8th IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid June 17-19, 2020, Paris, FRANCE

The Effects of the Smart Grid System on the National

Grids
Ilhami COLAK Ramazan BAYINDIR Seref SAGIROGLU
Nisantasi University Gazi University Gazi University
Electrical-Electronic Eng. Dep. Electrical-Electronic Eng. Dep. Computer Eng. Dep.
Istanbul/Turkey Ankara/Turkey Ankara/Turkey
ilhcol@gmail.com bayindir@gazi.edu.tr ss@gazi.edu.tr

Abstract— The infrastructure of the national grids of many flow is provided. A smart gird system is a kind of
countries is very old and includes classical technologies in terms of sophisticated technology that allows not only bidirectional
power production, transmission, and distributions. In addition, power flow but it also has several different aspects such as
controllability and monitorability of these systems are also not availability, effectiveness, accuracy, controllability,
satisfactory. On the other hand, smart grid technologies include
economically, flexibility, interoperability, maintainability,
sophisticated tools in order to monitor and control the power system
in both ways from power stations to end-users or vice-versa. measurability, optimality, reliability, sustainability, stability,
security, and scalability [1-6]. As figured out in Fig. 1, all
So that many vulnerabilities and power collapse can be detected these features of the smart grid make the power grid robust
in advance and necessary cautions can be taken. In addition, the enough against any power failure, voltage sag, power losses,
smart grid system offers the monitoring and the management of the voltage and frequency fluctuation, over voltage, and over
electrical energy from generation to end-user, and provides smart
metering, vehicle to grid connection as well as integration of the
current. Moreover, a smart grid system brings producers,
renewable energy to the grid. Moreover, the efficient use of power network operators and prosumers, as well as energy policy
sources with minimum loss and minimum illegal usage is makers. While a classical power grid consists of only
alsohandled in smart grid technology. producers and network operators at national grid level, a smart
grid combined the prosumers and policy makers in to the
This paper highlights the effects of the smart grid technologies on
the national grids and proposes some applicable suggestions to
game. Because, a consumer can also be a producer and sell the
authorities in order to convert their classical grid system to the smart energy produced to the grid. The energy produced by a
grid system. prosumer can be obtained directly from a renewable energy
sources or a battery system.

Keywords—smart grid; grid infrastructure; renewable energy;

classical grid; energy production; national grid; effect

I. INTRODUCTION
Classical infrastructure of power grid, from power
generation to end users, includes several power devices in
order to transfer the power generated at a power station to end
users safely and efficiently. These power devices are power
generators, transformers, power switches, power breakers,
transmission and distribution lines, utility meters, relays and
fuses. So that each of all these components has its own
potential problems due to old technologies used.
On the other hand, modern power system technologies
offer integration of renewable energy to the grid, smart
metering, bidirectional energy flow, preventing power
outages, sustainability of clean and safe energy, as well as
energy efficiency. Moreover, controllability, measurability
and cyber security of the energy at each point of the grid are Fig. 1. Requirements of Smart Grid
unavoidable in a modern power grid system.
If any classical power system is integrated in with an Thus, all these activities like energy production,
information and communication technology, then the power bidirectional power flow, integration of renewable energies to
grid is converted in to a smart grid and bidirectional power power grid and so on are the interest of the policy maker in

978-1-7281-1107-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

icSmartGrid 2020
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. Downloaded on July 24,2020 at 13:12:06 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
8th IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid June 17-19, 2020, Paris, FRANCE

