Utilities in North America and throughout the world are incorporating new technologies towards implementing the next-generation electricity grid known as the ‘‘intelligent grid’’ or ‘‘smart grid’’. A smart grid accommodates a wide variety of generation options, enables customers to interact with energy management systems to adjust their energy use, predicts looming failures and takes corrective actions to mitigate system problems in a self-healing manner. The move towards a smart grid started with the distribution system, including the introduction of advanced meter infrastructure (AMI), which provides utilities with two-way communication to meters at customers’ premises and the ability to modify customers’ service-level parameters. The next step is to implement distributed demand and control strategies that are integrated with AMI in a transition to the smart grid. The following article describes the evolution of smart grids and smart microgrids including their basic ingredients and topologies.

Questions:-

A. What is a smart grid?
B. What provides the foundation for a smart grid?
C. Why is AMI technology preferred over AMR?