What are smart grids?

Smart grids are electricity network that use digital technologies, sensors and
software to better match the supply and demand of electricity in real time
while minimizing costs and maintaining the stability and reliability of the grid.

A smart gris is an electricity network that uses digital and other advanced
technologies to monitor and manage the transport of electricity from all
generation sources to meet the varying electricity demands of end users.
Smart grids co-ordinate the needs and capabilities of all generators, grid
operators, end users and electricity market stakeholders to operate all parts
of the system as efficiently as possible, minimizing costs and environmental
impacts while maximising system reliability, resilience, flexibility and
stability.
 Smart grid: Introduction
The smart grid is an enhancement of the 20th century electrical grid, using two-way communications and
distributed so-called intelligent devices.

Two-way flows of electricity and information could improve the delivery network. Research is mainly
focused on three systems of a smart grid – the infrastructure system, the management system, and the
protection system.

Electronic power conditioning and control of the production and distribution of electricity are important
aspects of the smart grid.

Numerous contributions to the overall improvement of energy infrastructure efficiency are anticipated
from the deployment of smart grid technology, in particular including demand-side management.

The improved flexibility of the smart grid permits greater penetration of highly variable renewable
energy sources such as solar power and wind power, even without the addition of energy storage.
Smart grids could also monitor/control residential devices that are noncritical during periods of peak
power consumption, and return their function during nonpeak hours
Characteristics of a traditional system (left) versus the smart grid (right)
 A smart grid includes a variety of operation and energy measures:

• Advanced metering infrastructure (of which smart meters are a generic name for any utility side device even if it is
more capable e.g. a fiber optic router).

• Smart distribution boards and circuit breakers integrated with home control and demand response (behind the
meter from a utility perspective).

• Load control switches and smart appliances, often financed by efficiency gains on municipal programs.

• Renewable energy resources, including the capacity to charge parked (electric vehicle) batteries or larger arrays of
batteries recycled from these, or other energy storage.

• Energy efficient resources

• Electric surplus distribution by power lines and auto-smart switch.

• Sufficient utility grade fiber broadband to connect and monitor the above, with wireless as a backup.

Concerns with smart grid technology mostly focus on smart meters, items enabled by them, and general
security issues. Roll-out of smart grid technology also implies a fundamental re-engineering of the electricity
services industry, although typical usage of the term is focused on the technical infrastructure.
 Infrastructure of conventional electrical networks
• Conventional electrical supply network usually consists of generation,
transmission, distribution, and consumer (load) systems.

• Generation system normally consists of a combination of large-scale centralized

generation plants. The generated voltage is usually around 11kV (kilovolts).

• A transmission system is specifically designed to transfer bulk of power from

generating plants to distribution systems at high- and extra-high voltage levels over
long distances. Typical operating voltages of transmission systems include 765 kV,
500 kV, 400 kV, and 275 kV.

• Distribution systems, however, are specifically designed to receive electric power

from transmission system to be distributed to load centers.
• The operating voltage of distribution networks includes 132 kV, 110 kV, 66 kV, 33 kV,
20 kV, and 11 kV.
 Conventional electrical supply networks

• Conventional electrical supply networks

normally have vertical structure whereby
the electric power generated by the
generation system is passed to
transmission system which is then
transferred to distribution network for
feeding it to connected loads.

• Figure 1 shows the principle of vertical

structure of conventional power systems
whereby the flow of electricity is
unidirectional

Figure 1
Main characteristics of conventional electrical networks

i. Conventional electrical network has vertical structure.

ii. Power flow is unidirectional. This is particularly true for distribution networks.

Iii. The price of electricity is dictated by the utility to which the consumer is
connected. In other words, consumers have no choice of opting from where they buy
their electricity, that is, consumers are considered passive
The primary motives behind developing the Smart Grid concept are to
improve the efficiency and reliability of the electricity grid by integrating digital
technologies, enabling better management of energy supply and demand in real-time,
facilitating the integration of renewable energy sources, and empowering consumers
with more control over their energy usage; all while aiming to reduce environmental
impact and costs associated with electricity generation and distribution.

Key aspects of the Smart Grid concept that drive its development:

❑ Increased grid resilience:

By allowing for faster response to disruptions and better load balancing, Smart Grids can
minimize power outages and improve grid stability.
❑ Integration of renewable energy:
Smart Grids can seamlessly incorporate fluctuating renewable energy sources like solar and
wind power by adjusting demand based on real-time generation.
❑ Demand response management:
Smart Grids enable utilities to incentivize consumers to adjust their electricity usage during
peak demand periods, optimizing grid load.