122

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. Downloaded on July 24,2020 at 13:12:06 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
8th IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid June 17-19, 2020, Paris, FRANCE

order to set up a good balance between energy production and power consumption. All these units have bidirectional energy
energy demand. flow within the smart grid. As the energy line is highlighted in
Power outages or blackout in a national grid system affect blue color, communication line is highlighted in green color.
millions of people in the country and cause many economical Power generation unit consists of renewable and non-
losses in terms of business and production as well as poor life renewable energy sources including micro grids.
standard. In addition, transmission and distribution losses in
the World vary between 5% and 20% depending on the Power transmission unit involves of power transformers,
infrastructure of the power grid. power breakers, power switches, relays, capacitors,
transmission lines, electricity poles and their apparatuses.
A smart grid system is unavoidable since it has the ability
of protection against cyber security, facilitating the Power distribution unit has transformers, power switches,
enlargement of grid system for the smooth integration of smart meters, fuses as well as relays.
renewable energies like wind [7-8], electrical vehicles and
Power consumption unit includes all types of loads like
battery systems using power electronics [9], solar [10],
houses, factories, street lights, electrical vehicles and batteries.
providing smart metering, allowing the energy observation
and the control, mitigating the fluctuations of the voltage, the In addition, market and operation are mostly related with
frequency and the current, creating a good harmonization policy makers in where the electricity prices, the investments,
between producers, prosumers, network operators and policy the balance between production of electricity and demand,
makers [11-14]. some market standards, integration of the renewable energy
systems to the grid, feed-in tariff of the prosumer supports are
This study will be an efficient and effective tool for
all considered [5].
researchers, engineers, transmitter and distributer operators,
prosumers and policy makers in order to convert the classical Fundamental structure of the classical power grid is given
national grid system to a smart grid system. in Fig. 3.

II. BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE SMART GRID SYSTEM

Fig. 3. Structure of the Classical Power Grid
A smart gird system consists of a bidirectional power flow
combined with an information and communication
technologies. All power devices used in the grid are smart and
Power generation unit in Fig. 3 has several renewable
interoperate with each other. They are observable and
energy sources and non-renewable energy source. Renewable
controllable devices.
energy sources can be wind, solar, hydro, biomass, biofuel,
Fig. 2 shows one of the basic smart gird systems. geothermal, wave, tidal, and fuel cell as the non-renewable
energy sources are fossil fuels, coal, petroleum, nuclear
and natural gas. However, the concept of the smart grid is to
use of renewable energy sources as much as possible.
Therefore, many researches have been done in the literature in
order to include more renewable in to smart grid system. Some
of these researches are a novel intelligent approach for yaw
position forecasting in wind energy systems [7], critical
aspects of wind energy systems in smart grid applications [8],
a survey on the contributions of power electronics to smart
grid systems [9], an enhanced dynamic model of battery using
genetic algorithm suitable for photovoltaic applications [10],
photovoltaic maximum power point tracking under fast

Fig. 2. Basic Structure of a Smart Grid System

We have defined the smart grid with four main units as

power generation, power transmission, power distribution and varying of solar radiation [11], smart grid projects in Europe:

978-1-7281-1107-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

icSmartGrid 2020
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. Downloaded on July 24,2020 at 13:12:06 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
8th IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid June 17-19, 2020, Paris, FRANCE

123

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. Downloaded on July 24,2020 at 13:12:06 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
8th IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid June 17-19, 2020, Paris, FRANCE

current status, maturity and future scenarios [12], a survey on Fig. 4 illustrates the gross electricity production in the
the critical issues in smart grid technologies [13], and smart World using all types of energies available [2, 3]. The total
grid technologies and applications [14]. amount of energy produces is 25.6 million gigawatts in 2017.
China is the biggest energy producer with 25.4% of total
energy production. USA follows as the second biggest country
with 16.7% production. Then, EU follows with 11.5%
production, India follows 5.8% and the Russia follows with
4.3% energy production.

