Smart grids and meters
The Smart Grid
Maybe you have heard of the
Smart Grid on the news or from your energy provider. But not everyone knows
what the grid is, let alone the 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 your home or business.
It’s what you plug into when you flip on your light switch or power up your
computer.
Our current electric grid was
built in the 1890s and improved upon as technology advanced through each
decade. Today, it consists of more than 9,200 electric generating units with
more than 1 million megawatts of generating capacity connected to more than
300,000 miles of transmission lines. Although the electric grid is considered
an engineering marvel, we are stretching its patchwork nature to its capacity.
To move forward, we need a new kind of electric grid, one that is built from
the bottom up to handle the groundswell of digital and computerized equipment
and technology dependent on it—and one that can automate and manage the
increasing complexity and needs of electricity in the 21st Century.
But what makes them smarter?
And why do we need them?
At a core level, the
challenges of the grid come down to a simple fact. It needs to produce exactly
as much electricity as is demanded. If demand exceeds supply, brown- or
black-outs are possible. When supply exceeds demand, power plants may be forced
offline to help stabilize frequency and voltage.
Demand fluctuates all the
time, from day to night, and from hour to hour. Those demand shifts can be
largely predicted based on historical data. Power plants may go on and offline
in response to demand. But renewable energy sources change the calculus. They
produce power based on factors like weather, which may not match demand.
That’s where smart grids come
in. As the smart grid is a two-way system, it will act as a safeguard,
automatically rerouting power in case of equipment failure and power outages.
They integrate information technologies with renewable energy sources, creating
a two-way conversation between suppliers and consumers. This conversation is
enabled with smart metering devices, which accurately monitor power consumption
at a granular level.
Smart grids enable the
efficient transmission of electricity, better restoration of electricity after
fluctuations, lower peak demand and power costs for consumers, provide better
integration of renewable energy systems with the power grid, improved security
and much more.
What does a Smart Grid do?
The Smart Grid represents an unprecedented opportunity to move
the energy industry into a new era of reliability, availability, and efficiency
that will contribute to our economic and environmental health. During the
transition period, it will be critical to carry out testing, technology
improvements, consumer education, development of standards and regulations, and
information sharing between projects to ensure that the benefits we envision
from the Smart Grid become a reality. 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
Smart Grid Benefits
Today, an electricity
disruption such as a blackout can have a domino effect—a series of failures
that can affect banking, communications, traffic, and security. This is a
particular threat in the winter, when homeowners can be left without heat. A
smarter grid will add resiliency to our electric power System and 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. This will minimize outages and minimize the effects
when they do happen.
When a power outage
occurs, Smart Grid technologies will detect and isolate the outages, containing
them before they become large-scale blackouts. The new technologies will also
help ensure that electricity recovery resumes quickly and strategically after
an emergency—routing electricity to emergency services first, for example. In
addition, the Smart Grid will take greater advantage of customer-owned power
generators to produce power when it is not available from utilities. By
combining these "distributed generation" resources, a community could
keep its health centre, police department, traffic lights, phone System, and grocery
store operating during emergencies.
Deployment of smart meters
Smart meters should allow
consumers to reap the benefits of the progressive digitalisation of
the energy market via several different functions. Consumers should also be
able to timely access their energy consumption data and dynamic electricity
price contracts.
A study from December
2019 on the deployment of smart meters in the EU found that
- Close to 225 million smart meters for
electricity and 51 million for gas will be rolled out in the EU by 2024.
This represents a potential investment of €47 billion
- By 2024, it is expected that almost 77% of
European consumers will have a smart meter for electricity. About 44% will
have one for gas
- The cost of installing a smart meter in
the EU is on average between €180 and €200
Smart Grids and Privacy
Privacy implications for smart
grid technology deployment centres on the collection, retention, sharing, or
reuse of electricity consumption information on individuals, homes, or offices.
It will be multi-directional communications and energy transfer networks that
enable electricity service providers, consumers, or third-party energy
management assistance programs to access consumption data.
A list of potential privacy
consequences of Smart Grid systems include:
- Identity
Theft
- Determine
Specific Appliances Used
- Perform
Real-Time Surveillance
- Reveal
Activities Through Residual Data
- Targeted
Home Invasions (latch key children, elderly, etc.)
- Provide
Accidental Invasions
- Activity
Censorship
- Decisions
and Actions Based Upon Inaccurate Data
- Unwanted
Publicity and Embarrassment
- Tracking
Behaviour of Renters/Leasers
Plans are underway to support
smart grid system applications that will monitor any device transmitting a
signal, which may include non-energy-consuming end use items that are only
fitted with small radio frequency identification devices (RFID) tags
may be possible. RFID tags are included in most retail purchases for clothing,
household items, packaging for food, and retail items.
The purpose of an RFID system
is to enable data to be transmitted by a portable device, called a tag, which
is read by an RFID reader and processed according to the needs of a particular
application. In a typical RFID system, individual objects are equipped with a
small, inexpensive tag which contains a transponder with a digital memory chip
that is given a unique electronic product code. The interrogator, an antenna
packaged with a transceiver and decoder, emits a signal activating the RFID tag
so it can read and write data to it. When an RFID tag passes through the
electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader's activation signal. The reader
decodes the data encoded in the tag's integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the
data is passed to the host computer for processing.
Smart grid development in
India
The Vision of India on Smart
Grids is to “Transform the Indian power sector into a secure, adaptive,
sustainable and digitally enabled ecosystem that provides reliable and quality
energy for all with active participation of stakeholders”.
National Smart Grid
Mission and Its Objectives
National Smart Grid Mission
(NSGM) was established in the Indian Power sector to plan and monitor the
implementation of policies and programmes related to Smart Grid activities in India.
It’s an institutional mechanism for planning, monitoring and implementation of
policies and programs related to Smart Grid activities. NSGM is housed under
Ministry of Power (MoP) because most of the prominent stakeholders (DISCOMS.
Regulators, Electrical manufactures, Central Electricity Authority etc.) for
Smart Grid are associated with MoP.
Objective of NSGM
National Smart Grid Mission
was launched with an objective to address key issues of Smart Grid Initiatives
on a large scale in the country and to make the Indian Power infrastructure
cost effective, responsive and reliable. A 20-year perspective Plan for
integrated inter-regional, inter-state and intra-state transmission network for
the country as whole has been formulated. This will be a crucial backbone for
the vision of 24x7 power for all homes in India.
Smart grids task force
To advise on policy and
regulatory directions for the deployment of smart grids in Europe, the
Commission set up a smart grids task force in 2019. It has issued key
reports on standards, cybersecurity and flexibility
markets. These are largely agreed by industry, European standards
organisations, public authorities and consumer organisations.
The task force consists of
5 expert groups which focus on specific areas. The reports, minutes,
presentations and meeting agendas are available on the smart grids task
force dedicated webpage (CIRCA BC), which is a collaborative platform
that gives access to all task-force documents, via the platform library.
Sources:
Smart Grid: The Smart Grid |
SmartGrid.gov
The substantial sustainability benefits
of smart meters – pv magazine India (pv-magazine-india.com)
EPIC - The Smart Grid and Privacy
Smart grids and meters | Energy
(europa.eu)
India Country Report on Smart Grids.pdf
(dst.gov.in)
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