For the last decade the electric industry has been captivated by the term ‘smart grid’, and companies have been making adjustments to their operations and business models to maximise on the promises they imagine it can deliver.

The conversations surrounding smart grid have fuelled the imagination of all stakeholders, including the electric utility, equipment manufacturers, computer software companies, and the consumer to the point where it has different meanings for different groups.

Even professionals in the electric industry often get confused about what the smart grid is. Some place the emphasis on renewable integration, which is seen as grid-tied rooftop solar PV systems; others put the emphasis on smart meter technology, which offers the utility the ability to remotely read the consumption, and to connect or disconnect the supply. And others look at distribution automation, which is the remote control of devices on the utility’s distribution network.

The reality is that the smart grid encompasses all of these and a whole lot more. It includes electric vehicles, home automation, storage systems, smart appliances, energy management, to name a few.

A smart grid is an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the action of all users connected to it — generators, consumers, and those that do both.

For this discussion, I will focus on smart home and business. I bet if I were to poll 10 random people about a definition of smart home or smart business, I would most likely get 10 different answers. Some expectations people are likely to have is that their home or business should be intelligent enough to monitor the environment, automatically make the necessary adjustments, alert them on their smart phone and provide analytics in the form of pie charts and trend graphs. Most importantly, they want their home or business to adapt intelligently to their lifestyles.

Let’s examine the functions that one should expect their smart home or business to carry out. The three pillars of your smart home or business are: security, energy management and control, and renewable integration.

SECURITY

Maintaining peace of mind is the ultimate ideal for home and business owners. They want to be able to know that their loved ones and investments are secure. Therefore, security is a critical need. They want to be able to remotely monitor their homes and offices from wherever they are in the world, as well as activate or deactivate their security systems. A smart home or business will ultimately have to be able to perform the following basic functions:

1. Anywhere and anytime access.

2. Generate instant messaging and live images of events.

3. Give on-demand video streaming.

4. Have a mobile app or be accessible by tablet or PC.

5. Send intrusion alerts via e-mail, SMS and social media.

6. Programme lights to give the appearance of “premises occupied” when they are away.

7. Allow integration with remote-monitoring centre or local police.

8. Allow integration with home energy and automation solutions.

9. Energy management and control

The relatively high cost of energy in Jamaica is forcing the utility, appliance manufacturers, and consumers to find creative ways of consuming less energy without sacrificing indoor comfort. Energy management has therefore become a critical feature of smart homes and businesses. Business people who are operating with thin profit margins are very keen to understand how they are using energy and where they can make adjustments to save money, eliminate wastage, and ultimately reduce their energy bill. They generally desire the following basic functions:

1. Remote on/off.

2. Monitor real time and historic energy use via any smartphone, tablet or PC.

3. Provide alerts to control overconsumption.

4. Provide tips to save energy.

5. Calculate/estimate monthly energy bill.

6. Programme appliances and send usage information to service providers and manufacturers.

7. Give a ‘helicopter’ view of equipment energy usage by zones/rooms.

8. Have apps for iOS, Android or Windows phones.

9. Allow integration with utilities demand response programmes.

RENEWABLE INTEGRATION

Finally, customers want to harness the power of the sun and wind to exchange power with the utility via net metering, to charge their electric cars and energy-storage devices. The smart business must not only use energy efficiently, but should make money from energy transactions. The utility also desires “engaged” customers who can participate in the management of energy on the grid to lower the system demand and reduce the need for expensive peak shaving generators. Some of the key attributes of renewable integration are:

1. Easy integration of solar PV, wind systems and energy storage systems.

2. No outage — power always on.

3. Ability to isolate or separate from the utility and fully supply their demand.

4. Charging stations for electric vehicles.

5. Real-time utility price signals presented at the premises.

6. Real time power interchange with utility and accounting

7. Energy management control systems – local and remote access via mobile, tablet, PC.

8. Apps for iOS, Android or Windows phone.

The customer will ultimately desire convenience, that is, one system that manages all his systems. Each system has to be smart independently and, more importantly, become smart together. An example of this is during high production at the facility or during the utility’s system peak when the price is the highest.

Instead of taking excess power from the grid, the energy management control system could automatically get the additional power it needs from all the available electric vehicles plugged in. Another example could be where the energy management system recognises the monthly energy bill to have exceeded a pre-set threshold, and the control system would make the adjustments from the energy-storage systems or control the operation of the facility’s appliances until the energy bill target is met.

BENEFITS TO THE UTILITY

The electric utility is also a winner from smart homes and business. There is real-time monitoring of the premises, allowing notifications of faults at the premises. Therefore, if there is no power or a low voltage at the premises, the utility will be immediately notified, eliminating the need for the customer to call the utility and report the problem. These smart calls can be grouped to determine if streets, roads or entire communities are out of power.

Electric utilities also win when they can know how much power is being demanded and what drives the demand. This allows them better options to size and control the flow of power to minimise losses, plan the system for expansion, improve power quality and ultimately communicate better with all their customers.

With these smart homes and businesses the opportunities are boundless. Almost any objective can be achieved. Software developers and utility professionals are busy creating products and services that will ultimately result in a smarter planet.

Rick Case PMP, PE is the Head of System Operations at JPS and specialises in utility automation systems. Feedback can be sent to rcase@jpsco.com