❑ Energy efficiency:
Real-time data analysis through smart meters allows for better understanding of energy
consumption patterns, leading to improved energy efficiency measures.

❑Consumer empowerment:

Smart Grid technology can provide consumers with access to detailed energy usage data,
allowing them to make informed decisions about their electricity consumption and
potentially reduce costs. It is for also liberalization of electricity market, and motivation and
inclusion of customers as players to support the grid.
 Evolution of Smart Grid concept
Apart from being old and out-of-date, conventional electrical networks have recently
been subjected to many changes. The most important of these that proved to be
difficult for the networks to accommodate include:
i. The integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) based-generators, including RESs based-generators and
storage systems into electrical net works, particularly at distribution voltage levels.

ii. Accommodating the recent new development in transport industry in terms of EVs will be presented as a new
type of load which puts further stress on the network.

i. Dealing with the dynamic situation between electricity market stakeholders and electrical utilities due to
liberalization of electricity market in recent years that require the implementation of new tools and
methodologies with the help of new and advanced technologies

These changes have adversely affected the operation, management, and protection of networks in a
number of ways. Additionally the advancement in digital, communication, automatic control, and other
technologies has opened new windows and opportunities to find solutions and tackle network’s
problems. This in turn has led to initially contemplate on modernizing conventional electrical networks
and eventually to the development of the Smart Grid concept.
Fundamental differences between the Smart Grid and conventional
electrical networks
 Characteristics of Smart Grid

The Smart Grid must be:

Flexible: The Smart Grid must be designed to fulfill customers’ needs and at the same time
has the ability to respond to the changes and challenges ahead.

Accessible: The Smart Grid must have the ability to grant connection access to all network
users, particularly for renewable power sources and high efficiency local generation with
zero or low carbon emissions.

Reliable: The Smart Grid must have the capability to ensure and improve security and
quality of supply, consistent with the demands of the digital age with resilience to hazards
and uncertainties.

Economic: The Smart Grid must have the ability to provide best value through innovation,
efficient energy management, and ‘‘level playing field’’ competition and regulation.
The principal characteristics that define the vision of the Smart Grid
✓ Enable active participation by consumers

✓ Accommodate all generation and storage options

✓ Enable new products, services, and markets

✓ Provide power quality for digital economy

✓ Optimize assets utilization and operate efficiently

✓ Anticipate and respond to system disturbances (self-heal)

✓ Operate resiliently against attack and natural disaster

 Smart-grid characteristics

1. Enable active participation by consumers

▪ By fully implementing the Smart Grid concept, consumers will get access to the
necessary information, control, and options that allow them to engage in ‘‘electricity
markets.’’
▪ Consumers will have the ability to modify their consumption based on balancing their
demands and resources with the electric system’s capability to meet those demands.
▪ Dedicated demand response (DR) programs will help satisfying basic consumers’
need, i.e., the ability and flexibility in deciding when and where from energy is
purchased.
▪ Participation of consumers would help in reducing or shifting peak demand that allows
utilities to minimize capital expenditures and operating expenses. It would lead to
reducing line losses and minimizing the operation of inefficient peaking power plants.
This in turn would result in substantial environmental benefits
 Smart-grid characteristics
2. Accommodate all generation and storage options

▪ Under the Smart Grid environment it will be much easier to integrate all types
and sizes of electrical generation and storage systems using simplified
interconnection processes and universal interoperability standards to support
what is called a ‘‘plug and-play’’ approach.
▪ It is expected that large central generation plants, including advanced nuclear
plants and RESs, such as wind and solar farms which are considered
environment friendly, will continue to play a major role despite the expected
deployment of large number of smaller distributed resources, including plug-in
EVs.
▪ It will also be possible to interconnect generators with capacities ranging from
small to large at essentially all voltage levels. This will include DERs such as
photovoltaic, wind, advanced batteries, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and fuel cells.
▪ Commercial users will find it much easier and more profitable to install their
own generation such as highly efficient combined heat and power installations
and electric storage facilities.
 3. Enable new products, services, and markets Smart-grid characteristics

▪ Realizing the Smart Grid will facilitate linking buyers and sellers together, starting
from consumers to generators and all those in between.
▪ It will also support the creation of new electricity markets and tools that ensure
efficient electricity trading.
▪ This will range from the home energy management system at the consumers’
premises to the technologies that allow consumers and third parties to bid their
energy into the electricity market.
▪ This will help in making consumers feel price fluctuations through real-time pricing.
The reaction of consumers to price increases will inevitably lead to mitigate demand
and energy usage. This in turn will drive lower-cost solutions, which will lead to new
technology development.

