The Smart Grid Components

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Smart Grid utilises intelligent electricity transmission and distribution networks that use a two-way communication to increase the efficiency, reliability and safety of power delivery. Various technologies are used to enable the smart grid operation. These key technologies can be grouped into five key technology areas:

Integrated communications

Sensing and measurement

Advanced components

Advanced control methods

Improved interfaces and decision support

In the field of manufacturing and telecommunications, these technologies have already found their place.

Integrated Communication

A reliable, high-speed integrated communication platform is considered to be a basic component in the implementation of a smarter transmission system. It connects components to an open architecture for real-time information, control and data exchange to optimise reliability of system, utilisation of assets and security.

Due to integrated communication, information can be more rapidly transferred between transmission stations to system control centre. It must be designed in such a way to be able to cope with today’s applications and also to accommodate future ones.

Integrated communication can be said to be the component that "glues" all the other technologies together. Fiber-optics, wireless mesh networks and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) are all integrated communication technologies.

Sensing and Measurements

Advanced sensing and measurement technologies will collect data and alter them to better manage power systems. These technologies are used for the evaluation and monitoring of equipment health, the prevention of energy theft and for control strategies support. They are also used to eliminate billing estimations, assess grid stability and obstruction and support frequent meter readings. They will also help consumers to enhance their electrical usage by providing them with information concerning their daily demands.

Thanks to the emerging technologies concerning sensing and measurement, this will promote electric power market and a better utilisation of electricity by consumers resulting in saving in capital for both the consumer and utility.

Some of the technologies include: Advanced Metering Infrastructures for example smart meters. Wide-area monitoring system, time-of-use, line ratings, real-time pricing and advance switches and cables.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

It is comprised of systems that measure, gather and evaluate the amount of energy used and communicate with metering devices. These systems consist of hardware, software, communications, Meter Data Management software, consumer energy displays and controls and many others.

Advanced metering infrastructure is a way to integrate consumers’ base on open standards. It provides consumers make efficient use of their electricity and provides utilities the ability to detect problems on their system to be able to operate properly and efficiently.

It enables consumer-friendly efficiency concepts. For example, in the Smart grid concept, energy is valued on what it costs in near real-time. Price signals are sent to "smart" home controllers or major home energy-users appliances like thermostats, washing machines and refrigerators. The devices, in turn, process the information relayed to them based on consumer’s learned wishes and powers them accordingly.

Advanced Components

Advanced components play a key role in determining the electrical behavior of the grid. These components can either be used for single application or connected to each other to create complex systems. These components are based on fundamental research and development gains in technologies like: high voltage direct current, alternating current transmission system devices, high temperature superconducting cable, composite conductors, "intelligent" appliances and power electronics. Innovations in technologies like superconductivity, power electronics, storage, fault tolerance and method of diagnostics are altering the primary abilities and characteristics of grids.

Advanced Control

In order to have a safe, reliable and environmentally friendly modern grid system, development in advanced control method is a must. These technologies are devices and algorithms that enable rapid diagnosis and analysis of the modern grid system. Whenever necessary, it takes appropriate corrective measures to diminish power outages or even prevent outages from happening. There will be better control at the transmission, distribution and consumer levels when using these methods.

Advanced control depends on the other four key technologies for it to perform efficiently. Case in point, it will monitor essential components, provide timely responses and provide diagnosis of any event occurred.

It requires integrated, high-speed communication infrastructure and appropriate standards to be able to process large amount of date. Advanced control make use of technologies like: distributed intelligent agents, analytical tools and operational applications.

Improved interfaces and decision support

Improved interfaces and decision support are important technologies that consist of devices and trainings that will amplify human-decision making and transforming grid operators and mangers into knowledgeable workers to operate the modern grid.

These technologies will reduce complexity by converting data from power systems into information that can be easily understood by humans. After the convention, data can be in terms of animation, virtual reality and other data-display techniques that will help operator to quickly identify, analyse and act on emerging problems. Therefore, time to take decision regarding certain issues is considerably reduced.

Some technologies that will make significant impact on the modern grid are: visualization technique, decision support, simulators for operational training and software systems that provide multiple options when operators’ actions are needed.

Four major components are needed for the implementation and operation of the smart grid. They are:

Smart meter

Phasor measurement

Information transfer

Distributed generation

Smart meter

Smart meter is essentially an electrical device that specifically recognizes and details electrical consumption in intervals of an hour and communicates that information on a daily basis back to utility for monitoring and billing purposes. It provides a two-way communication between consumers and utilities. It is designed to replace traditional meters.

