A smart electricity grid opens the door to a myriad of new applications aimed at enhancing security of supply, sustainability and market competitiveness. Gathering detailed information about smart grid laboratories activities represents a primary need. In order to obtain a better picture of the ongoing Smart Grid developments, after the successful smart grid project survey initiated in 2011, we recently launched a focused on-line survey addressed to organisations owning or running Smart Grid laboratory facilities. The main objective is to publish aggregated information on a regular basis in order to provide an overview of the current facilities, to highlight trends in research and investments and to identify existing gaps.
The first release of this JRC periodic report systematically gathers and disseminates information on the smart grid laboratories active in Europe and beyond. The underpinning survey has been developed by the JRC with the objective of getting a complete overview of all the smart grid technologies operational at laboratory level in the EU and beyond.
The overall feedback was extremely positive and of the highest quality. 26 organisations completed the survey (and several others are contributing and/or expressed the will to join the already ongoing second inventorying exercise) and the information provided has been analysed in an anonymous and aggregated way.
This report aims on the one hand at complementing and on the other hand at going deeper into the other JRC’s periodic publication - the “Smart Grids Projects Outlook 2014” - where the enormous number of smart grid R&D and demonstration projects developed in Europe are analysed.