Enerlight project: Walking from electronic lighting systems to Lighting Smart Grid

The purpose of this paper is think over lighting systems in the context of energy efficiency and incorporation of renewable energy sources and energy storage capabilities. In this new context Lighting Systems becomes a mixture of distributed load with regulation capability, a distributed energy generation system and, simultaneously, a distributed energy storage system. In the context of this cocktail Lighting Systems (in particular, Street Lighting Systems) are called to play an important role in Smart Grid strategies. This paper (an ENERLIGHT Project works) goes to the concept of Lighting Smart Grid (LSG), with the evaluation of different configurations looking for different strategies, planning specification and development of different modules in LSG strategies. This is the first of a series of articles, which describes the ENERLIGHT project work aimed to develop elements and systems that can be used in lighting intelligent networks (Lighting Smart Grids - LSG). This first article is descriptive and aims to raise the issue, and reflect on possible approaches, define the modules developed in the proposed system. Subsequent papers will develop more technical and specific aspects of specific modules in the system with discussion of design options and experimental results.