Sustainable value analysis of smart grid and a prospective case study of China grid 2020

Reduce the consumption of exhaustible natural resources is an important feature of smart grid. By integrating power generated from renewable resources and implementing environmentally benign end-devices such as electric vehicles, smart home appliances and etc, smart grid creates sustainability values. This article proposes a value analysis model of smart grid from the view point of sustainable development. The EI-serafy model is adopted to measure the user-cost of exhaustible natural resources. Then, the sustainable value of smart grid is quantified to be the reduction of user-cost of exhaustible natural resources that consumed in power industry. A prospective case study of China grid 2020 demonstrates that smart grid would creates significantly sustainable value by reducing the consumption of exhaustible natural resources.