SMART GRID

What is smart grid? "The grid," refers to the electric grid, a network of transmission lines, substations, transformers and more that deliver electricity from the power plant to our home or business. The digital technology that allows for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, and the sensing along the transmission lines is what makes the grid smart. The benefits associated with the Smart Grid include: More efficient transmission of electricity Quicker restoration of electricity after power disturbances Reduced operations and management costs for utilities, and ultimately lower power costs for consumers Reduced peak demand, which will also help lower electricity rates Increased integration of large-scale renewable energy systems Better integration of customer-owner power generation systems, including renewable energy systems Improved security A smarter grid will make it better prepared to address emergencies such as severe storms, earthquakes, large solar flares, and terrorist attacks. Because of its two-way interactive capacity, the Smart Grid will allow for automatic rerouting when equipment fails or outages occur. When a power outage occurs, Smart Grid technologies will detect and isolate the outages, containing them before they become large-scale blackouts. Giving consumers control: A smarter grid will enable a high level of consumer participation. For example; we will no longer have to wait for our monthly statement to know how much electricity you use. With a smarter grid, we can have a clear and timely picture of it. "Smart meters," and other mechanisms, will allow us to see how much electricity we use, when we use it, and its cost. Combined with real-time pricing, this will allow us to save money by using less power when electricity is most expensive. Smart meter: A key element that allows all of the emerging Smart Grid technologies to function together is the interactive relationship between the grid operators, utilities, and consumer. Computerized controls in our home and appliances can be set up to respond to signals from our energy provider to minimize their energy use at times when the power grid is under stress from high demand, or even to shift some of their power use to times when power is available at a lower cost. Smart meters provide the Smart Grid interface between us and our energy provider. Installed in place of our old, mechanical meter, these meters operate digitally, and allow for automated and complex transfers of information between our home and our energy provider. Energy management system: The energy information coming to and from our home through our smart meter can be run through a home energy management system (EMS), which will allow us to view it in an easy-to-understand format on our computer or hand-held device. An EMS also allows us to monitor real-time information and price signals from our utility and create settings to automatically use power when prices are lowest. We can also choose settings that allow specific appliances and equipment to turn off automatically when a large demand threatens to cause an outageavoiding peak demand rates, helping to balance the energy load in our area, and preventing blackouts.

Home power generation: As consumers move toward home energy generation systems, the interactive capacity of the Smart Grid will become more and more important. Rooftop solar electric systems and small wind turbines are now widely available, and people in rural areas may even consider installing a small hydropower system on a nearby stream. Companies are also starting to roll out home fuel cell systems, which produce heat and power from natural gas. The Smart Grid, with its system of controls and smart meters, will help to effectively connect all these mini-power generating systems to the grid, to provide data about their operation to utilities and owners, and to know what surplus energy is feeding back into the grid versus being used on site. A potential feature of the Smart Grid will be to allow our community to use our solar arrayand our neighborsto keep the lights on even when there is no power coming from a utility. Called islanding, it will allow a home to grab power from distributed resources, such as local rooftop solar, small hydropower, and wind projects, until utility workers can bring the grid back online. Renewable energy: Geography issues aside, the current grid has difficulty accommodating variable sources of power like wind and solar energy, the fastest-growing sources of renewable power on the grid. As these resources begin to supply increasing percentages of power to the grid, integrating them into grid operations will become increasingly difficult. The Smart Grid will be able to make better use of these energy resources. It will give grid operators new tools to reduce power demand quickly when wind or solar power dips, and it will have more energy storage capabilities to absorb excess wind and solar power when it isn't needed, then to release that energy when the wind and solar power dips. During peak energy usage, utilities sometimes have to bring less-efficientand often more-pollutingpower generation facilities on line or purchase power from neighboring utilities at a higher cost. In the worst cases, utilities may have to institute rolling blackouts or reduce the voltage of the system, an approach called a "brownout." Time-of-use program: Time-of-use program encourage us to use energy when the demand is low by giving you a lower price for electricity during those times. Distributing the demand more evenly ensures that a steady and reliable stream of electricity is available for everyone. Home energy management systems will help you to make the most of time-of-use pricing. The Smart Grid Solution: Smart Grid technologies offer a new solution to the problem of monitoring and controlling the grid's transmission system. New technologies called Phasor Measurement Units (PMU) sample voltage and current many times per second at a given location, providing a snapshot of the power system at work. PMUs provide a new monitoring tool for the Smart Grid. In our current electric grid, measurements are taken once every 2 or 4 seconds, offering a steady-state view into the power system behavior. Equipped with Smart Grid communications technologies, measurements can be taken many times a second, offering dynamic visibility into the power system. This makes it easier to detect the types of oscillations that led to the blackout.

Self healing grid: In the event that a power line needs to be removed from service, control software could reroute the power in a way that causes minimal disruptions to the grid. This approach is often referred to as the "self-healing" grid. The ideal self-healing grid will involve a combination of transmission system monitoring and control software and comparable measures for the local distribution systems that deliver the power to individual homes and businesses. These distribution system measures are sometimes referred to as distribution intelligence. Distribution intelligence: A key component of distribution intelligence is outage detection and response. Today, many utilities rely on customer phone calls to know which areas of their distribution system are being affected by a power outage. Along with smart meters, distribution intelligence will help to quickly pinpoint the source of a power outage so that repair crews can be immediately dispatched to the problem area. By having sensors that can indicate when parts of the distribution system have lost power, and by combining automated switching with an intelligent system that determines how best to respond to an outage, power can be rerouted to most customers in a matter of seconds, or perhaps even milliseconds. First city with smart grid: The earliest, and still largest, example of a smart grid is the Italian system installed by Enel S.p.A. of Italy. Completed in 2005, the Telegestore project was highly unusual in the utility world because the company designed and manufactured their own meters, acted as their own system integrator, and developed their own system software. The Telegestore project is widely regarded as the first commercial scale use of smart grid technology to the home, and delivers annual savings of 500 million euro at a project cost of 2.1 billion euro. Smart grid in India: Indias Bureau of Energy Efficiency is partnering with IBM to create the countrys first smart grid project. IBM will conduct a cost-benefit analysis on various smart grid initiatives as part of Indias by National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency. Conclusion: The Smart Grid will consist of millions of pieces and partscontrols, computers, power lines, and new technologies and equipment. It will take some time for all the technologies to be perfected, equipment installed, and systems tested before it comes fully on line. And it wont happen all at oncethe Smart Grid is evolving, piece by piece, over the next decade or so. Once mature, the Smart Grid will likely bring the same kind of transformation that the Internet has already brought to the way we live, work, play, and learn.