Enhancement of Distribution Networks through

utilization of Smart Grid BSc, MSc, MIEEE, MIET Khaled Al Wannan

Dubai electricity & Water Authority (DEWA)

Email: khaled.alwannan@dewa.gov.ae

Abstract-As Today's grids confront serious

environmental, financial, technical and operational

challenges, numerous researches have concluded that

today's grids must be modernized using state-of-the-art

technologies to significantly improve the reliability,

efficiency, security and quality of power supply.

Additionally, these new grids take in account the

concerns about the environment by relying more on

environmentally friendly energy at the distribution

system. Moreover, this proposed grid must be more

consumer-interactive, allowing the customer to control

and monitor the amount of power consumption through

smart meters. This grid is named future grid, grid wise,

intelligent grid or Smart Grid and the latter term is

more commonly used. Although the Smart Grid is

expected to be beneficial not only to the utility but also

to the customers and the ecosystem, it is complex and

vulnerable, due to the fact that the modernization of

current grids affects the electrical power system at all,

including generation, transmission and distribution

systems as well as customers’ loads. This Paper

describes and examines Smart Grid technologies and

their benefits and challenges from the perspectives of

both Distribution Network Operator (DNO) and

customer, focusing on the distribution system

technologies. These technologies are Advanced Metering

Infrastructure (AMI), including smart meters with bi-

directional real-time communication, distribution

automation, distribution energy resources, involving

renewable distribution generation and storage devices,

Plug-in Electric Vehicles. In addition, this paper

highlights the progress of Dubai Electricity and Water

Authority (DEWA) towards the idea of Smart Grid.

I. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the demand on power electricity has

dramatically grown due to a substantial increase in

urban sprawl and different human activities, resulting

in overloaded grids, leading to a lower reliability,

stability and quality of power supply. Also, present

grids face serious environmental (e.g. global

warming), financial (e.g. constructing new

transmission lines) and operational challenges (e.g.

matching load demand with power generation).

Consequently, numerous researches such as Electrical

Power Research Institute (EPRI), Intelligrid, Grid

Wise and many others funded by governments and

private utilities [1], [2] have been launched in order to

overcome the aforementioned problems. These

researches have concluded that today's grids must be

modernized using state-of-the-art technologies to

significantly improve the reliability, efficiency,

security, and quality of the delivered power.

Additionally, new grids consider the environment by

using wider renewable generation, especially at the

distribution system to significantly reduce the carbon

footprint [3], [4]-[6]. Moreover, this proposed grid

must be more consumer-interactive [1], [3], [5], [7],

allowing the customer to control and monitor the

amount of power consumption through the modern

technologies [1], [8], [9]. This grid is named future

grid, grid wise, intelligent grid, or Smart Grid [3], [5],

and the latter term is more commonly used.

Although the Smart Grid is expected to be beneficial

not only to the utility but also to the customers and

the ecosystem, it is complex and vulnerable [7], due

to the fact that the modernisation of current grids

affects the electrical power system at all, including

generation, transmission, distribution systems, and

loads [4], [10] as well as the grid's regulations and

standards [1], [6]. Some of these challenges are very

similar to those of conventional grids [7].

II. SMART GRID VS TODAY’S GRID

Fig.1 [10] illustrates today's power system

infrastructure, in which the power flow is mainly a

unidirectional from the centralised power plants to the

commercial, industrial, and residential loads via high

voltage transmission system. Also, the current grid is

predominantly characterised with one-way

information flow. Nevertheless, Fig.2 depicts [10]

Smart Grid infrastructure, which is characterised by

bi-directional power flow and two-way real-time

communication, storage devices, Advanced Metering

Infrastructure (AMI), allowing new functionalities

and technologies to emerge such as Efficient Demand

Response (DR), Accommodation of large number of

Renewable Energy Resources (RER), especially at the

distribution system and Plug-in Electric Vehicles

(PEVs). Consequently, Smart Grid will greatly

enhance reliability, security, efficiency and quality of

power supply, and also give an added value to both

environment and society [11].

Fig. 1. Infrastructure of today’s grid [10]

Fig. 2. Infrastructure of Smart Grid with its main technologies [10]

Table I highlights the difference between the

characteristics of conventional grid and Smart Grid

[11]. from table I, Smart Grid can be defined as a

“modernization of the electricity delivery system so it

monitors, protects and automatically optimizes the

operation of its interconnected elements – from the

central and distributed generator through the high-

voltage network and distribution system, to industrial

users and building automation systems, to energy

storage installations and to end-use consumers

including their thermostats, electric vehicles,

appliances and other household devices” [11].

III. SMART GRID TECHNOLOGIES

As stated earlier, Smart Grid can be a reality through

modernisation of all power system ingredients using

several modern technologies. According to EPRI

[11], Smart Grid technologies can be generally

divided into two categories: Transmission System

technologies and distribution system technologies

including customer technologies (e.g. PEVs, Home

Area Network (HAN). In this context, it is important

to stress that Smart Grid benefits are not only highly

relied on the modern technologies, but also they are

significantly linked with the integration of these

modern technologies [5], [6]. For instance, efficient

AMI deployment allows successful implementation

of PEVs and RER.

TABLE I

SMART GRID VS CONVENTIONAL GRID

Conventional Grid Smart Grid

One-way power flow Two-way power flow

Unidirectional Communication

Bidirectional Communication

No/inefficient Demand

Response (passive customer)

Efficient Demand

Response (interactive customer)

Centralised power

generation

Accommodation of a wide range of Distributed

Renewable Generation

(DRG) and storage options

Fossil fuel based power

generation

More environmentally

friendly generation

Manual operation Automated operation

(Self-healing)

Prediction operation (e.g.

Matching of supply and demand based on forecast

and historical information

Real-time operation (e.g.

Matching of supply and demand based on Real-

time information)

Conventional household

appliances Smart appliances

A. Transmission System Technologies

There are many Smart Grid technologies at the

transmission systems such as High Voltage DC

(HVDC) Transmission and Flexible AC Transmission

Systems (FACTS) controllers. HVDC and FACTS

controllers are based on high power semiconductor

devices, which are normally coexist in the same

system, playing a pivotal role in controlling power

flow and maintaining system stability at the same

time [12], [13]. At present, All Gulf Cooperation

Council (GCC) countries are interconnected by

HVDC Technology, except Oman, which will be

interconnected soon. This interconnection gives many

benefits to GCC countries' power system [14], [15].

B. Distribution Technologies

1. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)

B.1.1. Structure of AMI

AMI is the key technology of Smart Grids’

technologies as its effective implementation leads to a

successful integration with other technologies such as

DRG and PEVs.

Fig.3 depicts [16] the structure of AMI where the

major components include smart meter, two-way real-

time robust communication systems and Home Area

Network (HAN) with in-home display. In this

structure the utility back office can send real-time

controlling signals to customer's appliances via smart

meters. These signals are sent to smart meters through

a wired or wireless communication technology (Fig.

4) and then the smart meter dispatch these signals to

the HAN to control energy consumption. This control

is automatically achieved by Smart Device Controller

(SDC), which acts as Home Energy Management

System (HEMS) that has been previously

programmed per customer preferences. HAN

interconnects all smart appliances including smart

chargers of PEVs and home DRG, which can be

controlled by HEMS through wired or wireless

communication (Fig. 4). Moreover, utility can directly

control all smart appliances or the high-power-

consumption appliances such as smart chargers, and

Fig. 3. Structure of AMI [16]

Fig. 4. Information flow in AMI system

air conditioners (A/C) through direct connection with

AMI [17].

Likewise, utility back office can collect real-time

abundant unprecedented information about the energy

consumption, validation customers participating in

demand response programs, DRG, smart charging of

PEVs, and update customer database accordingly

[18].

B.1.2. Benefits of AMI

These benefits are broadly categorised into eight

groups as thoroughly described below.

