What We Want Is A Really Smart Grid
I have been promoting a few changes to the so called smart grid. If implimented, these changes will allow instant automated control of all local grid sections, keeping supply in check with demand. It only requires the installation of smart meters and TOU (time of use) variable electric rates to make it work. It can be adopted at any rate and only benefits as much as it is adopted. It also allows Distributed Generation (DG) from any small source to compete fairly in price with the big boys in the cental utility companies.
To accomplish this, with some number of TOU smart meters installed in a given small electrical area, the distribution company maintaining that area simply publishes a real-time price of electricity. This is comprised of their cost to buy from whomever they get it from plus an adder for the cost of the distribution segment. This price is charged by the second to the customers of the smart meters. As grid excess rises and falls throughout the day, this price falls and rises in concert. The incentive is there now for the consumers to purchase Demand Reduction (DR) aware appliances as well as DG systems to reduce their costs at their own cost. Both types of systems can easily react to a variable price to respond instantly. If the price rises, the DG systems that have reserve capacity (including charging PHEVs) will dump power into the grid to lower it and visa-versa. If a steady climb in price is seen over long periods of time, this will become the incentive of more people to install such equipment or for larger 'farms' or generators to locate there. In this way, the consumers decide what price they want to pay for electricity based on how much smart equipment they install.
Should an outage occur or even an overloaded link, the electricity crossing that link rises with the amount of damage. If price rises enough, there would be incentive for DR and DG and more central power to kick in as well as to a nearby region to sell their excess capacity to this region.
I think something like this should be promoted to congress. It eliminates the full grid replacement cost that some people are proposing while making the existing one more stable. Over time, the grid stability and redundancy will naturally increase without further cost. The manufacturers already have many of these products waiting for the market to call for them. The cost to advance this system is fully redundant with the cost of replacement meters which is or is planned to happen regardless. We need to ensure that the new meters have TOU rate and lockable system disconnect features so we can kill many birds with this one stone!
As I see it, this is the single biggest rapid solution to our energy crisis. It will standardize grid interconnection, entice Demand Reduction, Distributed Generation and conservation. And most of all it is paid for by upgrades that are already being planned. Some estimates show that a 30% reduction in grid power can be realized within 5 year's time. How's that for a low cost SMART solution?
To accomplish this, with some number of TOU smart meters installed in a given small electrical area, the distribution company maintaining that area simply publishes a real-time price of electricity. This is comprised of their cost to buy from whomever they get it from plus an adder for the cost of the distribution segment. This price is charged by the second to the customers of the smart meters. As grid excess rises and falls throughout the day, this price falls and rises in concert. The incentive is there now for the consumers to purchase Demand Reduction (DR) aware appliances as well as DG systems to reduce their costs at their own cost. Both types of systems can easily react to a variable price to respond instantly. If the price rises, the DG systems that have reserve capacity (including charging PHEVs) will dump power into the grid to lower it and visa-versa. If a steady climb in price is seen over long periods of time, this will become the incentive of more people to install such equipment or for larger 'farms' or generators to locate there. In this way, the consumers decide what price they want to pay for electricity based on how much smart equipment they install.
Should an outage occur or even an overloaded link, the electricity crossing that link rises with the amount of damage. If price rises enough, there would be incentive for DR and DG and more central power to kick in as well as to a nearby region to sell their excess capacity to this region.
I think something like this should be promoted to congress. It eliminates the full grid replacement cost that some people are proposing while making the existing one more stable. Over time, the grid stability and redundancy will naturally increase without further cost. The manufacturers already have many of these products waiting for the market to call for them. The cost to advance this system is fully redundant with the cost of replacement meters which is or is planned to happen regardless. We need to ensure that the new meters have TOU rate and lockable system disconnect features so we can kill many birds with this one stone!
As I see it, this is the single biggest rapid solution to our energy crisis. It will standardize grid interconnection, entice Demand Reduction, Distributed Generation and conservation. And most of all it is paid for by upgrades that are already being planned. Some estimates show that a 30% reduction in grid power can be realized within 5 year's time. How's that for a low cost SMART solution?
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Comment by Greg R. on October 29, 2008 at 4:28pm -
The Smart Grid is coming and it will help. It will not be free, but it should be built into infrastructure improvements that are being planned at present. It is extremely unlikely to reduce energy usage (in kWh) by anything close to 30%, but even a 5% to 6% reduction would be very helpful. More significantly, peak demand (in kW) might be reduced by over 10%. This translates into a reduced need for transmission line and substation upgrades and for new peak-driven power plants.
