‘Smart’ grid to iron out the dips and recharge our cars

OUR electrical cars will charge overnight while our ‘smart’ dishwashers will be set to turn on when electricity demand dips in the early hours of the morning — such is the vision being outlined by engineers who believe a ‘smart’ electricity system must be part of our future.

This smart electrical network will be powered by a digital ‘smart grid’ — smart meters in our homes and smart domestic appliances. The metres and appliances have been developed, but Ireland’s development of a smart grid is lagging behind, according to UCC senior lecturer in civil and environmental engineering, Dr Eamon McKeogh who is speaking on the topic at UCC tonight.

Dr McKeogh said our current electrical distribution and transmission systems won’t cope with the variety of electrical suppliers and their varying rates of production.

A smart grid would, however, use digital technology to move electricity from suppliers to consumers detecting and remedying dips in electricity production before they hit the customer.

“Electricity will be coming from a whole range of source delivering anything from 5KW to 500 MW. The electricity from these sources will be variable from day to day as wind and wave speed is variable. Electricity will also be bi-directional for the first time as people with small turbines will be able to feed their excess into the system,” Dr McKeogh said.

A spokesman for Eirgrid last night said they are doubling the capacity of the Irish electricity grid over the next 18 years so they can improve the quality and quantity of service going to the regions.