Developing 'Smart electrical grid' to prevent blackout
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Syed Imtiaz Ahmed
The phrase 'Digital Bangladesh' implies government's commitment to rapidly deploy computer and Information Technology (IT) across Bangladesh to improve efficiency. This concept can be extended to include use of digital technologies to transform the present dilapidated electricity distribution network of Bangladesh into a 'smart electrical grid'. Smart grid can prevent electricity outages and 'black-outs' that occur several times a day, causing work interruptions and economic losses to the nation.
In the event of load-shedding, caused by electrical energy shortage in the country, the Smart grid can automatically recalculate and distribute electricity to all consumers fairly but at reduced amount leaving no premises without electricity. With such improved and fair electricity distribution, the fact that occurrence of load-shedding may not be easily discernible. The economic loss to businesses would be less, since some electricity from the grid would always be available at each business or office even during load shedding.
Energy shortage is a worldwide concern. Presently, more than 40 countries show power system instability and load-shedding due to electricity shortage.
North American and European companies are presently working on building 'smart electrical grid' technologies to optimise energy flow using digital radios for more efficient electrical grid control and energy conservation. The need to build 'smart grid' technologies is rising worldwide and Bangladesh can become a pioneer in this area of technology development. Bangladesh can be the first country to deploy digital radios and remote controlled circuit breakers in mass scale for highly efficient electric energy distribution and energy conservation.
Presently, one of the reasons why a large area gets plunged into darkness or has power outages is because Bangladesh does not have enough circuit breakers on the electricity distribution network and because most breakers are not remotely radio controlled. A large number of circuit breakers are required in Bangladesh to make the power system stable. Circuit breakers are also needed for cable and transformer protection, 'load balancing' and for supporting network stability.
Development of smart electrical grid will require digital radios to wirelessly control the electricity distribution in the country. New circuit breakers will divide the present electrical network into smaller areas. Electricity availability will increase as an electrical fault in a segment will get localised and affect only that particular segment and not escalate all over the network to plunge a large area into darkness. During energy shortages, the Smart grid radio transmitters (size of a passport) installed at the electrical poles or sub-stations will broadcast encrypted message over the air to radio receiver attached to distant circuit breakers to switch off only a percentage of electricity supplied to various premises and streets, but not shut-off the electricity completely to those destinations. Thus there will be no 'black-outs' and premise owners may not need to install private petrol or diesel generators. Instead of generators, the premise owners will need to install a new $200 radio controlled switch panel to connect to their existing circuit breaker panel.
Sudden power outage, faults or quick attempt to supply electricity to large area can prematurely trip the circuit breakers or make the interconnected Power Stations in Bangladesh operating at 50 Hertz frequency to go out of synchronization, unstable and cause nationwide black-out and power outages.
Smart digitally radio controlled grid enables step-by-step gradual load addition and removal. Under automatic remote digital radio and computer control, no section of the network will get overloaded and get protected from electrical damage by preventing excessive current flow. Such network operation automation through use of digital radio control of the Bangladesh electric grid will ensure stable power supply nationwide.
In Bangladesh, the energy shortage is expected to continue for the next 60 years, since demand for electricity is increasing every year outstripping generation capacity and distribution capabilities. New power stations cannot be built rapidly enough. There is also the problem of fuel energy shortage in Bangladesh and power stations need extensive amount of fuel, such as coal, gas or nuclear energy every hour. There is insufficient fuel inside Bangladesh to run power stations of the future, unless large capacity nuclear power stations are built.
In USA, President Obama is planning to build four more nuclear power stations in USA to meet the increasing electricity demands, but the idea is meeting strong oppositions from many American groups and scientists against the use of nuclear power. Building nuclear power plants is very expensive, takes over a decade to commission and is hazardous. Effects of nuclear accidents can last for over 300 years.
