Renewable energy integration into smart grid technology systems in South Africa: a review

Renewable Energy Integration into a smart grid system focuses on incorporating any renewable energy source, distributed generation, energy storage, thermally activated technologies, and demand response into the electricity distribution and transmission system. A review of work done in renewable energy integration into smart grid systems in recent years will indicate the promising potential of such research characteristics in the future. This would be useful to developers and practitioners of renewable energy systems and to policy makers. This paper attempts to present the study of renewable energy integration into the smart grid technology system in South Africa according to the current energy scenario. There are various forms of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, etc. and the challenges of integrating these renewable generators along with some innovative solutions are provided. Also presented is the importance of different renewable energy sources in order to identify the advantages and challenges of each technology. Different aspects of renewable energy integration, from the latest developments in renewable energy technologies to the currently growing smart grids systems, have also been covered.