B.1.2.a. Metering services

Today’s meters, installed at customer side, are utilised

only to record consumption energy periodically for

billing purposes, where this data is manually collected

by regularly visiting the properties. However, Utility,

via AMI system, can remotely collect the real-time

consumption data and bill the customer accordingly

[19], resulting in efficient billing process (e.g.

accurate and real-time readings). Also, in

conventional grid, the connection and disconnection

of electricity are also done by visiting the properties,

whilst AMIs can be remotely used to disconnect or

connect the customers instantly through certain

software [1] [4], [19], [20]. AMI use will also

considerably reduce the undesirable disconnections

[21]. In addition to saving human resources (meter

readers), this will significantly decrease customer

complaints, thereby highly enhancing customer

satisfaction. In fact, customer satisfaction is a

strategic objective of any private and public utility

where the higher the satisfaction the higher the

revenues. Also, remote disconnection can be very

useful in emergency situations (e.g. fire, flood,

earthquake, etc.). This can be achieved via a call from

police or civil defend through a specific agreements.

B.1.2.b. Efficient Load Shedding Control

Load shedding schedules are applied at contingency

situations (e.g. high drop in the frequency due to

imbalance of supply and demand), which is mostly

performed by tripping the entire feeder [21], [22].

However, individual homes can be interrupted

through a certain agreement between the customer

and the utility in which the utility gives incentives to

participating customers. This preserve electricity

service to critical loads (e.g. hospitals) as well as VIP

loads.

B.1.2.c. Protection from electricity thefts

Today’s meters can be manipulated via breaking

seals, turning them upside down or replacing the

standard meter with nonstandard one [21], whereby

these thefts can be noticed either visually by the meter

readers when visiting the properties or can be

concluded via low consumption [21]. Nonetheless,

AMIs allow the utility to detect manipulation

remotely by sending an instant “manipulation” alarm

to the utility via a mean of communication [21], [23],

[24], [25]. Moreover, the use of nonstandard meters

can be detected easily as each smart meter has a

unique number registered at the utility in the customer

database [21], [23].

B.1.2.d. Automating Distribution system

B.1.2.d.1Outage Detection, Isolation and Restoration:

In traditional grid, the outages are mainly reported to

the utility call centre by the customers via phone calls

so that the operational team will locate and isolate the

fault and then redistribute the power to the interrupted

customers. This process is relatively slow as long

time is needed to locate the fault.

In contrast, Smart Grid will employ sensors for

outages detection and then the outages will be

reported back to the utility back office via some

strategically located AMIs in near real-time [20].

The outages will be monitored through the Outage

Management System (OMS), providing extremely

accurate information about the outages in terms of

their causes and locations, and then the fault is

remotely isolated [20], resulting in efficient operation

(e.g. quicker redistribution of power supply to the

interrupted customers) and rapid maintenance,

thereby increasing customer satisfaction.

In addition, this will significantly improve the

electrical power distribution reliability indices [23],

[21] such as System Average Interruption Duration

Index (SAIDI), Customer Average Interruption

Duration Index (CAIDI) and other indices, which are

thoroughly explained in IEEE Std 1366-2003 [26].

Enhancement of these indices highly attracts external

investments as power system reliability is one of the

critical indicators for the investors.

B.1.2.d.2. Planned outages Notifications

Today’s utilities issue a Notice of Interruption Supply

(NIS) to be handed to the customers prior to the

interruption, informing them with the details of the

interruption (such as duration of the outage), whereas

in Smart Grid this NIS can be sent to customer’s in-

home display via AMI system [21]. The acceptance of

the NIS message by the customer will send back an

acknowledgement message to the utility back office

(OMS) confirming receiving it and updating customer

database. This results in increasing customer

satisfaction while decreasing human, financial and

natural resources.

B.1.2.e. Successful implementation of other Smart

Grid technologies:

B.1.2.e.1.Controlling Distributed Generators (DG) by

utilities:

One of the technical challenges of the DG,

encountered by present grids, is islanding mode,

which is occurred when the Distributed Generator

(DG) is solely supplying distribution network partly

with power due to a particular fault [27]. This

condition causes many technical problems to utility

e.g. low fault current of distributed generator, which

may not be detected by existing protection scheme.

Moreover, islanding can put the safety of

maintenance staff at risk as they may think that the

circuit is dead, whilst actually it is alive because of

the islanding mode.

In Smart Grid, each DG will be connected to AMI

system and each DG will have a registered unique

number in customer database so that the utility can

verify each DG status in the distribution network

when islanding occurs and can shut down islanded

generators via AMI system [23]. Besides, utility can

inform customers with Islanded generators to

investigate the reason behind the islanding occurrence

[21]. As a consequence, this will dramatically reduce

catastrophic incidents to islanding and support utility

to comply with safety standards such as Occupational

Health and Safety (OHASA) 18001.

B.1.2.e.2. Smart-Charging of PEVS:

As today’s grid does not have the means to overcome

the expected technical challenges of PEVs

emergence, PEVs will cause huge stresses on power

distribution network.

In Smart Grid, utility, via AMI, can control smart

charging points and even interrupt charging when

system reliability is jeopardised. The interruption is

applied first on the customers who have an incentive

agreement with the utility. Also, AMI system can

allow “net metering” in customer premises of the sum

of the energy consumed from utility and energy

supplied to the utility by customer's DRG and PEVs

batteries discharging when Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)

feature is available in the near future [21].

B.1.2.f. Asset Management optimisation:

B.1.2.f.1. Asset operations management

In present distribution system, many distribution

circuits run near their rated values, causing rapid

deterioration of the distribution equipments due to

overload. In fact, this situation could be worse with

the penetration of PEVs. In Smart Grid, however,

utility can monitor the devices in real-time through

AMI, so that actions can be taken to alleviate this

overload (e.g. direct load shedding) [21].

B.1.2.f.2. Maintenance optimisation

Maintenance refers to “Ensuring that physical assets

continue to do what their users want them to do”

[28]. There are many types of maintenance strategies

such as traditional preventive maintenance, hybrid of

predictive and preventive maintenance and Reliability

Centered Maintenance (RCM). In fact many utilities

including DEWA has migrated from traditional

preventive maintenance towards Reliability Centred

Maintenance (RCM) approach (latest maintenance

approach), defined as “a process used to determine

maintenance requirements of any physical asset in

its operating context” [28]. In other words, what the

user wants from the asset is directly linked with the

function of the asset i.e. operational duty (e.g. some

assets operate near their rating capability whereas

others run at half of their capability) and

environmental duty (e.g. some assets operate in harsh

environmental conditions). This approach aims to

optimise the time-directed maintenance and predictive

maintenance (Condition monitoring) by selecting the

most cost effective task with best maintenance task

frequency. This can redirect utility resources towards

the most critical equipments whose failures leads to

catastrophic consequences on system reliability,

safety and environment.

As AMI will provide abundant unprecedented real-

time information to the utility such as real-time

information about heavily loaded equipments, this

will significantly support RCM implementation and

establish a vital real-time database about operational

duty of the assets that can be utilised to study and

conclude the failure patterns in a specific distribution

system. Further benefits would include increased

system and equipment reliability, better asset

management decision (replacement vs.

refurbishment), safety improvement, prevention of

environment from any damage and others.

B.1.2.g. Power Quality Management:

AMI can monitor and report voltage, phase angle and

frequency of power supply back to the utility [21].

Also, AMI can detect the customers that pollute the

distribution networks with harmonics and penalise

them accordingly. Harmonics increase the stresses

and losses in the distribution equipments and harm

motors and other appliances [29]. The huge collected

real-time data from AMI regarding power quality

factors, including harmonics, leads to much easier

investigation of power quality issues [23]. A further

problem is the three phase imbalance, which can be

detected and investigated easily by collected data

from AMI. Three Phase imbalance rapidly degrades

the three phase motors as it creates negative sequence

current that opposes the positive sequence (i.e.,

oppose the normal motor rotation) [30].

B.1.2.h. Demand Response (DR):

This is an important characteristic of Smart Grid

resulting from adopting AMI. According to the U.S.

department of Energy, DR refers to “changes in

electric usage by end-use customers from their normal

consumption patterns in response to changes in the

price of electricity over time, or to incentive payments

designed to induce lower electricity use at times of

high wholesale market prices or when system

reliability is jeopardised” [31]. In other words,

utilities can give different types of incentives to push

customers to alter their present habits of energy use in

order to mitigate energy consumption in peak demand

or in situations where system reliability is in danger.