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Compared to traditional meters, smart meters have the added functionality of utilizing real-time sensors, power outage notification and power quality monitoring. Time of day charges are documented in the data and relayed to electrical company to allow them to know how much electricity was consumed any time during the day and can charge consumers accordingly.

Home Energy Management System is usually used alongside smart meters as they provide the interface between consumer and energy provider. As mentioned before, smart meters operate digitally and allow for automatic and complex transfers of data between utilities and consumers.

Due to smart meters, this information sharing between energy providers and consumers can be connected to a home Energy Management System (EMS), which allow consumer to view it in an understandable format on a computer. It also helps consumers to track their energy usage in detail. For instance, they can see the impact of various appliances usage by monitoring the EMS.

EMS also allows consumers to monitor real-time information and pricing signals from utilities and can create settings to minimize power usage when prices are highest, that is, during maximum demand. Some settings allow specific devices such as "smart" appliances to shut down without human intervention when a large demand threatens to cause an outage.

Phasor measurement

Smart grid makes use of high speed sensors called Phasor Measurement Unit to monitor power quality. Ideally, the waveform of alternating current should be identical throughout the grid. Phasor Measurement Units are integrated in the system to allow data to be extracted regarding a particular position waveform along the grid.

Phasor Measurement Units are usually referred to as the power system’s "health-meter", as they collect sample voltages and current many time a second at a specific location and analyse them. It offers a wide-area situational awareness and work to ease congestion, bottleneck and reduce or even eliminate blackouts.

Normally, measurements are taken every two to four seconds. In this way, it offers a better insight of the state of the grid. Equipped with smart grid technologies, measurements are taken at precise time, offering dynamic visibility into the power system.

The smart grid will enhance every fact of the electric delivery system, including generation, transmission, distribution and consumption. It will help to encourage consumers to modify their patterns of electricity usage and also increase the possibilities of distributed generation.

Information transfer

Information transfer technology is needed to extend the two-way communication feature into home application. It is just the process of moving messages containing information from a source to a sink. Protocols such as WIFI, ZigBee, Bluetooth and infrared are most popular. In smart grid system, it is encouraged for all these technologies to be compatible with one another.

ZigBee is a specification for a high level communication protocols suite that uses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The IEE 802.15.4 is a standard which specifies which physical layer and media access control to use for wireless system.

ZigBee uses very low energy and goes to sleep mode when not in use. ZigBee devices are often used in a mesh topology to be able to transmit data over long distances. Information is passed through the other ZigBee devices in order to reach more distant ones. It is targeted at applications that require low data rate, long battery life and secure networking. This technology is intended to be simpler and less expensive than WIFI or Bluetooth.

Distributed generation

Distributed generation refers to the use of small-scale power generation technologies located closer to the consumer, capable of reducing costs, increasing reliability, diminishing emissions and expanding energy options. Generation will be closer to the load, which reduces transmission line construction cost and transmission power losses, thus improving efficiency.

Supply and demand is one of the basic concepts of all industries. It is the one with which the current grid struggles a lot, as the moment electricity is being generated, it has to be consumed. It is imperative to have the "right" supply available to deal with every contingency at any time. Problems may arise when amount of electricity generated does not meet the required demand during peak demand periods.

Therefore, in order to meet the required demand, without knowing when will the peak demand be, grid operators brings in generation assets called Peaker plants to ensure that the required demand is met. Peaker plants are very costly and need more fuels to operate.

Distributed generation will help utilities to decrease the amount of electricity produced. These renewable electric generations can provide the same surplus of electricity that Peaker plants do. It, therefore, will reduce the cost for utilities to meet peak demand. Reliability will also be improved as there is a wide variety of different generation sources connected to the grid. This may even eliminate the use of Peaker plants- saving money and protecting the environment.

Distributed energy generation may be comprised of renewable energy generation like: solar power generation, wind power generation, biomass energy generation to name but a few.

VERDE (Visualising Energy Resources Dynamically on Earth)

VERDE is a project that is being developed in America at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the Department Of Energy. It will provide wide-area grid awareness, including real-time sensors data, weather information and grid modeling with geographical information. It will be able to explore grid at National level and in just some clicks, it can explore specific street level. It will also be able to give rapid information about blackouts and power quality as well as understanding of system operation for utilities.

Realisatinon of this project will greatly impact on the implementation of the smart grid. It will also be of great help to utilities.

