Smart Grids Roadmap - Smart Grid Sherpa

to enable the existing power network to deal withthe additional power demand. Working togetherwith other network operators, energy companies,software and hardware providers, universitiesand other research institutes, the project shouldresult in simple solutions for charging and payingautomatically (Boots et al., 2010). 4Electricity systemconsiderationswhich is operating with very high reliability levels,and is now focusing on its distribution networks.One example is in Yokahama City, where a largescaleenergy management project is using bothnew and existing houses in urban areas to assessthe effects of energy consumption on distributioninfrastructure. 5 In the United States, as part of abroad range of smart grid investments, significanteffort is being devoted to deploying phasormeasurement units on the transmission system,providing increased information for more reliableoperation of ageing infrastructure. 6Ageing infrastructurePeak demandThe electrification of developed countries hasoccurred over the last 100 years; continuedinvestment is needed to maintain reliability andquality of power. As demand grows and changes(e.g. through deployment of electric vehicles), anddistributed generation becomes more widespread,ageing distribution and transmission infrastructurewill need to be replaced and updated, andnew technologies will need to be deployed.Unfortunately, in many regions, the necessarytechnology investment is hindered by existingmarket and regulatory structures, which oftenhave long approval processes and do not capturethe benefits of new, innovative technologies.Smart grid technologies provide an opportunity tomaximise the use of existing infrastructure throughbetter monitoring and management, while newinfrastructure can be more strategically deployed.Rapidly growing economies like China havedifferent smart grid infrastructure needs fromthose of OECD countries. China’s response toits high growth in demand will give it newerdistribution and transmission infrastructure thanthe other three regions examined in detail in thisroadmap (OECD Europe, OECD North Americaand OECD Pacific). In the Pacific region, recentinvestments in transmission have resulted innewer infrastructure than that in Europe andNorth America. OECD Europe has the highestproportion of ageing transmission and distributionlines, but North America has the largest numberof lines and the largest number that are ageing– especially at the transmission level. This is animportant consideration given the changes ingeneration and consumption in the IEA scenariosup to 2050, and the need to deploy smart gridsstrategically. In recent years Japan has investedsignificantly in its transmission infrastructure,4 www.mobilesmartgrid.euDemand for electricity varies throughout the dayand across seasons (Figure 6). Electricity systeminfrastructure is designed to meet the highestlevel of demand, so during non-peak times thesystem is typically underutilised. Building thesystem to satisfy occasional peak demand requiresinvestments in capacity that would not be neededif the demand curve were flatter. Smart grids canreduce peak demand by providing information andincentives to consumers to enable them to shiftconsumption away from periods of peak demand.Demand response in the electricity system – themechanism by which end-users (at the industrial,service or residential sector level) alter consumptionin response to price or other signals – can bothreduce peak demand, but also provide systemflexibility, enabling the deployment of variablegeneration technologies. Reducing peak demandis likely to be the first priority, because demand ata system level is relatively predictable and rampsup and down slowly compared with variablegeneration. As demand response technologydevelops and human interactions are betterunderstood, the availability, volume and responsetime of the demand-side resource will providethe flexibility necessary to respond to both peakdemand and variable generation needs.The management of peak demand can enablebetter system planning throughout the entireelectricity system, increasing options for new loadssuch as electric vehicles, for storage deploymentand for generation technologies. These benefits areessential for new systems where demand growthis very high, and for existing and ageing systemsthat need to maintain existing and integrate newtechnologies.5 www.meti.go.jp/english/press/data/20100811_01.html6 www.naspi.org/Electricity system needs for today and the future13© OECD/IEA, 2010