Abstract :
Smart Grids are spreading steadily and becoming one of the cornerstones for utilities transformation. Today the world is facing complex challenges in the energy sector, and utilities have a central role in bringing innovative solutions not only to shape their businesses but also to foster the development of an adequate ecosystem where new ideas can flourish. EDP Distribuição translated its Smart Vision in the InovGrid project, which is already running as a large scale pilot in the city of Évora in Portugal. The InovGrid project encompasses several interrelated areas, and acts as an open platform that sets the common ground. Electrical vehicle (EV), microgenerations, consumers, producers, demand side management, public lighting, storage, multi-utility architectures, cyber-security, data privacy, distributed energy resources (DER) and renewable energy sources (RES), inter alia, are all pieces of a large puzzle built on top of the InovGrid, EDP´s Distribuição first step towards a next generation distribution system. With the InovGrid infrastructure already in place, data is being collected and analyses have been made resulting in robust findings at various levels: energy efficiency increase, with significant consumption reductions; technical and commercial operations with much faster response times and direct improvement of service quality; technical and commercial losses reduction, with encouraging results based on a more detailed knowledge about customers and the grid behaviours; easier integration of RES and other emerging technologies (e.g. EV); and last but not the least, a profound organizational transformation that will culminate in a new paradigm of grid and company management structure.