Just a word on nomenclature: Time-of-Use (TOU) rates are quite static, typically establishing 2 or 3 fixed pricing tiers for use at different times of the day. (E.G. High-priced from 8 to 9 AM and from 3 to 6 PM, medium-priced from 9 AM to 3 PM and from 6 PM to 9 PM, and low-priced from 9 PM until 8 AM the next day.) TOU rates may or may not be adjusted for weekends and for winter and summer seasons, when usage on the grid (and hence, wholesale energy prices) may be different. The real-time price signals you have referred to are typically called that -- Real-Time Pricing (or RTP). Few jurisdictions have made RTP rates available, even to the largest industrial customers. In the mass market of homes and small businesses, TOU is available now in places, and soon will be common. RTP is farther off, but if energy prices continue to climbk, they too may come in 10 to 20 years. As has been noted before, Rome was not built in a day...
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Comment by Todd McKissick on October 15, 2008 at 11:04am -
This is completely opposite of PEPCOs thermostat control program. That was them monitoring, them controlling and us getting a paltry inconvenience fee. This is a full free market where the grid tells all players what actions on their part can help it.
First off, the reduction of feeder use from conservation/efficiency of appliances would increase feeder capacity. (by reducing their load) Second, the majority of distributed generation would be sent next door, further reducing feeder loads.
The meters would need to be capable of integrating an external (from the dist co) price signal into their totalization. There are many ways to do this. Broadband over power lines (BPL), wireless internet, hard internet, radio or Zigbee from a home transmitter. The tricky part is that you either have to send consumer use to the power company often or send the price to the meter to calculate total cost on its own with that sent back. Every meter manufacturer has their own take on these options available right now. If we don't push a national standard into place soon, the distributed generation and home conservation/automation markets will lose any chances they had to make it.
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Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on October 15, 2008 at 7:05am -
Todd,
Seems like the idea that PEPCO tried to use a few years back to cut off ACs on hot days. Is this an end-use two-way meter and feeder? The feeders would be overloaded very easily in either direction with our ancient sytem.
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Comment by Drew79 on October 11, 2008 at 8:41pm -
In my area there is a RATE 11 you can be in.
It is the power co can cut your power during peak hours for no more than 2 hours and you get a discounted rate. I really like your plan though.
I think you could even let the customers who want to use it buy there own meters partially. At least for the early adopters.
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Comment by Todd McKissick on August 17, 2008 at 4:19pm
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Max,
In actuality, the majority of it is aluminum these days.
Ken,
The amount wasted is significant, but still not more than 3-5% depending on how far that electron actually travels. This is the principle behind the smart grid. To allow more of my neighbors to send electrons out to the rest of the people (and local industries) can make use of them without that waste.
If done well, we can supply our current AND future needs without any extra transmission line buildups and therefore avoid all the inevitable eminent domain that will otherwise tragically occur.
I like your swappable battery plan for electric cars. It's obviously one of a number of ways to power them and will be needed to satisfy those that have more pressing needs to 'charge up' away from home.
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Comment by MaxwellsAp on July 22, 2008 at 11:41am -
Thanks Todd,
I don't want to leave the wrong impression here. I'd just like to see all that airborne copper be recycled into better uses eventually. I just found a link to a "local" wind farm being developed- these pages are a great resource!
"max"
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Comment by Todd McKissick on July 21, 2008 at 10:05am
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Maxwell, That's exactly what this is for! It's second biggest feature is to avoid building new lines. It allows all players, from big nuke plants to backyard wind turbines to desert solar farms to some farmer's river turbine to all add to the grid in a way that allows them all to compete fairly. These little areas (defined by their transmission connections) will naturally trend toward self sustainability as people choose to pay for a loan instead of a lifetime of monthy bills. The best part is that it offers the best of both worlds - the high competition of many small players with the backup of the neighboring area should that be necessary. The price will be an automatic function of the condition of the grid at any given instant and not be 'controlled' by anyone. Therefore, everyone connected has a direct incentive to keep it fully supplied.
To accomplish this, we don't need to build anything new. The current grid is sufficient for quite a while if we shift our loads to a) level off the hourly demand on the grid and b) steadily reduce the baseload (steady) demand on it. This intelligence I refer to only requires a couple features added to the consumer's electric meter and since the utilities are all trying to add smart meters now to get 2 other features, why not just mandate that they also include these two new ones. That should only cost pennies at those volumes.
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Comment by MaxwellsAp on July 21, 2008 at 9:43am
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Living out in the Western US, I am reluctant to use "smart" and grid in the same sentence. Transmission/line losses, capital investment, copper prices, etc.
I would like to see an emphasis on more localized, smaller NON-CORPORATE generation facilities in the future, especially with biomass gasification and hydrogen production. This would alleviate much of the need for unsightly, expensive corporate-controlled transmission lines.
Of course urban areas are less conducive to localized energy generation, but I suspect that something considerably smaller scale than say Con-Edison would be feasible.
Just a few of my thoughts...
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