SMART GRID

The demand of the electrical energy is increasing day by day. The energy is transmitted through the
power system grids. The traditional grid system hasn’t changed significantly in the past 100 years and
therefore, needs to be replaced by an efficient, flexible, secured and environmental friendly grid
system which can be smart grids.

Smart grid system contains smart meters which can be digitally monitored and auto controlled. It has
two-way communication system with better protection, monitoring, and intelligent decision making
system that delivers electricity from generating station to consumer. The incorporation of alternative
energy sources with integration of intelligence in existing power grid constitutes a smart grid. They
reduce power disturbing rate, enable two-way communication across the grid and transfer only
required amount of power. The result of smart grids is lower cost and reliable power transfer. Also,
the smart grid provides an opportunity to move the energy industry into a new era that will contribute
to our economic and environmental health.

The benefits of the smart grid are:

1. Efficient transmission of electricity
2. Fast response to power disturbances
3. Lower cost for consumers
4. Reduced peak demands
5. Improved security
6. Improved power quality
7. Resistant to attacks and disasters
8. Connecting renewable energy system
9. Integration of customer own power generation system

Smart grid will add a recovery system to our electric power system and make it better prepared to
address emergencies such as storms, earthquakes etc. Because of the two way interaction, the smart
grid enables the automatic connection whenever there is a fault in the system. Also, the route of grid
system will change automatically if any equipment failure or fault occurs in the system. Hence, this
will radically minimize the effects. If the outage is large, then smart grid will detect and isolate the
faulty portion to control the large-scale blackouts. Additionally, the Smart Grid will take advantage of
customers’ power generators to produce power when it is not available from electricity authority. By
combining these "distributed generation" resources, a community could keep its health centre, police
department, traffic lights operating during emergencies.

The smart grid offers clean renewable sources energy like solar, wind and PVs which are integrated in
the power grid. It reduces the carbon content in air to help slow down the global warming.
Implementation of smart grid significantly reduces greenhouse gases and pollutants such as NOX, SOX,
and particulates (Pratt, Balducii, Gerkensmeyer & Katipamula, 2010). Hence, the traditional grid
system must be replaced by the smart grid system.
Table 1: Comparison between existing Grid and future Smart Grid(Smart Grid
Communication: Its Challenges and Opportunities, 2013)