Smart Energy Grids
Global energy demand is estimated to grow at about 2,2 percent per year. This means that the current global energy consumption of over 20 petawatt hours will increase to 2030 petawatt hours in 33. At the same time, emphasis is being placed on using energy more efficiently than ever before.
1. Auto in smart grid
Other projections predict that transportation will consume more than 2050 percent of electricity demand by 10, largely due to the growing popularity of electric and hybrid vehicles.
If electric car battery charging is not managed properly or does not work on its own at all, there is a risk of peak loads due to too many batteries being charged at the same time. The need for solutions that allow vehicles to be charged at optimal times (1).
Classical XNUMXth-century power systems, in which electricity was produced predominantly in central power plants and delivered to consumers via high-voltage transmission lines and medium- and low-voltage distribution networks, are ill-suited to the demands of the new era.
In recent years, we can also see the rapid development of distributed systems, small energy producers that can share their surpluses with the market. They have a significant share in distributed systems. renewable energy sources.
Glossary of smart grids
AMI - short for Advanced Metering Infrastructure. Means the infrastructure of devices and software that communicate with electricity meters, collect energy data and analyze this data.
distributed generation - energy production by small generating installations or facilities connected directly to distribution networks or located in the recipient's power system (behind control and metering devices), usually producing electricity from renewable or non-traditional energy sources, often in combination with heat production (distributed cogeneration). . Distributed generation networks may include, for example, prosumers, energy cooperatives, or municipal power plants.
Smart counter – a remote electricity meter that has the function of automatically transmitting energy metering data to the supplier and thus offers more opportunities for the conscious use of electricity.
Micro power source – a small power generation plant, usually used for own consumption. The micro source can be small domestic solar, hydro or wind power plants, micro turbines running on natural gas or biogas, units with engines running on natural gas or biogas.
Proposition – a conscious energy consumer who produces energy for his own needs, for example, in micro sources, and sells the unused surplus to the distribution network.
Dynamic rates – tariffs taking into account daily changes in energy prices.
Observable space-time
Solving these problems (2) requires a network with a flexible "thinking" infrastructure that will direct energy exactly where it is needed. Such a decision smart energy grid – smart power grid.
2. Challenges facing the energy market
Generally speaking, a smart grid is a power system that intelligently integrates the activities of all participants in the processes of production, transmission, distribution and use in order to provide electricity in an economical, sustainable and safe way (3).
Its main premise is the connection between all participants in the energy market. The network connects power plants, large and small, and energy consumers in one structure. It can exist and function thanks to two elements: automation built on advanced sensors and an ICT system.
To put it simply: the smart grid “knows” where and when the greatest need for energy and the greatest supply arise, and can direct excess energy to where it is most needed. As a result, such a network can improve the efficiency, reliability and security of the energy supply chain.
3. Smart grid - basic scheme
4. Three areas of smart grids, goals and benefits arising from them
Smart networks allow you to remotely take readings of electricity meters, monitor the status of reception and the network, as well as the profile of energy reception, identify illegal energy consumption, interference in meters and energy losses, remotely disconnect / connect the recipient, switch tariffs, archive and bill for read values, and other activities (4).
It is difficult to accurately determine the demand for electricity, so usually the system must use the so-called hot reserve. The use of distributed generation (see the Smart Grid Glossary) in combination with the Smart Grid can significantly reduce the need to keep large reserves fully operational.
Pillar smart grids there is an extensive measuring system, intelligent accounting (5). It includes telecommunication systems that transmit measurement data to decision points, as well as intelligent information, forecasting and decision-making algorithms.
The first pilot installations of "intelligent" metering systems are already under construction, covering individual cities or communes. Thanks to them, you can, among other things, introduce hourly pay for individual clients. This means that at certain times of the day, the price of electricity for such a single consumer will be lower, so it is worth turning on, for example, a washing machine.
According to some scientists, such as a group of researchers from the German Max Planck Institute in Göttingen led by Mark Timm, millions of smart meters could in the future create a completely autonomous self-regulating network, decentralized like the Internet, and secure because it is resistant to the attacks that centralized systems are exposed to.
