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1. EVOLUTION OF ELECTRIC GRID
2. CONCEPT OF SMART GRID
3. DEFINITION AND NEED OF SMART GRID
4. FUNCTIONS OF SMART GRID
5. OPPORTUNITIES & BARRIERS OF SMART GRID,
6. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL & SMART GRID
7. CONCEPT OF RESILIENT & SELF HEALING GRID,
8. PRESENT DEVELOPMENT & INTERNATIONAL POLICIES IN SMART
GRID
9. CASE STUDY OF SMART GRID
10. CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM (CDM) OPPORTUNITIES IN
SMART GRID

ALL ABOVE POINTS ARE IMP REGARDING UNIVERSITY QUESTION PAPER

What, Exactly, is a Smart Grid?
Integration of information and communications technology into electric transmission
and distribution networks.


Simply put, a smart grid is the integration of information and communications
technology into electric transmission and distribution networks. The smart grid
delivers electricity to consumers using two-way digital technology to enable the more
efficient management of consumers end uses of electricity as well as the more
efficient use of the grid to identify and correct supply demand-imbalances
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instantaneously and detect faults in a self-healing process that improves service
quality, enhances reliability, and reduces costs.

Thus, the smart grid concept is not confined to utilities only; it involves every stage of
the electricity cycle, from the utility through electricity markets to customers
applications.

Concept of Smart Grid:
It is a 2 - way digital technology - efficient management of consumers as well as grid
- identify and correct supply demand-imbalances instantaneously - detect faults in a
self-healing process that improves service quality - enhances reliability - reduces
costs.
Smart grid is not confined to utilities only; it involves every stage of the electricity
cycle, from the utility through electricity markets to customers.


The emerging vision of the smart grid encompasses a broad set of applications,
including software, hardware, and technologies that enable utilities to integrate,
interface with, and intelligently control innovations.

Definitions of Smart Grid:
1) An automated, widely distributed energy delivery network characterized by a
two-way flow of electricity and information, capable of monitoring and
responding to changes in everything from power plants to customer
preferences to individual appliances
2) A smart grid is a modernized electrical grid that uses information and
communications technology to gather and act on information, such as
information about the behaviors of suppliers and consumers, in an automated
fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of
the production and distribution of electricity
3) A Smart Grid is an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the
actions of all users connected to it generators, consumers and those that do
both in order to efficiently deliver sustainable, economic and secure
electricity supplies.
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Some of the enabling technologies that make smart grid deployments possible
include:
1. Meters

2. Storage devices
3. Distributed generation
4. Renewable energy
5. Energy efficiency
6. Home area networks
7. Demand response
8. IT and back office computing
9. Security
10. Integrated communications systems
11. Superconductive transmission lines.

Need of the Smart Grid

The smart grid presents a wide range of potential benefits, including:

1 Optimizing the value of existing production and transmission capacity Incorporating
more renewable energy.
2 Enabling step-function improvements in energy efficiency Enabling broader penetration and use
of energy storage options
3 Reducing carbon emissions by increasing system, load and delivery efficiencies
4 Improving power quality
5 Improving a utilitys power reliability, operational performance, asset
management and overall productivity
6 Enabling informed participation by consumers by empowering them to manage their energy
usage

7 Promoting energy independence.


Functions of the smart grid

Self-healing: The grid rapidly detects, analyzes, responds, and restores

Empowers and incorporates the consumer: Ability to incorporate consumer
equipment and behavior in grid design and operation
Tolerant of attack: The grid mitigates and is resilient to physical/cyber-attacks Provides
power quality needed by 21st century users: The grid provides quality power consistent
with consumer and industry needs
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Accommodates a wide variety of supply and demand: The grid accommodates a
variety of resources, including demand response, combined heat and power, wind,
photovoltaics, and end-use efficiency
Fully enables and is supported by competitive electricity markets.


Todays Importance of Smart Grid

A confluence of factors is driving the need for investment. Smart grids have the ability to
fundamentally change the way people interact with their electricity supply.