BENEFITS OF THE SMART GRID TECHNOLOGY

Due to these principal characteristics, the benefits derived from the implementation of the smart grid are quite vast. These include:

Prevention or even elimination of power outages.

Reduces the number of attack on the grid and dependability on imported fossil fuels.

Reducing energy losses and therefore improving efficiency of generation.

Improve power quality.

Environmental friendly.

Generation of new jobs

Opportunistic

These benefits can be categorized into major categories as mentioned below:

Improved reliability

A reliable grid is one that delivers electricity to consumers when they need it and it is of a quality that meets the consumers’ requirements. A reduction in the frequency and duration of blackouts or its complete elimination and a reduction in the number of disturbances due to power quality can be accounted for an improvement in terms of reliability.

Smart grid makes use of technologies that improve fault detection and allow self-healing of the network automatically. It also provides constant detection of disturbances at any portion of the grid and will be capable to react in real-time to counteract the effect of these disturbances. There will be an increase situational awareness of the distribution system.

Distribution management system will enable early detection of unhealthy equipment and allow for its replacement prior to failure. Intelligent and synchronised control of distributed generation and storage can cater for immediate back up when problems occur. Information and communication integration will enable utilities to better integrate, understand and act on the enormous amount of data provided by the smart grid to better optimise system reliability.

Utility benefits

Reduction in operating cost due to lesser demand and outage response resources.

Employee safety will be improved as they will not have to deal with dangerous equipment that frequently.

Due to a reduction in the interruption in electric sales, revenue will be increased and this will also improve the relation between utilities and consumers as the latter will be very satisfied with the uninterrupted flow of electricity.

Reduction in capital cost as there will be fewer device failure in service.

As electricity will be provided only when it is needed, this will considerably reduce the down time for some generators. This will also help to reduce the wear and tear on some generators and therefore increases the latter’s life-time, resulting in the saving of capital for their replacement.

Consumer benefits

Level of service is improved with a regular flow and good power quality as outages will be reduced, therefore increasing consumers’ satisfaction.

Sometimes following a blackout, the voltage on the lines reaching the consumers is quite high and can cause damage to certain electrical appliances. But due to the elimination of outages by the smart grid, this problem has been solved.

Industrial consumers gain a lot from improved reliability. Small duration of outages can cause irreparable damage to certain electronic base system resulting in lesser productivity.

Societal benefits

Economic development depends on a reliable, high quality source of electric power. Smart grid created an environment attractive to new investment. Therefore, this can improve conditions for economic development.

Mitigation of blackouts.

Reduction in cost will help to keep prices of goods and services low.

Improved efficiency

Smart grid will use sensors and other technologies that will help to reduce the amount of electricity consumed when not needed. For instance, adjusting fans to cool only occupied areas as revealed by sensors. The information provided from smart meters and sensors can also be used to motivate consumer to participate more actively in peak load reduction and energy conservation.

Smart grid will provide technologies that will help consumers to conveniently interact with the grid and enable them to take actions to reduce their peak load and energy consumption. Distributed generation will reduce transmission line losses and improve asset utilisation.

Transmission Enhancement Applications will provide the intelligence and control capacity to reduce transmission congestion and losses. Assets Optimization Application will integrate smart grid data with system planning tools to greatly increase the accuracy of forecasting. Maintenance programmes will help to reduce out-of-service time and overall maintenance cost.

Utility benefits

Increase asset utilisation.

Reduction in line losses on both transmission and distribution.

Reduction in transmission congestion costs.

Reduction in peak load and energy consumption.

Reduction in capital expenses due to improved utilisation of existing assets.

Extended life-time of assets due to improved assets’ "health" monitoring.

Smart grid information can be used to improve employee productivity by improving certain processes.

Improved load forecasting enabling more accurate predictions on when new capital investments are needed.

Further generation of electricity from Peaker plants can be avoided to meet the demand during peak periods.

The modern transmission grid will create opportunities to expand for greener power generation.

Efficient transmission system can increase unit capacity factors.

Consumer Benefits

Increase capability, opportunity and inspiration to be more efficient on the consumption chain.

Increase in the influence on electricity market leading to the creation of new market like that of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

Some smart grid technologies give consumers the ability to reduce their load to be more efficient in their consumption. This helps utility to decrease its cost resulting in a decrease in consumers’ bills too.

Industrial consumer can also make a significant impact on efficiency. They can install combined heat and power generation which can increase their overall process efficiency by using the heat emitted from generation rather than rejecting it.

