IEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE [55] SEPTEMBER 2012 Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSP.2012.2192951 [ Mahnoosh Alizadeh, Xiao Li, Zhifang Wang, Anna Scaglione, and Ronald Melton ] Date of publication: 20 August 2012 1053-5888/12/$31.00©2012IEEE O ver the course of several decades after their introduction, power systems merged into large interconnected grids to introduce redundancy and to leverage on a wider pool of generation resources and reserves. As the system grew in size and complexity, a cyberphysical infrastructure was pro- gressively developed to manage it. Traditionally, general-pur- pose computing and communication resources have been used in power systems, specifically to serve two needs: 1) that of moni- toring the safe operation of the grid and logistics of power delivery, and 2) that of gathering information required to dispatch the gener- ation optimally and, later on, to operate the energy market. Enhanced sensory measurement systems under development today can help utilize the existing transmission infrastructure more efficiently, thereby reducing the current wide margins of operations. This is clearly of great interest to the present stakeholders: the utilities, who may spend less in upgrading infrastructures as well as the generation providers, whose competitive prices are affected by congestion costs. However, investing in fewer trans- mission lines and transformers is not going to produce a fundamental shift in the portfolio of energy resources used to meet the demand of electricity. Hence, ultimately, advances in measurement systems will just help contain costs, without paving the way for greener energy use. A GREEN FUTURE FOR THE GRID Wind and solar power cannot be easily thrown into the mix of generation resources due to their limited dispatch- ability and intermittent nature when compared to fuel combustion. Two essential factors make delivering green electrons especially complex: 1) the need for the demand and generation to be continuously balanced with limited energy reserve and storage; 2) the fact that in the retail energy market the tariffs are fixed, and the demand of ener- gy is not responsive to grid conditions or, in other words, is treated as inelastic. This state of things favors fossil fuel generation, which can be dispatched at will to follow the demand. [ Information processing for the power switch ] ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/© SIGAL SUHLER MORAN