Possible Contributions of Smart Grids to Regional Development of Countries

Although smart grid concept has recently become a subject of academic studies; impacts of this concept appear in many areas of engineering. Today, the smart grid concept involves many subjects from the efficient use of electrical energy resources to the planned and programmed consumption of energy, from the integration of distributed renewable energy sources into the system to the domestic productive consumers (prosumers), which are much related to local or regional development. Smart grid concept, which emerges a product of interdisciplinary studies ranging to many fields of engineering such as power systems, control, artificial intelligence and communication, can be briefly viewed as a development process towards the internet of energy. Especially in recent years, the decrease in reserves of fossil-fueled energy sources has led researchers to find out new energy sources, more efficient and ecological production and distribution methods. In these studies, the energy sources, which are renewable, sustainable, and economical have become major priorities due to reducing carbon emissions. However, the scope of smart grid studies has been continuously enriched and it has begun to include the fundamental components of production-centered sustainable development models, which are the providing of low-cost production supplies, continuity of these supplies, efficiency in production and consumption, generation based on renewable or recyclable resources, and applications of ecological generation and consumption methods. In this context, the positive effects of smart grids on the regional development are expected to occur in the following topics: Smart city applications, intelligent transportation, renewable and local energy generation, smart homes and building concepts, energy efficient cities, control of carbon footprint, automated electricity, gas, water and waste networks, loss and leakage control, application of demand side energy management system to reduce power consumption, self-healing electricity distribution, smart energy pricing, smart energy storage are some emergent topics that can contribute to sustainable regional development models. Because, modern grid components developed within the scope of smart grid are expected to support sustainable production models via smart energy management and increasing efficiency, reducing the energy costs, improving energy continuity. In this study, a projection for possible contributions of smart grid concept with its continuously expanding scope to the sustainable regional development is discussed under several major headings.