Abstract
At global level nowadays, there is a general movement towards the goal of a ‘zero-emission’ energy systems. It will require a necessary energy transition characterized by a continuous increase of generation facilities from renewable energy sources (RES), from a massive increase in energy efficiency and, contemporary, an increased use of electricity to meet the energy needs traditionally required through the direct use of fossil fuels. In order to provide end-users with a greater knowledge and awareness of their energy consumption and the benefits of distributed use of renewable energy sources, it is fundamental to employ a smart metering progress which can enable an evolved and ‘smart’ management of the production–demand binomial and an active participation in the energy system. The importance of functionalities implemented in a smart meter—for end-user engagement, empowerment, and awareness—is presented in the paper. For instance, we present a simple optimization functionality for photovoltaic (PV) and storage system sizing based on load and production duration curves and historical data collected by the smart meter with fine resolution. The ease of this functionality uses a data history with extremely high resolutions, which are able to measure the power ramps that occur when an appliance or any other load is connected. An example of application of the smart meter functionality and test cases’ analysis are reported to demonstrate the effectiveness of the tool.
Highlights
The ambitious challenge of the European Community to achieve a zero-emission energy system, follows a virtuous path that has the following objectives: to fully involve citizens; to prevent the challenge from translating into a mere rise of costs for the community; to become a development opportunity for European companies and employment growth for member states both to meet the domestic and emerging markets; to ensure that national electrical systems maintain the necessary levels of adequacy, security, and resilience
The main achievement of the paper is to provide a useful smart meter functionality that support end-user in changing its electrical behavior, for instance assessing optimal size of the PV plant [24] and storage system, based on the annual trend of its consumption and its own habits collected through the smart meter
The authors show that a smart meter with opportune functionalities is able to provide—in addition to real time monitoring—support as for the PV plant and storage system sizing, starting from the historical production and consumption data collected
Summary
The ambitious challenge of the European Community to achieve a zero-emission energy system, follows a virtuous path that has the following objectives: to fully involve citizens; to prevent the challenge from translating into a mere rise of costs for the community; to become a development opportunity for European companies and employment growth for member states both to meet the domestic and emerging markets; to ensure that national electrical systems maintain the necessary levels of adequacy, security, and resilience. The main contribution of the paper is to highlight possible functionalities, implemented and integrated in the smart meter, as the one based on an optimal sizing tool, to accelerate the process of end-user’s engagement, empowerment and awareness It can provide optimal sizing support for a photovoltaic and storage system and to help the end-user evaluating the use of electricity to meet the energy needs generally required for the direct use of fossil fuels. These functionalities could facilitate the end-user engagement, making electricity consumers more conscious of their energy choices. Different test cases are analyzed for an end-user that need to make a choice between increasing the generation system or its grid electrical consumption due to new electrical loads installation
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