Smart Grid

SMART GRID

We all are aware of the high rate at which energy is being used in the present world and if this continues then soon our earth will be exhausted of all its resources and energies and will no longer be a place worth living because of carbon emission. After reading this first line you must be thinking what at all this has to do with computers and technology. But technology finds a way to touch every aspect of life and find solutions to all such problems. Smart grid is an upcoming technology which is spreading like fire in all parts of the world. It is basically the power grid being used in a more efficient way.

A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology with two-way communications to control appliances at consumers' homes to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency. It overlays the electrical grid with an information and net metering system .It is basically a convergence of three sectors electric power, telecommunication infrastructure and information technology.

If we try and analyze then it is quite obvious that the consumption of the number of units of electricity will be greater in the day time as compared to the night time so graphically it is noticeable that these units reach peaks at day time, also this electric energy can not be stored effectively at reasonable expense. So what we basically want is to cut off the peak of the bell curve which can be done by performing day time tasks at night. For instance if we take a washing machine or drier, then it can be set to start automatically at night say 2 o clock rather than at peak hours.

One very important part of smart grid is the Advanced Metering Infrastructure(AMI) which has replaced the obsolete mechanical meters with advanced digital meters known as ‘smart meters’. In countries like Australia, USA and UK these have already come into use. Basically instead of the old Indian system in which some employee would come at the end of each month to take the meter reading, there would be a digital meter which would automatically send the readings time to time (say at an interval of 15min) to a server, through GSM card exactly the same way our mobiles communicate.

These meters are intelligent enough to enable time based electricity charges.

There is a difference in the price of the electricity units used in the day time and the night time. The day time electricity is much more expensive as compared