Smart Grid Project Comes to Gotland, Sweden

With a budget of 25 million euros ($32 million), the Swedish Energy Agency is to setup a smart grid project in the rural town of Gotland Sweden. The pilot project will demonstration smart grid in a rural area and allow the agency to carry out research and development in fields that will affect the quality of electricity supply, as well as market application for integration of renewable sources.

Televent one of the partners in the project said, their contribution is to user their smart meter technology increase households involvement in the management of their electricity use; this will be done through the provision of information that will allow them to reduce their energy costs through informed decisions and improving access to cheaper power from renewable sources.

“Gotland's electrical grid already receives a large portion of its electricity from renewable sources. We are hopeful the project and expected results can be easily scaled up and used in other parts of Sweden, or internationally,” says Håkan Gustavsson, project manager for Vattenfall, a partner on the project.

Other partners on the project include Gotland Energy, ABB, the Swedish National Grid, and the Royal Institute of Technology. The Smart Grid Gotland project is scheduled to start this autumn and run until 2015.