About the Project
Summary:
Today world’s 80.6% of energy needs are dependent on fossil fuels, which are depleting at a very faster rate so countries all over the world are charting new ways to produce, distribute, deliver and use electricity. Most of the developed countries are now looking at enhancement to their 20th century grids and a new concept called Smart Grid (SG) is emerging. The smart grid can be regarded as an electric system that uses information technology, cyber secure communication technologies and computational intelligence in an integrated fashion across electricity generation, transmission, substations, distribution and consumption to achieve a system which is clean, safe, secure, reliable, resilient, efficient and sustainable. The Smart Grid is an opportunity to use new ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) to revolutionise the electrical power system.
Most of the Caribbean islands are also dependent on fossil fuel based sources for electricity generation. With the increase in demand and cost of electricity, these islands will soon have to find out alternative economically sustainable sources of energy. Due to abundant fossil fuel resources and strong oil based economy, islands like Trinidad and Tobago has become one of the highest greenhouse gases emitting countries in the world on per capita basis. Hence there is a need of developing Smart Grid Technology within the Caribbean region to improve energy efficiency of existing power grids to reduce the energy cost, to allow a much greater utilisation of renewables in the grid to decrease greenhouse gases emission and to provide reliable supply of energy throughout the region. The present revolution in communication systems, particularly stimulated by the internet, offers the possibility of much greater monitoring and control throughout the power system and hence more effective, flexible and lower cost operation.
By this project we are aiming at evaluating the suitability of our power grid for deployment of smart grid technology, capacity building in this area through a Workshop and a Training Program, public awareness through Public Lectures and electronic media, research on smart infrastructure development and establishing network of policy makers, field professional, industries, researcher and teacher within the Caribbean region.