Special Report: 11.10.2009

Posted by TED Magazine on Tuesday, November 10, 2009

THE SMART GRID -- AND A LIGHTING ANGLE

A vendor's take that makes sense.

By Joe Salimando

With 13 or 14 sessions from various tracks going on at one time, there was more than enough room at the World Energy Engineering Congress (held Nov 4-6 in D.C.) to take on just about everything in the energy efficiency realm. So it's not surprising that one set of sessions concerned The Smart Grid -- which I abbreviate as TSG. In addition to the track (I attended one session, related below), there was an on-the-show-floor 20-minute vendor presentation on the relationship between TSG and Lighting . . . stuff about which I'd not previously heard.

 

SCE & TSG

Speaking about why his company needs TSG was Percy Haralson of Southern California Edison. Now, we all know things in California can be totally gunked up. However, energy is one place where the state leads the nation. If you look at a graph of per-capita energy use, the other 49 states have an upward slope . . . California has a flat line. There are reasons for this, which I won't get into here; let's just say it didn't happen by accident.

TSG is going to help SCE, Haralson said. There are two main reasons --

1. Under state law, utilities are mandated to get 20% of their power supply from renewables (solar, wind, etc.) by 2010. SCE is going to get there, Haralson said; it's already at 16% to 17%. The real "problem" occurs in meeting the 2020 mandate; by that year, all of the utilities have to be at 33% renewables.

Getting to 33% won't necessarily be harder than getting to 20% was, apparently (hey, the Sun shines all of the time out there, right?). But controlling the power system so that end-users don't see interruptions WILL be a problem. The Sun sometimes goes behind a cloud; and it doesn't shine at night. The wind is intermittent. Both can be unreliable AND unpredictable.

Among the exhibitors at WEEC was this "smart building distributor," Energy Systems Technologies. The EST line card pronounced the company "a proud authorized dealer"for Alerton, Encelium, Tridium, Honeywell, Belimo, Viconics, and Cerus Industrial.

Here's where TSG fits. Energy storage (as related previously here -- see links below) -- is the solution the utility industry has decided to pursue (the other possible solution is to maintain a coal-fired or natural-gas-fired spinning reserve . . . that's wasteful, at the very least). With TSG controlling the utility's power supply system, when the Sun goes behind some clouds, energy storage can automatically be ramped up . . . with end-users, hopefully, NOT seeing an interruption.

2. Then there are the Plug-In Electric Vehicles. There would be 100,000 PEVs in SCE's service area by 2015, Haralson said, and "easily 600,000 by 2020." He continued, tongue-in-cheek: "It's just another appliance, right? . . . except this appliance is like plugging in a new house!"

How can a utility cope with the demands of PEVs? As reported here (from coverage of the August PlugIn2009 event), TSG is the main strategy that utilities think they can deploy.

OTHER areas of TSG need Haralson talked about were:

• Demand Response growth. TSG will make handling sheddable loads at peak power demand periods easier.
• Two-way power flows on the grid. TSG will make this easier, he said. It isn't now.
• Smart metering is coming to SCE's area, too. With 300,000 of these things installed now, the utility hopes to get to 5 million by 2012.

All in all, SCE plans a $1.5 billion investment in TSG. This isn't to make Energy Secretary Chu happier; the SCE people don't know how they are going to accomplish all of this NECESSARY stuff without TSG.

 

Lumenergi's Spiel

In addition to all of the 30-minute sessions in classrooms, WEEC offered on-the-show-floor presentations from vendors. Michael D'Amour, president of Lumenergi, tackled "Why Lighting is the Best End Point on The Smart Grid." I listened. Here's the thinking, with the promotional stuff (there really wasn't that much) stripped away:

1. Lumenergi is based in California.

2. In California, utilities can ask buildings to shed load. This is a voluntary program. Most folks who think about this load shedding (Demand Response) think there's going to be a lot more of it -- and that TSG is going to make it easier for everybody -- in the future.

3. D'Amour's point: On what days does a utility normally need to shed load? Bright, hot, sunny days. That's a hit-me-in-the-head "of course," isn't it.

There were 4 electrical distributors on the WEEC show floor. Capital Lighting & Supply (unit, Sonepar) was the only one that went bigger than a 10x10. As you can partially see above, the booth was about Lighting (not necessary the case with the other three).   

4. Therefore, on those bright days, it would be relatively easier for a building to lose some of its lighting load. People working in buildings wouldn't notice it as much.

5. So when the utility comes calling -- via TSG -- and "says" to a building . . . hey, I need you to lose 100 kWh of demand for the next 3 hours -- the building can shed some of the lighting load.

6. Further, D'Amour cited the much-referenced data showing that Lighting is a bigger piece of commercial building energy use. He expanded his pie chart to add the fact that -- on those hot, sunny days -- standard Lighting use will add to the air-conditioning load in a typical building. [So if you shed some of the lighting, you reduce the strain on the HVAC system, too].

7. Lighting, he said, was the "most malleable load" in a building (besides being the biggest). That's a 10-cent word, malleable. What he means is: It's not as easy to shed a piece of the #2 electricity user in a building, the HVAC system . . . especially on hot, sunny days.

8. Only 3% of lighting in U.S. buildings is controlled, D'Amour said. I'm not sure from where this data came, but if it's true, it's yet another indicator that we in the electrical industry have not been doing our jobs. D'Amour said the other 97% is controlled only via a switch (an on-off switch).

Essentially, the idea here is to create a "smart building" -- one that can respond to load-shedding requests by reduce its lighting energy use. The reduction has to be automatic (i.e., it's not going to happen via a utility e-mail to the facility manager -- that's too "iffy"). The building, D'Amour said, has to "drop kilowatts instantaneously."

I can't tell you much about Lumenergi's product. But I think the ideas put forward in this brief talk are solid. If you've been asking -- what the heck is TSG? . . . answers are below. If you've been wondering "where does the electrical distribution biz, and the electrical contractors who work with us, fit in this TSG stuff?" . . . above is one damn big piece of the pie.

Relevant Recent TEDMAG Coverage

Grid Week #1 -- Energy Secretary Chu's keynote.

Grid Week #2 -- what's going on in Austin & California (and more).

Grid Week #3 -- decoupling, washer-fridge conversations, Smart Grid City.

Grid Week #4 -- energy storage; links for more info.

Electric Vehicles - an exploration

Electric Vehicles - important to you?