A study of smart grid deployment on 5 Aegean islands: Lesvos, Lemnos, Santorini, Kythnos and Milos. The study was funded by the ELENA programme of the European Investment Bank and the European Commission.

This €50 million project involved installing (a) smart meters for all consumers to record energy data on the demand of electricity, power and power quality; (b) power control centres with the ability to predict load and power from RES, programming of conventional station operation and load management and energy storage; (c) decentralized RES units with the participation of local government and citizens; and (d) electric vehicle charging stations to establish the right conditions for market development.

Smart grids will help to increase RES penetration in stand-alone energy systems, save energy, improve the quality of electricity and better serve consumers. At the same time, smart grids will make it possible to generalise the use of new generation electric vehicles, which will be powered by RES and will communicate with the grid so that energy storage in batteries takes place off-peak times, and/or the batteries work the other way round by supplying power to the grid in case of special circumstances.