Energy Efficiency, Clean Power and the Smart Grid

1. Energy Efficiency, Clean Power and the Smart Grid Flavio CUCCHIETTI

2. Key issues, challenges and opportunities for ICT • Modern paradigms often rely on rich and flexible data description • Risk of transmission delays, network overload and unacceptable performance for time-critical applications. • Coexistence of multiple technologies – no “one fits all” solution • wireline = higher performance, but higher deployment costs (remote areas) • wireless = cost-effective solutions, but performance and reach limitations; interferences are likely for unlicensed technologies • Survivability of the telecommunication network to blackouts • ICT for SG has to be carefully designed and standardized to: • Maximize SG benefits • Guarantee a stable energy system • Avoid ICT to become an unacceptable energy burden itself ICT is the enabler of a more efficient electrical system and for the electrification of developing countries

3. Is ICT ready for Smart Grids? YES and NO! • YES because: • Many proven technologies available (transmission, networking, sensors) • Complex services similar to those of SG are up and running • Challenges like those of SG have been faced already (huge scale, security, redundancy, availability …) • NO because: • SG have peculiar degree of complexity • Huge volumes • Different needs • High requirements on network dependability • Cost and energy efficiency still needs to be optimized

4. Will a single network be sufficient? NO! Different needs can require different solutions • Control networks - to guarantee safety, stability and optimal integration of renewable energy sources • Are needed very soon • Relatively high number of nodes • Stringent requirements on dependability, latency, survivability • Involving end-users - sensors, networking equipment, computing and rendering devices • Extremely high number of elements • Lower requirements on latency • Much higher data volumes • Need for future proof solutions (more mature, interoperable …) • More standardization is needed

5. Energy footprint of ICT for SG Most of ICT energy load will be in homes Few watts per client can result into heavy energy burden both for the client and at national level It could remarkably reduce the benefits of SG Need for more efficient ICT

6. Energy footprint of ICT - 1 Energy footprint of ICT (including user devices) is continuously increasing. Large installations for the implementation of Smart Grids will further raise current forecasts! • Source: http://dmsext.itu.int/pub/itu-t/oth/33/04/T33040000020004pdfe.pdf Source: GeSISmart2020

7. Energy footprint of ICT - 2 Homes and Distribution grids are expected to be the most critical environments. • millions of such sites in the whole system. • Source: www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-t/oth/33/04/T33040000020004PDFE.pdf. An example: Future broadband network’s Energy footprint estimation • Sources: 1) BroadBand Code of Conduct V.3 (EC-JRC) and “inertial” technology improvements to 2015-2020 (home and access cons.) • 2) Telecom Italia measurements and evaluations (power consumption of metro/core network and number of devices) • [see R. Bolla, R. Bruschi, K. Christensen, F. Cucchietti, F. Davoli, S. Singh, “The potential impact of green technologies in next-generation wireline networks: Is there room for energy saving optimization?” IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 49, no. 8, pp. 80-86, Aug. 2011]

8. Source: www.iea.org/papers/2008/cd_energy_efficiency_policy/3-Appliances%20and%20equipment/3-cool_appliance2003.pdf Energy footprint of ICT - 3 Energy usage of ICT equipment is increasing in homes, owing to: • more ICT devices • laptops, set-top-boxes, smart phones, handhelds, tablets, … ; • most devices are left powered on even when not used • often to maintain “network presence”; • inefficient standby states Source: http://remodece.isr.uc.pt/

9. Potential energy impact of ICT technologies Example based on Italian case study Up to 3% additional National energy consumption Up to 10% additional energy used by end customers

10. Do we need better and more efficient ICT for SG? Definitely YES! • The path towards Green ICT includes: • Careful evaluation of the technical solutions chosen • There is definitely not a single solution able to fit all needs, World’s regions, cities, rural areas … • Base decisions also on their energy consumption • Re-engineering of devices’ hardware • energy-efficient silicon and reduction of complexity • Dynamic adaptation of performance/consumption • power scaling (Adaptive Rate, AR) and low-power idle (LPI) • Smart standby states • proxying network presence and virtualization. • Device and network level optimization • energy-aware traffic engineering

11. Conclusions • Smart Grids deployment is vital for electrical network efficiency, full use of renewable sources and electrification of developing countries • Rely heavily on ICT • Huge deployment scale and need for reducing energy burdens needs optimized solutions and more efficient ICT • Lots is available but lots still needs to be done Strong cooperation needed between: Research – Standardization –Industry - Providers and Users Electrical and ICT sectors must boost their cooperation

12. THANK YOU flavio.cucchietti@telecomitalia.it Report: http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/climatechange/report-smartgrids.html