Smart Grids From A Global Perspective

This book presents a cross-disciplinary approach to smart grids, offering an invaluable basis for understanding their complexity and potential, and for discussing their technical, legal, economic, societal, psychological and security aspects. Smart grids are a complex phenomenon involving new, active roles for consumers and prosumers, novel social, political and cultural practices, advanced ICT, new markets, security of supply issues, the informational turn in energy, valuation of assets and investments, technological innovation and (de)regulation. Furthermore, smart grids offer new interfaces, in turn creating hybrid fields: with the increasing use of electric vehicles and electric transportation, smart grids represent the crossroads of energy and mobility. While the aim is to achieve more sustainable production, transportation and use of energy, the importance of smart grids actually has less to do with electricity, heat or gas, and far more with transforming the infrastructure needed to deliver energy, as well as the roles of its owners, operators and users. The immediate goal is to contribute positively to a sustainable world society. The chapters are revised and expanded texts based upon lectures delivered at the Groningen Energy Summer School 2014. Questions for further discussion at the end of each chapter highlight the key themes that emerge. The book offers an indispensable resource for researchers, professionals and companies in the power supply industry, and for students seeking to broaden and deepen their understanding of smart grids.

What exactly is smart grid? Why is it receiving so much attention? What are utilities, vendors, and regulators doing about it? Answering these questions and more, Smart Grids: Infrastructure, Technology, and Solutions gives readers a clearer understanding of the drivers and infrastructure of one of the most talked-about topics in the electric utility market—smart grid. This book brings together the knowledge and views of a vast array of experts and leaders in their respective fields. Key Features Describes the impetus for change in the electric utility industry Discusses the business drivers, benefits, and market outlook of the smart grid initiative Examines the technical framework of enabling technologies and smart solutions Identifies the role of technology developments and coordinated standards in smart grid, including various initiatives and organizations helping to drive the smart grid effort Presents both current technologies and forward-looking ideas on new technologies Discusses barriers and critical factors for a successful smart grid from a utility, regulatory, and consumer perspective Summarizes recent smart grid initiatives around the world Discusses the outlook of the drivers and technologies for the next-generation smart grid Smart grid is defined not in terms of what it is, but what it achieves and the benefits it brings to the utility, consumer, society, and environment. Exploring the current situation and future challenges, the book provides a global perspective on how the smart grid integrates twenty-first-century technology with the twentieth-century power grid. CRC Press Authors Speak Stuart Borlase speaks about his book. Watch the video

"This reference book covers the latest innovations and trends within smart grid and microgrid development, detailing benefits, challenges, and opportunities, that will help readers to fully understand the current opportunities that smart grids and microgrids present around the world"--

Discusses concepts of smart grid technologies, from the perspective of integration with cloud computing and data management approaches.

A Smart Grid delivers renewable energy as a main source of electricity from producers to consumers using two-way monitoring through Smart Meter technology that can remotely control consumer electricity use. This can help to storage excess energy; reduce costs, increase reliability and transparency, and make processes more efficiently. Smart Grids: Opportunities, Developments, and Trends discusses advances in Smart Grid in today’s dynamic and rapid growing global economical and technological environments. Current development in the field are systematically explored with an introduction, detailed discussion and an experimental demonstration. Each chapter also includes the future scope and ongoing research for each topic. Smart Grids: Opportunities, Developments, and Trends provides up to date knowledge, research results, and innovations in Smart Grids spanning design, implementation, analysis and evaluation of Smart Grid solutions to the challenging problems in all areas of power industry. Providing a solid foundation for graduate and postgraduate students, this thorough approach also makes Smart Grids: Opportunities, Developments, and Trends a useful resource and hand book for researchers and practitioners in Smart Grid research. It can also act as a guide to Smart Grids for industry professionals and engineers from different fields working with Smart Grids.

Despite the urgent need for action, there is a widespread lack of understanding of the benefits of using green energy sources for not only reducing carbon emissions and climate change, but also for growing a sustainable economy and society. Future citizens of the world face increasing sustainability issues and need to be better prepared for energy transformation and sustainable future economic development. Cases on Green Energy and Sustainable Development is a critical research book that focuses on the important role renewable energy and energy efficiency play in energy transition and sustainable development and covers economic and promotion policies of major renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies. Highlighting a wide range of topics such as economics, energy storage, and transportation technologies, this book is ideal for environmentalists, academicians, researchers, engineers, policymakers, and students.