▪ New and clean energy-related products will also be offered as market options. The
Smart Grid is also expected to support consistent market operation across regions.
 4. Provide power quality for digital economy Smart-grid characteristics

▪ It is expected that implementing the Smart Grid concept will help in monitoring,
▪ diagnosing, and responding to power quality deficiencies.
▪ This in turn will lead to a substantial reduction in the business losses currently
experienced by consumers due to low power quality.
▪ Adapting new power quality standards will balance load sensitivity with delivered power
quality.
▪ The Smart Grid will facilitate the supply of varying grades of power quality at different
pricing levels.
▪ Additionally, power quality events that originate in the transmission and distribution
elements of the electrical power system can be minimized.
▪ The irregularities caused by certain consumer loads can also be isolated and
consequently preventing the adverse effect on the electrical system and other
consumers.
 Smart-grid characteristics
5. Optimize asset utilization and operate efficiently

• It is anticipated that implementing the Smart Grid concept will greatly

improve the operation of power system as a result of improving load factors,
reducing system losses, and the expected dramatic improvement in the
outage management performance.
• It is also anticipated that as a consequence of fully implementing the Smart
Grid concept the grid will be equipped with additional intelligence.
• This in turn will provide planners and engineers with extra knowledge to build
‘‘what is needed when it is needed,’’ extend the life of assets, repair
equipment before it fails unexpectedly, and more importantly manage the
work force responsible for maintaining the grid.
• This will result in reducing the operation, maintenance, and capital costs and
thereby reducing the pressure on electricity prices.
 Smart-grid characteristics
6. Anticipate and respond to system disturbances (self-heal)

• Under the Smart Grid environment the grid will have the ability to heal itself. This is
achieved by continuously performing self-assessments to detect and analyze the
status of the grid and its components, take corrective action to mitigate the effect
of defective components and, if needed, rapidly restore grid components or
network sections.
• It will also have the capability to handle problems that are too large or too fast-
moving to be handled by human. Grid’s self-healing is considered as the grid’s
‘‘immune system.’’
• It will help maintain grid reliability, security, affordability, power quality, and
efficiency. This will result in minimizing disruption of service.
• Self-healing can be achieved by employing modern technologies that can acquire
data, execute decision-support algorithms, prevent or limit interruptions,
dynamically control the flow of power, and restore service quickly.
 Smart-grid characteristics

7. Operate resiliently against attack and natural disaster

• A system-wide solution that ensures the reduction of physical and cyber
vulnerabilities and enables a rapid recovery from disruptions will be incorporated
under the Smart Grid environment.
• This will result in the Smart Grid being resilience which will deter any attack that
would be committed from even those who are determined and well equipped.
However, its decentralized operating model and self-healing features will also
make it less vulnerable to natural disasters than today’s grid.
• Additionally, security protocols will be designed such that they will contain
elements of deterrence, detection, response, and mitigation to ensure minimizing
the impact on the grid and the economy.
• This particular characteristic of the Smart Grid makes it less susceptible and more
resilient, which will in turn make it a more difficult target for terrorists
 Advanced metering infrastructure
• An AMI is an integration of several technologies that provides an
intelligent connection between consumers and system operators.
• Technologies involved in such integration include smart metering,
home area networks, integrated communications, data management
applications, and software interfaces with existing utility operations
and asset management processes
• systems that make the information available to the service provider
• Development of AMI is considered as the milestone of modernizing
conventional electric power system and its evolvement to the Smart
Grid.
• A key benefit of AMI is, it provides customers real-time (or near real-
time) pricing of electricity and it also helps utilities to achieve
necessary load reductions.
 Main components of AMI
• The three main components of AMI systems are as follows as shown in Figure

Figure : The three main components of an AMI system

(i) Smart meter:
Smart meters are typically digital programmable devices that record customer
consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicate that
information, daily or more frequent, back to the energy supplier for monitoring and
billing purposes.
Other functions of smart meters include (i) time-based pricing, (ii) net metering, (iii)
loss of power and restoration notification, (iv) remote turn on/turn off operations, (v)
load limiting for ‘‘bad pay’’ or demand response purposes, (vi) energy prepayment, (vii)
power quality monitoring, (viii) tamper and energy theft detection, and (ix)
communications with other intelligent devices in the home.
(ii) Communication network
• The aim of the communications network employed by AMI is to continuously support the interaction
between the energy supplier.
• The key element required to realize bidirectional communication infra structures is the concentrator,
the consumer, and the controllable electrical load.