A number of factors are converging, driving the energy industry towards a smart grid (as
outlined in Figure 3). These factors are bringing the agenda to the attention of politicians
and regulators and driving a need for industry solutions. The requirement to act now is
compounded by the non-insignificant lead time on these technologies. The opportunity
cost of not investing at this stage firstly could create a rate-limiting step in the renewables
and electric vehicle ramp-up, and secondly could result in mass investment in dumb
infrastructure which later has to be upgraded at greater total cost to the customer.

A smart grid will exhibit following functions:

1 Self-healing and resilient: A smart grid will perform real time self-assessments to
detect, analyse and respond to subnormal grid conditions. Through integrated
automation, it will self-heal, restoring grid components or entire sections of the
network if they become damaged. It will remain resilient, minimizing the
consequences and speeding up the time to service restoration. The modernized grid
will increase the reliability, efficiency and security of the power grid and avoid the
inconvenience and expense of interruptions a growing problem in the context of
ageing infrastructure. In the US alone, interruptions in the electricity supply cost
consumers an estimated US$ 150 billion a year.8 It will reduce vulnerability to the
growing threats of natural disasters (hurricanes, ice storms) as well as cyber-attacks
and terrorism.

2 Integration of advanced and low-carbon technologies: A smart grid will exhibit
plug and play scalable and interoperable capabilities. A smart grid will permit a
higher transmission and distribution system penetration of renewable generation (e.g.
wind and photovoltaic solar energy resources), distributed generation and energy storage (e.g.
micro-generation). Case studies from Belgium demonstrate that as low as a 7% penetration of
distributed wind turbines on the low voltage network can begin to cause major problems on
the distribution network.9 To mitigate the intermittent nature of renewable generation, the
smarter grid can leverage embedded storage to smooth output levels. Without a smart grid,
diurnal variations in generation output will typically require renewables to be backed with
fast ramp-up fossil fuel based plants. Smart grids will also provide the necessary
infrastructure for mass adoption of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, ultimately enabling
both scheduled dispatch of recharge cycles and vehicle-to- grid capability. Such networks
will allow society to optimize the use of low-carbon energy sources, support the efforts to
reduce the carbon intensity of the transport sector and minimize the collective environmental
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footprint.

3 Enable demand response: By extending the smart grid within the home (via a
home area network), consumer appliances and devices can be controlled remotely,
allowing for demand response. In the event of a peak in demand, a central system
operator would potentially be able to control both the amount of power generation
feeding into the system and the amount of
demand drawing from the system. Rather than building an expensive and inefficient peaking
plant to feed the spikes in demand, the system operator would be able to issue and demand
response orders that would trigger a temporary interruption or cycling of non- critical
consumption (air conditioners, pool pumps, refrigerators, etc.).

4 Asset optimization and operational efficiency: A smart grid will enable better asset
utilization from generation all the way to the consumer end points. It will enable
condition- and performance-based maintenance. A smart grid will operate closer to its
operational limits, freeing up additional capacity from the existing infrastructure; this
remains an attractive proposition when a US study demonstrated that transmission
congestion costs Eastern US consumers US$ 16.5 billion per year in higher electricity
prices alone.10 Smart grids will also drive efficiencies through reductions in technical
and non-technical line losses estimates are that 30% of distribution losses could be
mitigated.11

5 Customer inclusion: A smart grid will involve consumers, engaging them as active
participants in the electricity market. It will help empower utilities to match evolving
consumer expectation and deliver greater visibility and choice in energy purchasing. It
will generate demand for cost-saving and energy-saving

products. In a world where consumer expectations and requirements are growing,
smart grids will help educate the average consumer, foster innovation in new energy
management services and reduce the costs and environmental impact of the delivery
of electricity.
6 Power quality: A smart grid will have heightened power quality and reductions in the
occurrence of distortions of power supply. As the load demands increase on an exponential
path, power quality degradation will manifest as more of an issue, in turn requiring distributed
monitoring and proactive mediation. This will confluence with a decrease in tolerance for
power quality variances from modern industry, particularly the hi-tech sector and the higher
costs of such quality issues as economies grow.
7 Market empowerment: A smart grid will provide greater transparency and availability of
energy market information. It will enable more efficient, automated management of market
parameters, such as changes of capacity, and enable a plethora of new products and services.
New sources of supply and enhanced control of demand will expand markets and bring
together buyers and sellers and remove inefficiencies. It will shift the utility from a
commodity provider to a service provider.