In fact, customers can alter their normal energy

consumption via two scenarios: decreasing their

demand at high network demand periods without

shifting it (e.g. turn off A/C); shifting the demand

from high to low network demand periods (e.g.

washing time) [32]. DR can be divided into two

categories as follows:

B.1.2.h.1. First generation of DR:

Demand response program is not a new concept as it

has been applied since 1980's by some U.S. utilities

by offering customers $10 during hot summer season

to allow utility fitting switches in A/C that can be

remotely switched off by sending Very High

Frequency (VHF) signal during peak demands [31].

The utilities have been concluded that these

programmes are inefficient due to frauds. In fact, the

deficiency of this program stems from the fact that the

communication system is unidirectional where the

utility cannot verify each customer who participates

in this program in real-time [31].

B.1.2.h.2. Second generation of DR (dynamic tariff

signals):

In contrast to first generation, AMI with bi-directional

communication offers the utility an unprecedented

feature of real-time validation of each participating

customer in the demand response program [31].

In other words, AMI enables the customers to flexibly

interact with utility, whereby utility can send dynamic

real-time energy tariffs to the customers depending

upon the peak demand (higher prices) and off-peak

demand (lower prices), allowing customers to have

choices of continuously check and control their

consumption at higher and lower prices [1], [8], [9],

[16],

Consequently, the customers can adapt their daily

habits and lifestyles to avoid the costliest power

consumption times, for example, the customers will

have the choice to turn-off the high-power-

consumption appliances (e.g. A/C) or changing

appliances cooling cycles (e.g. A/C, refrigerator)

during peak demand periods, thereby controlling and

reducing the cost of the electricity bill [1],[2],[7], [8],

[20]. In case of HAN, HEMS can automatically take

the decision regarding power consumption use [8].

Also, incentive agreement can be signed between

customer and utility, in which the utility can directly

control the power consumption (including

interruption) of individual customers. EPRI, however,

argues that the utility control of power consumption is

not a part of the demand response [21].

B.1.3. Deployment of AMI in Dubai

In response to DEWA vision of supporting

sustainability, DEWA has started adopting AMI in

order to obtain the AMI benefits stated earlier. A pilot

project began with mounting 200 smart meters

(electricity and water) between 2005 and 2007 to

thoroughly investigate the functionality of AMI

system. After the AMI benefits had been

demonstrated it was decided to start the project by

dividing it into three stages. Stage one (2010-2013)

aims to install up to 60,000 smart meters (electricity

and water). Stage two (2013-onwards) is to install

only smart meters with bi-directional communication

for all new connections. Stage 3 will coincide with

stage two, concerning the replacement of all

traditional meters by smart meters by the end of 2020.

The current communication medium, used in AMI

system, is based on PLC and GPRS while in stage

one other communication technologies will be

examined such as WiFi, Fibre Optics and others.

Lastly, the billing software is SAP-based.

2. Communication Technologies

Fig. 4 shows the AMI structure where the

bidirectional communication between the utility &

smart meters, smart meters & HEMS and HEMS &

smart appliances, represents the crucial part of AMI

system. There are several types of wired and wireless

communication technologies, where each type has its

pros and cons. Table II, reproduced from [23], [24],

[25], [33]-[36], illustrates the main communication

technologies used in AMI in terms of type,

application, major advantages and disadvantages.

B.2.1. Communication Requirements

Irrespective of the type of the communication

technology used in AMI system, it is important to

ensure that the communication technology meets the

following requirements including, but not limited to:

Security: Communication medium shall withstand

cyber attacks to avoid any attempt to fabricate billing

information and illegal access to customer database

[37], [38].

Availability: Communication medium shall be

always available to ensure bidirectional information

flow at all times and conditions between utility and

customer appliances and distribution automation [37].

The availability can be highly improved due to

adoption diverse communication technologies of

wired and wireless e.g. PLC and cellular

communication [34].

Quality of the signal: Signal quality depends upon

many factors such as distance, weather condition and

interference [23]. Therefore, a detailed study must be

carried out to address the above factors to choose best

communication medium that suit the location to

ensure best signal quality.

3. Distribution Automation (DA)

Fig. 5 shows DA functionality of Smart Grid that can

be accomplished by the integration of substation

automation, feeder automation and customer’s

appliances automation [2], [40]. The communication

protocol is based on IEC 61850 or IEC 60870-5-

101/104 where the former will supersede the latter in

the future [41]. Substation automation can be

achieved by Supervisory Control and Data

Acquisition (SCADA) system, whereas customer

automation can be accomplished by AMI including

HAN and HEMS. Feeder automation can be done via

remotely controlled switches (automated switches),

and remotely controlled voltage and VAR on feeders,

(which can also be achieved via strategically located

AMIs as previously explained [42]). Feeder

automation increases the efficiency of the electric

service via voltage and VAR control, and reduces

power outage duration (customer minutes lost)

through fault location [43].

Voltage and VAR control aims to keep

voltage and power factor within the acceptable

standardised limits.

B.3.1. Volt Control:

Voltage control can be achieved by installing sensors

at the end of the feeder to monitor voltage drop and

raise the voltage to a standard value using on-line tap

changer at primary power distribution substations

[44]. Distributed generators can lead to voltage rise,

which can be overcome by sensors at the connection

point to monitor and then reduce the voltage to the

standard value [45].

Fig. 5. Distribution automation in Smart Grid

B.3.2. VAR Control

VAR control is achieved by using sensors at the

capacitor banks to monitor and control the reactive

power remotely. VAR control is important to preserve

power factor near to the unity to decrease losses in the

network by remotely switching shunt capacitors

(leading reactive power) [44], [45].

B.3.3. Fault Detection, Isolation and Restoration (FDIR)

In traditional grid, the outages are mainly reported to

the utility call centre by the customers via phone

calls. Operational team will then locate and isolate the

fault and redistribute the power to the interrupted

customers. This process is relatively slow as the time

needed to locate the fault is usually long.

In contrast, Smart Grid will employ sensors for

outages detection and diagnosis and then the outages

will be reported back to the utility. The fault isolation

is achieved by remote switching, then the power

supply is redistributed to customers with minimum

customer minutes loss time [2], [44], [45]. Also, this

enhances reliability indices such as SAIDI and

CAIDI.

B.3.4. Automation projects in DEWA:

In 2011, DEWA incorporated an automation system

based on IEC 60870-5-104 for ten secondary

substations (i.e. 11/0.4kV and 6.6/0.4kV) as a pilot

project to examine its performance. These substations

underwent frequent failures (hazardous areas and

frequent thefts) and therefore they were selected in

order to alleviate the consequences of their failures.

Six substations are only monitored and the other four

substations, which are more critical, will be fully

automated, i.e. monitoring and controlling. The

following signals are obtained from the secondary

substations in this pilot project to be examined:

Overheating of Low Voltage Distribution Board

(LVDB) and transformer, overloading of LVDB and

transformer, smoke detection in LVDB, earth copper

theft, fuse trip/Circuit breaker of Ring Main Unit

(RMU) types, SF6 leakage from RMU, status of Earth

Fault Indictor (EFI). These signals are sent via GPRS

communication technology. The automation of the

secondary substations will lead to significant benefits

to DEWA, environment (e.g. monitoring RMU SF6

gas) and safety of DEWA staff and public (e.g.

detection of LVDB smoke). The reliability indices

can be highly improved along with customer minutes

loss (CML) as a result of automation of EFI status

signal that helps operational team to rapidly locate the

fault, isolate and then redistribute the power supply to

the interrupted customers. Also, this system can

prevent thefts of earth copper and increase DEWA

revenues. In the near future DEWA will start to

mount same system in 100 substations yearly, starting

with the most critical ones.

