Article
Accelerating research in smart electricity grids
Part of Today in the Lab - Tomorrow in Energy?
Smart grids
Smart grid investments still represent a small share of all investment in network infrastructure and despite the initial enthusiastic response to smart grids, many signs now point to a slowdown.
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Smart grids comprise a broad mix of technologies to modernise electricity networks, extending from the end user to distribution and transmission.
Not only can better technologies for monitoring, control and automation stimulate the development of new business models, they can unlock system-wide benefits including reduced outages, shorter response times, deferral of investments to the grids themselves and distributed energy resource integration.
At the end-user level, smart grids can enable demand flexibility and consumer participation in the energy system, including through demand response, electric vehicle (EV) charging and self-produced distributed generation and storage.
Demand flexibility can increase the overall capacity of the system to integrate variable renewables while accelerating the electrification of heating, cooling and industry at a lower cost. Deploying a physical layer of smart-grid infrastructure – underpinned by smart meters – can help unlock these benefits.
Not only can better technologies for monitoring, control and automation stimulate the development of new business models, they can unlock system-wide benefits including reduced outages, shorter response times, deferral of investments to the grids themselves and distributed energy resource integration.
At the end-user level, smart grids can enable demand flexibility and consumer participation in the energy system, including through demand response, electric vehicle (EV) charging and self-produced distributed generation and storage.
Demand flexibility can increase the overall capacity of the system to integrate variable renewables while accelerating the electrification of heating, cooling and industry at a lower cost. Deploying a physical layer of smart-grid infrastructure – underpinned by smart meters – can help unlock these benefits.
Last updated Aug 4, 2020
Key findings
Investment in smart grids by technology area, 2014-2019
OpenGrids became further decentralised and digitalised in 2019 despite falling investment
Despite a 7% year-on-year reduction in overall expenditures, grids became further decentralised and digitalised in 2019. Utilities around the world deployed more sophisticated technologies, including artificial intelligence and digital twinning. US regulators appear to be advancing towards performance-based regulation, and the European Commission launched the Clean Energy Package, which includes a number of measures to help grid operators deploy smarter technology. Nevertheless, more efforts are required to implement regulations and policy frameworks that reward the benefits of digitalising electricity networks.
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The ISGAN TCP is a strategic platform to support high-level government attention and action for the accelerated development and deployment of smarter, cleaner electricity grids around the world. Operating as both an initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial, and as a TCP, the ISGAN TCP provides an important channel for communication of experience, trends, lessons learned, and visions in support of clean energy objectives as well as new flexible and resilient solutions for smart grids.