Opportunities of Smart Grid?
a) In India:-
Layers of technical capability will be applied to a power grid to deliver these smart
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grid characteristics:
Secure and ubiquitous communications: resilient, two-way digital
communication infrastructure exhibiting appropriate bandwidth and latency and
enabling communications from generation source to consumer end point.
Embedded sensing, automation and control: monitoring and sensors (voltage,
current, etc.), automated switches and controls and micro- processing capability to enable
the electricity network to respond to real time conditions
Automated real time optimization: advanced monitoring, sensing and controls,
decision support algorithms, low latency communications to support active load balancing
and self-correct for interruptions and power quality issues in real time

Enhanced design and predictive monitoring: asset data collection,
analytics and advanced visualization techniques integrated in to the utility enterprise
systems to provide the tools to optimize network planning and predict and respond to
anticipated equipment failure

Distributed generation and demand response: simplified interconnection standards,
two-way power flow capabilities and more effective load balancing techniques to allow
distributed generation and energy storage to be incorporated seamlessly into the
transmission and distribution network; energy management systems will track the balance
of supply and demand on the network and control consumer devices to optimize 24-hour
energy consumption

b) Global opportunities :
1 Unrelenting increases in electricity demand.

Rising world population, the growing affluence of emerging nations, the escalating demand for
goods and services that require ever more electricity, and the growing need for the unique
properties of electricity in an increasingly digital world are all driving the demand for power to
unprecedented levels. In Indias high- growth economy, for example, the demand for electricity is
forecast to grow by an estimated 10% per year until the existing supply-demand gap is closed. In
the United States, the growth in peak demand for electricity has exceeded transmission growth by
almost 25% per annum. As noted on the main page of the Edison Electric Institutes website, there
has been serious under-investment in transmission networks for several decades.
While many nations struggle to supply enough power to meet their peoples basic needs,
electricity has also emerged as a premium energy source, enabling the proliferation of
electronic end-use devices, particularly for computing and communications. This spurred
demand for more (and more reliable) electricity.


2 Global warming.

There is broad consensus that global warming has already begun to cause serious and lasting
damage to the worlds ecology. Because electricity production is a major source of carbon
emissions, early adapters around the world both governments and corporations have
begun exploring ways to create sustainable, low-carbon, high-growth economies. The smart
grid offers the potential to conserve energy, both through reducing demand at peak times and
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by its ability to deploy renewable energy sources, thus lessening the industrys contribution to
climate change.

3 An upturn in the trend in unit costs of electricity.

It is becoming more apparent that the long-term trend of rising unit costs of
electricity began as long ago as the late 1960s, after nearly a half century of declining
unit costs.
Many factors will continue to put upward pressure on costs, including increased
commodity prices, especially for oil and gas, plus dispatchability and thus lower plant
load factors for renewable energy sources, among others. At the same time, a construction
cycle of historic proportions is unfolding for utilities to replace and renew the aging
transmission and distribution infrastructure, and just as India, China and other high-
growth developing economies are aggressively expanding their own power generation.
As a result of the construction boom, the competition for resources from raw
materials to capital and know-how will continue to intensify, especially as
economies emerge from the current downturn. If economies are to flourish, they must
maximize output with a minimum of resources. The pressure to use assets wisely will
only increase as the cost of capital rises, which is expected to occur when the current
recession ends.
In the United States this is taking place against an ominous backdrop. The industrys
aggregate credit rating is hovering one notch above junk bond status and the current
worldwide recession has brought resistance by regulators, consumer advocates and
the general public to rate increases.


4 Reliability. The electric utility industry is facing a decline in quality at the same time unit costs
are rising. The United States, for example, has experienced 5 massive blackouts in the last 40
years (3 of them in the last 10 years) that have left a deep scar on the industry and, perhaps more
so, society, as well as government and regulators. These blackouts led to the codification of
reliability standards8 and the imposition of regulations with stiff penalties9 to govern the
reliability of bulk power supply networks. An important goal of the smart grid vision is a network
that can improve outage management performance by responding faster to repair equipment
before it fails unexpectedly.

