Not just greener, but smarter too
Many things have changed over the past hundred years. Today our homes are filled with appliances and gadgets such as plasma screen tv-sets, computers, and mobile phones. Though high-tech, they still rely on good old fashioned electricity to make them tick.
The grid as we know it. A smart grid won't look any different, it will just distribute electricity in a way suitable for power generated from renewable resources (Photo: Helsingin Energia )
Energy production account for nearly 26 % of the global greenhouse gas emissions, and the emissions from electricity production has increased by 145 % since 1970. The race is on to find a cleaner and more sustainable way to power our gadgets and light up our homes. A part of the solution is to turn to renewable energy resources such as wind and solar energy. But as both small and large scale wind, solar, hydro and bio power plants are being built we need to rethink how this electricity is distributed. Because even though we have found new ways of producing electricity, the way it is distributed remains the same.
- The electricity grid we have today, is designed for a system where we have a centralized electricity production, with a one way distribution of electricity to the consumers, says Frank Nilsen advisor on energy systems at the Norwegian Research Council.
New energy solutions requires a new grid
This is not a grid suitable for a future with a decentralized electricity production. Wind farms have to be placed where the wind blows and solar panels where the sun shines, a farmer might have his own wind turbine, and on a sunny day domestic homes with solar panels in the future might produce more energy than they consume. Frank Nilsen points out that the challenge is not only to produce clean energy, it is also a matter of energy efficiency, security and reliability. In the future we need to be able to feed excess electricity back into the grid, and regulate our use of electricity according to what is available at any given moment.
-Today electricity production is regulated by demand. If demand increases, so does production. If we in the future are to depend on renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and bio power, we need to regulate demand according to availability, not the other way around. We need to distribute and consume our electricity in a smarter way.
The simple reason for this is that some renewable energy resources such as wind and solar are unreliable. You can not increase the production of solar power if the sun does not shine, nor can you store wind for later, like you do with water in large dams. In other words we need to change the way we think of, and use electricity if we are to increase the share of renewable energy in the mix. A part of this work is to make our electricity grids smarter, so called smart grids.
A smarter city
With a focus on sustainable and efficient generation, transmission and distribution of power, a project in Helsinki will try to make the electric grid in a district of their city a bit smarter. Helsingin Energia - a public utility of the City of Helsinki, ABB and Nokia Siemens Networks will jointly develop, test and install a smart grid in the new Kalasatama district of Helsinki. The Kalasatama district is a new urban development in the heart of Helsinki that will provide living space for 18,000 people and 10,000 work places. The development is regarded as the biggest process of change in Helsinki in over a hundred years.
- We have the ambition to develop the new Kalasatama district into a global benchmark for smart cities and we look forward to implementing the best available technology together with our global partners, says Seppo Ruohonen, CEO of Helsingin Energia.
Smarter. The Kalasamtama district in Helsinki is said to be the biggest development in the region for a hundred years. Only fitting then to install a modern, smart electricity grid (Photo: www.kalasatama.fi )
The R&D project will test the concept of a flexible, low-emission power network in the district as part of a larger initiative to lift Helsinki's environmental profile with a focus on the sustainable and efficient distribution of power.
The companies involved will develop a variety of solutions:
- Ensure excess power generated from renewable energy sources in the district - including sources such as solar panels or wind turbines - can be fed into the market.
- Enable electric vehicles to draw electricity from the grid or feed it back in.
- Store energy.
- Create easy-to-use services and to provide more flexibility and transparency in the distribution grid, all helping to lower electricity consumption and emissions.
Once finished, the district will incorporate an innovation center to showcase the latest technologies being tested and deployed. Because the world can not be saved by smart technology alone, we need smart people too.
Press release from Helsingin Energia, ABB, Nokia Siemens.
Further reading:
The Nordic capitals efforts to reduce climate emissions
