Review of trends and challenges in smart grids: An automation point of view

Abstract

Low-carbon and energy efficient technologies are seen as key enablers to reduce the green-house gas emissions and to limit the global warming. The large scale penetration of distributed energy resources from renewables seems to be a very promising approach. In order to cope with the fluctuating nature of such energy resources an intelligent integration in today's electric energy infrastructure is necessary. Such intelligent power networks-called Smart Grids-tend to have a higher complexity compared to the traditional infrastructure. They need advanced control approaches in order to be manageable. The development of more sophisticated information, communication and automation technologies and control algorithms are in the focus of the research community today in order to master the higher complexity of Smart Grid systems. This paper provides a review of automation trends and challenges for the future electric energy infrastructure with focus on advanced concepts using artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems. Moreover, most important standards and common rules are also discussed in order to satisfy interoperability issues in such a distributed environment. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.