Special Report: 1.29.2009

Posted by TED Magazine on Thursday, January 29, 2009

Understanding The Smart Grid

By Joe Salimando

OK—so there’s something called “The Smart Grid” out there, as noted here last week. What’s it about? This column ignores Joe’s opinion (see next week’s column for that) and presents definitions and explanations from the printed material handed out by vendors and others at September’s GridWeek, plus a bit more.

Bottom line: Perhaps everyone isn’t on the same page.

DoE’s vision, illustrated.

Department of Energy—Yes, there’s a new administration these days, but it’s unlikely that the DoE will change its tune on the need for an up-to-date grid. That song includes:

“Grid 2030 vision calls for the construction of a 21st century electric system that connects everyone to abundant, affordable, clean, efficient, and reliable electric power anytime, anywhere. We can achieve this through a smart grid, which would integrate advanced functions…and would also contribute to the climate change strategic goal of reducing carbon emissions.”

See DoE smart grid page and the following page, smart grid activities.

From former Energy Secretary Sam Bodman, in his GridWeek speech (online here):

“…the Energy Information Administration estimates that in the U.S. total electricity consumption will increase by about 25% between now and 2030.

“As you know, meeting this demand will require substantial growth of both generating capacity and delivery capacity.

“Along with increased demand for electricity, we must recognize the need to maintain reliability in the face of growing complexity, transmission congestion, and the already too high costs to our economy from brownouts and blackouts.

“And we must continue to confront the fact that our nation has experienced a long period of underinvestment in transmission, distribution, and infrastructure maintenance.”

Actually, Bodman’s 2007 GridWeek speech might be even better reading.

GridWise Alliance—there’s a good deal of info on this group’s website. The following might help you with Smart Grid concepts (I bold-faced a five-word phrase I liked):

“The U.S. power grid is a vast, complex network of wires and devices that carries electricity from where it is made to where it is used. Throughout the 20th century, the electric power delivery infrastructure served our nation well, providing adequate, affordable energy to homes, businesses, and factories.

“It is the largest machine on earth and a cornerstone of America’s prosperity, national security, public health and safety.

“As we move into the 21st century, the nation’s electricity grid faces shortcomings in capacity, reliability, security and power quality. Largely designed in the 1950s and 1960s, much of this critical national asset is well beyond its design life. In the 1980s, electrical load from sensitive electronic equipment, such as chips (computerized systems, appliances, and equipment) and automated manufacturing was limited.

“In the 1990s, chip share grew to roughly 10%. Today, load from chip technologies and automated manufacturing is 40%, and the load is expected to increase to more than 60% by 2015.”

Doesn’t the phrase “largest machine on earth” take you to a new vision of what we have in the transmission-and-distribution grid?

Publication—www.smartgridnews.com is one info source. I’m not saying it’s the only one—and certainly electric utility publications (there are many of them) have done Smart Grid reporting. You can subscribe (free) to an email newsletter and get to see what the Smart Grid people are thinking. Some recent pieces of note:

Smart Grid Standards Done Right—“the Smart Grid still has only part of its underpinnings in place,” notes an intro to this series.

“If we modernize our electric power infrastructure, new industries and new opportunities will appear that will renew America’s competitive advantage.” Here.

How Electronics Will Make Utility Pros Rich.

ABB’s vision for the power system of the future: “…a new power delivery system. This network will utilize the same basic infrastructure we know today, but will also draw on advanced monitoring, control, and communication technology that is presently only beginning to apply. The result will be a grid that is largely automated, applying greater intelligence to operate, monitor, and even heal itself.

“…Development of smart grid technologies will occur over a long period of time, adding layers of functionality and capability onto existing equipment and systems.”

Note that ABB’s boss, Enrique Santana, gave a keynote speech at GridWeek. MORE: See also, “vision for a self-healing power grid,” a 5p PDF written April 2006.

IBM: “The smart grid overlays the electricity network with communications and computer control. When this enabling infrastructure is matched with smart grid applications in transmission, distribution, or within a customer portal, it is expected that the resulting smart grid will be able to deliver significant gains in reliability, capacity, demand response, and value-added customer services, according to EPRI.”

