Smart grid progress: smart meter projects still account for the majority

Smart metering (automatic meter reading) projects still account for the majority, while other projects focus on optimization and application of low-carbon technologies.

According to a report recently released by the World Economic Forum, the investment in smart grid pilot projects has increased rapidly in the past year. Last year, China alone had 7.3 billion U.S. dollars for the development of smart grids, and in the U.S. economic stimulus package, there were also 4.5 billion U.S. dollars for smart grid projects. At present, there are 90 smart grid pilot projects in the world in progress, and at least the same number of projects are being prepared. From the perspective of these pilot projects, smart metering (automatic meter reading) projects still account for the majority, while other projects focus on the optimization and application of low-carbon technologies.

As early as March 2008, the city of Boulder in Colorado was ready to build the first smart grid pilot city. Afterwards, with the Obama administration’s support for the smart grid, the United States began to install smart meters in a wider range. The lowest-level smart meter (AMR) is only a metering tool that can perform automatic meter reading, billing, and payment. Higher-level smart meters (AMI) can optimize the electricity system through the price mechanism to reduce energy consumption. Consumption. More than 100 million smart meters that the United States plans to install belong to higher-level AMI smart meters, which are forced by the government to conduct public opinion polls. The current situation is that only a few residents are willing to install and 6% of the planned amount of the installation has been completed (close to 7 million). The highest level of smart metering projects involves the interaction with smart electrical devices, which are currently in development. IBM and the U.S. Pacific Northwest (11.41, 0.39, 3.54%) national laboratories are conducting related research.

In France, the French power company is also conducting similar plans. According to the 10-year plan proposed by the French energy regulator, the company will update more than 35 million electric meters. The Italian company's automatic meter reading management system was started as early as 2001, and it has installed 31.8 million AMI smart meters in 2008. With this system, the actual management line loss decreased from 3% to 1%. In Canada, France’s Capgemini and HydroOne are also developing large-scale smart metering projects, which allow them to make better pricing mechanisms and optimize the operation of the grid after collecting power usage information through meters.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. and Kansai Electric Power Co., Ltd. are also investing in building smart grids. In addition to installing smart meters for all homes, they also plan to strengthen the construction of power transmission facilities and energy storage devices. Since 2010, TEPCO has installed 20 million smart meters for homes. It is expected that by 2020, the demand for smart meters in Japan will be about 50 million. In addition, Japan conducts solar power generation on a family basis in the construction of smart grids.

China's smart grid pilot project has also been fully launched. In August 2009, in accordance with the unified deployment of a strong smart grid, the State Grid Corporation of China has selected nine projects with good basic conditions, high project feasibility and pilot (demonstration) effects as the first batch of pilot projects.

The project was completed by Shanghai Electric (4.15, 0.11, 2.72%) company. In the area of ​​new energy, new energy access pilots and key technologies have been developed through the Shanghai Bridge offshore wind farm (100,000 megawatts) and the Expo site solar power (4867 kW). In terms of energy storage, the construction of 100 watts of lithium iron phosphate battery and 100 kW nickel-metal hydride battery energy storage system was put into operation on the grid through the construction of the Zhuoxi Energy Conversion Integrated Display Base.

On the electricity side, 28 35-kV metering points, 91 10-kV metering points, 10 380-volt metering points, and 156 metering points in the smart community were included in the Expo site, according to the State Grid Corporation of China. Unified technical standards and regulations, construction of electricity consumption information collection system, to complete the automatic meter reading, measurement and other work, and to achieve two-way interaction between the grid company in the user. In the Expo Park, an electric vehicle demonstration charging and discharging station has also been built to achieve bi-directional and controllable flow of energy between the electric vehicle and the power grid, and dynamic response has been achieved based on the power grid operating conditions and control instructions.

At present, the smart grid is only a new thing. With the increase of pilot projects, the development momentum of the industry will also be getting better and better. However, smart grids are far from mainstream. Therefore, only by making good use of this development momentum, accelerating the pace of technological development, and establishing a sustainable monitoring mechanism, can the development of the smart grid be more mainstream.