Eurelectric - 10 Steps to Smart Grids
WHY - Main drivers of a new flexible system
By 2020, intermittent RES such as wind and solar are expected to represent about 17% of the EU’s total electricity consumption. Besides other, distribution networks will need to accommodate an increasing number of small-scale sources. At the same time, electrification of transport will be needed to further decarbonise the economy. Together with the electrification of heating and cooling, they will further contribute to the projected growth in electricity demand. As a result, power will not only flow in one direction from the power system to the consumer, but increasingly from the customer to the power system as well.
How - Bringing customers on board
EURELECTRIC believes in promoting flexibility, both on the supply and on the demand side, thereby avoiding an over-sized distribution grid and saving costs for the customers. To achieve this flexibility, customers need to become actively involved and new commercial services established. This will only be successful if electricity retail prices and grid tariffs reflect the actual market and grid situations. At the same time, not only power, but information too will need to flow in both directions. Distribution system operators (DSOs) should have real-time system information at their disposal which allows them to operate the grid safely and to dynamically manage distributed generation and demand.
What - is a Smart Grid?
A smart grid is an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the behaviour and actions of all its users to ensure a sustainable, economic and secure electricity supply. As a tool that provides much-needed flexibility, smart grids offer potential benefits to the entire electricity value chain (generators, TSOs, DSOs, suppliers and consumers) and to society as a whole.
Who - DSOs as key enablers for Smart Grids
Movement towards the new intelligent power system will require increased cooperation among all players in this area. DSOs, currently responsible for transporting electricity from the transmission system to customers (excluding supply), will be at its heart. They will increasingly move beyond their traditional role of “building and connecting” towards “connecting and managing”, and will become enablers for producers, service providers and customers to meet on an open market place. DSOs will bear the lion’s share of the initial investments in smart technologies to encourage development of commercial solutions. Yet their investments are currently being hampered by two things: sub-optimal rates of return and regulatory instability. Before anything else, efficient regulation at the national level that focuses on longer term grid requirements and provides a fair rate of return should be thus encouraged.
The report - Ten steps to Smart Grids
Smart grids will not be rolled out in a single swoop. Instead, their implementation is an incremental and continuous step-by-step learning process, characterised by different starting points throughout Europe. Smart grids are not an instant revolution, but a steady evolution which has to include the customer as well as energy suppliers and producers. We believe that there is a great need for more awareness about what the deployment of smart grids will include, in particular with a view to identifying the most important steps for policymakers and industry. To support the transition from the traditional to the new flexible power system, this paper develops an indicative EU roadmap for the deployment of smart grids within the next 10 years. Our 10 steps point out what we today see as milestones on the way towards new commercial customer-oriented solutions which will contribute to a successful EU energy policy in terms of sustainability, security of supply and competitiveness. While the facilitation phase (our first four steps) will require EU support, the following deployment and large-scale commercialisation will take place in those member states where smart grids are considered to be economically viable, taking into account the energy supply mix, current and future demand, and the status of networks.