• Concentrators in an AMI system may be classified into two types: local concentrator and backbone
concentrator. The function of a local concentrator is to collect data from smart meters and forward it to
the backbone network, and to distribute commands or price signals received from a backbone
concentrator to meters. Backbone concentrators are located in the backbone network of AMI. Their
major functions are to collect information from local concentrators and to propagate commands or
price signals received from the utility’s control center. In some AMI cases local concentrators are not
used. This is particularly true when customers’ number is small. Under such circumstances, smart
meters are figured out to communicate directly with backbone concentrators.

• There are different media that can be considered to provide part or all of communication architecture.
This includes
✓ Power line carrier (PLC)
✓ Broadband over power lines (BPL)
✓ Copper or optical fiber
✓ Wireless (radio frequency), either centralized or a distributed mesh nternet
✓ Combinations of the above
Figure: Typical two-layer AMI communication network
 HEMS: home energy management system
Figure; Typical Smart metering system (SMS )architecture WAN: Wide Area Network
contemplated in various US and European standards HAN: home area networks
IHD: in-home display
(iii) Data reception and management system

The meter data transferred over the communication network are received at utility/third
party site by the AMI host system [15], which is then sent to the meter data
management system (MDMS) .
MDMS plays an important role in realizing the full potential functions of AMI. The major
functions of MDMS system include (i) auto mating and streamlining the complex
process of collecting meter data from multiple meter data collection technologies, (ii)
evaluating the quality of the collected data and generating estimates where errors and
gaps exist, and (iii) delivering the collected data in a format that suits utility billing
systems.
Smart meters and MDMS communicate with each other within a neighborhood through
Neighborhood Area Network (NAN). In addition to the above three main components,
Home Area Networks (HANs) and operational gateways are also considered as
constituents of an AMI system
Home Area Networks (HANs)
• Devices that are to be used in consumer premises to manage their energy
consumption as well as enable them to interact with electricity market include
thermostats, HVAC systems,major appliances, home automation systems, home
energy management systems, lighting, gas meters, water meters, and electric meters.
• The purpose of an HAN is to interface with the consumer portal so that it links smart
meters to controllable electrical devices. The energy management functions of HANs
include [13] (i) in-home displays to make the consumer aware about the energy being
used and its cost, (ii) responsiveness to price signals based on consumer-entered
preferences, (iii) set points that limit utility or local control action to a consumer
specified band, (iv) automatic control of loads, i.e., without the need of continued
consumer involvement, and (v) consumer override capability.
• The HAN/consumer portal acts as the consumer’s ‘‘agent’’ because it provides a
‘‘smart interface’’ to the market. It can also support new value added services such as
security monitoring.
 Operational gateways
• AMI interfaces with several system-side applications, as discussed in MDMS above, to
support:
a) Advanced distribution operations:
Advanced distribution operations include (i) distribution management system with
advanced sensors (including real and reactive powers (PQ) data from AMI meters), (ii)
advanced outage management (real-time outage information from AMI meters), (iii) DER
operations using Watt and VAR data from AMI meters, (iv) distribution automation
including Volt/VAR optimization and fault location, isolation, sectionalization, and
restoration, (v) distribution geographic information system, and (vi) application of AMI
communications infrastructure for microgrid operations, including both AC and DC, high
speed information processing, advanced protection and control and advanced
grid components for distribution.
(b) Advanced transmission operations:
Advanced transmission operations include (i) substation automation, (ii) high speed
information processing, (iii) advanced protection and control, including distribution
control to improve transmission conditions, (iv) modeling, simulation, and
visualization tools, (v) advanced regional operational appli cations, and (vi) electricity
markets.

(c) Advanced asset management (AAM) system

AMI data will be required to support AAM in areas, including (i) system operating
information, (ii) asset ‘‘health’’ information, (iii) operations to optimize asset
utilization, (iv) transmission and distribution planning, (v) condition-based
maintenance, (vi) engineering, design, and construction, (vii) consumer service, and
(viii) work and resource management.