NEMA Currents : Electrical Grid

Congressional Unveiling of Major Energy Savings and Carbon Reduction...

Hansen, Dain — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:22:00 GMT

Do you want to save 4.48-7.95 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon annually (equivalent to removing approximately between 3-5.4 million automobiles annually)?

Do you want to save 25 to 42 Terawatt hours (billion kWh) per year (equivalent to 3 to 6 nuclear power plants or 6 to 10 coal-fired plants)?

Do you want to drive innovation and spur technology?

If you do, see NEMA’s newly unveiled consensus agreement outdoor lighting standard.

Today, Senator Bingaman, Senator Murkowski, Senator Pryor, Representative Harman, Representative Upton, NEMA’s President and CEO Evan Gaddis, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the National Resources Defense Council announced a consensus agreement for federal outdoor lighting standards. For the first time ever, pole-mounted outdoor lighting will have federally mandated efficiency standards.

For many months, NEMA has led negotiations with manufacturers, energy advocates, utilities, lighting designers and others to develop thoughtful and thoroughly vetting consensus standards. As you can see from the statistics mentioned, this agreement will have a monumental impact on energy savings, carbon reduction and technological innovation.

World’s Largest Pedestrian Bridge Soaks up Rays

goodwina — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:47:00 GMT

A few days ago, The Kurilpa Bridge in Brisbane officially opened, and it’s been referred to as the “largest pedestrian and cycle bridge.” It’s 470 meters long, and around 36,500 people will use the bridge each week. It features a programmable LED lighting system that can be adjusted for different effects and events.

What’s really cool, though, is that the bridge has 84 solar panels that can fully power the bridge in most lighting configurations, and provide 75% of the needed power for the fully lit mode. Excess power can be returned to the grid. The panels will average 100 kWh for daily output and 38 MWh for yearly output.

A Queensland government page has some amazing high-quality photos from several angles (scroll to the bottom for my favorites). Inhabitat.com mentions that the design is reminiscent of knitting needles, and I agree.

Time to Relax

Lego, Brian — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:07:00 GMT

Since I am in long-weekend mode already, and don't want to interrupt the reverie by pointing out that firm signs of economic recovery remain elusive, I thought I'd direct readers to some interesting takes on two important policy issues: cap-and-trade and health care. On the health care debate, Harvard's Greg Mankiw presents a nice discussion on some of the key issues, including the problem of monopsony, which Tyler Cowen then expands upon. As for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, Lynne Kiesling (smart-grid proponent and a supporter of emissions trading) of Knowledge Problem weighs in with her concerns while Cowen contributes to the discussion on the potential threat to free-trade found in the legislation.

Fact Versus Fiction on Energy Storage Systems

Schweitzer, Eric — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Often, important emerging technologies get caught up in misconstrued facts and misunderstandings of capacities and roles in an already technology-driven and confusing world. An example of this can be found in a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, "Getting Real on Wind and Solar" by James Schlesinger and Robert Hirsch. It's great they included a reference to energy storage systems (ESS) as a necessary component of the smart grid architecture for renewable energy. And they're right that the wind doesn't always blow, the sun doesn't always shine -- so having a stockpile of energy that can be tapped into on demand, and especially during high demand or "peak demand" hours, is very important to ensuring adequate energy is always available. But their main thesis that renewable energy can't be pursued without adding coal-based utility resources or without using hydroelectric dams as energy storage tanks is wrong.

Using today's readily available technologies, ESS can run without the support of a hydroelectric dam or a coal based utility. The NEMA Energy Storage Council includes companies that produce flow cell batteries, flywheel generators, batteries (lithium ion, lead acid, lead carbon, sodium sulphur, zinc bromine, vanadium redox, etc), thermal systems, concentrated solar panels; even Plug-in Hybrid Electrical Vehicles that show great potential as a distributed mass ESS. The list goes on and on and it will continue to grow as existing and emerging technologies vie for the top spot. While stationary (flywheel, flow cells, etc.) ESS does require a larger footprint in terms of space requirements and can be used in some cases as "spinning reserves" for hydroelectric dams; their value must not be unappreciated or misrepresented. Both stationary and mobile ESS (Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles) provide a vastly untapped revolutionary resource with the ability to alleviate our present and rapidly growing energy crisis and ensure a future success towards building a "smart grid." ESS can provide solutions to current grid capacity issues, residential/ commercial/ industrial/ military back-up generation, load leveling, frequency response just to name a few."

It's important that NEMA continue to serve the role of advocate during these organizational periods where stakeholders grapple with the feat of learning where to go to for accurate and timely information.

NIST on the Right Track

Scolnik, Alvin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:42:00 GMT

The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced last week that it has created a new Smart Grid Interoperability Office to coordinate and accelerate the standardization framework initiative assigned to it under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Good move. An even better move is that NIST has selected Dr. George Arnold, formerly of Lucent Technologies and more recently Deputy Director of NIST Technology Services, as its new Smart Grid Coordinator. NEMA has been an ardent supporter of the NIST effort since its inception. NEMA has also been urging more aggressive action on short term standards development. It is common knowledge that the lack of standardization is holding up Smart Grid investment. SDO's like NEMA and IEEE, have the people and the processes in place to produce standards in record time. George Arnold has the technical knowledge and an understanding of the standardization processes plus connections with the right people in government and industry to make this all happen. NEMA is anxious to work with Dr. Arnold to break the business as usual mold and accelerate development of Smart Grid standards. FERC is waiting. Manufacturers have the technologies. Dr. Arnold, welcome to Smart Grid!!

