping to incorporate alternative energy to fight global warming and by keeping power-greedy users in check.
But, smart meters have sparked heated controversy among residents who are concerned about their health and the privacy of their energy usage. "Smart Meters: Yea or Nay?" reports that in states such as California, Texas, and Connecticut, resistance to smart meters has grown so high that some communities have imposed temporary or even permanent bans on these devices. Californians fear radiation from wireless communications devices in meters, while many Texans claim the meters and grid changes will increase their electric bills. One of the largest companies designing, manufacturing, servicing and installing smart meters says utility companies have not done a good job educating people about the issues.
"Smart Meters: Yea or Nay?" carefully assembles information from both sides of the debate, capturing this pivotal moment in time.
"Smart Meters: Yea or Nay?" is available in Eye on Innovation, a bimonthly electronic publication from ProQuest that explores scientific advancement through analysis of authoritative information sources. Eye on Innovation researchers use the Dialog search service to gather relevant data from a pool of millions of sources, and then uncover emerging trends. Readers gain a unique global perspective about important issues and topics, but also learn how to manipulate information for insight into what’s next. To obtain this report and subscribe to future issues visit http://support.dialog.com/enewsletters/eyeoninnovation/201104/.
About Dialog
ProQuest’s business unit Dialog pioneered online searching in advance of the Internet. As the global leader in providing mission-critical information that drives innovation by professionals of all kinds including scientists, engineers, legal practitioners and business analysts, Dialog is renowned for enabling precision search of content from the world's most authoritative publishers. Sources include massive deep web repositories of scientific, technical and biomedical literature, patents and trademarks, and thousands of industry, news and company information sources – now being made accessible through the powerful and intuitive ProQuest Dialog™ search service on the new ProQuest platform.
Professional searchers such as librarians, researchers and information users from corporate, professional and government organizations in more than 100 countries prize Dialog for depth of content, advanced searching and the ability to provide complete solutions.
Dialog is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina, with offices in Sunnyvale, California, and London. Learn more about Dialog (www.dialog.com) and the entire ProQuest family of brands and companies at www.proquest.com.
About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world's knowledge — from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms. Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the delivery of complete, trustworthy information.
ProQuest's massive information pool is accessible through the all-new ProQuest® platform, which moves beyond navigation to empower researchers to use, create, and share content—accelerating research productivity.
This energetic, fast-growing organization includes the Summon™ web-scale discovery service, the new ProQuest Dialog™ service, and business units ebrary®, Serials Solutions®, RefWorks-COS™, and Bowker®.