5 Applications and Study Cases
5.4 Smart energy and the smart grid

The energy model based exclusively on sources of fossil energy will not be able to meet the world’s energy needs in a not too far future. All solutions involve incorporating renewable and green energy sources into the energy model. However, the intrinsic nature of this type of energy requires a very high control of the consumption of energy by consumers [13].

Normally the energy consumption is not uniform and there are time slots with very high energy demands as well. This forces the electrical grid to be intelligent and flexible to withstand electricity fluctuations by controlling electrical energy sources and loads. In order to achieve this goal, the electrical grid will have to incorporate networked intelligent devices and grid infrastructure elements such as sensing and monitoring devices for monitoring energy flows, digital communications infrastructure to transmit data across the grid, smart meters with in home display to know about the energy usage or control and automation system to process all data and make a smart management of the grid. Ideally, it would require to know the instantaneous energy consumption of individual loads but a knowledge about energy usage per customer is enough in first approximation [13].

A smart grid integrates the information and communication technologies to the electricity network in order to have a smart energy management.

Instead of main power plants outside cities, future smart grids will be characterized by small and medium energy sources and power plants distributed across the smart city trying to emulate the structure of an internet network.

Smart grid solutions aim to optimize the production, distribution and consumption of energy, facilitating the entry of new suppliers and consumers in the electrical network, with significant improvements in monitoring, management, automation and quality of electric power supplied.

Table 7 - Smart energy and the smart grid applications

Application

Description

Photovoltaic installations

Monitoring and optimization of performance in solar energy plants

Smart grid

Energy consumption monitoring and management

Narrowband PLC

Narrowband power line Communication (N-PLC) allows communications over power lines.