Smart Grid development in Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, and Finland (Part 3)

In the fourth part of the continuing series of Smart Grid adoption in different countries, Smart Grid India covers Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Finland. The UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Malta, and France are at the fore-front of Smart Grid adoption in Europe. Nonetheless, countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Finland are making substantial progress in Smart Grid adoption.

Netherlands : Although, the country has no government mandate for installing Smart Meters (it is voluntary), Companies, Cities, and Organizations are leading Smart Grid technology adoption. For example, Amsterdam is transforming itself into Smart City by collaborating with companies like IBM, Cisco, Philips, and Alliander that will cost $410 per household over the next 15 years to install the Smart Grid across the city. It plans to complete the first phase by 2012. Dutch research center ECN, KEMA, Software company Humiq, and utility company Essent jointly developed a smart grid based micro-grid project for 25 households at “PowerMatchingCity” located at Hoogkerk to test various smart grid technologies. Another such recent initiative taken by companies in Netherlands isSmart Energy Collective (SEC) in which more than 20 companies have agreed to collaborate to develop intelligent energy concepts. Under these initiative they plan to develop number of large-scale demonstration projects with total of around 5000 private and small business customers. SEC is considered to be the most significant industry initiative taken so far in whole of Europe.

Ireland : The government along-with ESB Networks, the electric network utility in Ireland is developing comprehensive Smart Grid plan that will support integration of wind energy, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles. ESB Network is joining hands with Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for Smart Grid demonstration projects in Ireland. The Electric Research Center (ERC) along with Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Commission of Energy Regulation (CER) and other 16 industrial partners is coordinating and conducting Smart Grid research. The primary objectives of Ireland ‘s Smart Grid project are 1) Renewable Integration 2) Energy Efficiency 3) Electric Transportation and 4) Flexible Grid. The country plans to invest 10 billion euro in Smart Grid development by 2020. It has National Smart Meter deployment plan that will deploy 2 million smart meters over the years.

Denmark: The country receives around 40% of its energy needs through wind turbines that are distributed across the nation. To effectively use these distributed intermittent resource, it needs intelligent grid. Danish government has outlined wind-car Smart Grid through project like EDISON, where organization like IBM, Danish energy company DONG, Siemens, Technical University of Denmark, Eurisco, and Danish Energy Association together will develop the needed infrastructure. The government plans to have 10% electric cars in 10 years. Recently, Denmark concluded one of the largest Smart Grid test successfully, where 13 substation between 60kv and 10kv, 4 CHP station and 47 wind turbine were disconnected and were instead connected to virtual power stations. The cell project in Holsted covered 50 sq.km area with approximately 28,000 meters. The other notable projects includes 1) Spiare along-with Copenhagen Clean-tech Cluster is developing Smart Grid project for Kalundborg city and 2) Echelon installing 400,000 Smart Meter for Danish Utility company SEAS-NVE by 2011.

Finland: An early adopter of Smart Grid bandwagon, the Nordic country has ambitious plan for Smart Meters, AMI, and Smart Grid implementation. Finnish utility Fortum along with Telvent and Echelon is connecting 550,000 households and business with Smart Grid system by 2013. the project is one of the largest Smart Grid project in Finland. ABB and Nokia Siemens systems are working with Helsingin Energia the utility company of the capital city of Helsinki to install Smart Grid systems for the new Kalasatama district. Overall, the governments plans to cover 80% of the country with Smart Meter by 2013.