Smart Grids: Updating the Traditional Grid
Co-authored by Valenttina Cardozo, Cian Earls, and Hannah Michaelson
WHAT IS A SMART GRID?
To begin to understand this revolutionary concept you’ll first need to know what a Power Grid is, why it was developed, and what are its limitations.
As hard as it may be to imagine, for most of human history, people had no electricity in their homes. Eventually, shortly after the industrial revolution, Thomas Edison developed the lightbulb and the Edison Electric Illumination Company began providing electricity to houses for lighting, utilizing the power generation methods of the Dynamo.
POWER GRID LIMITATIONS
That being said, when the development of the power distribution system began, very few people needed or wanted household electricity. Even those who did use it required very little power. Electric generating stations were set up locally to provide for a very small power demand compared to today’s standards.
In the 20th century, the demand for electricity skyrocketed, revealing unique problems with the original power distribution system design. One such problem was the staggering inability of different power companies to coordinate the expected generation demands of any given day or time. This resulted in inefficiency, insufficiency, and, in many cases, major blackouts.
These types of problems led to increased technological development in the design of power transmission and distribution methods to homes and businesses. These developments gave birth to our modern concept of the power grid, which is the complex pattern of transmission and distribution of power from generating stations to loads (such as homes and businesses). These transmission lines, along with their generating stations, substations, and distribution lines are known as the power grid. Nowadays, we have huge transmission networks that span hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.
SMART GRID AS AN IMPROVEMENT
The traditional power grid moves in one direction, from the producer to the consumer — it is one-way communication. Smart grids are an upgrade to the power grid because they allow for two-way communication of data, and facilitate the integration of cleaner sources of energy into the grid. This can be effectively achieved using state-of-the-art automation techniques and computers that allow the grid to respond to varying demands using its own gathered data about the system. The smart grid is “smart.”
Two-way communication allows for utilities and homes or businesses to share information about supply and demand needs and enables both sides to adjust their part of the system automatically. This system presents several advantages over the traditional grid.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE SMART GRID?
With the expansion of smart grid technology, both the consumers and producers will reap the benefits of plugging into smarter energy management. Consumers can become active participants in the traditionally abstract energy grid and are able to effectively track their consumption. With user-friendly tracking, consumers can lower their overall cost by avoiding peak energy hours and high energy appliances. The more informed consumer creates more active participants in energy consumption and overall environmental awareness.
In addition to a better-informed consumer, the tracking capabilities of smart grid technology equally benefit energy producers. Similarly, to consumers’ ability to avoid peak hours, producers can utilize the collected data to avoid energy waste at peak hours and better manage the energy load. The more accessible tracking also allows producers to incorporate renewable resources, an addition that is too complex for the current traditional grid. Furthermore, the new monitoring system incorporated in this technology will automatically detect power outages and technical failures, creating a more resilient energy grid.
As Smart Grid technology becomes more accessible, the benefits of upgrading to these systems transform communities by bringing energy access to previously isolated areas. This will be discussed in the next Smart Grid post.
References
- Smart Grid: The Smart Grid | SmartGrid.gov. (2019, December 16). Retrieved November 9, 2020, from https://smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid/smart_grid.html
- Smart Grids — Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved August 28, 2020, from IEA website: https://www.iea.org/reports/smart-grids
- Smart Home: The Smart Grid | SmartGrid.gov. (2019, December 16). Retrieved November 9, 2020, from https://smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid/smart_home.html
- Verma, S. (n.d.). Advantages of Smart Grids: IoT Redirecting the Flow of Electricity | Energy Central. Retrieved August 28, 2020, from https://energycentral.com/c/pip/advantages-smart-grids-iot-redirecting-flow-electricity
