According to the European Technology Platform for the Electricity Networks of the Future, a smart grid is an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the actions of all users connected to it - generators, consumers and those that do both - in order to efficiently deliver sustainable, economic and secure electricity supplies. The aim of this chapter is to give an overview of the recent and ongoing research activities that are focused on the smart grid domain. The international literature on this subject is particularly rich and growing. With this in mind, the motivation and key objective for the authors when preparing this chapter was an attempt to collate the distribution grid related research and innovation activities co-funded by the European Commission, in the context of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015 with activities co-funded by similar initiatives in the USA and Asian and Pacific countries. This material is accompanied by information about the recent past and the near future of smart grid research and innovation in Europe. On top of this mapping of facts and trends, this chapter presents the key objectives and functional characteristics of a set of information and communications technology (ICT) tools for the distribution grid that are being implemented in the context of SmarterEMC2, a collaborative project co-funded by the European Commission.

Chapter Contents:

• 1.1 The Smart Grid
• 1.1.1 Introduction
• 1.1.2 Smart metering and data privacy
• 1.1.3 Smart grid communications, networking and security
• 1.1.4 Smart grid modelling, control and optimization
• 1.2 Smart grid research: mapping of ongoing activities
• 1.2.1 Europe
• 1.2.1.1 European smart grid projects outlook, 2002-2014 2014
• 1.2.1.2 European smart grid projects outlook, 2014-2015
• 1.2.2 United States of America
• 1.2.3 Asia-Pacific
• 1.2.3.1 China
• 1.2.3.2 India
• 1.2.3.3 Australia
• 1.2.3.4 South Korea
• 1.3 Smart grid research in Europe: what comes next?
• 1.4 The SmarterEMC2 project
• 1.4.1 Stakeholders involved in SmarterEMC2
• 1.4.2 Conceptual architecture of the SmarterEMC2 ICT ecosystem
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography

Inspec keywords: power distribution economics; sustainable development; power system security; smart power grids; electricity supply industry

Other keywords: distribution grid; sustainable electricity supplies; ICT tool; smart energy; economic electricity supplies; European Commission; secure electricity supplies; Europe; information and communication technology tool; electricity network; European Technology Platform; smart grid

Subjects: Power system management, operation and economics; Power system control; Distribution networks