Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
generation at building level has so far contributed only to a small part of reducing
CO
2
and that a holistic approach involving district generation is required to satisfy
the current emission reduction targets (Day et al.
2009
).
To increase uptake, the following issues need to be addressed:
• regulations on the use of on-site and district generation and the interaction
between companies in different segments of the energy generation industry;
• holistic town planning strategies to allow suficient land for sustainable energy
generation for new developments;
• all major new developments should establish or connect to a local renewable
grid, district heating and district cooling where appropriate;
• tools to assess the capacity of local industry to meet demand and increase the
attractiveness of community scale energy industry;
• increasing awareness of the beneits of an integrated approach;
• carbon costs across industry and consumer groups.
3.2.2.1 Smart Grids
Smart grids are being developed to combat the challenge of intermittent energy
supply and reduce peak requirements by regulating use (European Commission
2006
). At an infrastructure level, sensors fitted to power lines will enable utilities
to operate systems more efficiently and reliably and predict transmission problems
earlier. With peak demand lower, utilities would no longer need as much back up
capacity. More intelligence in the grid would also help integrate renewable and
intermittent sources of electricity. Finally, added intelligence would also make it
simpler to deal with the imminent and very considerable demand from electric
cars. Car batteries could be used to feed electricity back into the grid if needed,
and so act as a vast electricity storage system.
At a consumer level, one of the problems of traditional electricity grids is a lack
of transparency whereby consumers do not have the means to know how much
they are using in real time, and therefore do not have the opportunity to adapt their
behaviour to suit supply.
Smart meters track electricity use in real time and form a data connection with
providers. While commonly used in industry, the benefit of smart meters is now
reaching a wider audience including residential consumers. The next generation of
smart meter is integrated with smart thermostats and home appliances giving peo-
ple more control over how much electricity they are consuming through awareness
and automation. As electricity prices rise (and in some cases are charged depend-
ing on system load), a home display means consumers can time their usage to be
cost effective and also select the source of their electricity.
To facilitate an “energy internet” model, the following need to be addressed:
• sensors and digital relays installed on power lines will enable utilities to operate
systems with greater efficiency and reliability;
• large scale roll out of smart meters to establish the two-way data connection