No developing nation can ever have a reliable electricity supply depending entirely on foreign expertise and foreign electrical parts to develop and maintain their electricity generation and distribution. Local manufacturing of electrical equipment is necessary to support the nation's power grid.
Digital radios and circuit breakers manufactured in Bangladesh can be attached to the power distribution network for automatic computer control and management of the power grid for efficient distribution of electricity in the country. The circuit breakers will receive commands from the electrical grid radio transmitter installed at nearby electrical poles or substation to selectively switch-off or switch-on electrical points at homes, offices and businesses or streets during load-shedding. Whenever, sufficient electricity becomes available in the grid, the grid radio transmitter will again issue commands to restore power in premises by amount proportional to present availability of the energy in the grid.
The advantage of adopting the new radio control technologies in power system control is that almost no change to existing electrical wiring will be required to incorporate very sophisticated electrical power distribution in Bangladesh.
Only very low cost, small "passport size" Radio Transmitters and Receivers operating in the license free radio band, known as the ISM (Instrument, Scientific and Medical) Radio Frequency (RF) band will need to be installed.
Both digital radios and circuit breakers are required to upgrade the operation of nation's electrical grid, which can be designed and manufactured in Bangladesh in large scale. The manufacturing of such digital items in the country will be consistent with the philosophy of "Digital Bangladesh".
If decision is made to modernise the nation's electricity distribution network, using locally manufactured equipment, over 20,000 to 50,000 new jobs can be created. This venture can create numerous new semi-skilled, skilled and professional jobs in the energy sector.
Expatriate Bangladeshi Engineers who have worked in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and European countries can play a key role in development of new electrical industries in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh can be an "early developer and adopter" of the "smart grid" technology. With the help of expatriate Bangladeshi engineers, Bangladesh can start designing and manufacturing the electrical parts required to upgrade the electricity grid in Bangladesh.
If Bangladesh becomes successful in developing "smart electrical grid" technology it can be exported to other countries of the world.
............................................................
An electrical engineer, the writer is president of Signal Stream Inc. in Ottawa, Canada. He can be reached at email: siahmed@signalstream.ca
The phrase 'Digital Bangladesh' implies government's commitment to rapidly deploy computer and Information Technology (IT) across Bangladesh to improve efficiency. This concept can be extended to include use of digital technologies to transform the present dilapidated electricity distribution network of Bangladesh into a 'smart electrical grid'. Smart grid can prevent electricity outages and 'black-outs' that occur several times a day, causing work interruptions and economic losses to the nation.
In the event of load-shedding, caused by electrical energy shortage in the country, the Smart grid can automatically recalculate and distribute electricity to all consumers fairly but at reduced amount leaving no premises without electricity. With such improved and fair electricity distribution, the fact that occurrence of load-shedding may not be easily discernible. The economic loss to businesses would be less, since some electricity from the grid would always be available at each business or office even during load shedding.
Energy shortage is a worldwide concern. Presently, more than 40 countries show power system instability and load-shedding due to electricity shortage.
North American and European companies are presently working on building 'smart electrical grid' technologies to optimise energy flow using digital radios for more efficient electrical grid control and energy conservation. The need to build 'smart grid' technologies is rising worldwide and Bangladesh can become a pioneer in this area of technology development. Bangladesh can be the first country to deploy digital radios and remote controlled circuit breakers in mass scale for highly efficient electric energy distribution and energy conservation.
Presently, one of the reasons why a large area gets plunged into darkness or has power outages is because Bangladesh does not have enough circuit breakers on the electricity distribution network and because most breakers are not remotely radio controlled. A large number of circuit breakers are required in Bangladesh to make the power system stable. Circuit breakers are also needed for cable and transformer protection, 'load balancing' and for supporting network stability.