5 Efficiency. The smart grid can improve load factors and reduce system losses. According to
the US Department of Energys (DOE) estimates, if the US electricity system were just 5%
more efficient, the energy savings would be equivalent to eliminating the fuel and greenhouse
gas emissions produced by 53 million cars.

6 Environment. Emerging and more stringent greenhouse gases limitations, renewable
portfolio standards, and energy conservation requirements have become one of the key issues
for utilities and are increasingly more ingrained in the environmental corporate responsibility
commitments of vendors and industries.

Renewable energy use has been growing rapidly, driven in part by renewable portfolio
standards. Much of the recent thrust has been on larger-scale renewable systems, and
owing to their variability and intermittency, require increased grid flexibility. Consumer-
scale renewables such as rooftop photovoltaics are also expected to take off. On a
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distributed scale, these energy sources require smarter grids to meet safety, reliability,
and control requirements.

7 Cost savings. Meter reading is a non-trivial component of a distribution utilitys
fixed monthly costs; typically, the costs of reading a meter are between US $0.50 and
$3.00. Many US utilities do not read meters monthly. A common practice is to read
bi-monthly and estimate usage in the interim month. If there is what is known as a
CGI (cant get in) problem because the meter is located inside the premises and
nobody is home (a frequent occurrence in recent decades), the estimating could
continue (legally) for up to a year. In addition to making meter reading nearly
instantaneous, smart metering can synergize with gas and water meter readings,
creating additional cost savings and, more important, greater convenience for
customers.
With electricity prices set to continue rising sharply, the smart grid will also offer consumers
choices that could reduce their bills. It can offer time-of-use and possibly even real-time
pricing, as opposed to the flat rate retail tariffs most consumers now pay. When consumers
respond to such tariffs through a smart grid, peak load would be reduced, which will improve
asset utilization and lower per-unit generating costs.

8 Grid improvement. Electricity demand in the United States is growing much faster than the
transmission system. Deregulation has also increased the long-distance transmission of power,
which is increasingly sourced from greater distances, driven by economics, rather than security
and performance needs as in the past. In the words of one retired utility CEO: The U.S.
transmission system is under tremendous strain and only marginally stable. It was designed as a
regional system and has been forced to function as a national system, a function for which it was
not designed and does not handle very well.11 The smart grid will improve the grids resilience
and robustness.

9 Technological advances. The advances in computing and telecommunications during the last
half century have affected almost every facet of life. One reason the smart grid is taken seriously
is because advanced computing and telecommunications have made it possible. As a network, the
electricity industry has always required measurement, making it an ideal candidate for such
advanced technology.

In a fundamental sense, the industry needs a breakthrough to enable it to rebalance the value
equation it presents to customers. Costs are headed up while reliability is slipping. The recent
advances in computing, telecommunications and metering have
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not arrived too soon. The smart grid also presents an opportunity to bundle in-home
intelligence offerings, such as healthcare and home monitoring.

10 Improved customer satisfaction. If its costs cannot be driven down, the utility industry
will need to improve the quality of service. As former Harvard Business School Professor
Ted Levitt noted, it is possible to augment the commodity value of a utility service. If done
successfully, this will result in an increase in the perceived value of the product or service.
The electric industry needs an increase in perceived value to improve its value offering.
Because the smart grid promises to give customers more control over their use of electricity,
it offers a way to increase perceived value. It could enable customers to minimize the total
amount of their bills. So even though unit prices may not go down, the total size of a
customers bill could be minimized if not absolutely reduced. And the total amount of a bill,
surveys show, has a much bigger impact on customer satisfaction than unit price.

