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What are Smart Grid Drivers?

byTheta Learning Point 11:11:00 PM
smart grid drivers

In this article, we will discuss the major driving factors of smart grid technology. These factors are also referred to as Global Drivers of the Smart Grid.

The smart grid is essential for enabling a sustainable future. This is because, the electric power delivery system is required to provide adequate and affordable electricity to houses, businesses, and factories. For this, it is urgently needed to improve the world’s existing power delivery infrastructure. There are several factors that drive the energy industry to modernize the electric power grid.

What are the Smart Grid Drivers?

The factors that emphasize the need for a smart grid to overcome the challenges faced by power sectors are referred to as the smart grid drivers. The challenges in the existing power grids have increased the requirement for the reinvention of the power sector. Smart grid development is based on some factors such as economic competitiveness, customer empowerment, energy reliability, global warming, highly increased energy demand, and energy security. Smart grid drivers are required for addressing all these issues in the electric grid.

Now, let us discuss the four important smart grid drivers in detail.

(1). Economic Competitiveness:

To address the issue of economic competitiveness, the following jobs can be performed in the smart grid:

  • Use of alternative energy sources – In the electric grid, a new business model can be developed by including alternating energy sources to reduce the issue of a drain of technical resources in an ageing workforce.
  • Decreasing outage duration – By reducing the outage duration, we can increase energy reliability.
  • Reduction in labour cost – The labour cost can be reduced by replacing manual meter readings and field maintenance.
  • Reduction in transmission losses – The energy losses in transmission and distribution systems can be significantly decreased by improved system planning and asset management.

All these actions can prevent power theft and fraud. This will provide better billing and protect the revenues of power sectors.

(2). Empowering Customers:

Customer empowerment can improve energy utilization by consumers. Customers can be triggered for effective energy utilization. It is very important to empower the customers to satisfy their energy demands and provide uninterruptible power.

(3). Global Warming:

From an environmental viewpoint, it is essential to rectify global warming related issues. In power generation, fossil fuels are the major sources of carbon emissions. Therefore, we must find alternative power generation fuels to protect the world from global warming. In this series, renewable energy sources like solar energy, wind energy, etc. have become a good choice for power generation. In the case of renewable energy sources, low carbon emissions and high sustainability can be achieved. Renewable energy sources can be integrated with existing power systems and managed by the smart grid. Therefore, the development of a smart grid can create an eco-friendly power generation system.

(4). Increase in Electricity Demand:

The increase in population and technological advancement has increased the demand for electricity. The rapid growth in industries to provide goods and services has also increased the electricity demand. The world energy outlook 2014 datasheet estimates that the world’s electricity demand will increase by almost 80% over the period of 2012 to 2040. To meet this increased demand for electricity, smart grid technology has become very essential.

Conclusion

Hence, this is all about the smart grid drivers. From the above discussion, we may conclude that the smart grid drivers are the forces that emphasize on requirements of the smart grid for addressing the issues faced by the power sectors. The major smart grid drivers are empowering customers, economic competitiveness, increased electricity demand, and global warming.

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