TABLE II

COMPARISON BETWEEN DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION

TECHNOLOGIES

Communication

Technology/protocol Type Applications Standard Suggested by Pros Cons

WiFI Wireless • HAN (HEMS) &

Smart Appliances

IEEE 802.11 [35], [36] • Simple support

IP addressing

• Cheap

• higher

bandwidth

comparing to

Zigbee

• Privacy and

security

ZigBee Wireless • HAN (HEMS) &

Smart Meters

• HAN (HEMS) &

Smart Appliances

IEEE

802.15.4

[25], [34],

[35],

• Simple

• Cheap

•Interference

with WiFi

signal

• low data rate

and limited

distance

Power Line

Communication (PLC)

Wired • HAN (HEMS) &

Smart Meters

IEEE 643-

2004 [104]

[23]-[25],

[34], [39]

• High data rate

(up to 3Mb/s)

• Low Cost

(using existing

power cables )

• Signal

attenuation

(limited

distance)

Cellular Network

Communication (GSM

or GPRS)

Wireless • Smart Meters &

Utility Back Office

[23], [24] [34] • efficient at

long distances

• Low cost

(using existed

communication

structure)

• powerful

security of data

transfer

• signal

unavailability

due to severe

weather

conditions

(e.g. storms)

4. Renewable Generation

Mass distributed generation of renewable energy,

such as wind and solar generation is one of the smart

grid technologies and characteristics that leads to

many benefits to environment (e.g. a significant

reduction of CO2 and other harmful gases emissions),

utility (e.g. reduction in the peak demand,

optimisation of assets use that leads to reduced

stresses on all HV equipments) and customers who

have Photovoltaics (PV) units (e.g. balancing

electricity bill). This paper highlights the solar

generation, which represents a promising technology

in Arab countries due to the high level of sun

radiation compared to the global levels, as depicted in

Fig.6 [46], [47].

There are two types of solar technologies; PV and

Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) or also named

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) [48]. Photovoltaics

converts sunlights directly into electricity regardless

of the sunlight temperature [49],[50], whereas CSP

depends on the temperature as CSP concentrates the

sunlight using mirrors to heat up a fluid (mainly

water) to drive a steam turbine, resulting in indirect

generation of electricity [48], [50]. Both Technologies

have quite different benefits over each other in terms

of the efficiency, cost, maturity, application,

environmental conditions, reception of sunlight and

operating temperature [48].

Fig. 6. Distribution of total sun’s energy received by earth over the

year [46], [47].

Based on the technology used in the PV modules, the

efficiency of PV ranges from 6 to 16% at 25°C (the

standard temperature) [48], [49], which is

considerably lower than the CSP efficiency that varies

from 16 to 30% [48], depending on the used

technology. Regarding the operating temperature, PV

technology, unlike CSP and opposite to an incorrect

common belief, is affected by a number of factors,

particularly the high temperatures (above 25°C), as

they lead to a sharp drop in PV efficiency [49]. In

spite of its lower efficiency, PV is more mature

technology with a total global installation of around

40 GW as per the end of 2010, a more than 69%

increase compared to 2009, when 97% of total solar

power was generated from PV [51], [52]. In marked

contrast, the global CSP installation grew steadily

from 950 MW to 1095 MW between 2009 and 2010

(i.e. just over 15% increase).

Besides, CSP technology is far costly comparing to

PV due to the extra components required to

concentrate sunlight along with the fluid medium

needed to drive the steam turbine and more

importantly it needs lots of space [48]. Also, CSP

exploits only the direct sunlight, while PV utilises

direct and reflected sunlight [49]. Thus, sky clarity is

required for effective CSP.

B.4.1. Photovoltaic (PV) Technology

Photovoltaic solar cells can be broadly divided into

two categories [49]; crystalline silicon solar cell and

thin film silicon solar cell, where the two types have

significant differences regarding the efficiency,

environmental condition and the operating

temperature. The Crystalline silicon efficiency,

ranging from 11-16 per cent, is double the efficiency

of thin film technology (6-8 per cent) at the normal

conditions (clear sky at 25°C temperature) [49].

Nevertheless, crystalline silicon is highly affected by

the high operating temperatures, resulting in a great

efficiency reduction in comparison to thin film [49].

Furthermore, unlike thin film, the environmental

conditions such as sky clearness highly mitigate the

performance of crystalline.

B.4.2. Application of Photovoltaic

Generally, there are two kinds of PV installation

systems, stand alone PV systems, which is also

referred to off grid systems, and grid connected PV

systems, which is also named grid tied systems [49],

[53], [54].

B.4.2.a. Standalone PV systems:

These systems are mainly used to supply electricity to

houses at rural areas, and also utilised for an

extensive array of applications in both urban and rural

areas such as water pumping [49], irrigation of grass

and plants in the roundabouts and road separators,

lighting of streets and walkways, remote

telecommunications equipments [49], [54] as well as

traffic warning signs [55], in addition to speed radars.

B.4.2.b. Grid connected PV systems:

These are the vast majority of both types of PV

systems, with around 95% [49] of the total

applications in 2010. PV offers many significant

benefits to the utility, customers, environment and

society. Grid connected PV systems are run in parallel

with the grid supply feeder, which, according to

International Energy Agency (IEA) and European

Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), can

normally be classified as follows [49], [56]:

o Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)

BIPV refers to the rooftop-, ground- or facade-

mounted incorporated installations at the residential,

commercial and industrial properties.

Table III shows the installation types of BIPV with

their common nominal power range in Watt Peak

(Wp) [56], [57], calculated at 1000W/m2/Year at 25

oc

( according to IEEE 1374-1998 & IEEE Std 1262-

1995) [58], [59].

o Utility based Photovoltaics Farms (plants)

B.4.2.b.1 Structure of grid-tied PV Systems

Fig.7 [54] depicts the typical arrangement of grid-tied

PV system, where (1) and (2) denote the PV modules

and inverter, respectively. The purpose of the inverter

is not only to convert DC voltage to a standard AC

voltage at a standard frequency, but also to include a

protection DC unit to isolate the PV modules (it can

also be as a separate device) [49]. The energy

consumption meter, along with the PV system's

energy generation meter are represented by (4) and

(3), respectively. Instead, in Smart Grid, AMI with

one smart meter can perform the functions of

components (3) & (4) (net metering). This system

allows the customer to sell the surplus generated

electricity to the grid; on the other hand, when the

customer demand cannot be met by the PV supplied

electricity, the required electricity can be fed from the

grid. In other words, this is a bi-directional power

flow system, which can be incorporated with smart

meter with two way real-time communication system

to achieve a major characteristic of Smart Grid

technology.

TABLE III

PV INSTALLATION TYPES WITH RESPECT TO POWER

RANGE (WP)

Installation

Type

Sector

Residential

˂10kWp

Commercial

10kWp –

100kWp

Industrial

100kWp-

1000kWp

Utility

˃1000kWp

Roof top

or facade

mounted

✓ ✓ ✓

Ground-

Mounted

✓ ✓

Fig. 7. Structure of grid-connected PV application [54]

B.4.2.b.2. PV installations: Fast facts

Fig.8, 9, 10 , reproduced from European Photovoltaic

Industry Association (EPIA) [60], [61], illustrate the

cumulative installed grid-connected Photovoltaic in

(MW) for different countries for the period 2009 to

2011, in which, the countries showed a significant

difference in their PV generation. In 2011, Germany

was the world's leading producer of PV power at just

under 25GW, with Italy second at 12.5GW, followed

by Spain and USA at 4.2GW. However, in 2011, Italy

newly added the largest proportion of PV systems in

the globe at just over 9GW, which is 20 per cent more

than Germany that newly added almost 7.5GW in the

same year. The total cumulative PV installation

worldwide approximately trebled, from about 23 GW

in 2009 to more than 67GW in 2011. APEC refers to

Australia, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.