11 Electric vehicles. According to the DOE, the smart grids single biggest potential for
delivering carbon savings is in providing cost-effective and increasingly clean energy for
plug- in electric vehicles (PEVs) and their hybrids. PEVs can be plugged into a standard
household electrical outlet to recharge their batteries. Capable of traveling up to 40 miles
in electric- only mode, the majority of PEVs operating on battery power would meet the
daily needs of most drivers.
Compared with a current hybrid, a PEV with an electric-only range of 20 miles could
reduce fuel use by about one-third according to a report by the American Council for
an Energy-Efficient Economy. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates that
the same PEVs could reduce fuel consumption by about 60% compared with non-
hybrid vehicles.

Although electric vehicles are not yet available on a large scale, a number of grid-
connectible vehicles are anticipated to join the US fleet in the next five years. The
technology is still expensive, mainly due to the cost of batteries, but the US
Government is supporting the development of storage technology. An increase in
production volumes would also help lower unit costs.
An intriguing addition to the potential of PEVs is that, while most of the discussion up to now
has centered on plugging the (electric) car into the house, there is a nascent but growing
discussion about plugging the house into the car. In other words, the collective storage
capacity of PEVs could serve as reserve storage capacity for a micro-grid to help balance an
unanticipated outage or shortfall in supply.

As ZigBee Alliance15 chairman Bob Heile said, American consumers are going to have
to live with the interactive nature of the smart grid and the overwhelming fact that power
generation will never keep up with future demand...Even if utilities pursued new power
generation by every means, American attitudes towards nuclear power, not-in-my-
backyard sentiments and demands of the Clean Air Act will constrain new generation to
lag behind demand ... We can't build new power plants fast enough, even without the
transportation sector going electric. With EVs in the mix, demand will be huge.
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Smart Grid Drivers in India

Six factors will drive the adoption of the smart grid in India:

Supply shortfalls. Demand, especially peak demand, continues to outpace Indias
power supply. The increasing affordability of household appliances is adding to the
burden on the grid. Official estimates of Indias demand shortfall are 12% for total
energy and 16% for peak demand. Managing growth and ensuring supply is a major
driver for all programs of the Indian power sector.

Loss reduction. Indias aggregate technical and commercial losses are thought to be
about 25-30%, but could be higher given the substantial fraction of the population that is
not metered and the lack of transparency. While a smart grid is not the only means of
reducing losses, it could make a substantial contribution.

Managing the human element in system operations. Labor savings are not a prime driver for
the smart grid in India, as contracts for outsourcing are inexpensive. However, automated meter
reading would lower recording and other errors including what are known elsewhere as
curbstone readings or shade tree readings

or even deliberate errors, which are thought to be significant reasons for losses.

Peak load management. Indias supply shortfalls are expected to persist for many years. A
smart grid would allow more intelligent load control, either through direct control or
economic pricing incentives that are communicated to customers in a dynamic manner. Such
measures would help mitigate the supply-demand gap.

Renewable energy. India has supported the implementation of renewable energy.
Historically, much of its support was for wind power, but the newly announced National
Solar Mission and its goal to add 20,000 MW of solar energy by 2020 should be an
accelerant. Spurred by environmental concerns and the desire to tap into all available sources
of power, this move can also be a smart grid driver.

Technological leapfrogging. Perhaps the most intriguing driver for India is the
potential to leapfrog into a new future for electricity, as it did with
telecommunications. Also, the smart in a smart grid is ICT an area of unique
capability in India.

Barriers to Implementation of Smart Grid

Seven barriers are holding back the implementation of smart grids; none of which
are insurmountable, as described in the next section. The paramount issue is a
regulatory framework that is out of sync with todays industry needs and societys
broader environmental objectives.

In the following section, the current challenges that are holding back investments in smart grids
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will be examined, before looking, in Section 3, at potential actions that could be taken to address
them and accelerate the adoption of smart grid technologies. There are a number of factors that, in
combination, are acting as a brake on smart grid investment, most of which are institutional and
relate to the regulatory and policy frameworks that have evolved to support the existing
power delivery system. Seven areas have been identified that will need to be
addressed before smart grids become more widely adopted:

1. Policy and regulation In many cases, utilities do not get as far as a business case
for the smart grid as there are regulatory and policy barriers in place that either create
reverse incentives or fail to create sufficient positive incentives for private sector
investment.
2. Business case Where policy-makers and utility executives are aware of the role that
smart grids can play, they are often unable to make the business case for smart grid
investments. Within the business case, two factors operate: first, the capital and operating
costs are too high, as suppliers have not been able to achieve scale economies in
production and delivery risk is priced in; and second, only those benefits that are
economically tangible are factored in, while other ancillary and non-financial benefits are
not included (e.g. the carbon benefits) or are aligned to the appropriate value-chain
players.
3. Technology maturity and delivery risk A smart grid brings together a number of
technologies (communications, power electronics, software, etc.) at different stages of the
technology maturity lifecycle. In some cases, these technologies have significant
technology risks associated with them because de facto or agreed standards have not
emerged. In addition, there are only a handful of examples of large- scale implementation
of more than 50,000 premises and therefore there continues to be significant delivery risk
priced in to the estimates.
4. Lack of awareness Consumers and policy-makers are becoming increasingly aware of
the challenges posed by climate change and the role of greenhouse gas emissions in creating
the problem. In some cases, they are aware of the role of renewable generation and energy
efficiency in combating climate change. It is much less common that they are also aware of
the way that power is delivered to the home and the role of smart grids in enabling a low-
carbon future.

5. Access to affordable capital Utility companies are generally adept at tapping the capital
markets; however, where delivery risks are high and economic frameworks are variable, the
relative cost of capital may be higher than normal, which acts as a deterrent to investment.
Stable frameworks and optimum allocation of risk between the customer, the utility and
government will be the key to accessing the cheapest capital possible. In the case of
municipalities and cooperatives, this challenge may become amplified as the ability to
manage delivery risk is reduced.

6. Skills and knowledge In the longer term, a shortfall is expected in critical skills
that will be required to architect and build smart grids. As experienced power system
engineers approach retirement, companies will need to transition the pool of
engineering skills to include power electronics, communications and data
management and mining. System operators will need to manage networks at different
levels of transition and learn to operate using advanced visualization and decision
support.

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7. Cybersecurity and data privacy Digital communication networks and more
granular and frequent information on consumption patterns raise concerns in some
quarters of cyber-insecurity and potential for misuse of private data. These issues are
not unique to smart grids but are cause for concern on what is a critical network
infrastructure.
Of the seven barriers outlined above, the first three pose the most significant hurdles, but, if
addressed, will go a long way towards creating an environment that will encourage
investment in smart grids. None of these barriers is insurmountable; however, it is important
to understand the root cause of the issues before developing strategies to break them
down. In the following sections, each area will be looked at in more detail with examples
that highlight the challenge.

Smart Grid Policy and Regulation

Policy and regulatory frameworks need to adapt; todays frameworks evolved to
encourage competition in generation and supply of power rather than to promote
clean energy supply.
The current policy and regulatory frameworks were mostly designed to deal with standard
networks and utility operating models; in effect, an all-you-can-eat buffet of electrons. In
some cases, this has evolved to encourage competition in generation and supply of power.
With the move towards smart grids, the existing policy and regulatory frameworks will need
to evolve to encourage the right behaviours and incentives for investment. The new
frameworks will need to align the interests of consumers with utilities and suppliers to ensure
that the societal goals are achieved at the lowest cost to the consumer (either through the
utility or tax bill).

In most cases, governments set policy while regulators monitor the implementation, protect the
consumer and seek to avoid market abuse. Over the last two decades, the trend towards liberalized
markets in many parts of the world has focused the attention of policy-makers on enabling
competition and consumer choice. In economic terms, the onus has been on the private sector to
make capital investments and to earn regulated rates of return on those assets. In a mature market
model, this is a relatively low risk, low reward endeavour. The regulatory models have evolved to
become more and more effective at avoiding market abuse and regulating rates of return.

