SmartGridIndia covers rest of the Europe in the 5th part of its global Smart Grid profiling series.
Austria: 100,000 Smart meters have been installed in the country. Active Smart Grid research going on since 2003 and in 2008 National Technology Platform for Smart Grid established.
Austria: 100,000 Smart meters have been installed in the country. Active Smart Grid research going on since 2003 and in 2008 National Technology Platform for Smart Grid established.
Norway: Norway has established Norwegian Smart Grid center and is collaborating with other Nordic countries in the region through Smart Grid ERA-NET initiative.
Belgium: In Hombeek city, the utility company Eandis in collaboration with EnergyICT and Elster has deployed large scale Smart Grid pilot project. Recently, Belgian transmission system operator (TSO) Elia and Alstom Grid have signed an agreement to jointly develop Smart Grid infrastructure in Belgium. ORES, the second largest grid operator of the country is collaborating with Landys+Gyr for Smart Grid pilot, which is due to be finished by mid 2011. As part of the Europe Energy Infrastructure vision, most of the Europe will be equipped with Smart Meters by 2020 and Belgium on it way to meet the target.
Portugal: The country has ambitious target to reduce its energy dependence to 74% and increase the share of renewable energy to 60% by 2020. Under the MOBI.e project, the country plans to have nationwide Smart Grid for electric cars. It is the first such country that has nationwide electric car infrastructure plan. So far, 50 charging station in 25 municipalities across the nation are active, which is set to become 1300 by mid 2011. It is also the first country where state of the head is using electric car. Seeing Portugal's vision of having 750,000 electric cars in near future, Nissan choose Portugal to roll-out Leaf, the first 100% consumer electric car in whole of Europe. EDP Distribution, the Portugal utility company has started InovGrid project INESC Porto, Efacec, Janz and Logica to develop Smart Grid infrastructure. As part of this project, Evora in Alentejo is choosen for the first pilot project, which is set to become the first InovCity. Eastern Europe: The Eastern Europe is lagging behind Western and Northern Europe in Smart Grid Development, In fact, there is hardly any progress on this front. Plagued with in-efficiency, lack of funds, bureaucracy, corruption and with no political will, Smart Grid was largely unknown term in this part of the world until recently. Now, it seems some countries are taking concrete steps in developing Smart Grid Infrastructure. Romania recently became the first country in Eastern Europe to have smart grid pilot project in the Romanian city at Brasov. Flashnet and Electrica SA are to implement the project for 5000 - 10000 residential and industrial customers. The project will test Smart meters, two-way communication, data management systems, compatibility with the existing systems, and other advanced technologies.
Czech republic, Slovenia, Russia, Austria, and Bosnia are the other notable countries, which have ongoing Smart Grid pilot project.
Super Smart Grid: This is the most ambitious project conceived by north-western European countries to interlink the underwater energy grid in north seas with wind farms, tidal power station, and hydroelectric plants. The high-tech cables will connect existing wind mill located at British and German coast with tidal station of Denmark and hydroelectric plant of Norway. The euro 30 billion project will provide continuous flow of green energy. The participating countries Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, France, Luxemburg, Ireland, Belgium, and Netherlands are planning to implement it within next 10 years. The project is expected to produce 100 gigawatts and will help the EU in fulfilling its goal of generating 20% of its energy through renewable energy by 2020.Part -1, Part -2, Part -3, Part -4, Part -5
