GC: n

CT: “Smart grid” generally refers to a class of technology people are using to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, using computer-based remote control and automation. These systems are made possible by two-way communication technology and computer processing that has been used for decades in other industries. They are beginning to be used on electricity networks, from the power plants and wind farms all the way to the consumers of electricity in homes and businesses. They offer many benefits to utilities and consumers — mostly seen in big improvements in energy efficiency on the electricity grid and in the energy users’ homes and offices.
For a century, utility companies have had to send workers out to gather much of the data needed to provide electricity. The workers read meters, look for broken equipment and measure voltage, for example. Most of the devices utilities use to deliver electricity have yet to be automated and computerized. Now, many options and products are being made available to the electricity industry to modernize it.
The “grid” amounts to the networks that carry electricity from the plants where it is generated to consumers. The grid includes wires, substations, transformers, switches and much more.

S: http://energy.gov/oe/services/technology-development/smart-grid (last access: 3 March 2015)

N: 1. smart (adj): late Old English smeart “painful, severe, stinging; causing a sharp pain,” related to smeortan (see smart (v.)). Meaning “executed with force and vigor” is from c.1300. Meaning “quick, active, clever” is attested from c.1300, from the notion of “cutting” wit, words, etc., or else “keen in bargaining.”
In reference to devices, the sense of “behaving as though guided by intelligence” (as in smart bomb) first attested 1972. Smarts “good sense, intelligence,” is first recorded 1968. Smart cookie is from 1948.
grid (n): 1839, shortening of gridiron. City planning sense is from 1954 (hence gridlock). Meaning “network of transmission lines” first recorded 1926.
2. In short, the digital technology that allows for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, and the sensing along the transmission lines is what makes the grid smart. Like the Internet, the Smart Grid will consist of controls, computers, automation, and new technologies and equipment working together, but in this case, these technologies will work with the electrical grid to respond digitally to our quickly changing electric demand.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=smart+grid&searchmode=none (last access: 3 March 2015). 2. https://www.smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid/smart_grid (last access: 3 March 2015).

SYN: 1. smart power grid. 2. smart energy grid.

S: 1. GDT – http://www.granddictionnaire.com/ficheOqlf.aspx?Id_Fiche=26540258 (last access: 3 March 2015). 2. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/NnEjpX (last access: 3 March 2015).

CR: computer science, electrical energy, intelligent energy management system, intelligent system.