Melbourne Energy Institute

Smartgrids

Overview

Increasing electricity demand around the world presents numerous challenges in terms of electricity generation and its effective distribution through the electricity grid infrastructure. The impacts of this growing demand are observed at an environmental level and an economic level, but also at the service level as ageing infrastructure and distribution systems struggle to meet this demand.

Smart grids are being proposed as a means to address power generation, distribution and utilisation challenges through the development of technologies for intelligent sensing and power management, secure communications and system modelling to deliver a reliable, efficient and secure power supply.

Integrating smart metering and power utilisation at the user level also has significant potential in reducing overall electricity usage as well as providing critical information for the management of base load power generation and mitigation of system failures throughout the grid.

Key objectives of smart grids include:

  • Efficiency: meeting increasing and variable demand, delivering cost savings through more effective utilisation of existing (and new) infrastructure.
  • Intelligence: sensing demand variations at local and regional scales, enabling accurate modelling of usage patterns and deployment of resources.
  • Reliability: anticipating and responding to demand fluctuations in a way that avoids system overloads and power failures.
  • Security: grid infrastructure that is resistant to attack and natural disasters through a distributed operations framework and advanced security mechanisms for communications and operations.
  • Environment: seeking to reduce the impact of power generation through more efficient power utilisation mechanisms and integrating emerging power generation means.
  • Affordability: flexibility for consumers in usage and billing through innovative power management, as well as more efficient infrastructure management across the grid.

The expertise and resources within the University of Melbourne’s Electrical and Electronic Engineering Faculty and ARC Research Networks on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing group (ISSNIP) offer a strong platform to begin addressing the many challenges associated with understanding, modeling and implementing smart grid infrastructure.

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