The distribution grid is the infrastructure that transports electrical energy generated by large plants that are long distances away to the final user. A typical distribution grid consists of High-to-Medium Voltage (HV/MV) transformation centers; the MV grid; Medium-to-Low Voltage (MV/LV) transformation centers; and the LV grid, both three-phase and single-phase. Residential and commercial customers are mainly connected to the LV, while large industrial facilities are connected to the MV

Power quality in LV distribution networks is already 1 a concern in many European countries especially where there 2 is a strong presence of renewable energy generation. Therefore 3 there is a growing interest in new solutions able to improve the 4 power quality level of such a system. Among them, an interesting 5 solution is represented by the open unified power quality con-6 ditioner (Open UPQC) proposed within the present work. The 7 system consists of a single or three-phase ac/dc power converter 8 installed at customer's premises and a main single or three-phase 9 ac/dc power converter in the MV/LV substation. The paper dis-10 cusses the design, simulation and implementation phases related 11 to an Open UPQC installed in a real LV distribution grid in 12 the city of Brescia (Italy) within the smart domo grid project, 13 co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. 14 Results from the field installation show the effectiveness of the 15 proposed solution to face power quality issues in distribution 16 networks.

Traditionally, distribution network monitoring has been focused on primary substations (i.e., high voltage/medium voltage level), whereas low voltage (LV) network has not been monitored at all. With rapid growth and penetration of distributed energy resources in LV grids, there is growing interest in extending the real-time monitoring to LV level. The framework program FP7 European Project INTEGRIS proposes an integrated real-time LV network monitoring solution and implements it in a cost-efficient way. This solution integrates smart metering data with secondary substation measurements to get a more accurate and real-time view about LV grid, uses "decentralized" distribution management architecture to optimize data flow, and uses International Electrotechnical Commission 61850 Standardbased interfaces to improve interoperability. This paper focuses on information and communications technology perspective, explains the implementation details of this monitoring solution, and presents its functionality/performance testing results from two distribution system operator field trials and from real-time digital simulator laboratory.

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Traditional low voltage grids are equipped with meters for the accounting of the energy consumed by customers. Recently, the use of electronic meters offers the possibility of the remote reading. This paper deals with smart sensing: a secondgeneration Smart Meters replacing traditional metering device, and the first generation of electronic meters, in order to extract a richer and near real-time information. This information in then transferred on a fast communication network where is needed. In other words, the Smart Meters deployed over the distribution grid create a Sensor Network used for grid control and management. The intelligent unit employed in the proposed system is able to communicate using standard metering protocols like DLMS/COSEM, allowing high-level integration with systems that use this information for both billing and customer relationship management -as is today with Automatic Meter Management systems -and for the technical management of the LV power infrastructure like Distribution Management Systems. The paper presents a pilot installation in a real grid of the smart sensor network composed about 50 new-generation Smart Meters using fast -broad-band -communication. The network of Smart Metershas been used to monitor, during a measurement campaign of two months, the Power Quality of a part of the distribution grid. During the campaign, the grid voltage is below the 5 % of the nominal value only for the 3 % of the time, despite the large presence of distributed renewable resources.

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