Demand side management for micro grids through smart meters

Abstract

Microgrid is a small scale power system consisting of distributed small power facilities such as solar power, wind power and micro-turbines. The microgrid has been researched and encouraged actively in many countries, because of some merits such as an eco-friendly system, good quality power supply and energy security. Microgrid power generation satisfies the power requirement of considerable number of consumers during the islanded operation. During this off grid time of operation a Demand Side Management (DSM) system can be used for better power distribution among the consumers. DSM promotes the efficient usage of power, while focusing on the network stability and reliability. Because it monitors the real time power consumption of users and automatically distribute the excess power of the system while controlling the power usage of the users to keep the network stability. The authors have developed few smart meter units, robust communication system and a main server to help to transmit the real time information to the consumer as well as to the main control unit which runs the DSM program.