Societal benefits

Reduction on the consumption of electricity through conservation, demand response and reduced transmission and distribution losses. This provides an economic saving to society and provides a better utilisation of resources.

Improved economics

Creation of new jobs as well as the reduction in energy and delivery bills are categorised as improvement in economics.

Smart meters provide a two-way communication capability that provides real-time pricing signals. This information provided to consumers will make them respond by reducing their consumption when prices are high, that is, during peak load duration.

Information and communication integration will incorporate large amount of data so that accurate pricing signals can be generated, billing information collected and timely settlement of new transaction can be accomplished. This information is relayed to consumer for better usage. Smart grid principles and technologies support the integration of well-integrated electricity markets, enabling the creation of newer markets, products and services.

Due to the ease of integration of distributed energy generation, the country’s dependability on fossil fuel for energy production will considerably be reduced. There will be no need to import large amount of fossil fuels for energy production. In such a way, money is saved and this money can invested into another field to be able to help the country to progress and improve its economy.

Utility benefits

Many opportunities are created to lever its resources and to enter new markets such as micro-grid development.

As there is the concept of improved metering accuracy of smart meters, there is a reduction in theft of service resulting in increased revenues.

Improvement in terms of cash flow from more efficient billing management and revenue management process.

New market opportunities will be created for distributed generation and storage.

A flatter load curve will reduce operating and maintenance cost at generating plants.

Consumer benefits

Decreased in energy prices and total consumer bills.

Increased capability, opportunity and motivation to reduce consumption.

Consumers can interact with utility through smart meter connectivity.

Opportunity to turn towards greener vehicles and thereby reducing transportation costs.

Opportunity to sell home-made electricity to the grid.

Increased transparency between consumer and utility.

Providing pricing signals to consumers will surely change their behaviour in responding to a lower consumption when rates are high. On an individual basis, the reduction in bills may not be as significant as when it is compared to national economy.

Societal benefits

Creation of new job as new markets will be available.

Growth of economy as demand for new products and services will be created and made available.

Creation of new electricity markets such as enable greater use of Plug-in vehicles.

Benefits of environmental improvements

Environment improvement can be defined as a reduction in the emissions of toxic and greenhouse effect gases in the atmosphere.

Smart grid will allow sharing of information between consumers and utilities giving the consumers control to more effective management of their consumption. As consumers tend to reduce their consumption during peak period as rates are higher at this time, utilities do not have to involve Peaker plants for the generation to meet the required demand. Peaker plants tend to use more fuels and reject a lot of carbon dioxide gases into the atmosphere. Elimination of the use of Peaker plants can help to contribute towards a green world.

It will also allow the integration of distributed generation into the grid. Distributed generations are the use of renewable sources for electric generation. These techniques of power generation do not cause pollution of any kind. Demand response along with energy storage will greatly influence the use of renewable energy sources and thereby incorporating them in the national grid. Studies have showed that increasing the use of renewable resources for energy production could account for up to 60% of carbon dioxide pollution reduction.

As smart grid will have a great influence in the automobile market too. There may be a shift from traditional-polluting vehicles to that of the green plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. This will cause a massive reduction in the emission of polluting gases from exhaust pipes of vehicles into the ecosystem.

Smart grid, with its asset optimisation application will be able to predict equipment failure. Some of these failures can be transformer fire or oil spills. Being able to prevent these events such as oil spills from occurring, it can greatly help in protecting the environment. Oil spills can cause harmful damage to the near-by surrounding.

Utility benefits

Increased capability to incorporate intermittent renewable resources.

Dropping in emissions as a result of more efficient operation, reduced system losses and energy conservation.

Reducing its carbon footprint.

Increased capability to support integration of electric powered vehicles.

Reduction in frequency of transform fire and oil spills.

Consumer benefits

Increased motivation to shift to electric vehicles transportation.

Opportunity to optimise energy-consumption behaviour to protect environment is increased.

Industrial consumers can reduce their carbon footprints by installing photovoltaic cells on rooftop for energy generation, thereby, reducing their demand of electricity from utilities and contributing to a greener environment.

Societal benefits

Reduced carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere resulting in the reduction of global warming.

Improved public health as there will be less pollution around the country.

Improvement in security and safety

Increased in robustness and resiliency of the grid from physical and cyber attack can be accounted as an improvement in terms of security. Smart grid helps to reduce fossil fuels dependence and thereby ensuring country’s development.

