Headline POWER GRID OF THE FUTURE MediaTitle The Star Date 13 Jul 2021 Language English Circulation 175,986 Readership 527,958 Section Nation Page No 9 ArticleSize 481 cm² Journalist D. RAJ PR Value RM 72,621

By D. RAJ and RJ DEVAN

A DRIVE on the North-South Expressway is always a pleasure, POWER GRID OF THE FUTURE with undulating hills and little vil- lages and homesteads dotting the scenery. TNB working on a national grid that is smart, automated and digitally enabled But one other thing will always be the same - the. long, long band of ments in battery storage means the wires stretching from tower to traditional electricity supply chain tower all along much of the high- is changing. way, otherwise known as the To face the challenges of this national grid. future, TNB has its distribution automation system which is The grid is how electricity is car- designed for a better customer ried from where it is generated to experience, faster reconnection. all the states and on to the districts (remember that man on the button and villages. in Bangsar?), less outage and ener- Not anymore. The days of the grid gy cost reduction. being just wires and cables carrying electricity from one place to anoth- The energy saving comes with er are over. the other important part of the grid Welcome to the Smart Grid, the - smart meters that are now being grid of the future. installed in all homes around the Berhad is now country. working on the national grid to A total of 1.8 million smart meters become smart, automated and digi- are expected to be installed by the tally enabled to ensure maximum end of this year, with a target of 9.1 efficiency, reliability and sustaina- million such meters to all customers bility. by 2027. The smart grid will be able to As of May 2021,1.2 million smart ensure that excess energy - from meters have been installed in power plants, solar farms or any Peninsular alone. other energy source - can be With smart meters, users can received and supplied to other monitor on their phones just how power users. much electricity they use. A smart grid, by definition, is one They can then control the usage that can communicate between to keep their bills low or learn to supplier and consumer, allowing use the right electrical items at the them to participate in changing right time. demands, make a choice on energy Up to 2025, TNB will invest used, save energy and reduce costs. The electricity grid of the future will not be just wires and cables carrying electricity from one place to another. approximately RM5bil per annum And there's more. The grid will be to modernise the grid. so smart it can heal itself. Power can even be rerouted to plants - both owned by TNB and when needed. This will allow the company to Monitors and sensors placed bypass problem areas. The days of those that are private - the solar What's more, customers can form cope with greater penetration of along the grid will identify faults massive blackouts are over. Any farms, the rooftop solar power pro- micro grids - say within a large renewables into the grid and man- and inform engineers who can then problem can be fixed in minutes. ducers and the humble housing housing estate - or even disconnect agement of energy decentralisation, remotely fix the problems, or with Of course, there is a lot more than units that may soon all be produc- from the main grid entirely and create open platforms for energy the help of drones. meets the eye in such a high-pow- ing their own electricity. self-supply their own electricity. solutions to emerge, and be resilient All it takes is a man in Bangsar, ered plan. That electricity has to be har- The dominance of such rooftop against cybersecurity and the , to push a button. It involves integrating the power nessed and stored to be distributed photovoltaic systems and improve- impact of climate change.