Abstract:
The ability to improve safety and efficiency of the electric networks, making better use
of existing assets, enhancing reliability and power quality, reducing dependence on
imported energy, and minimizing costly environmental impacts are the main forces that
have substantial economic value on the electricity industry. Most of the time,
investment in generation, transmission, and distribution networks to achieve such
benefits places a burden on developing countries' economies, which can be relieved by
Smart Grid (SG) concepts implementation. SG will intelligently integrate the actions of
all users connected to it; generators, grids, and consumers in order to efficiently deliver
sustainable, economic, secure electricity supplies, provide self-healing, and take the full
advantage of new technologies. This paper aims to assess the SG applications on the
generation, transmission, distribution levels, and up to consumer sides in developed as
well as developing countries. The main SG features are evaluated based on the available
technologies and their span. The SG benefits that would reflect on utilities particularly
aiming at integrating large amounts of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) into their grids
and implementing distribution management, and consumers are presented. Moreover, a
roadmap needed to achieve the mentioned SG application is proposed and discussed.
Finally, the proposed recommendation and conclusions for the impact of SG on
developing countries are illustrated.