Due to the reduced frequency of outages, electrical company personnel are safer as their occurrence of dealing with hazardous equipment is reduced too. Smart grid is also equipped with Transmission Enhancement Application that has the ability to detect any attack on the transmission system. Advanced Protection Systems reduce false trips and more quickly de-energised faulted circuits before employee can deal with the problem, hence increasing employee’s security at work.

Installation of video cameras and motion detectors can greatly discourage any act of sabotage. These can be installed in sensitive areas prone to attacks. The decentralization, diversity of fuel type and diversity of geographic areas of distributed generation connected to the smart grid constitute a powerful security tool in itself. As they are distributed across a certain region, natural events cannot hamper its proper functioning.

Utility benefits

Reduction in the probability that a deliberate man-made attack could occur.

Improved restoration times following a natural disaster.

Reduction in theft and vandalism of property.

Reduction in injuries and death of employee in the line of duty.

Reduced exposure of generation plants to generous disturbances as the transmission system is more secure.

Consumer benefits

Increased peace of mind as consumers know that the grid is less likely to be attacked.

Increase ability of grid workers to identify and respond to consumers when problems arise.

Industrial consumer would incur large losses in case of power outages cause by terrorist attacks. As these attacks could be prevented, this would allow for a continuous flow in productivity of the industry.

Societal benefits

Increased in national security.

Reduction in widespread blackouts.

Reduction in the number of injuries and death associated with public’s contact with the grid. Self healing ability of the grid includes the intelligence to ensure the safety of grid workers and the general public.

CHALLENGES AND RISKS

The Smart Grid is very complex and can change a lot of aspects in the day-to-day running of individuals and utilities. Given the current initiatives and expectations, the adoption of the Smart Grid is very likely to be a slow process. There are several concerns about its implementation.

Health concerned

Smart metering will turn all appliances into something similar to the mobile phones. There is a rise in public concern about the safety of exposure to radiofrequency radiation of wireless technologies. Each appliances will be equipped with transmitting antennas will increase the exposure to radiofrequency radiation which can cause health problems. These radiofrequency radiations might have the potential to cause certain type of cancer

Environmental concerned

Radiofrequency radiation may also affect the environment, more specifically living creatures sensitive to low-level, non-ionizing radiation. These animals use the Earth’s natural electromagnetic background to guide them during migration, circadian rhythms, food-finding and reproductive activities. Radiofrequency radiation disturbs the earth’s electromagnetic background and cause problem to these creatures.

Regulations

Regulations of the power system must be changed to give incentives for utilities that are willing to produce renewable and efficient energy. As utility reserve is proportional to the amount of power it produces, they are reluctant to take the necessary risk to address the demand in environmental problem that we are facing today. Smart grid component such as time of day pricing to reduce consumption during peak load period will require a large investment within uncertain rate of return causing an unnecessary risk for the utility.

Technological issues

Power flows of the new power system will have to be recalculated as new distributed generators are connected to the grid to ensure their lines are within voltage stability and thermal limits. Voltage generator must also be regulated. System fault levels will have to be re-evaluated as well from protection and control purposes.

Cybercrimes, Privacy and Security issues

IOACTIVE, a computer security service firm, reported that with $ 500 worth equipment and a basic electrical knowledge, an attacker could seize control of the smart grid’s communication system and manipulate then services. Risk rise along many fronts like:

Fraud – by corrupting data in order to avoid payment of electricity.

Privacy- by accessing customer accounts.

Disruption- by corrupting assets on the network in order to make part of the grid behaves incorrectly.

The smart grid expands the amount of data available significantly. Data may consist of nature and frequency of energy consumption and creation. This opens a great opportunity in term of general invasion of privacy. Smart grid may also be viewed as carrying private information electronically between utilities and end-users.

There is also the concern of the security of the infrastructure, primarily those that involves communications technologies. Designed to allow real-time communication between utilities and consumers, there is a risk that these capabilities be exploited for criminal intents.

Lack of standardization

Uncertainty about interoperability and technology standards present the greatest risk to utilities, who do not want to purchase compared to that will not work with new innovations down the road.

Large economic investment

Implementing the smart grid will require a considerable amount of investments.

Lack of information of consumers

Consumers are not well-informed about the objectives of implementing the Smart Grid system. They are not aware of the advantages, costs and risks related to it. This lack of awareness may make them think twice before they are willing to pay for secure and reliable systems. Until, consumers do not get better insights of the benefits that this system represents to them, utilities may not invest in comprehensive security causing an increased in the risks of attack.