Other infrastructure components have been compromised in the past, including a case in which hackers planted potentially disruptive software programs in the U.S. electrical grid, according to current and former national-security officials.
Yet it's scarcely visible in the market for solar panel inverters, devices that turn the direct current power generated by solar panels into alternating current for the grid.
An inverter converts the direct current from the battery into the alternating current for feeding the grid.
The survey also found that the majority of respondents lack a comprehensive vision of how enterprise-wide information and technology infrastructure will work with current and future smart grid deployments.
Small changes to the voltage of the grid control large changes in the electron current flowing to the collector plate.
In 2003, IBM co-founded the US-based GridWise Alliance that advocates for grid modernization, and in 2007, IBM formed the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition (GIUNC), a coalition of players in the energy and utilities market, which is helping accelerate the adoption and use of smart grid technologies and bringing digital intelligence to current systems.
ENGADGET: IBM announces Smarter Energy Research Institute, aims to improve energy grids (video)
One such area being addressed is how to distribute a stable electric current across a ship-based grid.
Cuomo said he will end what he called the current, confusing relationship by empowering National Grid to act quickly and decisively in the event of major power outages.
But Ray Gogel, president and chief operating officer of the CURRENT Group, who previously ran smart grid projects for Xcel, worries there's too much focus on the "edge" of the grid, where consumers connect.
Dr Fox welcomed the announcement but said pylons twice the current height would be needed to transmit electricity to the national grid.
Right now the nation has 760 gigawatts of power plants to meet current consumption, with another 154 in reserve capacity to maintain grid reliability.
The physicist Edward Teller estimated that a constellation of satellites providing continuous atmospheric measurements over a one square kilometer grid worldwide, which is currently cost-prohibitive, would only improve long-range forecasts from the current five days to approximately 14 days.
While this may come off as a bit schizophrenic, the tandem launcher is particularly helpful in Claystone's current state, as it takes an inappropriate amount of time to scroll through the 3 x 3 grid of application icons on the home screen.
ENGADGET: Claystone Launcher 2.0 for Android makes its debut, we go hands-on (video)
应用推荐