Note: EPRI is the Electric Power Research Institute, the research arm of the electric utility biz. See EPRI’s “intelligrid media kit.”

IBM uses the words “communications & computer control.” In truth, the current “dumb” grid becomes smart via IT—that’s the heart of this artichoke.

Siemens: “There is no single, off-the-shelf Smart Grid solution, as every electric utility operates somewhat uniquely. Many Smart Grid strategies in the U.S. focus on the distribution grid, specifically on distribution automation and electronic, two-way meters.

Slide from an April 2008 presentation.

“Smart Grid technologies increase communications and information technologies, including increasing interaction and integration of previously segregated systems. With this interaction comes new challenges.” See this Siemens smart grid page.

Joe’s take: The Siemens point—“no single off-the-shelf solution”—is a good one.

SmartSynch—this is a company I’d never heard of; it offers SmartMeters (which is a trademarked phrase, believe it or not). From the company flyer, a Smart Grid:

“…is a fully interconnected power distribution network that is resilient, secure, auto-balancing, self-monitoring, and self-healing.

“…can accommodate all energy generation and storage options, and can efficiently and reliably distribute power to commercial, industrial, and residential customers as needed.

“…through interoperable, two-way communications, makes real-time diagnosis and corrections possible and provides decision-making data and support for peak efficiency and the best distribution of power.

[will give energy consumers] “visibility into their usage and prices and the ability to ‘participate’ in a program that saves them money, while reducing [carbon dioxide] emissions.

“…is flexible so that it can be continually updated with the latest technologies to meet the power supply and quality needs of the digital economy.”

One might label such a thing as “this is where we could get if everything goes perfectly…maybe some time before your grandchildren are complaining about how you stole their Social Security dollars!”

Smart Grid Must Include Consumer Products—this is a subhead in an article in LonMark magazine (Vol. 4, No. 3)—handed out at GridWeek. LonMark, of course, is associated with Echelon; the article was written by Barry Haaser, whose title at that company is “senior director, LonWorks infrastructure business.” From the piece:

“The second phase of energy awareness involves…enabling product…[in one study project] they were able to reduce peak loads by up to 50%…consumer products can be configured to adapt automatically [to higher prices] . . .

“Energy-aware sockets and modules can measure electricity consumption and provide feedback on what it actually costs to operate certain products…Smart electrical outlets and power strips can selectively control loads of certain computer equipment and consumer electronics.”

This article, “Connecting Smart Homes and Smart Grids to Save Energy” (it starts on page 20 of the 40-page PDF you’ll download when you click that link), is worth your time!

Like you (perhaps), I’ve heard Barry speak, read articles he’s written, and spoken with the guy over the years. That’s not why this is here. It’s here for this reason: You’re a distributor. You might not sell consumer products. But you do sell “dumb” electrical outlets these days, don’t you?

GridWeek website: I don’t know for how long they’ll leave it up there, but as of mid-January, Clasma still had PDFs of September 2008 presentations posted online for free download at www.gridweek.com. You can search for them by speaker name or by going through the agenda.

Noteworthy options:

Video—you can click on the video panel on top of the home page and see videos of selected sessions.

Rifkin—Jeremy Rifkin was probably a high-awareness keynoter. A Google search on his name brings back 723,000 links. At the page to which the link takes you, you can download a 17-page white paper (PDF). There’s a video of his presentation, too (which, I believe, filled one full hour).

Also at that same page—videos of presentations from Kevin Kolevar of the Department of Energy (mentioned in Part I of this thing); Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who spoke in 2007, too; and Bob Gilligan of GE.

Next week: Final thoughts on The Smart Grid (for now!).

	Joe Salimando of EFJ Enterprises is a consultant, web content provider, and wordsmith based in Oakton, Va. To contact him, call 703-255-1428. See also The EleBlog.
Personal Disclaimer: The appearance of the ambling pachyderm is indicative of the writer’s obsession with elephants, not his political leanings.
IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS COLUMN REFLECTS ONLY THE OPINIONS OF ITS AUTHOR AND DOES NOT REFLECT THE OPINIONS OR POLICIES OF NAED, TED MAGAZINE, OR THE ADVERTISERS ON THE TEDMAG WEB SITE.