Table IV [62], [63], [64] shows the cumulative

installed grid-connected Photovoltaic in (MW) for

different Arabic countries between 2009 and 2010,

where NA indicates that is no available data. The

Arab's generation of PV technology is considerably

low comparing to other countries depicted in below

Pie charts. For instance, the cumulative PV

installation in European countries was around 16GW

in 2009 although the annual mean insolation in

Europe is relatively low (e.g. the yearly energy of sun

irradiation of the world's leading country of PV

installation, Germany, is only 1050kW/h namely, the

annual mean insolation is (1050/8760)*1000

=120W/m2 as shown in Fig. 6), where the annual

mean insolation is defined as the average amount of

power per unit area, received by the sun over the

entire year [49]. In marked contrast, the annual

average insolation in most of the Arab countries more

than doubled of Germany, ranging from 200W/m2 to

300W/m2 in most of the North African Countries,

whilst the total PV systems in Arab countries were

0.0336 GW (this number is not confirmed due to the

lack of data) in 2009, which is negligible.

Fig. 8. World’s cumulative PV installation (MW) in 2011 is 67350

Fig. 9. World’s cumulative PV Installation (MW) in 2010 is 39529

Fig. 10. World’s cumulative PV installation (MW) in 2009 is

22900

TABLE IV

ACCUMULATED PV INSTALLATION IN ARAB COUNTRIES

Arab's Country

Accumulated PV installation (MW)

2009

Accumulated PV installation (MW) 2010

Morocco 6 NA

Algeria 23 NA

Tunisia 1.4 NA

Egypt 3 NA

Jordan 0.2 NA

UAE 10 at Abu Dhabi 11MW (1MW added at

Masdar city)

Other Arab countries

NA NA

Total 33.6 NA

B.4.2.b.3. Future of PV/CSP

Arab countries have announced/launched several

ambitious projects to generate electricity using

PV/CSP technologies, which will be accomplished

during the next decade. In 2010, IEA reported that

Saudi Arabia will launch a project of 5GW of power

generation by PV, which is due to be completed in

2020's [65]. Morocco announced that a 2GW of

power generation using PV or CSP will be fully

installed in 2015 [52]. Saudi Arabia aims to export

PV electricity to other Gulf countries [65]; on the

other hand, Europe will import electricity from the

Morocco and other North African countries [56].

Egypt announced a comprehensive plan for 20%

renewable electricity, 2 % from CSP & PV; likewise,

Jordan announced 300MW of PV to be completed in

2015 and additional 300MW of PV in 2020 [52].

Also, in the United Arab Emirates, MASDAR and

Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority

(ADWEA) revealed a project of 2.3 MW of PV

mounted on the rooftop of some government and

private buildings in Abu Dhabi [66], whilst Dubai

targets 5% of electricity generation using PV and CSP

technologies by 2030, which will be operated by

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA).

Algeria has an objective to produce 170MW and

2.1MW from CSP and PV, respectively by 2015,

whereas Oman has recently set up a renewable energy

policy, involving PV systems [52].

B.4.2.b.4. Required Policies

Despite the fact that these projects are ambitious,

EPIA (2011) expects that the global cumulative PV

installed capacity will be between 0.13TW and

approximately 0.2TW in 2015 [60].

In fact, these figures show that the gap between Arab

countries and other developed countries is

substantially increasing due to many obstacles

encounter the PV technology in Arab countries. These

obstacles are stemmed from the lack or absence of

policies and strategies that support renewable energy

[56], [62] including solar energy. Although few Arab

countries have some sort of policies to support

renewable energy, they are limited and ineffective.

For example, most of the PV/CSP generation projects

that have been recently announced as aforementioned

are only focusing on the ground-mounted PV system

(utility scale), nevertheless, in order to significantly

increase the penetration of PV technology and

compete with other developed countries, the

customers must participate in electricity generation (a

characteristic of Smart Grid) through installing solar

cells on the rooftop of their properties. Actually, this

needs a strategic political decision to establish a

policy that oblige the owners of new building

including, houses, hospitals, schools, universities,

malls, government premises and others to install PV.

This policy must have clear acts, showing how much

power shall be generated by PV technology

comparing to the area of the new building and other

factors. Consequently, this will highly support the

(BIPV) leading to sharply increase the cumulative PV

capacity of Arab countries. Furthermore, Feed-in

Tariff (FiT) policies must be set up to enable the

customer to sell their excessive electricity to the grid

(a characteristic of Smart Grid). This tariff must be

high at the beginning to encourage customers to

invest in this technology. Besides, these policies will

attract the PV manufacturers to open factories in Arab

countries (emerging markets), resulting in a steep

reduction in the cost of the PV installation, and also

there will be a further inherent reduction in the cost,

arising from maturity of PV technology.

As the installation of PV cost will be reduced, the FiT

must also be reviewed and reduced. In other words,

depending on the country’s target of PV installation,

the FiT is reviewed, causing a decrease or increase in

the FiT (in case the target has or has not been

achieved) [56].

The governmental role shall not be ignored, as

legislative authorities have a crucial role to give

incentives and subsidies to the customers who want to

install and generate electricity from PV, especially for

residential customers. For instance, to support the

penetration of PV technology, governments shall

consider exemption the PV technology from taxes.

They can also encourage banks to give-out loans with

low interests.

In 2010, EPIA [56] pointed out that the best place to

install PV farms (utility scale) is desert due to their

low population and high solar radiation. This point

must be taken in consideration as the vast majority of

Arab lands are deserts, which can be described as the

“New Oil", particularly the Sahara desert in North

African which enjoys a high level of annual

insolation.

Besides, the Arabic media has an important role to

play in this “National Arabic Project” of utilising the

New Oil, with collaboration of Arab governments and

utilities to increase awareness among Arab

populations about the PV technology. Moreover, the

current advertising campaigns must give technical

information in friendly way showing how electricity

is generated from solar energy and illustrating some

facts about PV capacity in the world. The customer-

interaction in electricity generation and the

accommodation of more renewable distributed

generation will simultaneously support the smart grid

idea as both are major characteristics of smart grid.

More details on the PV-related policies in the

developed countries can be found in [56], [62].

B.4.2. Benefits of PV in Arab Countries:

PV has many benefits to the utility, customer,

environment and society. The customer can export its

surplus electricity to balance their electricity bill,

leading to a significant reduction at peak demand and

stresses in the overall electricity networks, in addition

to optimizing asset use. Also, PV technology declines

the losses as it is generated near the distribution loads

while the accommodation of wide range of PV at the

distribution level will considerably reduce CO2

emissions and other harmful gases. EPIA [56] said

that “30 full time equivalent Jobs are created for each

MW”. Also, other private companies are required to

install PV systems for household customers, ensuring

further employment vacancies. Furthermore, PV will

enhance electricity system security as the Middle East

area is unstable. An example of this is Jordan, which

has experienced a crisis in its electricity generation

since Egypt revolution in 2011. As Egypt has been

the only source for the gas needed to power the

generation plants and the frequent bombing the gas

pipelines, forced Jordan to operate the generation

plants by oil, which costs Jordan around $6.65 million

daily, and trebles the electricity tariff [67].

Therefore, non-oil producing Arab countries must

highly invest in PV/CSP technologies to secure their

electrical power system and continue economical

development without any cease may result from

increasing oil prices and other political situations in

the Middle East. On the other hand, oil producing

Arab countries must also significantly invest in the

solar technologies to contribute to a sustainable policy

that would save oil resources for more generations to

come. Surprisingly, Saudi Arabia burns more than 1.2

million barrels per day for electricity generation [68].

These investments can be achieved by overcome the

technical challenges of PV and benchmark with some

developed countries to establish policies, which will

result in high penetration of PV technology. Lastly,

PV can be recycled so it is friendly after scrapping it

and during the running operation [56].

B.4.3. PV in Dubai

Dubai has policies that support renewable generation

and environment including PV technology. This

section will highlight Dubai and DEWA PV/CSP

projects, for both standalone and grid-connected

applications. Taking standalone projects first, in line

with decree issued by His Highness Sheikh

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice

President, Prime Minster, DEWA and Dubai

Municipality have established the specifications and

regulations of “Green Building” at the end of 2010.

This policy will become compulsory by the end of

2013, aiming at reducing energy and water

consumption for new buildings in Dubai [69].

Section 5 Chapter4 (504) [69] is about renewable

energy e.g. clause 5.4.02 indicates that all new

buildings owners, exceeding a particular limit of

power density for outdoor lighting applications, are

obliged to supply the additional required electricity

from a renewable source such as PV systems.

