Smart Grids/Interconnections

While the section above primarily focuses on meeting the energy demand through renewables and low carbon sources, increasingly the attention needs to move towards demand side management of energy. It is important to manage electricity networks in a more efficient way to lower the electricity intensity of the city as well as to reduce electricity-induced GHG emissions. It is thus important to gather data about how and when electricity is being utilized by the consumers. Such data can be gathered for effective implementation of smart grids. Thus, establishing smart/micro-grids will be a key element to in developing a sustainable energy infrastructure.

A smart grid can act as a medium of communication between the suppliers and consumers of electricity to transmit information about energy supply and usage. such as outages, load, non-essential consumption, etc.

For example, the power source could be a centralized power plant such as a wind farm, solar thermal generating station,  PV  field,  or decentralized sources such as rooftop PV, buildings integrated small wind turbines, or geothermal. These power plants are connected to the demand through a smart grid. During peak load, the grid can send information to the demand side to switch off non-essential services, information that would have been provided in advance by consumers. Further, during surplus, energy storage devices could be charged for backup power. Moreover, smart grids can play a big role in the seamless integration of intermittent renewable energy by managing demands during sudden drop in voltages. This increases the reliability of the network.

Provided below are some case studies that demonstrate the immense advantages of incorporating a smart grid in an urban setting.

Demand Response Project under the United States-China Smart Grid Cooperative

In the year 2012, Honeywell signed an agreement with the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) to implement China's first Smart Grid Demand Response project under the U.S.-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP).  ECP aims to

develop a nationwide set of smart grid industry standards and regulations in China. Honeywell installed a demonstration project using its automated demand response (Auto DR) technology at select facilities within the TEDA development area, including office buildings, government, and commercial facilities, and industrial plants. With Honeywell's Auto DR technology, customers can develop their own energy reduction strategies for their facilities. These strategies are then put into action automatically by utilities during a demand-response event. Through Auto DR, utilities can quickly and reliably reduce overall energy consumption during peak use periods, and commercial customers can cut their energy use and costs without compromising critical operations. This can effectively reduce peak loads by 15 to 30 percent and, when done at scale, can create the effect of a “virtual power plant” that generates “negawatts” – or reduced demand – instead of megawatts. Reduction in electricity demand can reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as reduce costs related to running expensive peak power plants.

AEP Ohio gridSMART demonstration project and Collaboration with the StateGrid Corporation of China

The AEP Ohio gridSMART Demonstration Project provides customers with information and ways to manage their electricity costs effectively. AEP Ohio an electric utility in the US, replaced about 110,00 residential and business electric meters with digital Smart Meters in 2010.

The gridSMART Project will be able to show how smart grid technologies can give consumers more control over their energy to cut energy consumption. It included advanced metering infrastructure, distribution automation, circuit reconfiguration, volt-var optimization for reducing energy consumption and peak demand, deploying electric vehicle charging infrastructure, evaluating the impact of charging electric vehicles on-grid and the impact of rates and consumer programs on customer’s charging behavior, and ensuring grid security. This will help in delaying the need to build more power plants.

AEP signed a cooperation agreement in January 2011 with State Grid Corporation of China, the largest utility in China, through which the two companies will jointly evaluate and potentially advance six transmission and distribution technologies, including ultra-high-voltage transmission equipment, advanced energy storage technologies, smart-meter technologies, and distributed generation technologies. Experts from each company will work together to research different technologies and share data about their performance. If the technologies prove feasible, the companies will explore potential fabrication and manufacturing in the United States.

Consolidated Edison Company's Smart Grid Initiative

The Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (ConEdison) Smart Grid Deployment project involves the deployment of smart grid systems and components to enhance electric distribution planning and operations.

Its objective is to reduce operating and maintenance costs and defer distribution capacity investments while increasing distribution system efficiency, reliability, and power quality.  The project will deploy different types of distribution automation equipment such as substation and feeder monitors, automated switches, and capacitor automation devices on feeder lines to improve operational efficiency and control. This combined with existing distribution management systems and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, the automated devices will allow Con Edison to better control its distribution system and improve the reliability of its electricity service.