Project: Miyakojima Island Smart Grid, Japan (Okinawa Electric Power)
Cost: $75.8 million
Using a small island as a test bed, a Japanese consortium is developing systems for renewable power generation, grid integration, and energy storage.
Project: Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project, United States (Battelle and Bonneville Power Administration)
Cost: $178 million
Involving 60,000 consumers spread over five states, this project will test every element of a smart grid.
Project: HVDC transmission network, China (State Grid Corporation of China)
Cost: Not available
High-voltage DC transmission lines are being built to transfer energy from remote hydropower plants to cities more efficiently than is possible with traditional AC systems. The Chinese are building some of the world’s highest-voltage DC systems (up to 1,000 kilovolts) over distances well over 1,000 kilometers.
Project: Twenties (European Union)
Cost: $75 million
The consortium is deploying six demonstration projects over three years to show how wind power can be integrated with the grid.
Project: Community Power Project, Arizona (Arizona Public Service Company)
Cost: $3.3 million
Enough solar panels to generate 1.5 megawatts are being installed to see if the grid can cope with hundreds of distributed generation sites and the variability of solar power.