Meeting today’s energy and climate challenges require not only technological advancement but also a good understanding of stakeholders’ perceptions, political sensitivity, well-informed policy analyses and innovative interdisciplinary solutions. This book will fill this gap. This is an interdisciplinary informative book to provide a holistic and integrated understanding of the technology-stakeholder-policy interactions of smart grid technologies. The unique features of the book include the following: (a) interdisciplinary approach – by bringing in the policy dimensions to smart grid technologies; (b) global and Asian perspective and (c) learning from national case studies. This book is organised into five sections. Part 1 discusses the historical and conceptual aspects of smart grids. Part 2 introduces the technological aspects and showcase the state of the art of the technologies. Part 3 explores the policy and governance dimensions by bringing in a stakeholder perspective. Part 4 presents a collection of national case studies. Part 5 shares insights and lesson learnt and provide policy recommendations. This book showcases the state-of-the-art R&D developments and policy experiences. This book contributes to a better understanding of governance institution and policy challenges and helps formulate policy recommendations for successful smart grid deployment.

Nowadays, Smart Grid has become an established synonym for modern electric power systems. Electric networks are fed less and less by large, centrally planned fossil and nuclear power plants but more and more by millions of smaller, renewable and mostly weather-dependent generation units. A secure energy supply in such a sustainable and ecological system requires a completely different approach for planning, equipping and operating the electric power systems of the future, especially by using flexibility provisions of the network users according to the Smart Grid concept. The book brings together common themes beginning with Smart Grids and the characteristics of power plants based on renewable energy with highly efficient generation principles and storage capabilities. It covers the advanced technologies applied today in the transmission and distribution networks and innovative solutions for maintaining today’s high power quality under the challenging conditions of large-scale shares of volatile renewable energy sources in the annual energy balance. Besides considering the new primary and secondary technology solutions and control facilities for the transmission and distribution networks, prospective market conditions allowing network operators and the network users to gain benefits are also discussed. The growing role of information and communication technologies is investigated. The importance of new standards is underlined and the current international efforts in developing a consistent set of standards are updated in the second edition and described in detail. The updated presentation of international experiences to apply novel Smart Grid solutions to the practice of network operation concludes this book.

Smart grid (SG), also called intelligent grid, is a modern improvement of the traditional power grid that will revolutionize the way electricity is produced, delivered, and consumed. Studying key concepts such as advanced metering infrastructure, distribution management systems, and energy management systems will support the design of a cost-effective, reliable, and efficient supply system, and will create a real-time bidirectional communication means and information exchange between the consumer and the grid operator of electric power. Optimizing and Measuring Smart Grid Operation and Control is a critical reference source that presents recent research on the operation, control, and optimization of smart grids. Covering topics that include phase measurement units, smart metering, and synchrophasor technologies, this book examines all aspects of modern smart grid measurement and control. It is designed for engineers, researchers, academicians, and students.

The creation of a flexible, efficient, digitized, dependable and resilient power grid may well be the best route to increasing energy efficiency & security, as well as boosting the potential of renewable & distributed power sources. This book covers smart grids from A-Z, providing a complete treatment of the topic, covering both policy and technology, explaining the most recent innovations supporting its development, and clarifying how the smart grid can support the integration of renewable energy resources. Among the most important topics included are smart metering, renewable energy storage, plug-in hybrids, flexible demand response, strategies for offsetting intermittency issues, micro-grids for off-grid communities, and specific in-depth coverage of wind and solar power integration. The content draws lessons from an international panel of contributors, whose diverse experiences implementing smart grids will help to provide templates for success. Provides critical information on the technological, design and policy issues that must be taken into account to ensure that the smart grid is implemented successfully Demonstrates how smart grids can help utilities adhere to increased renewable portfolio standards Provides examples of successful microgrid/smart metering projects from around the world that can act as templates for developers, operators and investors embarking upon similar projects