The U.S. stimulus package includes $4.5 billion for utilities to start replacing aging electricity-delivery systems with a smart grid computerized system capable of optimizing usage. Some European countries also are working on this innovation.

A smart grid would track usage every 15 minutes or every hour, rather than once per month. Utilities and customers could spot usage peaks and valleys and see what power sources and price levels filled them. Storage needs of utilities will expand due to this increase in data and the new requirements to give customers more usage-related information online.

The idea: Enable customers to make choices about when to use power and what to pay for it, and to let utilities adjust power supplies based on real-time demands.

However, says Corporate Strategy VP Rona Newmark, it's a complex data-related situation. A smart grid essentially changes the electricity-delivery system into a communications network. And communications networks have inherent management and security needs.

Fortunately, technology from EMC Ionix can monitor and manage the equipment that makes a smart grid run. Utilities can automate visibility and systems control across physical and virtual data centers. Ionix could offer the best management portfolio across storage, networks, servers, and applications.

EMC's RSA Security division also offers technologies utilities can use to protect customers' privacy. This is important, because any power utility that wants to receive stimulus funding must be able to demonstrate that they are investing in security and that they have a consistent approach to security intended to meet the requirements of the emerging standards in this space.

The smart grid presents a new way to put EMC technology to work to make a positive difference for the environment and the economy.

"We have the right kinds of automation, and we have proven products," Newmark says. "We can help make something very important happen here."