In response to Dubai renewable policy, Dubai

municipality have incorporated PV technology for

small applications such as irrigation of plants and

grass in the roundabouts and road separators [70]. In

addition, new speed radars in Dubai are powered by

PV.

Moreover, in 2009, a sophisticated standalone PV

project was completed to power 1380 outdoor

lighting bulbs in Motor City Green Community

located in Dubai, which is the biggest in Middle East

and North Africa, with a cost of around $2.4 million

[71]. The bulbs used in this project were not the

common 100W lights but rather using Light Emitting

Diode (LED) with 15W rated power, which ease the

installation of PV modules as they only require an

area of a forth square meter. This kind of application

leads to greenhouse gas emission reduction,

electricity saving and almost zero running cost. Also,

this system needs no cables, trenching, back fill, and

others. Besides, it saves monthly electricity bill of

around $4850 in case 100W bulbs were used for 12

hours daily.

Regarding grid-tied PV systems, in response to Dubai

Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 that has been set up

for sustainable development in Dubai, H.H Sheikh

Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced in

the beginning of 2012 a huge project of 1GW (utility

scale) grid-connected solar systems, with a cost of

$3.27 billion, called "Mohammed Bin Rashid Al

Maktoum Solar Park". This project is situated in Seih

Al Dahal on Dubai-Al Ain Road. As per Dubai

Integrated Energy Strategy 2030, Dubai's targets 1%

and 5% of its total expected generation from solar

energy by 2020 and 2030, respectively, making the

overall renewable generation from solar energy to be

around 1GW in 2030. This project is a combination of

PV and CSP technologies with 200 MW of PV and

800MW of CSP, as depicted in Fig. 11. The Annual

mean insolation of the project location exploited by

PV and CSP technologies are just over 240W/m2 and

230W/m2, respectively.

This project will be carried out in phases, where the

first phase will be completed in the mid of 2013,

supplying 10MW (extendable to 200MW in the

future), using PV thin film technology with land

usage of 0.375-0.5625 km2. This project will be

managed and operated by DEWA. In this project, the

PV cells will be cleaned by a robot in the absence of

the sun.

Besides, In March 2012, the Dubai-based ABB

factory submitted to DEWA a study of mounting

grid-connected PV system of 30-80kWp (commercial

scale) on the rooftop of the factory. The study was

submitted for approval, as grid-connecting renewable

systems to the distribution network of DEWA is not

allowed as per clause 504.02 of "Grid building"

policy. If approved, the project will be the first BIPV

in Dubai, opening the doors for deploying more

similar systems.

Also, DEWA is reviewing best market practices for

(FiT) to establish regulations and specifications that

will significantly increase the penetration of PV at the

residential and commercial scale. The draft of FiT

policy was completed in April 2012, whilst it is

expected to be effective by 2013.

In addition to the rooftop-mounted PV systems, the

writer suggests that other installation types should be

adopted in Dubai, as shown in Fig. 12. These

installations suit Dubai building architectural style

and the emirate's modern highways.

Fig. 11. Prototype of “Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar

Park”, with a capacity of 1GW

Fig. 12. (a) PV facade in Manchester (a); (b) PV array along a highway in Germany [49]

5. Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs)

The most important customer's technology in the

"smart grid" is the e-car. According to EPRI [72], this

term includes Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles

(PHEVs), and Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs). In

addition to the battery, PHEVs has a combustion

engine to be used when the battery is fully depleted.

However, PEVs has only a battery that can be simply

recharged from any socket of external electricity

source (plugged-in to the grid) or from dedicated

Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). This

technology must be well addressed as it may

significantly raise the peak demand, and increase the

stresses on the power distribution network, despite its

numerous benefits to the environment, customer, and

non-oil producing economics. Hence, numerous

researches have suggested several scenarios to avoid

the aggravation of the present peak demand.

B.5.1. Background of PEVs:

There are many commercially available PEVs with

various battery sizes and different Japanese and

American brands [72]. Most Batteries may vary

between 16kWh and 24Wh. Similar to the traditional

vehicles, PEVs travelling distance depends upon

many factors such as, ambient temperature, weight of

the car (number of the passengers), and driving style,

in addition to the battery size [73]. For example,

Nissan states that Nissan-Leaf can transport for

around 160km in the normal conditions [73]. The

battery can also be recharged in different times based

on the charging facility provided, as explained on the

forthcoming sections.

B.5.2. Structure of PEVs:

Fig. 13 depicts Nissan-LEAF, a PEV, with its

components. The Society of Automotive Engineers

(SAE) set the standard for the plug-in connector,

called J1722 [72], [74]-[76] and PEV's single phase

and three phase receptacle.

B.5.3. Charging Structure

There are two kinds of PEVs charging; AC charging

and DC Charging, with different voltage levels as

presented in table V, reproduced from [72], [74], [75],

[77].

Fig. 13. A PEV with its major charging components

B.5.3.a. AC Charging:

The EVSE supplies AC current, converted into DC

current on-board, to recharge the battery. There are

many AC charging Levels as presented in table V,

where Level 1 is the North America standard voltage

that requires around 17 hours to fully recharge a

24kWh battery whereas level 2 (low) is around 2

times faster than level 1 with 8 hours. Moreover,

Level 2 (high) requires half of the time of level 2 at 4

hours to recharge 24kWh battery. As a consequence,

Level 2 would be the most suitable in-home charging

as Level 1 needs very long time that inhibits its

penetration even at North America area. The standard

SAE J1772 connector for AC is shown in Fig. 13 with

its on-board receptacles. Safety requirements for

PEVs charging are thoroughly explained in [72].

TABLE V

PEV’s CHARGING TYPES, LEVELS, AND LOCATIONS

B.5.3.b. DC Charging

Along with AC, some of the PEVs are incorporated

with DC charging that named "quick charging” [72]

as it needs less than half an hour to 80% battery

charging. 80% charging can be achieved in less than

30 minutes but the remaining 20% needs more time to

be achieved so DC charging refers to only 80%

charging because of the chemical features of the

battery [73].

In DC charging, AC current supplied by EVSE is

converted into DC off-board and directly charges the

battery. This Level is not available at homes but it

can be found at private or public stations. In contrast

to AC charging, DC charging has no international

standard for the connector, on-board receptacle, and

safety requirements [72], [74].

B.5.4. Ownership of charging structure:

The PEV battery can be recharged at home, “Electric

stations”, commercial places. According to

Dickerman, Harrison [74] and EPRI [72], a part of

home charging the owners of the charging structure

would be under one of the following:

Municipality owned: Similar to “paid parking”,

municipality can invest by mounting and managing

charging infrastructure in particular areas along with

paid Parking.

Employer owned: Employer can run some charging

infrastructure as an advantage benefit for the

employees. This could be only AC charging as the

PEV mainly stays at work for around 7-8 hours which

is mainly enough to fully recharging the PEV.

Commercially owned: Places such as hotels, malls

and restaurants can operate charging infrastructure of

AC Level 2 and DC to serve their customers.

Privately owned: This can be an individual or

corporate investment, similar to the petrol station to

serve public. This should be a DC charging only.

B.5.5. Benefits of PEVs:

PEVs adoption offers many benefits to the customer,

environment, society and utility.

Taking customers first, the electricity prices are

considerably less than gasoline prices for the same

distance.

With respect to environment, PEVs significantly

reduce burning fossil fuels (gasoline and diesel)

leading to significant carbon foot-print reduction.

Regarding society, PEV can reduce unemployment

rate as it create work opportunities such as installation

of EVSE [77]. In addition, PEVs considerably reduce

the bill of importing oil for non oil producing Arab

countries, whilst they sustain the oil resources for

next generation in oil producing Arab countries.