Moving forward, the regulatory model will have to adapt to balance a suite of outcomes in
which carbon reduction and security of supply take a more prominent place in the defined
outcomes. As a consequence, trade-offs may need to be made with the degree of market
competition and cost to the consumer. If policy-makers and regulators see long-term carbon
reduction and security of supply as important outcomes, they will need to rebalance the
regulatory incentives to encourage privately financed utilities to invest at rates of return that
are commensurate to the risk. The relative risk profile for smart grid investments, given the
technology and delivery risks outlined above, will require policy and regulatory frameworks
that allocate risk to the parties that can diversify it most effectively. This may mean creating
frameworks that allow risk to be shared between customers (either through their utility bills or
taxes), and shareholders, so that risks and rewards are balanced at least aggregate cost to the
customer.
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COMPARISON BETWEEN CURRENT GRID & SMART GRID





























SELF HEALING GRID

The self-healing of smart grid can automatically avoid or mitigate power
outages, power quality problems, and service disruptions using real-time information
from embedded sensors and automated controls to anticipate, detect, and respond to
system problems. Like the immune function of human body, self-healing can make the
grid withstand and mitigate any internal or external hazard (fault), and ensure the gird
stability and supply quality. It is the new development and the extension of traditional
relay protection technology. Its ultimate goal is to provide users with always-ideal power.

The research on self-healing can be divided into two areas, transmission grid and distribution
grid. Due to the differences in their roles, network configurations and operation manner, the
requirements on the self-healing functions of transmission grid and distribution grid are
different. Transmission network transmits the power from the large power plant to the major
load centers. It is a meshed network fed with multiple generation plants. The cutoff of one or
several elements will not affect the operation of network. Therefore, the self-healing of
transmission grid is to continuously monitor the condition of electric apparatus in
transmission grid, detect mitigate the apparatus's problems, isolate the faulted apparatus by
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fast protection. Other functions are on line security assessment, early warning and corrective
control of system stability to prevent the system from cascaded blackouts.

Self-healing of smart distribution grid

Distribution network directly faces consumers, and any faults or disturbances on it
will affect the supply quality. The fast development of economy leads to higher requirements
to supply quality. The supply quality involves two aspects: reliability and power quality.
Reliability refers to the continuity of power supply to the consumers. It is measured by the
system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) and the system average interruption
frequency index (SAIFI). According to the u.s. department of energy's report , the reliability
rate in US is 99.97%, and the power outages and interruptions, costs US at least 150 billion
dollars a year, which means an average loss of 500 dollars per capital. Power quality refers to
the quality of the power to the consumer, and it is measured by the voltage deviation,
frequency, voltage fluctuation and flicker, harmonics and phase unbalance.
In fact, there are a lot of momentary interruptions in the distribution network,
such as the interruption caused by reclosing for transient fault, or by automatic power
source switch over in substation. Moreover, there exist quite a number of voltage sags
caused by fault, inrush current etc.. Voltage sag will last from half power cycle to 1
minute. Momentary interruption and voltage sag may cause mal-function of high-tech
digital equipments and result in huge economic losses. At present, the momentary
interruptions are not included in the reliability statistics, and the voltage sags are not
included in national power quality standards. Further investigations to these two
phenomena are needed. They are two fundamental problems to be solved in the research
of the self-healing of smart distribution grid.
Nowadays, there are serious threats to the security of power grid, such as terrorist attacks,
local wars, typhoons, thunderstorms, ice disaster, earthquakes, floods and other natural
disasters. According to government statistics, the average losses caused by natural disasters
are around 5% of GDP output since the 1990s .


Fault self-healing of smart distribution grid

Fault self-healing of smart distribution grid refers to automatic control measures to
eliminate or isolate the fault and restore service using modern communication, computer,
automatic control and power electronics technologies.

Fault self-healing involves the primary and secondary system. The primary system should
have a flexible structure with wide application of new equipments such as fast circuit breaker,
fault current limiters etc.. In the secondary system, the new technologies such as wide area
protection,distributed control should be employed.

Self Healing Grid

The concept of SHG requires enhancements in the level of automation of the Power System,
which means an increase of remote control device featuring capabilities of communication
with the rest of the system and able to have an action by itself

The traditional local automation shall be controlled by distributed intelligent agents (IA),
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which are themselves connected to a superior and centralized unit.

CDM Opportunities in Smart Grid

Clean Development Mechanism or CDM is one mechanism that allows an
industrialized nation listed in Annex I of the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to buy emission reductions which arises from
sustainable development projects that are in non-Annex I (developing) nations. The
carbon credits that are generated by a CDM project are termed in CERs, expressed in
tones of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e).


