Smart Grid Technology. Inevitable Future

Despite a number of groundbreaking developments in the power industry, the energy system is still dependent on fossil fuels, especially when the load on the electrical grid is high. With the world running out of oil and natural gas while facing ambitions low carbon emission targets, the need to find alternative and eco-friendly energy sources is becoming more and more pressing. However, in the years to come energy will be generated, transported and used in a very different and far more efficient manner than the one for which the power system was originally designed.

Until recently electricity was produced by a huge central combined heat and power (CHP) plant close to cities and industrial areas, and then transported on to the consumer. This has already changed. With the increasing number of renewable energy sources, local CHP plants, photovoltaic cell plants and other local units, today energy is produced everywhere and transported in all directions in the power system. This trend will intensify over the coming years.


The key to integrating large amounts of renewable energy into the power system is the smart grid, which intelligently binds the entire energy system together and is the most effective way of expanding the power system to meet the challenges of the future.

Here are some of the elements that we will be seeing in the green and intelligent power system of tomorrow.

1. Much more renewable energy will be used, hence, a strong power grid will be required that is able to transport large amounts of renewable energy to where it will be consumed in an international electricity market. In this large competitive environment, supply and demand will guarantee transparent and fair electricity prices for the consumers. 


2. Power stations will still be required to supply power when there is a lack of energy from renewable sources. These stations must be able to quickly ramp their output up or down to ensure that power generation and consumption always balance. In the long run, the conventional coal fired power stations will be phased out and replaced by or converted into power stations running on biomass, bio gas or other renewable energy gases. 


3. It will be possible to use advanced computers to jointly control local generation units making them operate as a single integrated virtual power plant that can intelligently bring production up or down depending on the grid load. 


4. Consumption will have to be made flexible so that green energy is used not just when it is needed, but also when it is cheap and plentiful. At the same time, electricity prices will be an effective means of shifting consumption to the times of day when the power grid is not so heavily loaded. Consumers could simply use their gadgets to automatically start and stop the appliances depending on the price of electricity.
   Thus, the consumers’ electric cars will be charged and appliances will be run when there is spare capacity in the power system. In result, an average household will be able to reduce its energy bill by up to 10 to 15 percent. The same is true for businesses, which will also be able to achieve significant efficiencies by using new business energy management systems.


5. The problem of storing electricity can be addressed through converting it into heat in the industry heating plants. This is done by using heat pumps and electric boilers which function as big immersion heaters in enormous hot water tanks. In this way the energy can be stored as hot water that can be used when needed to heat our houses. 


6. In the same way simplest energy generated through simple renewable sources, like
   photovoltaic cells, can be converted into heat in our homes. This is done by intelligently controlled hundreds of individual heat pumps as if they were a single vast energy storage, but
   the heat being stored in buildings in hot water tanks.
   
   
   At the time when renewable energy cannot be generated, the heat pumps stop running and the houses start using the stored heat in the hot water tanks. In this way heat pumps can help to turn power consumption up and down depending on the demand for power, and the house owner will not be able to tell the difference. Therefore, our homes will primarily be heated by district heating and electric heat pumps.


7. Eventually, thousands of electric vehicles could act as a giant electricity storage facility. Electricity could then be sold back to the power system when we do not need to drive anywhere. After all, the car is mostly just parked at home or at work. And all this happens automatically and intelligently without us even noticing. 


8. Electricity will be used for things that previously required a different power source. The petrol car will be replaced with an electric vehicle, and the oil fired boiler will be replaced with an electric heat pump. 


9. Electricity and heat consumption patterns will also change as we insulate out houses better or build zero energy houses. 


10. Some people will also start to produce their own renewable energy from photovoltaic cells on the roof or generate their energy from small micro CHP units. This is a personal power plant that can easily fit into the basement occupying only about two square meters’ area. Using fuel cells, the micro unit converts either hydrogen or natural gas into electricity and heat in the house. When there is plenty of electricity and it is therefore cheap, homeowners can buy the electricity and convert it into hydrogen. The hydrogen is stored and can later be converted into electricity and heat for the house. In the long term, homeowners will also be able to use their micro CHP unit to sell surplus electricity back to the power system when there is a high load on the grid and electricity price is high, for example.

So, with an electric car in the garage, heat pump coils under the lawn, a micro CHP unit in the basement, and photovoltaic cells on the roof, we’ll become what are known as prosumers, producers and consumers of energy. The houses of the future are insulated and energy is optimized for extremely low energy consumption. Zero energy and plus energy houses will be built and will be able to intelligently control the charging of the electric car, our heat consumption, and starting and stopping of the electric appliances, and the whole process will be as easy as using a modern smartphone.

At the same, with the increasing load on the power system, it is crucial to keep an eye on all the elements of the power grid infrastructure and ensure that they meet the industry standards in terms of efficiency, safety and reliability. Only with timely analysis and diagnostics of the grid components can the utility sector bring down the cost of maintenance, prevent equipment breakdowns and avoid power outages.

Alexei Tiatiushkin
Marketing manager
KharkovEnergoPribor Ltd.
marketing@keppowertesting.uk
http://www.kep.ua