Distributed, Decoupled Electric Generation

There is a lot of talk about modernizing the national power grid. Not a bad idea since it has caused major blackouts/brownouts in the past 20 years or so and is seriously overburdened now, not considering the expansion of need due to increasing population. However, just modernizing the grid - even with the additions of the "Smart-Grid" auto switching and reporting (shades of "big Brother again?) facilities, is not enough.

Distributed Generation - or Decoupling, as Fmr. Pres. Clinton termed it - is simply installing many small generating sites throughout the country, mainly in urban and suburban areas, to generate power where it is needed and alleviate the need for huge, elaborate trasmnissiln lines, substations, and all that goes with them. The most likely place to do that is residential subdivisions and commercial buildings. The accompanying report is a basic plan to do just that. Give it some consideration.

The Problem - A Gale 2-23-09.doc

Tags: generating, grid, national, power, small, solar, wind

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Comment by Allen R. Gale on March 3, 2009 at 4:19pm: More bad news - this ridiculous "Carbon Cap and Trade" thing is about to become law if we don't do something drastic. This is simply a tax on a tax and my Obama's own admission will "seriously raise the utility cost" to everyone - did I hear "no new taxes on the middle class" somewhere? If there is a bright side to this abomination it might be that it will make wind and solar generation more attractive and therefore get more attention.

The shame of it all is that the approx. average of $1,000 extra in all of our annual electric bills would go a long ways to paying for solar or wind generation in a very short time so why not do everyone a favor and do that from the start?

As for the percentage for consumption, I will give way to your Wikipedia numbers - I got my info from another source. The point is that residential users can be net suppliers with a reasonable effort and remove a considerable load from the grid, especially during daylight hours when business use is higher and residential use is lower.

Comment by rexki on February 28, 2009 at 2:41pm: Amen Brother on the article and its a bulls eye!! My only adding point would be that we force/ encourage, not sure which, the electric utilities to buy renewable electricity (grid tied) at a rate that is at least twice the residential tariff rate instead of the typical 1/2 of tariff.
This would make solar and wind marketable against extremely subsidized coal and nuclear. Half of the DOE, EPA ,and Military could be accrued to a true energy cost.

Comment by rexki on February 28, 2009 at 2:09pm: One clarification of "The single biggest user group of electricity is the residential user" This is incorrect:
Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_use_in_the_United_States:
21% - Residential of all energy in the US - 1/2 to 2/3 of that is electricity - 12% contribution on electricity
17% - Commercial - majority is electricity for lighting, cooling, fossil for heating is half that of residential 2/3 electricity - 12%
33% - Industrial - huge electrical amounts for smelting, and productions, larger amts natural gas here likely 1.5 to 1 ratio. (.40* .33 = 13% electricty
28% - Transportation - 70% imported oil goes here, the majority is fossil and not much electric
Conclusion is they are all pretty close and are all important to energy politics!!

Comment by Brandon Jordan on February 25, 2009 at 5:42pm: You had some good points:

"The overloaded and overworked national power grid needs renovation. That is a true statement. Our electricity needs are constantly growing, and will continue to grow if we are to move out of fossil fuels and into electric vehicles more and more. The single biggest user group of electricity is the residential user. Single-family homes are also one of the best resources for distributed generation of electricity, using either solar collection of wind-powered generation."

"Individual wind generators began in earnest in the 70’s with the “New Shelter” movement when wind generators were being crafted out of used automobile alternators, homemade windmill housing and propellers fashioned from epoxy-impregnated honeycomb paper. Energy was stored in lead-acid storage batteries, similar to car batteries, in basements and garages and power supplied to appliances and lights with an electronic inverter. As these systems grew capable of generating larger amounts of electricity, synchronous inverters were employed that locked the self-generated power to the line frequency and phase of the power supplied by the utility company and power was fed back to the grid, making money – or reducing the consumption charges -- of the user."

"Corporate resistance made it difficult to continue this and zoning laws and restrictive covenants made it more difficult to deploy wind generators and/or solar panels on organized subdivisions. A fledgling industry was nipped in the bud. It is time to reinstate this and move to “distributed generation” and local power grids, thereby making the residential buildings self-sufficient or actually self-supporting if enough power can be generated from a given installation. Unused power would be collected in a subdivision by the Homeowners Electric Cooperative and sold back to the utility company to be used in peak times or by customers who by location or building configuration are not capable of producing their own power. "