Billions of Dollars for Energy-Efficient and Smart Grid Technologies

Hansen, Dain — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:39:00 GMT

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the economic stimulus bill, which aims to rejuvenate the struggling U.S. economny. Within this bill were many NEMA-supported provisions. For the past several months, NEMA met with President Obama's staff and Hill staff to secure funding for NEMA's priority programs. The bill contains billions of dollars that will benefit NEMA members. A quick rundown of the NEMA-advocated provision are;

$4.5 billion for smart grid related activities

$10 million of which was expressly directed for the NEMA/NIST "smart grid interoperability framework"
$200 million for energy storage technology

$6.5 billion to build new transmission systems
$14.4 billion for renewable energy and energy efficiency
$4.5 billion for energy efficiency upgrades to Federal buildings
$8 billion for renewable-energy loan guarantees
$4.2 billion for energy efficiency block grants for State projects
$2 billion for "advanced" batteries and components
$20 billion for health IT activities
3-year extension of the Renewable Wind Energy Tax Credit thru 2012
5-year accelerated depreciation for smart meters installed by January 2011
30 percent Advanced Energy Manufacturing tax credit for investments in plants or machinery
$30 billion for transportation infrastructure projects
50% bonus depreciation for capital equipment investments

For a more comprehensive summary of the bill, please use the provided link to view NEMA's analysis and summary of the stimulus package: http://www.nema.org/NEMA-Summary-HR1

Advanced Surge Arrester Technology Showcased on New Website

golds — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:31:00 GMT

One of the great things about an organization like NEMA, which represents so many different aspects of the electrical grid, is the opportunities that arise to help promote some very important technologies.

Today the Surge Arresters Section launched its new website, dedicated to promoting the latest, most effective technology in arresters. Metal oxide varistor (MOC) technology long ago proved itself superior to the older silicon carbide (SiC) arrester technology, because it more effectively protects the grid from lightning and switching surges. The new "NEMA Arresters" website tells the story behind the need to replace the riskier product with the safer product.

Smart Grid Depends on Standards. . . Soon

Scolnik, Alvin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:56:00 GMT

If you heard the term Smart Grid 12 months ago, you might have wondered what it meant. Now, the term is everywhere. Even President Obama referred to Smart Grid in his first address to the Nation after his inauguration. Newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, domestic and international, are all discussing Smart Grid. Why? Because Smart Grid holds the promise of providing electricity to homes and businesses more efficiently, more reliably, and more securely. Smart Grid promises to eliminate blackouts, brownouts, sags and surges. Smart Grid goes hand in hand with use of renewables, and reduction of ozone depleting and global warming chemicals. And Smart Grid may very well help the long suffering energy consumer pick and choose from available services in order to better manage his/her exploding monthly electricity bill.

But, none of this is possible until the various stakeholders reach agreement on how power generation, transmission and distribution equipment will be integrated with communications and control devices and software to enable seamless and instantaneous interoperability within and between local and regional grids. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 directed NIST to work with NEMA and other key stakeholders to develop a framework for identifying and coordinating the many Smart Grid standards produced by dozens of interest groups. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) recently created a high-level strategy group to do the same thing for international standards.

Yes, Smart Grid standards are on the drawing board. But timing is critical and the work must get done quickly in order for consumers to see any benefits. NEMA stands ready to bring stakeholders together to write the standards that will make the electricity grid Smart. To quote a well known maker of athletic wear -- Just DO IT!!

Energy Storage Technology Is Vital For "Smart" Grid Efforts

Schweitzer, Eric — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:08:00 GMT

NEMA is taking the lead in making Smart Grid and Energy Storage technologies a reality. The NEMA Energy Storage Council (ESC) has held successful meetings where attendees have drafted a list of application categories that help define where Energy Storage (ES) and Distributed Generation (DG) technologies should play a role. The NEMA ESC consisting of manufacturer, utility and government representative stakeholders further established and tasked a NEMA ESC Technical Committee (Stationary and Mobile Subcommittee) to identify specific action items aimed at facilitating the promotion of ES/DG technology to commercial and non-commercial markets. The result of the NEMA ESC Technical Committee meeting January 15, 2009 was an agreement to present a proposal for an all encompassing ES/DG demonstration program to prove the criticality of ES/DG technologies to the Department of Energy. It was fully agreed and can not be understated here that without the complete integration of ES/DG technologies to our ailing National electricity grid there can be no realized “Smart Grid.” Through this proposed demonstration program ES/DG manufacturers aim to prove the essentiality of ES/DG technologies to Smart Grid functionality and to demonstrate to the Government and Federal Agencies that ES/ DG technology can drive increased grid reliability, further reduction of carbon emissions, advanced T/D/G (Transmission/ Distribution/ Generation) capability, islanding capability, renewable energy penetration, interconnection realization, voltage support for public transportation systems, remote area power system capability (RAPS), zero net energy building capability, energy security, economic studies/ cost benefit analyses, and where electrical standards are required. The NEMA ESC has asked the Government Relations Department at NEMA to immediately get the message to Capitol Hill, The Obama Administration, DOE, FERC, NERC and other governmental agencies that NEMA is leading an effort to ensure Smart Grid success in addition to facilitating Energy Storage tax incentives equivalent to those being awarded to renewable technologies such as wind, solar, and hydro. For more information please contact Eric Schweitzer, NEMA Technical Program Manager at Eric.Schweitzer@NEMA.org

A New President, A New Era -- for the Electric Grid

golds — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:30:00 GMT

President Barack Obama took office at 12 noon today (even though he wasn't sworn in until 12:03). I was delighted that in his inaugural speech, he expressed the need to rebuild America -- and specifically, the electric grid. Here's what he said:

The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act -- not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Check the books -- this has got to be the first time in U.S. history that a president has mentioned the electric grid in his inaugural address. We look forward to working with the Obama administration and the 111th Congress to create a more effective, energy efficient, safer, smarter grid.