Smart Grids – The Future of Energy Management and Conservation
The Smart Grid is an innovative electric power system that integrates artificial intelligence, computing, communication and Internet technologies to increase efficiency and reduce generation cost. Additionally, it increases resiliency against emergencies like severe storms, earthquakes and large solar flares.
Resiliency will be increased within the electrical system by automatically redirecting electricity when equipment fails or outages occur. Furthermore, this helps contain these outages before they turn into major blackouts.
The Future of Energy Management and Conservation
Smart Grids can reduce costs for customers by helping them use energy more efficiently, and provide prosumers with a platform for managing and selling excess power they generate. Energy companies then have an incentive to offer consumers sustainable and lower-cost options, helping them meet their carbon reduction targets while decreasing their energy bills.
Smart grids assist in the coordination and distribution of power from decentralized sources, such as photovoltaic solar panels and electric vehicle (EV) batteries. This can be accomplished through various methods, including predictive analytics to anticipate high demand strains and redistributing electricity efficiently to minimize outages.
Furthermore, AI tools can make energy transmission and distribution more efficient by reducing line losses and lowering GHG emissions. They are also capable of operating more resiliently against physical or cyber attack, avoiding outages and restoring power quickly with minimal impact on customers. This boosts national security and confidence in the electric grid, likely leading to additional investment into it.
The Future of Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is being revolutionized by Smart Grids. These digital grids are capable of integrating a significant amount of renewable energy into their systems and offering customers real time information about their energy consumption.
According to estimates, consumers will save an estimated $600 in direct energy bill savings by switching to smart grids. Once they know precisely how much energy they consume, they are more likely to take steps toward energy conservation.
Smart grids can also be self-healing, meaning they automatically detect and address power quality issues. This reduces outages and allows them to more effectively incorporate new renewable energy technologies into the grid.
In addition to these advantages, a Smart Grid also enables companies to enhance their customer experience. According to IDC, utilities/energy retailers are investing double their money in artificial intelligence technology in order to offer clients greater convenience, customization, and control over their lives.
The Future of Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles are increasingly finding acceptance within the motor vehicle industry and are expected to be a driving force behind meeting climate goals. But they will also create an additional demand on the grid which could have an effect on utility operations and maintenance expenses.
One way to mitigate the negative impacts of mass electric vehicle adoption is to utilize smart grid technology for electricity demand management. This can be accomplished with a decentralized energy resource management system (DERMS).
In addition to managing electricity demand, DERMS can assist utilities in managing their network more effectively and protecting power distribution equipment from electric vehicle (EV) load impacts. Furthermore, it will improve power quality and reliability by giving utilities the visibility needed to detect and mitigate outages, particularly during times of extreme weather conditions.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies make this possible, enabling electric vehicles (EVs) to provide ancillary grid services like peak shaving and spinning reserve. Furthermore, V2G helps integrate intermittent renewable energy sources into the grid.
The Future of Energy Storage
Smart grids are playing an increasingly important role in revolutionizing how we manage our energy resources. These systems enable renewable power production, offer near-real time control of utility bills and enable large-scale electric vehicle charging.
One of the key applications of Smart Grids is energy storage. Batteries play an essential role in integrating high shares of solar and wind renewables into the grid, helping stabilize output from renewable generators, improve reliability and reduce costs in isolated grids and off-grid communities.
Battery storage technologies are now available for a range of power sector uses, such as e-mobility, behind-the-meter and utility scale applications, along with distributed applications like load shaping for peak clipping or energy efficiency management (ESM).
