The digitalization of the energy sector and the increasing contribution of energy from renewable sources is already putting considerable pressure on the existing electricity grid, which is however extremely high in an advanced stage of wear and tear. Smart metering could be the starting point in modernizing and recalibrating the grid to meet the challenges, but there is a lack of specialists, says Cătălin Grama, Business Line Director at Adrem, at the conference “The Future of Utilities – 2022”, organized by Energynomics.

“The infrastructure and assets are obsolete, the specialists for the operation and maintenance of the network are fewer and fewer and harder to find. There is also this tendency to move to corrective maintenance generated, mainly, by economic considerations, and which has not led, in principle, to very good things for the electricity network. All the new challenges represented by the massive estimated energy input into the grid from prosumers will have an impact on the distribution networks, which have been somewhat victimized lately,” Grama said.

A study conducted by the National Energy Regulatory Authority shows that in Romania the distribution networks are over 50% old and 70% old, and this situation raises a big question mark about their ability to capture energy to be produced by more and more photovoltaic installations nationwide.

According to Grama, the integration of new capacities into the grid will only be possible through a combination of investments in green energy and smart metering, which will have the role of balancing these investments from a financial point of view as well.

“Intrinsically, these distribution networks should lead to important investments, all the more so as they must respond to the new challenges, namely the management of new production capacities. In order to achieve the goal of optimizing consumption, I believe that smart metering should be started, which would also lead to consumption management and decision-making on the distribution of this consumption,” he added.

Article taken from Energynomics