Development of smart electrical grid will require digital radios to wirelessly control the electricity distribution in the country. New circuit breakers will divide the present electrical network into smaller areas. Electricity availability will increase as an electrical fault in a segment will get localised and affect only that particular segment and not escalate all over the network to plunge a large area into darkness. During energy shortages, the Smart grid radio transmitters (size of a passport) installed at the electrical poles or sub-stations will broadcast encrypted message over the air to radio receiver attached to distant circuit breakers to switch off only a percentage of electricity supplied to various premises and streets, but not shut-off the electricity completely to those destinations. Thus there will be no 'black-outs' and premise owners may not need to install private petrol or diesel generators. Instead of generators, the premise owners will need to install a new $200 radio controlled switch panel to connect to their existing circuit breaker panel.
Sudden power outage, faults or quick attempt to supply electricity to large area can prematurely trip the circuit breakers or make the interconnected Power Stations in Bangladesh operating at 50 Hertz frequency to go out of synchronization, unstable and cause nationwide black-out and power outages.
Smart digitally radio controlled grid enables step-by-step gradual load addition and removal. Under automatic remote digital radio and computer control, no section of the network will get overloaded and get protected from electrical damage by preventing excessive current flow. Such network operation automation through use of digital radio control of the Bangladesh electric grid will ensure stable power supply nationwide.
In Bangladesh, the energy shortage is expected to continue for the next 60 years, since demand for electricity is increasing every year outstripping generation capacity and distribution capabilities. New power stations cannot be built rapidly enough. There is also the problem of fuel energy shortage in Bangladesh and power stations need extensive amount of fuel, such as coal, gas or nuclear energy every hour. There is insufficient fuel inside Bangladesh to run power stations of the future, unless large capacity nuclear power stations are built.
In USA, President Obama is planning to build four more nuclear power stations in USA to meet the increasing electricity demands, but the idea is meeting strong oppositions from many American groups and scientists against the use of nuclear power. Building nuclear power plants is very expensive, takes over a decade to commission and is hazardous. Effects of nuclear accidents can last for over 300 years.
No developing nation can ever have a reliable electricity supply depending entirely on foreign expertise and foreign electrical parts to develop and maintain their electricity generation and distribution. Local manufacturing of electrical equipment is necessary to support the nation's power grid.
Digital radios and circuit breakers manufactured in Bangladesh can be attached to the power distribution network for automatic computer control and management of the power grid for efficient distribution of electricity in the country. The circuit breakers will receive commands from the electrical grid radio transmitter installed at nearby electrical poles or substation to selectively switch-off or switch-on electrical points at homes, offices and businesses or streets during load-shedding. Whenever, sufficient electricity becomes available in the grid, the grid radio transmitter will again issue commands to restore power in premises by amount proportional to present availability of the energy in the grid.
The advantage of adopting the new radio control technologies in power system control is that almost no change to existing electrical wiring will be required to incorporate very sophisticated electrical power distribution in Bangladesh.
Only very low cost, small "passport size" Radio Transmitters and Receivers operating in the license free radio band, known as the ISM (Instrument, Scientific and Medical) Radio Frequency (RF) band will need to be installed.
Both digital radios and circuit breakers are required to upgrade the operation of nation's electrical grid, which can be designed and manufactured in Bangladesh in large scale. The manufacturing of such digital items in the country will be consistent with the philosophy of "Digital Bangladesh".
If decision is made to modernise the nation's electricity distribution network, using locally manufactured equipment, over 20,000 to 50,000 new jobs can be created. This venture can create numerous new semi-skilled, skilled and professional jobs in the energy sector.
Expatriate Bangladeshi Engineers who have worked in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and European countries can play a key role in development of new electrical industries in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh can be an "early developer and adopter" of the "smart grid" technology. With the help of expatriate Bangladeshi engineers, Bangladesh can start designing and manufacturing the electrical parts required to upgrade the electricity grid in Bangladesh.
If Bangladesh becomes successful in developing "smart electrical grid" technology it can be exported to other countries of the world.
............................................................
An electrical engineer, the writer is president of Signal Stream Inc. in Ottawa, Canada. He can be reached at email: siahmed@signalstream.ca