Smart Grid

What is a smart grid and why should it be built?

Electricity is produced at the same time as it is consumed. There are no ways energy can be stored in large volumes yet. This means that if for example there is a blackout somewhere in the network the power plants will produce too much electricity. With too much electricity produced the demand will decrease which will affect the electricity prices in the grid. Of course the opposite behaviour will be used if the demand is increasing because of a cold winter’s day or clouds blocking the sun for the solar cells for example.
A Smart Grid could react much faster than the traditional grid and lower the production faster or route the power in another way automatically which makes it possible to minimize the blackout area faster. A Smart Grid could be constructed and programmed to become kind of self healing. The Smart Grid could save money and also the environment.

The metering devices in a Smart Grid should send information in real time to be able to react as soon as possible. The communication latency is a problem for building the Smart Grid. Some AMR systems communicate its data with a relay time of about 24 hours. They are most common for meters installed on the countryside where there are large distances between each delivery site. There are other metering systems that could send information in real time.

The Swedish parliament have decided that all network companies in Sweden should read all electricity meters at least once a month for delivery sites with a fuse size lower than or equal to 63A (Ampere). Delivery sites above the fuse size of 63A should be read once an hour. How and when the data is sent depends on what system that is being used but most meter readings are sent once a day (for hour values) and once a month (for monthly readings). For those network companies that installed a metering system designed for the minimal requirements it could be costly to upgrade the grid to a smart one. This might be something that should be in mind for those utility companies planning for a new AMI project.

Read more about Smart Grids at Wikipedia.org

Enerway Definitions

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