ICT for a low carbon economy : Smart Electricity Distribution Networks
Source: European Commission Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media
From the Executive Summary:

In order to put ICT at the core of the energy networks, it is recommended:

• To invest in ICT studies, business cases, surveys, and best practices, considering success stories per country/region.
• To invest in automated customer communications(smart metering) to reach 100% smart metering penetration in Europe by 2015 (Time of use to become mandatory).
• To invest in demand side management, demand response management and real time pricing as key processes for peak load shaving and energy efficiency.
• To invest in home energy controlling hubs (similar to an Internet hub that could be linked to smart meters or directly to the distributor or retailer) that will collect real time energy consumption from smart household appliances. This real time energy consumption information will lead to smarter energy consumption.
• To invest in “loss free” and the readiness of infrastructure networks to enable the connection of large scale distributed generation and renewable energy sources(share of 20% by 2020).
• To invest in ICT readiness for “mobile electricity consumers” (e.g. plug hybrid electrical vehicles that will become customers of electrical distributors and retailers rather than the traditional oil companies —this could include any electricity charging/discharging of mobile devices).

By implementing these recommendations, peak load can be 50% shaved and energy consumed by end users can be reduced by 20%. The actual benefits will depend on the commitment of each EU country as well as on the success to combine smart processes (e.g. successful implementation of demand response) with smart technologies (e.g. 100% deployment of smart meters).

+ Direct link to document (PDF; 1 MB)

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under Business and economics, Energy, Europe, Industries, International, Investments, Science, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.