The scarcity of energy in Bangladesh is anticipated to endure for the next 50 years; as electricity demand is increasing every year surpassing generation capacity and distribution capabilities. New power stations cannot be built hastily enough. Moreover, there is lack of fuel energy in Bangladesh and power stations need wide amount of fuel every hour. This insufficiency of fuel will continue unless the nuclear power station becomes operational. When the neighbors have advanced much, Bangladesh is still at the elementary level in developing a smart grid. The country has only one national load dispatch center and a distribution load dispatch center, which is not working properly. Some pre-paid meters have been distributed under a pilot project. Bangladesh can get cooperation from amiable developed countries on smart grid. But initiatives have to be taken by the government and from the top level. Shifting Paradigm Because of greater well-being for both utilities and consumers, the future of our electric transmission and distribution system is undoubtedly walking towards a new paradigm called “Smart Grid”, which is the combination of electrical power system and information technologies. It is desirable to the businessmen, investors and regulators of our country that, the smart grid will support attaining our energy policy targets, featuring improved system reliability, employee safety, energy unconventionality and security, innovative services for customers, and enhanced power quality. So it is essential to deploy Smart grid technologies to revolutionize the resilience, flexibility, and adaptableness of the electrical infrastructure. Changes in T&D System In Bangladesh, automated meters and two-way power consumption data can be used to improve the efficiency and reliability of electrical power distribution system. For instance, an air conditioner in an office room, attached to a smart meter, could be set up to operate only at lower-cost, off-peak hours and household solar panel could give power back to the grid when abundant power is available for home. The transmission capability of Bangladesh could be improved by establishing long-distance and large-capacity power transmission systems in order to elucidate the complications of instable distribution for generation resources and power loads. The decentralization of power loads from urban to rural areas of Bangladesh can diminish the heaviness of energy in the cities and the pressure of transmission. Environment pollution would also be lessened by adopting this step. Additionally, this can accelerate the renovation of national economy. Upcoming Consequences The Smart grid can spontaneously recalculate and distribute electricity to all consumers equitably but at reduced amount leaving no premises without electricity in case of load-shedding, caused by electrical energy shortage in the country. In fact, Load-shedding will be reduced with such better-quality and fair electricity distribution and the business profits would increase as power from the grid would always be available at consumer premise even during load shedding. Energy crisis is a worldwide concern, since more than 40 countries have power system instability and load-shedding due to electricity shortage. North American and European enterprises are currently working on building smart grid to optimize energy flow using digital radios for more efficient electrical grid control and energy conservation. The need to build 'smart grid' technologies is intensifying worldwide and Bangladesh can be the first country to set up digital radios and R/C circuit breakers in mass scale for highly efficient electric energy distribution and energy conservation. Digital radios will be required for the development of smart grid to wirelessly control the electricity distribution in the country. At present, Bangladesh does not have enough circuit breakers on the electricity distribution network and most of them are not remotely controlled, as a result, a large area gets immersed into darkness. To maintain the power system stability, cable and transformer protection, load balancing and for supporting network stability, huge amount of circuit breakers are required in Bangladesh, which will segment the present electrical network into smaller parts. If electrical fault in a segment will get identified, electricity availability will rise. The fault will affect only that particular segment and not deteriorate all over the network to plunge a large area into darkness. Initial Step towards Smart Grid To begin the changeover of Power grid in country like Bangladesh, we should start from the things that could be easier and could take lesser time. A microcontroller-based data exchange and monitor module is something that may bring the utility provider and the power subscribers in a package so that they could share the necessary information for their own well-beings. We could also execute the process of Predictive Load Management (PLM) using this module by distributing a limited amount of energy among the energy consumers. Figure: iHEM (in-home energy management) For the convenience of coding of microcontroller and simpler hardware structure, it is assumed that the maximum supply capacity of a substation (in case of an area) or a distribution board (in case of a residence) is 6 KW, but the connected Load is 4 KW. So, it is obvious that 4 of the 6 loads can be turned on together one at a time, based on priority and necessity. Figure: OREM (optimization-based residential energy management) In order to comprise energy efficiency for electrical devices in homes, a smart grid-base AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) is necessary for remotely managing the load of the power consumed. AMI both checks and controls the electricity consumption used with the demand response technique. A smart controller calculates the amount of electricity consumed by customer on real time basis from the utility supplier like electric supply company. Installed on the electric plug of the electric appliance, this smart controller receives the energy amount used in the electric appliance and sends to the AMI / EMS (Energy Management Server). From an experimental evaluation system attached to the lighting device, it can be showed that the electric source of the illumination can be controlled according to the load change and saved energy effectively. On the other hand, iHEM application is more flexible as it allows communication between the controller and the consumer utilizing the wireless sensor home area network (WSHAN). When the performance of iHEM is evaluated under the presence of local energy generation capability, prioritized appliances, and for real-time pricing, it is shown that iHEM reduces the expenses of the consumers for each case. Enabling various demand and energy management applications, a vital role will be represented by Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in the propagation of the smart grid towards residential premises. The instant advantages of these applications will be efficient demand-supply balance and reducing electricity expenses and carbon emissions. Smart Meter Prototype In this project, the highest amount of energy supplied by the substation is considered to be 4 KW and the maximum amount of load connected to the substation is considered to be 6 KW, mentioning that each of the 6 loads comprises of 1 KW. In the substation side, when the power supply is on, any 4 of the 6 loads can be turned on. If more than 4 loads have to be turned on, any of the previously “turned on” loads has to be turned off. Figure: Load counting & costing procedure So, other than showing the amount of loads and cost based on “turned on” loads, this module can restrict the amount of on-mode loads according to the supply capacity of the respective substation. As a result, electricity theft could be easily avoided and priority-based energy consumption is assured. Future Awaits It is impossible for a developing nation to have a consistent electricity supply, unless it became independent of foreign expertise and imported electrical parts for developing and maintaining its electricity generation and distribution. It should be beneficiary for our national economy to be dependent on our own expertise rather than taking immediate help from the contributor countries. Locally manufactured Digital radios and circuit breakers can be implemented to the distribution system for automatic computer control and management of the power grid for efficient distribution of electricity in Bangladesh. Whereas, the traditional grid is a hierarchical system that permits unidirectional flow of power and intermittent flow of information, the smart grid is the technology comprises of both fossil fuel-based energy sources and utility-owned renewable energy storage capabilities, allowing bidirectional flow of power and continuous flow of information between the consumer and the utility through the grid, enabling both of them to make intelligent and responsible choices. Smart grid can avoid electricity outages and 'black-outs' that occur quite a lot of times a day, affecting daily works and economic losses of our nation. The concept of 'Digital Bangladesh', which infers government's pledge to fast deployment of Information Technology through Bangladesh to increase efficiency, can be prolonged to comprise using digital technologies to convert the current bedraggled electricity distribution network of Bangladesh into a 'smart grid'.