Introduction - Control of Power Inverters in Renewable Energy and Smart Grid Integration - page 57

Table 1.4 Comparison of today's grid with smart grid

Characteristic Today's Grid Smart Grid

Enables active participation
by consumers

Consumers are uninformed
and non-participative with
power system

Informed, involved, and active
consumers, demand response
and distributed energy
resources

Accommodates all generation
and storage options

Dominated by central
generation, many obstacles
for distributed energy
resources interconnection

Many distributed energy
resources with plug-and-play
convenience, focus on
renewables

Enables new products,
services and markets

Limited wholesale markets,
not well integrated, limited
opportunities for
consumers

Mature, well-integrated
wholesale markets, growth of
new electricity markets for
consumers

Provides power quality for
the digital economy

Focus on outages, slow
response to power quality
issues

Power quality is a priority with a
variety of quality/price
options, rapid resolution of
issues

Optimises assets and operates
efficiently

Little integration of
operational data with asset
management, business
process silos

Greatly expanded data
acquisition of grid parameters,
focus on prevention,
minimising impact to
consumers

Anticipates and responds to
system disturbances
(self-heals)

Responds to prevent further
damage, focus on
protecting assets following
faults

Automatically detects and
responds to problems, focus
on prevention, minimising
impact to consumers

Operates resiliently against
attack and natural disaster

Vulnerable to malicious acts
of terror and natural
disasters

Resilient to attack and natural
disasters with rapid restoration
capabilities

Source: DOE 2009a, The Smart Grid: An Introduction

Distributed-energy resource technology: This area includes the integration of distributed-
generation, storage, and demand-side resources for participation in electric-system oper-
ation. Consumer products such as smart appliances and electric vehicles are expected to
become important components of this area as are renewable-generation components such as
those derived from solar and wind sources. Aggregation mechanisms of distributed-energy
resources are also considered.
Transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure: T&D represents the delivery part of
the electric system. Smart grid items at the transmission level include substation automa-
tion, dynamic limits, relay coordination, and the associated sensing, communication, and
coordinated action. Distribution-level items include distribution automation (such as feeder-
load balancing, capacitor switching, and restoration) and advanced metering (such as meter
reading, remote-service enabling and disabling, and demand-response gateways).
Central generation: Generation plants already contain sophisticated plant automation sys-
tems because the production-cost benefits provide clear signals for investment. While