Strength from plurality
Renewable electricity sources Due to the small unit capacity (RES) are distributed sources. The latter include sources with a unit capacity of less than 50-100 MW, installed in close proximity to the final consumer of energy.
However, in practice, the limit value for a source considered as distributed varies greatly from country to country, for example, in Sweden it is 1,5 MW, in New Zealand 5 MW, in the USA 5 MW, in the UK 100 MW. .
With a sufficiently large number of sources dispersed over a small area of the power system and thanks to the opportunities they provide smart grids, it becomes possible and profitable to combine these sources into one system controlled by the operator, creating a "virtual power plant".
Its goal is to concentrate distributed generation into one logically connected system, increasing the technical and economic efficiency of electricity generation. Distributed generation located in close proximity to energy consumers can also use local fuel resources, including biofuels and renewable energy, and even municipal waste.
A virtual power plant connects many different local power sources in a certain area (hydro, wind, photovoltaic power plants, combined cycle turbines, engine-driven generators, etc.) and energy storage (water tanks, batteries) that are remotely controlled by an extensive IT network. system.
An important function in the creation of virtual power plants should be played by energy storage devices that allow you to adjust electricity generation to daily changes in consumer demand. Usually such reservoirs are batteries or supercapacitors; pumped storage stations can play a similar role.
An energetically balanced area that forms a virtual power plant can be separated from the power grid using modern switches. Such a switch protects, performs measurement work and synchronizes the system with the network.
The world is getting smarter
W smart grids currently invested by all the largest energy companies in the world. In Europe, for example, EDF (France), RWE (Germany), Iberdrola (Spain) and British Gas (UK).
6. Smart grid combines traditional and renewable sources
An important element of this type of system is the telecommunications distribution network, which provides a reliable two-way IP transmission between the central application systems and smart electricity meters located directly at the end of the power system, at the end consumers.
At present, the world's largest telecommunications networks for the needs Smart Grid from the largest energy operators in their countries - such as LightSquared (USA) or EnergyAustralia (Australia) - are produced using Wimax wireless technology.
In addition, the first and one of the largest planned implementations of the AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) system in Poland, which is an integral part of Energa Operator SA's smart network, involves the use of the Wimax system for data transmission.
An important advantage of the Wimax solution in relation to other technologies used in the energy sector for data transmission, such as PLC, is that there is no need to turn off entire sections of power lines in case of an emergency.
7. Energy pyramid in Europe
The Chinese government has developed a large long-term plan to invest in water systems, upgrade and expand transmission networks and infrastructure in rural areas, and smart grids. The Chinese State Grid Corporation plans to introduce them by 2030.
The Japan Electricity Industry Federation plans to develop a solar-powered smart grid by 2020 with government support. Currently, a state program for testing electronic energy for smart grids is being implemented in Germany.
An energy “super grid” will be created in the EU countries, through which renewable energy will be distributed, mainly from wind farms. Unlike traditional networks, it will be based not on alternating, but on direct electric current (DC).
European funds funded the project-related research and training program MEDOW, which brings together universities and representatives of the energy industry. MEDOW is an abbreviation of the English name "Multi-terminal DC Grid For Offshore Wind".
The training program is expected to run until March 2017. Creation renewable energy networks on a continental scale and efficient connection to existing networks (6) makes sense due to the specific characteristics of renewable energy, which is characterized by periodic surpluses or shortages of capacity.
The Smart Peninsula program operating on the Hel Peninsula is well known in the Polish energy industry. It is here that Energa has implemented the country's first trial remote reading systems and has the appropriate technical infrastructure for the project, which will be further upgraded.
This place was not chosen by chance. This area is characterized by high fluctuations in energy consumption (high consumption in summer, much less in winter), which creates an additional challenge for energy engineers.
The implemented system should be characterized not only by high reliability, but also by flexibility in customer service, allowing them to optimize energy consumption, change electricity tariffs and use emerging alternative energy sources (photovoltaic panels, small wind turbines, etc.).
