With energy prices worldwide and in Singapore hitting an all-time high, the cost and security of energy are major concerns for both households and policymakers.
Although there are complex factors at play, one conclusion is inescapable: The growing threats posed by climate change require a meaningful shift toward renewable energy at scale, and an energy grid that can accommodate it.
The momentum for renewable energy in Singapore has never been greater, with significant effort being put into preparing for a greener and more sustainable future. One such example is Singapore’s National Water Agency – PUB, which deployed around 120,000 solar panels floating on the Tengeh Reservoir, making it one of the world’s largest inland floating solar farms with a 60-megawatt peak capacity.
More recently, the Singapore government also said that it will be raising the carbon tax to meet a new target of reaching net-zero by or around the mid-century, bringing forth the country’s net-zero timeline.
Key to the decision to bring forward the net-zero timeline were improvements in green technologies and solutions, such as carbon capture, storage, and hydrogen, according to the government. This is a significant departure from conversations a decade ago, when worries over issues of cloud cover and inconsistent renewable energy supply often overshadowed discussions to seek alternatives to fossil fuel.
As new ways are found to generate and store renewable energy, so are innovations being discovered to overhaul the way this energy is distributed. One such innovation that is set to make a big impact in the years ahead is the concept of a smart power grid.
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Simply put, this is an electrical grid that makes use of digital technologies at the various stages of generation, transmission, and consumption to enable a better, more efficient use of multiple sources of energy, including renewables.
A smart power grid will deliver the consistency and reliability of a traditional or conventional grid by ensuring that the system is able to manage multiple types of distributed energy sources such as solar panels installations or even fuel cells from factories or data centres, for example, not just a single centralised upstream generation source that is usually carbon-based.
The grid should be able to source power from commercial, industrial, and even residential customers who have installed renewable energy resources for their own resiliency and sustainability reasons.
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This new, smarter, grid must be nimble, digitally enabled and focused on renewables. This means maximising the use of clean energy and using smart sensors across a network of users to give real-time intelligence of the peaks and troughs in demand.
To do so, a new layer of intelligent automation must be set up to manage the many moving parts in a grid. A new layer of automation is needed at the edge of the grid, which historically are not equipped with any kind of automation systems. Such intelligent automation, distributed across the grid, involves edge computing that provides connected visibility and rapid responses that are critical to the grid. Because edge computing is done close to where data is collected, data processing and adjustments based on that data can occur in near-real time.
The Punggol Digital District in Singapore that is being built in the northeast of the country, will be a great example where through the use of a smart grid running an open platform that makes use of various sources data, including from buildings in the district, is able to optimise energy use for the district. For example, on a hot day, the open platform can analyse the data from the grid and automatically activate the smart management system in buildings to lower blinds and reduce the energy used for cooling.
A renewable energy future is dependent on a resilient, nimble grid to facilitate and manage power. Intel works with energy producers, distributors, and consumers to help deliver components and solutions that offer the performance, reliability, manageability, and security that are required to run critical workloads at both the edge and other parts of the grid and accelerate the move towards full intelligence-based automation.
A more resilient power grid is one that is prone to fewer outages, which not only helps power companies reduce lost electricity sales, but also mitigates the potential economic impact on businesses and service providers affected the most by power outages.
For you and me, a smart grid helps users make smarter choices about electricity usage. Imagine being able to have a clear picture of how much electricity you’re using, when you’re using it, and how much it costs at any point in time. The smart grid lets you make smarter choices which are better for your bank account, simply by letting you choose the best time to purchase electricity.
Everyone can benefit from a grid that allows energy to be more renewably sourced, more reliably distributed, and utilised with precision that comes from automated intelligence and analytics about local needs in real-time. While the smart grid might be a system that few will ever see, it is an essential catalyst and hidden champion for the secure, sustainable energy future on which we all depend on.
Steve Long is the corporate vice president and general manager of Intel Asia Pacific and Japan
