I-Grid™:: Infrastructure for nationwide real-time power monitoring

A significant barrier to improving the power quality at industrial facilities is the lack of contemporaneous and historical power quality and reliability data. A new web-enabled near-real-time power quality (PQ) monitoring system, the I-Grid(TM), has been developed to provide such information on a nationwide basis. The ultra-low cost I-Sense(TM) monitors record power events and send event data via the Internet to the I-Grid database servers using an internal modem. Data display, email event notification, site administration and summary reporting of the data is achieved via a web browser. In cooperation with the DOE, EPRI, leading utilities and manufacturers, the deployment of I-Sense monitors has begun, with a target deployment of 50 000 monitors across the US and Canada over the next 24 years. This paper discusses the implementation of the I-Grid system, and discusses data captured by the I-Grid since early monitors were deployed in 2001.