Turning to utility, despite the obvious technical and

operational problems of increasing penetration of

PEVs in the perspectives of DNO and generation,

PEVs themselves, in the future, may provide technical

solutions for these PEVs problems and moreover

support the integration of renewable energy resources

[76]-[78]. This is fulfilled by using PEVs as an

efficient distributed storage, allowing the customer to

sell electricity back (discharging battery) to the grid at

peak times, where this process is driven by the high

prices of energy at peak times. This facility is well

known as Vehicle-to-Grid, or simply (V2G), which is

not available in today’s first generation PEVs [72],

[76], [77]. In fact, V2G is a promising facility as it

may mitigate the overload on the distribution network

and moreover can be used as frequency regulation

[76], [78] (the battery of PEV is manufactured for fast

discharging [77]). Ipakchi and Albuyeh [77] report

that a successful experiment has been done by “PJM

interconnection” in the United States, to examine the

ability of 19kW battery of PEV for automatic

generation control (frequency regulation). Besides,

V2G can overcome some of the technical challenges

stemmed from adopting renewable generation

(especially volatility of renewable sources).

Through low price signal utility can encourage the

customers to charge their cars at periods where the

renewable energy sources are efficient (high sun

radiation, fast wind) [76]. On the other hand, when

the renewable sources are weak, the utility can

support the renewable generation by encouraging

customers to discharge their PEVs batteries via high

energy prices [76]. To sum up, V2G allows a mean to

overcome the maladies arisen from DRG and PEVs

themselves such as network losses, overloading of

distribution networks, peak-demand, and imbalance

of supply and demand and allow voltage/VAR

control. Despite the benefits of V2G, its implantation

encounters many challenges; one of them is the

availability of smart grid functionalities such as

structure of robust two-way communication [76],

another challenge is "an unproven business model and

economic justification (how much should be the price

to encourage discharging)" [76]. Further challenge is

technology limitation of batteries as they are not

designed for repeated charging and discharging [72]

B.5.6. PEVs at Arab countries:

According to Aljazeera.net [79], in 2010, Jordan

completed the first PV technology charging station

with 26kW capacity. This event coincided with

importing the first PEVs in Jordan. Moreover, Jordan

announces that 100,000 PEVs charging stations with

collaboration of some private and governmental

sectors will be built in the near future [13].

Also, the first charging PEVs station, based on PV

technology, has been recently completed in Dubai.

This station is owned and operated by a car rental

company, which operates a fleet of PEVs and PHEVs

cars for rental.

IV. SMART GRID CHALLANGES

Smart grid technology faces serious challenges,

stemming from the complexity of smart grid system

[7]. Some of these challenges will be discussed

below.

1. AMI Challenges:

In spite of its numerous unprecedented benefits, AMI

has many challenges, which are related to design,

maintenance and data management, as depicted in

Fig. 14, 15, 16 [23].

1.1. Design Challenges (Fig. 14):

Installation of smart meter system is extremely costly

and due to the global economic crises, replacing

traditional metering system with smart one is very

difficult to justify. Smart meters can also be liable to

physical damages so that each smart meter must be

properly housed [23], [80]. Also, the communication

technology must meet the aforementioned

communication requirements, where the most concern

is security.

1.1.a. Security concerns:

As HAN network could be based on IP to exchange

information between the customers and smart meters,

it represents the weakest point in the AMI system. As

a result, this system can be subject to many threats

with respect to the security [2], [7], [8]; these are:

Hacking: Hackers could manipulate their power

consumption readings because the AMIs employs bi-

directional communication, based on IP for HAN

network. Therefore, the AMI will be as vulnerable as

the public internet with respect to the threats of the

security issues 2], [8], [80]. Accordingly, the utility

may lose billions of dollars due to the frauds [2].

Moreover, smart grid's information might be hacked

via cyber-attacks [7], [8], resulting in catastrophic

problems such as major outages, failures in the smart

grid's assets, customers' appliances, and many others

[7].

Malwares: As the smart grid will use the internet

protocol for HAN network, it will be subject to

massive numbers of malwares. These malwares are

softwares designed to disrupt the operation in the

computerised systems, causing disruption in data

exchange between the customers and the utility [8].

In order to mitigate the security problems, many

researches are needed to evaluate security concerns of

AMIs in the laboratory as well as in the field [2].

Besides, plans shall be identified in case of failure via

the hackers or malwares [2].

1.2. Maintenance Challenges:

These challenges are clearly shown in Fig. 15.

1.3. Data management challenges (Fig. 16):

1.3.a. Customers' privacy

As aforementioned, the AMIs will provide the smart

grid with beneficial numerous information, utilized to

resolve many technical and operational maladies.

However, this information can impact the customers'

privacy as the utility will not only know the amount

of power consumption, but also the utility may

deduce the life style and the real-time activities

(sleeping, watching TV, etc) of the residential

customers in addition to the types of the appliances

that the customers have in their homes [2], [7].

Regarding the commercial and industrial customers,

the information may indicate to the operational status

of those customers (e.g. a sudden increase or decrease

of power consumption "may suggest changes in

business operations"), which could be exposed to the

competitive companies or industries [7].

Nonetheless, in order to mitigate this problem,

additional researches are required to address and

assess the privacy problem [2], [7], in addition to

identifying laws and legislations for who would

access to the collected information and what would be

the results in case of exposing the information (e.g.

imposing sanctions, etc) [23].

Fig. 14. Design Challenges of AMI system

. Fig. 15. Maintenance Challenges of AMI system

Fig. 16. Data Management Challenges of AMI system

1.3.b. Data Management Complexity:

A serious management difficulties might be faced as a

result of the unprecedentedly abundant information

that will be available for the smart grid via the AMIs

that may lead to some problems in system planning

and maintenance level due to the large numbers of

decision making [3], [6].

2. Technical challenges of PV:

In spite of the aforementioned benefits of PV

technology, there are many technical challenges,

which arise as a result of grid interconnection of PV

to the power distribution network.

Among these are voltage rise, voltage flicker,

intermittency of renewable generation, increase in

short circuit capacity, islanding and harmonics [81],

[82]. Harmonics are generated by inverters. IEEE Std

929-2000 specifies the Total Harmonic Distortion

(THD) of the inverter’s output current for PV systems

having a rating of 10KW to be less than 5% of the

fundamental frequency current at rated power [81].

Cleaning of PV cells, particularly for utility scale

application might be another challenge in dusty areas.

Cleaning is mainly done by a robot in the absence of

the sun. Many PV challenges can be overcome by

successful implementation of other smart grid

technologies. For example, voltage rise can be

overcome by Volt/VAR automation of the

distribution feeders, whilst islanding mode can be

detected by AMI system as explained earlier. Also,

V2G feature can alleviate the volatility of renewable

generation.

3. Impacts of PEVS on the Grid

3.1. Impact of PEVS in PEAK demand

Increasing the number of PEVs would affect the

power systems at all including generation,

transmission, and distribution, where the latter will

fall as victim of PEVs if the impacts of high

penetration of PEVs have not been well addressed.

Hence, many researches have been done to study the

effect of PEVs on the power system [72], [74], [77],

[83], and concluded that PEVs can radically increase

the load demand, creating worse technical and

operational problems comparing with today's grid

when the charging happens simultaneously with

today’s peak demand times. Therefore, In order to

alleviate this problem, the vehicles shall be charged

during the off-peak times.

EPRI [72] has thoroughly studied and examined the

impact of charging PEVs by residential customers

only as most of the charging will be done at homes. In

fact, EPRI has investigated three different modes,

"Uncontrolled Charging", "Managed Off-Peak

Charge Control", Set-time charge Control at 9pm”,

which are described below.

3.1.a. Uncontrolled Charging:

This mode assumes that the residential customers

begin charging their PEVs as soon as they reach their

homes. Fig. 17 illustrates the average time arrival of

the American driver (blue bar-chart), while the red

curve depicts the average cumulative drivers arrival in

the USA [72], [75].

Fig. 17 also shows that most residential drivers, just

over 12%, reach homes at 6pm and just fewer than

80% of the cumulative drivers are home at 9pm.

EPRI argues that the curve is fairly fine distributed,

and so the charging of PEVs. As a result, the PEVs

Fig. 17. Average time arrival and average cumulative time arrival

of the American drivers [72], [75]

charging inherently would not aggravate today’s peak

demand, which is assumed to be from 12-6 pm, valid

in almost in all countries, including the UAE.

