Boosting Energy Efficiency through Smart Grids

This analytical report discusses the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the smart grid with a view of energy efficiency, with the ultimate goal of hindering climate changes. This is done by starting from the consideration that ICT equipment consumes energy too, and this extra energy consumption could be quite significant. This leads to the conclusion that any ICT architectural choice and any implementation should focus first on its own efficiency. This report also underlines that the risk of having an ICT infrastructure with a negative energy efficiency balance often comes from the “scale” factor: this means small and low-power devices may have a huge energy footprint when they are massively deployed. Furthermore the report gives a brief understanding about the possible path toward a “green” ICT, which is the implementation of power-aware and conscious devices for communication and information management.