The future of low voltage networks: Moving from passive to active

The growth of energy consumption, the ever extensive use of conventional fossil fuels from exhaustible resources and concerns about the environment have led to the development of sustainable renewable energy as a necessary global requirement. Today, the trend in the electrical sector is the generation of electrical power at low voltage. Distributed generation at low voltage enables consumers to contribute to the country’s energy mix system without large investments by governments. This means that dwellers are able to produce and inject electrical power into the grid thus enjoying the status of energy producer and also reducing the burden on the national electrical grid system. In order for this system to produce high quality energy in a safe and coordinated manner, stringent health & safety and technical measures must be implemented. Moreover, such systems require strong legal support and well-established contracts. Technical training of personnel, implementation of well established planned/corrective maintenance systems and electrical spare part availability are also crucial to the reliability and long term operation of such systems. The aims of the paper are to present the basis for development of renewable energy for household usage in countries such as Germany, Denmark, Spain and Brazil, in terms of technical requirements for electrical generation and grid connection at low voltage. In Brazil about 70% of the electricity comes from hydropower and around 50% of its automobiles run on renewable biofuel, which results in a low per capita emission. The country however faces some tough barriers to overcome in order to implement household generation from renewable sources. These will be discussed in due course.

► Household producers can contribute to the country’s energy mix.
► Skilled labor and domestic industry are needed to promote household generation.
► Fundamentals of market transformation are policies of long term and legislation.
► Advanced meters have become a computation node and therefore smarts.
► Utilities have no interest in reducing sale of electricity to housing customers.