Smart Grids are being promoted by electrical utilities and regulatory agencies worldwide as a way of addressing initiatives on energy saving, global warming and power grid reliability and security issues. The smart grid network is an integration of (i) electric power grids that delivers electricity from power generation sources to end-users and (ii) effective two-way digital communication networks between utilities and consumers that monitors, manages, and controls the grid operations, renewable resources, and energy demands. The smart grid also enables major energy management applications on the consumer side that leverage Home Area Network (HAN) technologies.
The business drivers of smart grid development can be summarized as follows: |
“A smarter grid applies technologies, tools and techniques available now to bring knowledge to power – knowledge capable of making the grid work far more efficiently...”
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The Smart Grid – An Introduction by US Department of Energy |
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| Objectives |
Application Examples |
| Reduce service interruptions and fast restorations |
Distribution automation, outage notifications |
| Customer energy management |
Demand responses, smart metering, real-time consumptions |
| Distributed energy resource (DER) integration |
PV interconnection, PEV management |
| Aging facility management |
Condition based maintenance, system monitoring and protections |
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