Fig. 4. World Gross Electricity Generation in Percentage for 2017 [3]

Distribution of energy product for each country based on the given in Fig. 5 [3,4]. As it clearly seen that the share of the
energy sources is summarized in the Fig. 5 given below [3, 4]. renewable energy sources in total production is very low.
It is very clear that 66.7% of all energy products in the World
is powered by Combustible fuel power stations in 2017. Saudi Above information and figures put forward the importance
Arabia is producing its all energy from the combustible fuels, of the smart grid applications all over the world since many
it follows South Africa with the share of (89.0%) and different sources of energies are being used for the production
Indonesia (88.8%). of electricity.
The second largest source of energy used for production of Power transmission systems in Fig. 3 include power
electricity is the Hydro-electric power with the share of 16.3% transformers, power lines, substations as well as breakers and
o in 2017. In this category, notably higher productions were power switches. The voltage value is at the highest value while
recorded in Brazil by 62.9%, Canada by 59.6% and Argentina the current is at the lowest value in the transmission lines in
by 28.6%. Turkey, China and Russia have a production rate of order to reduce the cost and losses by using thin electrical
above World average (Please see Fig. 5). cables to carry the energy for long distances.
Third largest energy source for the electricity production is As it is depicted in Fig. 3, all power is transferred via
the nuclear power stations. Its biggest driver country is the power lines that can be installed either overhead or
South Korea with the share of 26.2 % and the EU-27 with the underground. Smart grid system allows to measure voltage,
share of 25.7% and in 2017. current and frequency signals at every point in the power line
by using the voltage and the current measurement
As the renewable energy sources for the production of transformers, and the frequency meter for the observation and
electricity, only the wind and the solar energy sources are controlling purposes.

978-1-7281-1107-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

icSmartGrid 2020 124

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. Downloaded on July 24,2020 at 13:12:06 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 8th IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid June 17-19, 2020, Paris, FRANCE

Fig. 5. Total Generated Electricity by Source as Percentage for 2017

Power distribution unit in Fig. 3 starts with a step-down

transformer and deliver several voltage levels to customers.
All smart meters, amperemeters, voltmeters, frequency meters,
fuses, breakers and relays are included in power distribution.
In order to observe and control the all electrical signals like
voltage, current, frequency, phase angle, phase sequence,
several measurement sensors and small size transformers are
set in the distribution unit. All components in the distribution
unit are interoperable with each other.
Power consumption unit in Fig. 3 is dedicated for the all
types of loads such as factories, houses, street lights and
electrical vehicles. Some of the consumers are able to produce
their own energy from renewable sources or other types of
energy sources and sell this energy to grid if the produced
energy is not consumed. Therefore, some customers are called
prosumers. But in this case, a smart meter is necessary to
measure the power flow in both directions.
After giving brief information about the classical grid, it
can be combined with communication infrastructures and
turns in to a smart grid system as depicted in Fig. 6. It consists
Fig. 6. Basic Infrastructure of Smart Grid System [1]
of the classical grid as well as communication infrastructures
that includes wired and wireless communication technologies in order to set up a communication system between all
electrical units and components in the smart grid. In this way,

978-1-7281-1107-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

icSmartGrid 2020 125

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. Downloaded on July 24,2020 at 13:12:06 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
8th IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid June 17-19, 2020, Paris, FRANCE

