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The Evolution of Smart Grid
Vipul Gore
President & CEO-Gridscape Solutions
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Headquartered in Fremont, Gridscape Solutions is a software provider that specializes in designing and developing a broad range of smart energy solutions for utilities, manufacturers and other enterprises.


The electric grid is the oldest global network reliably delivering electricity to consumers from suppliers for over 200 years. It consists of power producers, high-voltage transmission and distribution lines to transport energy and individual, residential or commercial energy consumers.

The power producers may be distantly located nuclear power stations, hydroelectric dam sites or new renewable energy sources such as rooftop solar panels or wind turbines. The transmission network includes long distance power lines and substations that usually provide step-down voltage transformers. Finally, electricity is consumed by commercial or residential customers in cities, towns and villages. The power plants are typically huge and capable of generating massive energy and hence the grid is typically organized in a sort-of ‘spoke and hub’ network that has fewer power plants and a large number of consumers. However, the renewable sources of power such as solar panels and wind turbines are changing this landscape and forming a truly distributed grid where the power source could be very close to the consumer.

Challenges and Issues

The current electrical grid is plagued with several issues as described below that necessitate an evolution into a ‘smart grid’ that is not only highly distributed but also cost-effective and efficient.

1. Old power equipment: Most of the equipment in the current grid is old, monolithic and highly inefficient leading to higher failure rates and power losses. This is typically prevalent in the electric grid in developing countries. This old equipment is expensive to upgrade and maintain as well.

2. Outdated engineering design and system structure: The design and system structure of the current grid is outdated and inflexible hence creating a challenge for operators as new renewable sources are introduced in the grid.


3. Surging global energy demand: The worldwide energy demand is increasing at an astronomical rate as power hungry nations, industries and consumers rely more on the electric grid to power their infrastructure and amenities used in their day-to-day lifestyle. Energy policy makers and utility operators are hence faced with an arduous task of managing critical peak power requirements leading to ‘demand response’ and ‘spinning reserve’ events. Typically this leads to unplanned outages and sudden blackouts causing grief and frustration among consumers who need reliable energy supply to run their lives.

4. New energy sources and devices: New types of energy sources such as solar panels, fuel cell generators, biogas power systems, wind turbines, to name a few. and new types of energy consuming devices such as electric vehicles, smart home appliances, advanced industrial and medical life-saving equipment are introducing challenging requirements and unique constraints on the grid to keep them running continuously.

5. Government Policies: As a result of global warming, government in every country and state is creating policies to reduce carbon footprint and CO2 emissions. These policies are imposing tighter requirements on the smart grid to produce and transport clean energy. Governments need an ability to measure and monitor reduction in carbon footprint and CO2 emission from the smart grid.

Opportunities

The advent of new technologies in power generation and transmission coupled with easy availability of Internet and commoditization of information technology and consumer devices opens up vast opportunities to modernize the electric grid into a ‘smart grid’ that is highly-efficient, flexible, reliable and cost-effective.

Governments, commercial enterprises and tech-savvy, young consumers worldwide are tapping into these opportunities and thus fueling the evolution of the ‘smart grid’ at a monumental pace.


1. Solar Energy: Solar energy adoption is increasing in leaps and bounds especially in the sun-belt countries. The photovoltaic (PV) solar panels are heavily commoditized and cheaply available enabling economics for cheaper and cleaner power compared to existing sources.


2. Demand Response: Managing peak power requirement is a daunting task for utility operators as demand surges. Faster computing power, ubiquitous Internet and network availability, precision instrumentation and control, and cloud computing technology is coming to rescue utility operators by providing them necessary information and tools to offer real-time demand charge pricing to consumers and tapping into renewables and energy storage to tame the demand surges. There are significant untapped opportunities in this area to solve real problems with innovative technology and creative business models.


3. Energy Storage: As the smart grid becomes more distributed, need for localized energy storage is becoming more important. Real-time demand and energy pricing availability through smart grid is helping traditional energy storage techniques such as pumped hydro to become more responsive and productive.


4. Smart Meters and AMI:
Proliferation of smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) creates a foundation for smart grid. Distributed smart meters close to consumers are connected via an intelligent network to a central monitoring system providing large amount of data on energy utilization and trends.

5. Wireless Networks: are catalysts in allowing smart grid become more intelligent and distributed. Exponential increase in processing power, memory and speed, associated drop in prices and resulting widespread availability of Internet and connectivity at affordable prices, is helping smart grid product and solution companies to embed these technologies into their products.

Conclusion

We have witnessed a great revolution in Internet and consumer electronic products in last 20 years. Smart grid is the next frontier ready to embrace innovation and integration.There are enormous opportunities to improve the smart grid thereby solving real-life problems and bringing significant benefits to energy companies, industrial and residential consumers. We will see rapid evolution of smart grid in next few years, transforming itself into intelligent and distributed medium to help and shape future human life.

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