For many years, power grids have formed a reliable infrastructure, which transports power generated at power plants towards domestic, commercial and industrial consumers. However, the way we use the power grid is changing. First of all, we are using electricity for new energy intensive applications such as heating buildings and transportation. Secondly, we are introducing renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines, which do not provide steady levels of production. Finally, energy is being generated at a small scale by devices such as solar panels and micro-CHP’s, which means that power has to be inserted at many different locations in the power grid.
These three trends have a high impact on the stability of the power grid itself. Charging electric vehicles requires enormous amounts of power. Instead of a continuous flow from power plant towards consumers, generation becomes much more fluctuating because most renewable energy sources cannot deliver a steady and continuous power production. Solar panels produce energy only when the sun is shining. During the night or when it is cloudy, very little or no energy is generated. Wind turbines do not produce power when there is too little, or too much, wind to safely turn the blades of the turbine. As such, renewables often have an intermittent character and cannot be planned in advance. Additionally, the electricity flows in the power grid are changing, because energy is inserted into the grid at different locations, such as from households.
These trends introduce two problems for the power grid: First of all, it becomes more difficult to balance the production and consumption in the power grid. When production and consumption are not in balance, the power grid will fail. Having many renewable energy sources means that there still need to be traditional power plants available which can produce electricity when there is no renewable energy available. Secondly, as the usage of electrical heating and electrical vehicles increases, the transportation capacity of the power grid will soon be inadequate. Increasing the capacity is very costly. A distribution system operator (DSO), the owner of the power grid, would like to avoid or postpone these investments as much as possible.
Sometimes consumers are willing to provide some flexibility in the energy consumed or produced by their devices. For example, an electric vehicle doesn’t have to start charging right away when it is plugged in in the afternoon if the owner doesn’t need the car until the next morning. By adding ICT and intelligence to the power grid, we could schedule the car to start charging during the night when there is more capacity or renewable energy available in the power grid. A power grid which is made more intelligent with this technology is called a Smart Grid. The system that automatically schedules consumption and production is called the Smart Grid service.