the whole system is now being observed and controlled from blackouts, and cannot provide secure, reliable, clean and
one center. Moreover, bidirectional power flow is set up that economic electricity required by consumers.
allows consumer to be a prosumer.
On the other hand, the smart grid is an evolutionary
process and cannot be established in a single step. It provides
III. ADVANTAGES OF USING SMART GRIDS
many benefits for all stake holders such as financial firms,
As explained earlier, using smart grids provides a number manufacturers, R&D organizations, consumers, electric
of fascinating issues for managing, monitoring, controlling, utilities, environmental protection agencies, regulatory bodies,
securing and easier, faster and optimal. Here are the independent system operators.
recommendations and important issues for smart grids So that converting the classical grid to a smart grid
summarized below as:; populates its own new business areas and provides increased
 Providing better power quality and quality of services efficiency, reduced losses, flexible price for consumers, secure
and sustainable electricity as well as robust and digitalized
 Supporting distributed generation systems
infrastructure.
 Enabling flexible system design
 Achieving easy operation and control
REFERENCES
 Handling self-healing from power disturbance events
[1] I. Colak “Introduction to Smart Grid”, 3rd International Smart Grid
 Decreasing the defective effects of electrical chain on Workshop and Certificate Program (ISGWCP), Pages: 30-34, Istanbul,
environment, Turkey, MAR 21-25, 2016.
 Enabling active participation by consumers in [2] EUROSTAD Statistics Explained.
demand response https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-
 Operating resiliently against physical and cyber explained/index.php/The_EU_in_the_world_-
_energy#Electricity_generation (last accessed June 17, 2020).
attack
[3] Eurostat and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
 Enabling new products, services, and markets Affairs, Statistics Division (Energy Statistics Yearbook).
 Optimizing assets and operations efficiently https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=nrg_bal_peh&
 Allowing the consumers to participate optimization lang=en (last accessed June 17, 2020).
of system operation, [4] https://www.energy.gov/science-innovation/electric-power/smart-grid
 Providing further information to end-users about how (last accessed June 17, 2020).
[5] R. J. Campbell, “The Smart Grids: Status and Outlook”, April 10, 2018.
to use the sources
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45156.pdf (last accessed June 17, 2020).
 Supporting to construct complete energy market
[6] D. Elzinga, “Electricity System Development: A Focus on Smart Grids
 Allowing remote measurement of automation and Overview of Activities and Players in Smart Grids”,
electrical meters https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/energy/se/pdfs/eneff/eneff_h.ne
ws/Smart.Grids.Overview.pdf (last accessed June 17, 2020).
 Providing better security and privacy [7] M. Yesilbudak, S. Sagiroglu and I. Colak, "A novel intelligent approach
for yaw position forecasting in wind energy systems", International
 Reducing the cost of management and maintenance Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, Vol. 69, pp. 406-413,
July 2015.
 Enabling bidirectional energy flow and
[8] I. Colak, G. Fulli, S. Bayhan, S. Chondrogiannis and S. Demirbas,
communication through generation, transmission, "Critical aspects of wind energy systems in smart grid
distribution, and end-users applications", Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 52, pp.
 Increasing the efficiency and 155-171, December 2015.
 Helping to reduce the losses of the grids [9] I. Colak, E. Kabalci, G. Fulli and S. Lazarou, "A survey on the
contributions of power electronics to smart grid systems", Renewable
 Enabling to use new techniques and methods such as and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 47, pp. 562-579, July 2015.
artificial intelligent, machine learning, deep learning, [10] S. Blaifi, S. Moulahoum, I. Colak and W. Merrouche, "An enhanced
IoT, big data, block chain, etc.). dynamic model of battery using genetic algorithm suitable for
 Making easy plan for future developments photovoltaic applications", Applied Energy, vol. 169, pp. 888-898, May
2016.
 Handling optimal energy demands [11] B. Abdelhakem, I. Colak and O. Isik, "Photovoltaic maximum power
 Increasing benefits and incomes point tracking under fast varying of solar radiation", Applied Energy,
 Achieving real-time monitoring vol. 179, pp. 523-530, July 2016.
 Connecting any kind of energy sources and storage as [12] I. Colak, G. Fulli, S. Sagiroglu, M. Yesilbudak and C.F. Covrig, "Smart
grid projects in Europe: Current status, maturity and future scenarios",
a unique option Applied Energy, Vol. 152, pp. 58-70, August 2015.
IV. CONCLUSIONS [13] I. Colak, G. Fulli, S. Sagiroglu, M. Yesilbudak and C.F. Covrig, "A
survey on the critical issues in smart grid technologies", Renewable and
Power grid infrastructures of many countries in the World Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 54, pp. 396-405, February 2016.
are very old and create many problems including short circuit, [14] R. Bayindir, I. Colak, G. Fulli and K. Demirtas, "Smart grid
oscillation in the voltage and current, losses, low efficiency, technologies and applications", Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews, vol. 66, pp. 499–516, 2016.

978-1-7281-1107-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE

icSmartGrid 2020 126

Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM. Downloaded on July 24,2020 at 13:12:06 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.