Technologies for a smart grid development with

examples of projects in Europe

The planned increase of electric energy
produced from renewable energy sources in
Europe during the time-frame of 2020 to 2050
calls for significant changes in the electric
transmission and distribution system. Low loss
long distance transmission is needed to bridge
the increased distance between generation and
load. Demand side participation can be used to
balance the increased share of intermittent
generation caused by the character of wind and
solar production. The presentation will describe
how combinations of Multiterminal HVDC and
smart grid technologies can be applied,
exemplified by ongoing demonstration projects.

Several public and private initiatives have been
launched during the last year to study the
possibility of building a pan-continental grid to
connect generation by wind in the North Sea and
solar power in South Europe and North Africa
with load centers in central Europe. The distance
from generation to load can typically be 2000
km. In parallel several European countries plan
to shut down the nuclear power plants which
further will create an unbalance between the
locations of generation and load. High voltage
direct current (HVDC) transmission has been
used since 1954 for long distances at low losses.
A typical efficiency value for 2000 km
transmission is 94%. If the European grid will
have a large increase of point-to-point HVDC
transmission a logical step is to connect these
HVDC stations together in a larger Multiterminal
scheme, i.e. a HVDC Grid. This will enable
tapping of power on the way, increased
possibilities for trading power and increased
efficiency of the grid since less converter stations
will be needed. In addition a Multiterminal Grid
calls for a lower capital investment, e.g. as
shown in recent studies from ENTSOE. Late
2010 the countries around the North Sea signed
a memorandum of understanding to build a
North Sea grid to enable massive introduction of
offshore wind energy. In the panel paper
examples of the key available building blocks in
such an offshore HVDC grid will be discussed.

Since the future energy mix will contain more
intermittent energy sources, the electric energy
system should be switched from demand-driven
to production-driven operation. Demand side
participation is one tool for grid operators handle
such a change. For example certain appliances
in a household such as dishwashers and fridges
could be given an operating window to be
controlled by the distribution central. Such
operating window can be set by the end
consumer beforehand and thereafter be
automatically controlled by a smart grid system.
The introduction of an electric fleet of vehicles,
which could be charged during flexible hours,
gives additional degrees of freedom of demand
side participations.

The end consumer also needs to take a more
active role in the future grid, in order to reduce
the overall energy consumption and allow
renewable energy sources by more flexible
operation of certain applications in the home or
office, while maintaining the same reliability and
security of electric power. A key success factor
to enable the introduction of such smart grid
applications will be successful demonstrations
on how such system will work. One Smart Grid
demonstration site is in advanced planning in
Stockholm Royal Seaport area. Results from the
prestudy and first implementation initiatives will
be show during this panel presentation.


978-1-4577-2159-5/12/$31.00 2011 IEEE