Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP) was already ahead of the game when smart grids made their first appearance in Europe in 2005-2006. The institute had been active in the field for several years, not just through its original - and globally-recognised - research work but also through the joint research centres it had set up with leading industrial companies and the scientific articles and reference books it had published. It had also established the experimental smart grid platform known as Prédis, a world first and still unique to this day.Better still, Grenoble INP had predicted that smart grids were going to take off and devised a genuine strategy that focused on taking part in European and international projects on themes such as CRISP in 2003, GRID (2006), INTEGRAL (2008) and FINESENY (2010). In addition, the institute founded sustainable partnerships with industry through structures such as the IDEA group (set up in 2000) and the GreenLys demonstration project, where it is currently investing, which is the largest full-scale program of its type in France.
As regards training, Grenoble INP has developed its services in line with the new areas opening up in energy systems and markets. It has recently created an international master's degree on smart grids that is taught entirely in English. The institute, which has already played a part in a series of technological advances, should make an extensive contribution to the major innovations that are expected in the years to come.
The first chair of excellence in smart grids has just been set up in partnership with ERDF with the aim of meeting the challenges - scientific, technological, economic and societal - that distribution systems face today.
Newsletter of november 2012
- Editorial : Grenoble INP, a really smart grid strategy
- Smart grids: the power grids of the future
- Grenoble INP: at the forefront of research and training for smart grids
- Industrial chair of excellence in smart grids
- GreenLys: a full-scale demonstrator
- A personal view (GEG) : « GreenLys is our anticipation lab »
- Super grid: the large-scale transmission of electricity
