The picture of the future power industry may be very different from that we imagine. The power industry probably will change totally in a decade. The extraordinary progress of polymer science may has an important role in this massive change.  It is not far from reality to imagine a world where the power lines and ground wires, lighting bulbs, turbine blades, batteries, electrical equipment frames, panels paintings, advertising lights, fuel cells, substation enclosures , … change to polymers. So , power lines and ground systems which are made from conductive polymers will not be degraded by the exposure to the corrosion and oxidation.

Polymeric photo-luminescent lights for advertising

Why go so far? Which electrical engineer could  imagine polymeric fuses? Re-settable fuses which are innovated by “Tyco Electronics Corporation” does not need to be replaced at all. The resistance of these fuses increases when the current exceeds the nominal rate and tend to infinity. When the current gets its normal conditions, then fuse recovers its normal conductivity again. On the other hand, smart polymeric sensors will be an inseparable part of any smart grid. The polymeric sensors of temperature, voltage, PH, moisture and … are sensitive, reliable and appropriate sensors that doesn’t need to any external supply. Supplying sensitive electronic sensors in proximity of high power networks is a challenge for implementing of any smart grid. The intrinsic properties of  Thermo-respective, Photo respective, photo-luminescent, electro-luminescent, Ph-respective, shape-memory and other smart polymers make a great potential for making a modern polymeric power industry.