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Solving the energy puzzle
The energy industry is on the verge of a paradigm shift. Solar and wind power is making electricity networks more difficult to manage. Smart grids offer a way forward.
Today, more and more electricity is produced by local wind farms and solar parks, solar panels mounted on roofstops and small-scale combined heat and power (CHP) plants. Wind farms in Germany already have a total installed capacity of over 25,000 megawatts. Plus then there are photovoltaic systems. And according to a recent BITKOM survey, almost 30 percent of German citizens are considering installing solar panels and connecting them to the public grid. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) estimates that in 40 years, almost two-thirds of the country’s energy will be derived from renewables.
Lacking intelligence
There is no real-time visibility into the amount of energy these de-centralized sources generate, as they are not hooked up to utility companies. “However, grid operators require real-time information on supply and demand, as these two parameters must always be equal,” states Professor Jochen Kreusel, energy technology expert at ABB. Electricity cannot be stored. Power generation companies must immediately feed their electricity into the grid, and it must be consumed in its entirety by industry and private households. This has resulted in an ever-increasing number of incidents where there’s too much supply and too little demand. The consequence: renewables are being hindered by a lack of intelligent grid management.
Smart meters to the rescue
Smart grids offer a solution. Thanks to smart meters, they connect power plants, de-centralized energy producers, consumers and networks. As many households as possible need to be fitted with this device to enable utilities to effectively balance supply and demand in real time.
Smart meters send up-to-the-minute data on energy consumption via a cell phone or fixed-line connection to the relevant utility, and can be uploaded to an Internet portal. This allows consumers to look up their own consumption statistics. T-Systems has implemented an ICT-based smart metering solution at the T-City of Friedrichshafen. Pilot projects show that these systems help identify power-hungry devices, and enable households to cut consumption by as much as 15 percent – lowering environmental impact as well as energy bills.
Read more about T-Systems’ smart grid solutions in the print edition of Best Practice.
