Smart Grid Research for a Renewable Ireland

Friday 28th October 2011: Leading European energy and ICT companies, R&D centers and universities, including ESB, Intune Networks and the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) have teamed-up to develop innovative “smart grid” energy solutions and services for homes, buildings, industry and the transport infrastructure.

The project aims to identify the requirements of a “smart grid” ICT system. Smart grids provide a balance between the supply of energy generated and demand. They can integrate advanced information and communication technology (ICT) into the energy distribution network so that electricity delivery is remotely controlled and automatically optimised.

The need for smart energy systems is driven by climate change and limited fossil fuel resources. These systems also need to efficiently manage traditional and renewable energy sources and to cater for new energy uses such as electric vehicles (EV). This is particularly relevant in Ireland, which has committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 20% and which aims to have 10% of all vehicles to be electric by 2020.

The ESB, Intune Networks and the TSSG are working together to deliver a smarter, more efficient energy grid for Ireland. The project focuses on developing enhanced services for electric vehicles, by intelligently combining data, such as web and in-car usage information, to optimise the driving experience.

Miguel Ponce de Leon, Chief Technologist at TSSG, said, “Smart grids are more intelligent, which makes them more efficient. We hope that this work will deliver a reduction in operating costs and will make new energy products and services, like electric vehicles, more accessible to consumers.

“The TSSG have already used bio-inspired and autonomic processes to advance energy management control systems in schools, offices and high capacity data centres. The FINSENY project will build on this knowledge and enable us to refine the smart grid infrastructure to support the energy loads that electric vehicles will need”.

ESB hope that this project provides a testbed for further experiments in ICT enabling technologies.

Senan McGrath, CTO of ESB ecars, said the “ESB is committed to helping Ireland achieve its environmental targets and is tasked with making this a reality by rolling out a nationwide charging infrastructure including the supporting IT systems. It is not just about the eco electric cars, the infrastructure or the systems – it is about the entire user experience and value proposition on offer. Electric driving will be enhanced by the use of web based applications and as communications and the internet continue to develop, these opportunities will flourish”.