Boeing Loves Smart Grid

It's been industry gossip for months: Just what is Boeing doing? How will the company be involved in the smart grid? What are they up to, exactly? We've heard about their involvement, read blogs about it and been utterly enthralled with the very idea of it---a new suitor for an old maid.

Why is it all so enthralling? Because it's just not done. Because no one knocks on the door of power distribution from outside the industry. Maybe it's the high tech factor; maybe it's the old fogey factor. It could be a mixture of both. We may smell like a combo of copper wiring and Bengay.

There's a lot of buzz about smart grid inside the industry of course. Generation players suddenly want to be grid players. The transmission end of things wants to push past distribution and into a consumer's home. Yet, even with all the interior movement, it is still rare for a company outside the power industry to say, "Now, the grid. That's the next big thang. That's where stuff is moving and shaking. I've got to be a part of that."

Yet, that seems to be just what's happening with major aerospace and defense mega-giant Boeing.

In late November, Boeing was selected to receive federal stimulus funds with some work on smart grid platforms here in the U.S., a move that served double-duty as a public announcement that the company is looking seriously at the grid side of power. Boeing received an $8.5 million grant to lead one project team and is involved with two other projects (with Consolidated Edison and Southern California Edison).

Last Friday evening, POWERGRID International magazine spoke with Tim Noonan, vice president of Boeing Advanced Global Services and Support about the company's history, its view on grid security and Boeing's vision of that smart grid horizon. You can read that interview in full in our upcoming January issue news section. Until that magazine hits the stands though, here's the Twitter, 140-character-or-less summary: Boeing loves the smart grid like tourists once loved New York. They're investing. Heavily. (90 characters, spaces included.)

Stay tuned.