May – Smart Grid for Smart Cities

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Written by Mihai Mladin

The energy sector is increasingly associated with the terminology "energy transition," and the main factors that determine and enhance this transition are the integration of renewable energy sources and digitalization. The smart grid concept par excellence is based on a series of real-time features and functionalities, by involving 5G technology, integration of algorithms for analysis and substantiation of decisions using big data, innovative services, and solutions to promote flexibility in the energy systems, responding to the challenges of managing the unpredictability of renewables.

Written by Carlos Silva, Alexandre Lucas, Francisco Silva, and José Miguel Cruz

The continuous growth of distributed renewable generation and energy storage systems, together with the expected increase in active customers engaged in demand response, poses several challenges in system operators' (SO) current planning and operational practices. A key issue to be addressed on the path to energy transition is how to incorporate the demand side flexibility services, derived from these new assets and players into the energy market, using them for operational and ancillary services, that can address different technical issues such as ensuring resilience, efficiency, and reliability for modern electrical grids.

Written by Sivapriya Bhagavathy and Joseph Melone

Streetlights are a key asset in any city as they provide a sense of safety and security to the public, especially pedestrians, and increase the quality of life by artificially extending the day. Streetlights that are smart and operate intelligently and autonomously can provide added benefits of additional lower energy consumption and lower carbon emissions [1], [2]. Such an asset can also provide the extra connectivity and sensor data flows required to allow algorithms centrally or locally deployed to act on relevant information to optimise asset energy usage and provide a degree of automation of operation. This article will discuss a smart street lighting system developed by Autonomous-IoT, a UK-based SME.

Written by Charlie Vartanian, Scott Gibson, Siddharth Sridhar, Hawk Asgeirsson, and Ryan Franks

The Snohomish Public Utility District's (SnoPUD) Arlington Microgrid project includes a Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) demonstration. This article summarizes the Arlington project and motivations to demonstrate V2G. The article compares key aspects of the project's V2G technical specifications versus V2G-related standards available or being developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers. This project's early V2G deployment and demo will inform future efforts to define and specify technical capabilities for V2G products and projects. The use of industry published standards, as they become available, will reduce the need for custom case-by-case engineering and thus lower barriers to implementing and using V2G-capable products and projects in microgrids and 'smart' grids in general.


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IEEE Smart Grid Bulletin Compendium

The IEEE Smart Grid Bulletin Compendium "Smart Grid: The Next Decade" is the first of its kind promotional compilation featuring 32 "best of the best" insightful articles from recent issues of the IEEE Smart Grid Bulletin and will be the go-to resource for industry professionals for years to come. Click here to read "Smart Grid: The Next Decade"