With increasing demand for power, it becomes necessary to optimize the utilization of electricity grid capacity. This is sought to be done by incorporating information technology solutions to measure and report, and to sense and self-heal into the grid. R&D in this area also seeks to increase the quantity of power transmitted through the lines.
Superconductive transmission lines can reduce power loss, and tackling bottlenecks in transmission where certain lines remain under-utilized owing to full capacity utilization of connecting lines can increase overall capacity. Instabilities in the system is another area that R&D focuses upon as these can reduce the effective capacity compared to the technical one.
Integrating power from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power generators pose its own problems owing to the differing nature of current flow. Technical issues resulting from intermittency, ramp rates, over supply and inertia are the problems in this area, according to an article on integrating renewables at intelligentutility.com.
Smart meters that report power consumption levels to the supplying utility automatically, programmable thermostats that can automatically adjust power utilization and smart home appliances that reduce power consumption can all be part of the overall campaign for creating a smart grid.
The intelligentutility.com website has resources on the practical issues of smart grids.
Tags: energy efficiency, energy generation, information technology, power transmission
