United States Department of Energy

65 senior executives representing the electric utility industry, equipment manufacturers, information technology providers, Federal and state government agencies, interest groups, universities, and National Laboratories met to discuss the future of North America's electric system. (A list of the participants can be found in the appendix.) The intent of the meeting was to identify a national vision of the future electric system, covering the entire value chain: generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and end-use. The focus was on electric delivery - "the grid," or the portion of the electric infrastructure that lies between the central power plant and the customer - as well as the regulatory framework that governs system planning and market operations. The purpose of this document is to describe the common vision articulated at that meeting. The U. S. Department of Energy will use this vision to help implement President Bush's call for "...modernizing America's electric delivery system" and the 51 recommendations contained in the National Transmission Grid Study. Various stakeholders, including industry practitioners, policy makers, and researchers, will use the vision as the coordinating foundation for actions leading to the construction of a 21st century electric system. The vision will guide the development of the National Electric Delivery Technologies Roadmap.

Acoustic sensing systems are critical elements in detection of sniper events. The microphones developed in this project enable unique sensing systems that benefit significantly from the enhanced sensitivity and extremely compact foot-print. Surface and bulk micromachining technologies developed at Sandia have allowed the design, fabrication and characterization of these unique sensors. We have demonstrated sensitivity that is only available in 1/2 inch to 1 inch studio reference microphones - with our devices that have only 1 to 2mm diameter membranes in a volume less than 1cm3.