Page 143 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

120 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

For example, California had rolling blackout times in 2001 due to the trans-
mission limitation.
To address the need of a grid transformation, the vision of the energy in-
dustry is to employ an internet web model as follows. As shown in Fig. 6.5, the
Internet web of a smart grid takes the active system of a nerve network that
determines, responds to, and controls the power needed for consumers. The
network control system operates under a global scale to dispatch energy, to
manage the energy flow protocol, and to distribute control around the system.
For example, data response management by the network control system re-
covers from a power block by circumventing it. This recovery is an attribute of
a self-healing power network and has attracted intense research interest.
The information exchange around the Internet web uses the concept of
distributed control wherein the web host computer or a designated computer
server acts autonomously under a global protocol. Due to the information
process capability in the modern Internet web technology, the consumers will
benefit in reduced cost by utilizing the Internet to effectively manage the
power grid.
The energy efficiency comes from the consumer choosing more efficient
energy options over other more costly ones. A smart grid can help utilities to
identify losses and to support energy efficiency. The smart grid can manage its
effective response to consumers. For energy consumers, power generation
owners, buyers, and sellers, the nerve network in the Internet web of a smart
grid will be both flexible and economical to extend the services of power
purchase transaction. An electricity system would provide supplyedemand
coordination and would be interconnected in the grid to dispatch power.

FIGURE 6.5 A smart grid system. A node with a smart meter enables a home automation
network (HAN). This control system operates under a global scale to dispatch energy that de-
termines, responds to, and controls the power needed for consumers.