Weekly Brief

How Smart Grid Can Shape Greener Utility Services

Utilities Tech Outlook | Friday, September 13, 2019

The smart grid enables an effective utility management system to harness green energy distribution.

FREMONT, CA: New technologies are contributing to the efforts of utility consumers to fight against climate change. The convenience of automation not only saves living cost but also creates an ecosystem with brilliant utility solutions. Powered by artificial intelligence and computer technology, smart grids improve communication, automation, and connectivity between the electrical systems. The digital era experiences rapid adoption of smart metering systems and smart grids, as the awareness and concern to greenhouse gas emission rises among the consumers. The new-age electrical system allows two-way communication between homes and utility companies, which provides full control to the user in managing energy consumption. Triggering the idea of an eco-friendly electrical system, smart grids show huge potential to press down the threats of climate change.

The utility market is exploding with innovative products and solutions for smart electricity and smart meters. As the smart grids require inter-connected and controllable appliances, these create a standard utility management system with more efficient power operations and fewer peaking units. The energy efficiency benefits from a higher rate of return on capital investment at a lower cost. The technology can effectively manage load with the existing electricity-supply infrastructure and allow utilities to delay additional investments into new transmission lines and generation facilities.

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Smart grids dynamically manage every source of power, which can integrate the distributive energy generation easily. Smart integration of renewable energy into the grid demands advanced energy utility techniques, including load curtailment, demand response, and massive energy storage. The advanced grid technology can stabilize the power consumption over time for a particular area with demand response, which makes it simpler to establish cleaner energy and utility landscape.

Smart grids enable next-generation automotive vehicle power solution while eliminating the need for fuel any more. The technology offers various benefits like smart residential charging based on monetary incentives from the utility, vehicle to grid service that slows down the charging rate, vehicle to home service creates a source of back-up energy during an outage and easy integration with storage and renewable options in the grid. Implementing the smart grids enable minimum power loss with the energy tracking ability, and provide accurate performance report in real-time. At present, vehicle manufacturers are taking initiatives to develop utility automobiles with integrated and simple charging solutions for customers. Smart grids encourage intelligent applications with the capability to measure grid stress, reduce their power use, and avoid grid emergencies.

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Utility industry’s advanced approach to generate, supply, and consume the electricity, frame transformative ecosystem. Utility providers, energy executives, and environmentalists are majorly focusing on renewable energy generation, transmission, and storage to make it more economical and efficient.  

The advanced metering systems provide demand response programs, which assist utility users in cutting the power usage during heat waves and cold spells by reducing peak-demand periods on the grid and save a huge amount of money. The users can moderate their household energy usage and reduce demand with access to their electric consumption data. The transparency of the smart grid helps to make better energy choices and provide more reliable energy services. The electronic reporting feature tracks the location of electric outage for faster restoration processes. Reducing the energy loss, eliminating the usage of fuels, improving the utility efficiencies with renewable resources, providing alternate energy solutions and more benefits of smart grid technology, play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emission effect and climate changes.   

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