Developing smart grid concepts, architectures and technological demonstrations worldwide: A literature survey

A great deal of variation exists both within the power industry and academia to what exactly should be included under the broad umbrella of a smart grid. This paper is based on a survey consisted of recently developed various smart grid concepts, architectures and details of associated technological demonstrations implemented worldwide. The survey is based on initiatives taken by EU and IEA (e.g. ETP, EEGI, EERA and IEA) and description of projects conducted in Europe and US (e.g. FENIX, ADDRESS, EU-DEEP, ADINE, GridWise and SEESGEN-ICT). The report presents drivers, visions and roadmaps to develop smart grids worldwide including China and India. The survey encompasses various smart grid concepts, i.e. development of virtual power plant, active demand in consumer networks, DER aggregation business, active distribution network and ICT applications to develop intelligent future grids. The comparison is carried out on the basis of technological and commercial aspects. In addition, the existing features of smart grid technology and challenges faced to implement it in Finnish environment are addressed. As a matter of fact, the implementation of smart grid is consisting of more than any one technology, therefore, this transition will not be so easy. The fully developed and realized smart grid will be beneficial to all the stakeholders. Smart grid will be an outcome of an evolutionary development of the existing electricity networks towards an optimized and sustainable energy system and it will have positive impact on the climate change.