Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technologies Using Smart Grids: Study Case on NIPE Building at UNICAMP Campus

Abstract

In its broadest interpretation, the smart grid vision sees the future of power industry transformed by the introduction of intelligent two-way communications, ubiquitous metering and measurement. This enables much finer control of energy flows and the integration and efficient use of renewable forms of energy, energy efficiency methodologies and technologies, as well as many other advanced technologies, techniques and processes that wouldn’t have been practicable until present. The smart grid vision also enables the creation of more reliable, more robust and more secure power supply infrastructure, and helps optimize the enormous investments required to build and operate the physical infrastructure required. The smart grid promises to revolutionize the electric power business that has been in place for the past 75 years. This work discusses the efficiency, targeted at the consumer units of electricity, with a view to sustainability and potential for technological innovation. The issue is addressed from two perspectives: the systems for generation and power distribution, and the design of a building “smart energy”. Because of the novelty of the subject in our country, the concepts presented and treated throughout this work come from material obtained at events and specialized sites on electric power system in Brazil and worldwide, being accompanied by information and data from NIPE’s building at University of Campinas’s campus case study in which it exemplifies the applicability of the techniques and recommended technologies.