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France : Nice Grid project: Smart Grids shape the city of tomorrow [TendersInfo (India)]
[February 12, 2014]

France : Nice Grid project: Smart Grids shape the city of tomorrow [TendersInfo (India)]


(TendersInfo (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) To ensure a stable, reliable power supply while enabling a cleaner, more sustainable energy mix at affordable prices, Smart Grid technologies are used as a means of interconnecting resources and optimising the performance of their networks. Smart Grids are today leading to the emergence of a new concept in sustainable urban environments known as "Smart Cities". The Nice Grid initiative in France is Europe's first smart solar district demonstration project. Partnered by Alstom, it prefigures this new urban model.



By coupling power infrastructure with information technologies, Smart Grids optimise the production and distribution of electricity in real time, based on consumption. Thanks to this exchange of information between consumers, distributors, load aggregators and network managers, Smart Grids organise the balance between the various flows. As a result, Smart Grids address 3 key stakes in a context of exponential growth in electricity demand: Reduce infrastructure investment by adjusting the networks in line with average consumption patterns instead of maximum levels of consumption, Manage consumption level and avoid blackouts, Integrate renewables and their specific constaints (intermittent nature of power generation in dispersed production sites).

Systems intelligence: the nerve centre of network performance A Smart Grid comprises hardware and software components that interact through information and communications technology. All of this is monitored from a main control room. The architecture of Smart Grids comprises three levels: Traditional grid equipment (substations, lines, etc.) to transmit electricity at low, medium and high voltage. Automated systems that provide a connection between renewable and traditional energy sources, storage solutions and consumers to manage the flow of electricity across the grid. These systems communicate with the control room via dedicated telecommunications solutions. Control rooms using software solutions to manage transactions, balance supply and demand, optimise the flow of electricity across the grid and connect all network facilities.


Alstom is a global leader in mission-critical software solutions with a market share of 13.7%. It is one of the few companies able to offer integrated, real-time management of the multidirectional exchange of information between all aspects of the system..

From Smart Grid to Smart City: Nice Grid, the first smart solar district The Alpes-Maritimes department in southeast France lies on the periphery of the transmission grid, which is a structural handicap for its electricity supply. However, it also has an abundant supply of renewable energy, especially solar. Headed by ERDF, Nice Grid is the first smart solar district demonstration project in Europe.

(c) 2014 Euclid Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company

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