A Smart Grid is an electrical grid that uses information and Communication Technology to gather and act on information, such as information about the behavior of suppliers and consumers in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity.

It is capable of deciding when to consume power based on pre-set customer preferences. It reduces peak loads which has a major impact on electricity generation costs – alleviating the need for new power plants and cutting down on damaging green house emissions.

It features two way communication between consumers and power providers to automate billing, data collection, detect outages and dispatch repair crews to the exact location earlier.

It includes monitoring and control of critical and non-critical operational data such as power factor performance, breaker, transformer and battery status, security, etc.

It is self-healing, self-balancing and self-optimizing including superconducting cables for long distance transmission, and automated monitoring and analysis tools capable of detecting or even predicting cable failures based on real-time data about weather, outage history, etc.

It is capable of "learning" the unique behavior of power generation resources to optimize energy production, and to automatically maintain voltage, frequency and power factor standards based on feedback from multiple points in the grid.