Smart Grid Technologies and the Challenge of Integrating Solar and Wind Power

Abstract

Renewable energy, and wind and solar specifically, is going places much faster than most of us thought. That’s obviously an immense victory, but it’s not without a major catch. The power grids we rely on every single day of our life are having trouble keeping pace, and the reason why is pretty simple: Solar and wind are impossible to predict. Trying to manage that kind of volatility on a massive scale is incredibly hard to do.

This is where the smart grid technology comes into the picture. In this paper, I deconstruct the way that these newer systems actually operate. We’re talking about smart meters that track the amount of usage down to the minute, IoT sensors integrated throughout the course of the whole network, and AI applications that can predict the spike in demand before it occurs. I also get into SCADA systems (which provide operators centralized control) and demand response programs which basically reward everyday consumers to disengage from their high stress hours.

To get an understanding of whether this tech really works, I examined individual case studies from Germany, the US and India. To be honest though, this data was difficult to ignore. Energy curtailment fell up to 78

Finally, the paper looks at what’s coming next down the pipeline. 5G networks will take grid communications to a new level of almost instantaneousness. Blockchain is being tested to allow people to theoretically indeed trade energy with their neighbors and completely bypass the traditional utility companies. And vehicle-to-grid tech – in which your electric car can literally feed power back into the grid when there is a passion in the batteries – is on its way from being a cool concept to the reality. The grid is not only changing fundamentally but it’s happening fast.