Recently, information has also appeared that Polskie Sieci Energetyczne wants to store energy in powerful batteries with a capacity of at least 2 MW. The operator plans to build energy storage facilities in Poland that will support the power grid, ensuring continuity of supply when renewable energy sources (RES) stop functioning due to lack of wind or after dark. The electricity from the warehouse will then go to the grid.
Testing of the solution could begin within two years. According to unofficial information, the Japanese from Hitachi offer PSE to test powerful battery containers. One such lithium-ion battery is capable of delivering 1 MW of power.
Warehouses can also reduce the need to expand conventional power plants in the future. Wind farms, which are characterized by a high variability in power output (depending on meteorological conditions), force traditional energy to maintain a reserve of power so that windmills can be replaced or supplemented at any time with reduced power output.
Operators across Europe are investing in energy storage. Recently, the British launched the largest installation of this type on our continent. The facility at Leighton Buzzard near London is capable of storing up to 10 MWh of energy and delivering 6 MW of power.
Behind him are S&C Electric, Samsung, as well as UK Power Networks and Younicos. In September 2014, the latter company built the first commercial energy storage in Europe. It was launched in Schwerin, Germany and has a capacity of 5 MW.
The document “Smart Grid Projects Outlook 2014” contains 459 projects implemented since 2002, in which the use of new technologies, ICT (teleinformation) capabilities contributed to the creation of a “smart grid”.
It should be noted that projects were taken into account in which at least one EU Member State participated (was a partner) (7). This brings the number of countries covered in the report to 47.
So far, 3,15 billion euros have been allocated for these projects, although 48 percent of them have not yet been completed. R&D projects currently consume 830 million euros, while testing and implementation costs 2,32 billion euros.
Among them, per capita, Denmark invests the most. France and the UK, on the other hand, have the highest budgeted projects, averaging €5 million per project.
Compared to these countries, the countries of Eastern Europe fared much worse. According to the report, they generate only 1 percent of the total budget of all these projects. By the number of implemented projects, the top five are: Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain and France. Poland took 18th place in the ranking.
Switzerland was ahead of us, followed by Ireland. Under the slogan of smart grid, ambitious, almost revolutionary solutions are being implemented in many places around the world. plans to modernize the power system.
One of the best examples is the Ontario Smart Infrastructure Project (2030), which has been prepared in recent years and has an estimated duration of up to 8 years.
8. Plan for deploying Smart Grid in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Energy viruses?
However, if energy network become like the Internet, you must take into account that it may face the same threats that we face in modern computer networks.
9. Robots designed to work in energy networks
F-Secure labs recently warned of a new complex threat to industry service systems, including power grids. It's called Havex and it uses an extremely advanced new technique to infect computers.
Havex has two main components. The first is Trojan software, which is used to remotely control the attacked system. The second element is the PHP server.
The Trojan horse was attached by attackers to the APCS/SCADA software responsible for monitoring the progress of technological and production processes. Victims download such programs from specialized sites, unaware of the threat.
The victims of Havex were primarily European institutions and companies involved in industrial solutions. Part of the Havex code suggests that its creators, in addition to wanting to steal data about production processes, could also influence their course.
10. Areas of smart grids
The authors of this malware were particularly interested in energy networks. Possibly a future element smart power system robots will too.
Recently, researchers at the Michigan Technological University developed a robot model (9) that delivers energy to places affected by power outages, such as those caused by natural disasters.
Machines of this type could, for example, restore power to the telecommunications infrastructure (towers and base stations) in order to carry out rescue operations more efficiently. Robots are autonomous, they themselves choose the best path to their destination.
They may have batteries on board or solar panels. They can feed each other. Meaning and functions smart grids go far beyond energy (10).
The infrastructure created in this way can be used to create a new mobile smart life of the future, based on state-of-the-art technologies. So far, we can only imagine the advantages (but also disadvantages) of this type of solution.
