CIRED Workshop - Lyon, 7>8 June 2010 Paper 0122 Paper No 0122 Page 1 / 4 EARLY-STAGE SMART GRID DEPLOYMENT: LEVERAGING DNO’S LEGACY ASSETS. Rosa MORA Alberto LOPEZ Alberto SENDIN Iñigo BERGANZA SIEMENS – Spain CEDETEL – Spain IBERDROLA - Spain IBERDROLA - Spain maria.rosa.mora@siemens.com alopez@cedetel.es asendin@iberdrola.es iberganza@iberdrola.es ABSTRACT The purpose of the paper is to communicate the progress of the third year of the Active Demand Management project (GAD Project [1]) in different areas, especially related to testing of communication requirements of SmartGrids using network simulation software. This experience will support the agents of the Electrical Sector in order to assess new regulatory requirements, improve service quality and overall energy efficiency, being the key tool in defining a new electricity marketplace. INTRODUCTION According to 2020 strategy, Energy Sector needs to reduce by 20% current CO2 emissions, to improve a 20% in energy efficiency and to introduce at least a 20% of renewable energy sources. There are some important roles to play at different sector levels: • Modern generation turbines are improving their efficiency in order to achieve better consumption ratios and life time cycles • CO2 capture plants are phasing into the real field implementations; renewables are playing a bigger piece into the mix generation • Energy Transport is also improving in materials, gas isolation in lines and stations, HVDC lines deployment (High Voltage Direct Current), massive storage to ensure different networks interconnection. In this paper we would like to emphasize the new distribution network possibilities due to Smart Grids introduction and deployment in the Electrical Sector ([2], [3], [4] and [5]. Consumers are at the end of the grid: industrial, medium size business and final users. How to deal with the last mile consumption and small and distributed generation, is really the point to address with a new generation of applications. Smart Grids functionalities will get the right information from the right point, and help the Control Centres to make the right decisions Energy Sector will apply the lessons learnt in the Telecom sector to deploy communications among the lines, in a safe and reliable way, taking into account the strong commitment with Society: no zeros, no blackouts. The paradigm is changing: from passive devices and few telecom network, to distributed intelligence with up to date telecom networks. The installations will have to be updated to support new functionalities to monitor and control the electrical network, a new communications network will be deployed massively over the electrical network, to maximise the return of investment (ROI) of existing and new investments. A big effort is now on the standardization process, as already existing devices and protocols for both telecoms and electrical sector will have to be updated, stress tested and piloted, as there could be different solutions to reach the best performances, different life cycle coexistence and play a support role to improve the current service of the electrical network to our society: the Smart Grids objective should be to add intelligence to the network and minimise the effect of a growing population and demand. On top of this, the challenge utilities face is to roll out real networks for millions of customers. Figure 1: Electricity Demand Curve tracking in real generation vs. Electrical Demand Curve flattening improves electricity generation efficiency. Demand Curve: The effect of these contributions is that a powerful network working system is needed to estimate, control and integrate all sources. Demand Management (curve flattening): Spain variation is from 42 GW to 24 GW from daily peaks to night valleys. Demand management tools should be design and put in place in order to reduce of utility loads during periods of peak demand, while at the same time building load in off-peak periods. Source REE[6].