Abstract
This paper provides a study of the smart grid projects realised in Europe and presents their technological solutions with a focus on smart metering Low Voltage (LV) applications. Special attention is given to the telecommunications technologies used. For this purpose, we present the telecommunication technologies chosen by several European utilities for the accomplishment of their smart meter national roll-outs. Further on, a study is performed based on the European Smart Grid Projects, highlighting their technological options. The range of the projects analysed covers the ones including smart metering implementation as well as those in which smart metering applications play a significant role in the overall project success. The survey reveals that various topics are directly or indirectly linked to smart metering applications, like smart home/building, energy management, grid monitoring and integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES). Therefore, the technological options that lie behind such projects are pointed out. For reasons of completeness, we also present the main characteristics of the telecommunication technologies that are found to be used in practice for the LV grid.
Highlights
The current power grid needs to constantly evolve to adapt to the increasing technological demands
With respect to the Low Voltage (LV) side of the network, smart metering solutions are used with the implementation of the Endesa smart meters, meaning that the NB-Power Line Communications (PLC) has been used for the communication of the smart meters and in particular, the “Meters and More” technology
GSM is used for such purposes in DISCERN project, wireless connection is used between Medium Voltage (MV)/LV substations in Grid4EU project, whereas more options are used in Smartcity Malaga project, like BB-PLC, WiMAX and 3G
Summary
The current power grid needs to constantly evolve to adapt to the increasing technological demands. Modern power grids are adapting to cope with this new scenario, evolving to accommodate the integration of renewable energy sources and to enable a more efficient energy management through automated control and modern telecommunication technologies [1]. The integration of renewable energy sources requires a constant monitoring and control of the power grid. The operation of the whole grid requires an efficient management of energy generation, transmission and distribution. For this reason, the role of the telecommunication technologies used in the smart grid is of vital importance. There are two links for transmitting data from the smart meter to the control wireless technologies. In the restwe of the welinks referfor to smart meter data communication as “first”.
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