Siemens AG (SI) has targeted orders worth more than 6 billion Euros for intelligent power networks (Smart Grids) over the next five fiscal years. The company is already a leading international supplier of Smart Grids and continues to strengthen this position.

Intelligent power grids, or smart grids, are based on the conventional power grids which transport electricity from large power plants to individual households. However, digital technology allows individual households or businesses to manage their electricity more efficiently, allowing them to receive, or deliver back to the grid, electricity from other sources like wind or solar power facilities, or even from batteries in electric cars.

According to studies, more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be abated with intelligent power networks by 2020. Smart Grids are essential for integrating renewable power sources into power networks and for ensuring stable power supplies from solar and

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Ford Motor (F) recently introduced an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications technology that will enable its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) to simply "talk" with the nation's electric grid for recharging the battery.

The new technology that works on SYNC, SmartGauge with EcoGuide and Ford Work Solutions, will allow the owner to select the time, duration and utility rate for recharging his car on a touch-screen navigation interface and Ford Work Solutions in-dash computer.

The owner could thus choose to accept a charge only during non-peak hours, between midnight and 6 am, when electricity rates are cheaper or when the grid can use renewable sources like wind or solar energy.

Ford said that all 21 of its PHEV Escapes fleet are likely to be equipped with the vehicle-to-grid communications technology. The first batch of specially equipped PHEVs has already been delivered to American Electric Power (AEP) of Columbus, Ohio.

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