Under the Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an additional
finance for the projects that reduce greenhouse gas emission could possibly help to
accelerate wind and solar power development across the world.

CDM and Carbon Credits:

Carbon credits are a tradable permit scheme. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by giving them a monetary value. A credit gives the owner the right to emit
one tonne of carbon dioxide. Carbon credits are generated as the result of an additional
carbon project. A can be an emissions allowance which is allocated or auctioned by the
administrators of a cap-and-trade program or an offset of Greenhouse Gas equivalent
carbon dioxide emissions. An offset generated by a carbon project under Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) or Joint Implementation (JI) is limited in value by the
fact that regulated entities are limited as to what percentage of compliance can be
accomplished via these flexible mechanisms.International treaties such as the Kyoto
Protocol set quotas on the amount of greenhouse gases countries can produce. Countries,
in turn, set quotas on the emissions of businesses.The concept of carbon credits came into
existence as a result of increasing awareness of the need for pollution control. Carbon
credits are certificates awarded to countries that are successful in reducing emissions of
greenhouse gases. For trading purposes, one credit is considered equivalent to one tonne
of CO2 emissions.

Various sectors which comes under CDM project

1) Green Buildings

2) Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles
3) SF6 based Gas Insulated Substations
4) Renewable Energy Sources like Solar,Wind,Biogas
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THE SMART GRID will add a layer of control and communication to the grid
in places where it does not now exist. The capability to perform control from remote locations
or autonomously will allow distribution systems to be increasingly automated and
transmission systems to be monitored at the regional scale.

A concept often causing confusion

The 'smart grid' is commonly presented as an indispensable part of the future power
system. It is claimed that a true liberalised electricity market with a high penetration
of distributed generation will only be able to supply a high degree of power reliability
if grids are made smart.

But what exactly is a 'smart grid'? Reading through some literature on the subject, one
quickly discovers that it can mean many different things to many different people,
often leading discussions to end in confusion.

A smart grid is neither a clearly defined single concept nor a single technology. Rather it is like a
basket containing various combinations of balls. The context and the interpretation depend upon
the user. Carnegie Mellon University recently published an article describing all of the various
balls typically found in this metaphorical basket. Some of them represent innovations that are still
in the development phase, while others stand for technologies which have already been applied for
years.

Some of the balls found in the smart grid basket include:

At customer level

Meters that can be read automatically: this avoids sending out meter readers and
can facilitate a fast and exact billing of consumption. It is already widely
adopted by many power companies.
Time-of-day and time-of-use meters: the former are meters that change the electricity
price depending on the time of the day, the latter are meters that integrate the
actual electricity price at any given moment in time.
Meters that can communicate with the customers: a display shows the
customers their current rate of electricity use, allowing them to adjust their
consumption level in real time.
Control of customers load: control systems that react to time-of-day or time-of-
use meters to automatically switch certain circuits on or off.

At distribution grid level

Distribution system automation: A first step is the operating of the distribution grid from a
central control room, avoiding the need to send people into the field for switching
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actions. Such systems have already been installed in several places around the world.
A second step is to change the tree layout of the grid into a meshed layout. By also
adding sensors and remote control switches, incidents can be isolated and cut off,
minimising problems for electricity consumers.

Selective load control: selectively switching off customers to avoid a complete
black out. A step further is the ability to turn individual loads on or off within
customers premises.
'Islanding' of micro-grids supplied by distributed generation units. This concept
can, in its turn, have several different meanings. The basic idea is that local
DGs locally increase the reliability of supply.

At transmission grid level

Phase measurements: the efficiency and stability of power system operation could
be improved with the addition of phase measurement at various key locations
on the transmission grid and combined with advanced communication and
control systems.
FACTS: Flexible AC Transmission Control Devices or FACTS are advanced systems that can
change the flow of power in transmission lines. A phase shift

transformer is an example of a FACT.
Distributed and autonomous control: models demonstrate that advanced automatic
control systems that cooperate with each other could in some cases do a better job
than a centralised human operation of the system.