3.1.b. Managed Off-Peak Charge Control

This is the most preferable mode from the point view

of generation system as in this situation the PEVs are

only allowed to starting charging only between 9pm-

3am, where the cars are phased at off-peak times.

This can be achieved by smart charging, and energy

price signals. Also, most PEVs are equipped with on

board facility that can programmed to start and end

charging so this allow the customers to plug in their

cars and set the best time they want and go to sleep.

3.1.c. Set-Time Charge Control at 9pm:

This represents the worst case scenario, according to

EPRI [1]. For instance, if the PEVs are allowed to be

charged after 9pm without any control manner, this

will dramatically boost the load from off-peak to peak

at 9pm as the cumulative percentage of the cars,

which have reached homes and ready to be charged,

are slightly less than 80%.

Most probably, these cars will be switched on at 9pm,

shifting the demand from off-peak to peak within a

very short time, leading to operational and technical

problems for the generation sector.

According to EPRI's investigation of the e-cars load

demand [1], Fig.18 illustrates the expected e-car fleet

of 520,000 vehicles load demand in USA in 2015 for

the aforementioned three modes. It clearly shows that

'set time charge at 9pm' would considerably raise the

demand to almost 2GW in comparison to slightly

more than 0.3GW and around 0.38GW for

“uncontrolled” and “managed off-peak” modes.

Furthermore, "managed off peak” is only distributed

during off-peak time. As a consequence, “managed

off-peak” is the best solution for addressing e-cars

peak demand for generation system.

Fig. 18. Impact of "Uncontrolled Charging", "Managed Off-Peak

Charge Control", Set-time charge Control at 9pm” on the demand

[72]

3.2. Impact of PEVs in the distribution System:

Fig. 19 illustrates the average load of the residential

customers in a particular country along with the

charging load of PEVs at off-peak times, in which the

charging type is AC level1 (120V, 15A) [77]. Despite

the use of the lowest charging level, it is clearly

shown that the normal load shape is affected, with

increasing of more than 50% of the average load in

the three seasons. Furthermore, higher level of

charging has a marked impact on the pattern of the

average residential load.

Accordingly, numerous detailed researches have

examined the impact of PEVs on the distribution

system; it was found that the impact is undoubtedly

significant, and therefore it must be well addressed.

EPRI [72] points out that the penetration of PEVs

results in planning and operation difficulties as PEVs

charging increases the stresses on the distribution

circuits i.e. Cables, distribution transformers, RMUs,

LVDBs, and others. Taylor etal. [75], Maitra etal. [9]

and Ipakchi & Albuyeh [77] evaluate the impact of

PEVs on the distribution circuits and reveal that PEVs

charging adversely affects thermal loading of the

distribution circuits, system voltage, as well as

voltage regulation. They add that PEVs charging

increases distribution network losses, voltage

unbalance and feeder overloading [75], [77], [84].

Also, harmonics shall be taken in account as lots of

them are generated by the charging inverters leading

to many other problems such as low power quality

and overloaded distribution circuits [77], [85].

Besides, the impact of thermal stresses (due to

harmonics) on the aging rate of the distribution

transformers have been addressed [72], [75], [86],

[87], [88].

Fig. 19. Impact of PEVs on the household load [77]

4. Overall cost of the Smart Grid:

There are two visions to design and construct the

Smart Grid [4], [5]. The first one is to construct Smart

Grid from the scratch without using the existing

system of today's grid, which would be complex but

easy and possible to do , whereas the second one is to

adjust today's grid into Smart Grid, which might need

decades as the structure of the Smart Grid is different

from today's grid [4], [5].

However, both visions are considerably costly, and

therefore huge funding is required to examine and

evaluate Smart Grid's technologies [13]. Actually, in

Europe, USA, and other developed countries the

governments along with some industries assign

billions of dollars for smart grid development, but

more is required in order for the smart grid to become

a reality [2]. In Arab countries, in 2012, DEWA

invited consultant companies to submit their

perspectives towards the idea of Smart Grid

implementation in Dubai. In 2012, Jordan revealed

that $1 million is dedicated for studying Smart Grid

idea. EPRI published an extensive technical report in

2011, estimating the costs of the Smart Grid

technology, which can be greatly beneficial for

governments and utilities in order to estimate the

benefits of smart grid in relation to its cost [11]. It

points out that distribution system technologies in

USA require between 232 and 339.5 billion to

achieve full smart grid functionality [11]. In fact,

these numbers exclude customers’ technologies

needed for smart grid functionality such as HAN

network.

5. Required Standards

Leading engineering institutions along with

governments shall work together to identify the

standards of smart grid such as [6]:

Home- to- Grid

Industrial-to-Grid

Commercial site-to-Grid

Plug-in Grid-to- Vehicles

Plug-in Vehicles to grid (V2G)

Security and Cyber Security

Wired/Wireless Communication

Customer's privacy

In 2011, IEEE published a comprehensive standard

on Smart Grid interoperability of energy technology

and information technology operation with electrical

power system numbered IEEE Std 2030-201 [90].

IV. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, today's grid is dumb, overstressed and

faces serious financial, environmental and operational

challenges; therefore it must be modernized into a

smart one that uses two-way real-time communication

system and modern technologies to overcome the

challenges of today’s grid, resulting in a higher

reliability, stability and quality of power supply at a

lower cost. The smart Grid has many characteristics

such as:

Self-healing

It is accomplished by having automation system for

the substations, feeders and customer’s smart

appliances along with the real-time information

provided from the AMI system, used to detect, isolate

and redistribute power supply in case of outages.

Consumer friendly

Customers can control and manage their energy

consumption, depending on the real-time dynamic

tariff, which is sent by AMI system. The reaction to

the tariff signals can be manual or automatic in case

of HAN and HEMS.

Accommodate a wide range of DRG and storage

options:

Smart Grid can encounter the maladies of DRG such

as islanding and intermittency through AMI system

and storage devices i.e. batteries of PEVs.

Allow electricity markets to emerge and grow:

Smart Grid will enable new services (e.g. real-time

pricing), and markets (e.g. PV and PEVs including

EVSEs).

Asset management Optimisation:

Smart Grid will be able to have abundant

unprecedented information through AMI, which can

be used to optimise asset operations management and

also the maintenance policies, such as RCM.

Have high reliability and power quality:

Smart Grid’s power quality and reliability will be

compiled with customer’s needs, through AMI

system and Smart Grid automation systems.

Withstand Cyber and physical attacks:

Smart grid shall be designed to fend of hackers and

any planned physical attacks by the network operators

themselves or customers.

However, the Smart Grid also confronts challenges

that may inhibit its implementation. In fact, some of

these challenges can aggravate the problems of

today's grid such as great PEVs emergence. Plenty

challenges can be overcome through the integration of

all smart Grid technologies. For example, efficient

AMI deployment allows successful implementation

of PEVs and DRG, and also V2G can help face the

volatility of renewable generation.

The smart grid concept can be a reality in the near

future, provided that the leading engineering

organisations along with the governments would

develop the vision of the Smart Grid. Is it going to be

built from the scratch or by modifying the current

grid?.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deepest

sense of appreciation towards my Senior Manager of Asset

Management, Mr. Matar Al Mehairi, for his undying

support and assistance throughout the progress of this

research paper. I have been most fortunate to work under

his supervision.

I would also like to thank Mohammed Al Suwaidi (VP of

Distribution Maintenance), and by extension, Rashid bin

Humaidan (EVP, Power Distribution) and Saeed Al Tayer

(Managing Director & CEO) for affording me the

opportunity to work at DEWA. It has truly been a

rewarding experience.

I wish to also give a special thanks to Sharif Albatayneh

(Assistant Manager of R&A), my friend Jihad Kamal for

editing the English of this paper and my fellow colleagues

within the Asset management department for their

contribution. I thank my beloved family for all of their

support they have lent to me especially during difficult

times. Finally, I thank Almighty God for giving me the

opportunity, patience and strength to complete this task.

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BIOGRAPHIES