NEMA Currents : Smart Grid

Hope for Faster Permitting in Siting Transmission Corridors

golds — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:00:00 GMT

The federal government took steps recently to speed up the approval process for electricity transmission lines. Or at least, to speed up the permitting on federal lands. An agreement between the White House and eight federal agencies puts one agency in charge of the cumbersome process of approving transmission corridor permits -- a change from the traditional multi-agency hurdle that transmission developers have had to maneuver. This is good for our manufacturers -- streamlining the cumbersome permitting process for transmission lines is one way to help bring life back to the struggling U.S. manufacturing sector.

And we'd like to think we had something to do with this change of heart. NEMA CEO Evan Gaddis has discussed this topic with FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and NIST Director Patrick Gallagher, and recently dropped a note on the subject to the new manufacturing czar, Ron Bloom.

The federal agency agreement doesn't resolve the challenge of siting transmission lines on private lands, but it's a huge step in the right direction. And it's sign that the administration understands the importance of this issue -- especially if the Obama administration wants to connect renewable energy sources (like wind and solar) to the electricity grid. Efforts to hook up renewable energy to the grid have been delayed and blocked by environmental groups and community activists, with the result that it has taken years to move a permit through the process.

For now, the permitting process should move more smoothly for lines that cut across federal lands. Next stop: Streamlining the process for private lands.

Spreading Smart Grid Across North America

golds — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:53:00 GMT

As evidence of NEMA's continued influence in international markets, the Commerce Department announced this week that our organization received one of five new Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) awards for 2010-2013. This is NEMA's second MDCP award from Commerce -- the first, which runs from 2007-2010, was given for NEMA to promote U.S. electrical standards and products in Central America.

While MDCP's are designed to promote American competitiveness overseas, this Commerce Department award reflects the Obama administration's interest in modernizing the electrical grid. Electricity doesn't stop at our borders -- we buy and sell power to Canada and Mexico, but our electricity distribution systems are not particularly compatible. With this MDCP award, NEMA's goal is to help the United States, Canada, and Mexico coordinate their efforts in developing a North American Smart Grid, so that North America has a more secure, robust, and reliable electrical distribution system.

This news represents a twofold win for NEMA's members: First, it supports NEMA's efforts to promote advanced U.S. electrical products to our two largest trading partners; and second, it clearly shows that this association has significant respect and support in key federal agencies.

Smart Grid Potpourri

Lego, Brian — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:30:00 GMT

This month’s Economist includes an article that goes over some of the developments in the smart grid arena internationally, including efforts to reduce peak demand and integrate renewables into the transmission network. The article describes a California utility’s (PG&E) program to install up to 5 million smart meters in consumers’ homes and the potential benefits these devices would provide via a more rapid demand response. Meanwhile, Lynne Kiesling, of Knowledge Problem fame, discusses the article and extends the analysis to include some of the real-world difficulties that might prevent us from maximizing the true potential of Smart Grid.

Have a good weekend!

Where in the World is Smart Metering?

goodwina — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:08:00 GMT

Headlines involving smart metering seem to have been multiplying in the last few months, including projects that involve NEMA members (recent press releases here, here, and here).

To see an interesting visual representation of metering initiatives on a global scale, check out this Google map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115519311058367534348.0000011362ac6d7d21187.

It's maintained by the Supplier Requirements for Smart Metering (SRSM) Project being run by the Energy Retail Association in the UK.

It takes some time to load, but the overall effect is worth it. Markers are coded by color and shape to show projects and trials for electricity, gas, and water. Click on individual icons for additional details.

Going BANANAs

golds — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:15:00 GMT

The energy industry in this country has long struggled to find suitable locations for plants and resource development. That's because for decades they've faced NIMBY -- community activists who put up roadblocks to ensure such efforts were "Not In My Back Yard." But the politics of the 21st century has taken this activism to a new level. Now we have BANANA -- nationwide activists that demand we "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything. "

Unfortunately, if the politics of BANANAs is not managed properly by the Obama administration, it will derail the President's avowed goal of building a modern 21st-century electrical grid. That's because two of the most important aspects of Smart Grid -- the siting of new tranmission corridors and renewable energy projects -- have run into a political wind turbine and are being stalled.

According to the US Chamber's "Institute for 21st Century Energy," at last count across the country there were roughly a dozen tranmission line projects and close to 50 renewable energy projects at various stages of the regulatory approval process. But BANANA activists have been able to use the unpredictable and needlessly complex regulatory maze to delay most of these. Institute President Karen Harbert calls this "green tape." (For an overview of all the projects that have been stopped across the country due to BANANAs, see the Chamber's Project No Project website.)

That's the irony of Smart Grid politics: environmental activists who support the incorporation of renewable energy sources -- wind and solar in particular -- into the electrical grid do damage to their cause when they oppose permits for transmission line projects. If renewable energy generation is not hooked up to the grid through a comprehensive systems of transmission corridors, that energy project cannot pay for itself and developers and financers will stop investing in such renewable projects.

Considering NEMA's commitment to launching a Smart Grid in the coming decade, you're going to see us take this issue head on. An energy efficient society is going to require an expedited regulatory process for new transmission lines and renewable energy projects.

PEV's Are Coming But . . . Lots of Questions to Answer

Scolnik, Alvin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:54:00 GMT

Everyday I read something new and interesting about some form of electric vehicle. Hybrid electric, Plug in hybrid electric, Plug In electric, etc. While they're all using different technologies, the one thing they all seem to have in common is that they are still pretty much in the prototype stage. Sure, the Prius and other hybrids seems to have gone commercial and owners seem reasonably satisfied. But, my neighbor just got one to do his bit for the environment and he's seriously underwhelmed with the vehicle's performance. None are 50 mpg vehicles. Only Prius and Honda exceed 40 mpg and most of the other models are testing in the 30 mpg range. In other words, there's still a ways to go for hybrids to deliver the promised energy savings.

And then there's the plug in vehicles. Really in the prototype and testing stages. What kind of battery will give us a 40 mile range? Which chemistry is most cost effective? What happens to the battery in hot weather? Cold weather? Can a battery survive a high impact crash? What happens when a large number of PHEV's are charging from the electricity grid at the same time? Fast charge? Slow charge? What's the plug configuration? What's the impact on the electrical system? How to ensure consumer safety? And on and on and on.

We need to standardize on battery chemistries that are best from a performance, reliability, safety and cost standpoint. We need to agree on the best ways of configuring the batteries? We need to decide as a country on the fastest, safest, cheapest and best ways to recharge the batteries. We need to settle on the most efficient ways to track the vehicle so that the system can identify and bill me for the energy I use to recharge my vehicle regardless of where I recharge it. The utilties need incentives to create systems that are similar enough to permit uniformity and safety in how vehicles are charged and how they're billed. And there needs to be charging opportunities in buildings, on street corners, in parking garages, and at home, if our country is going to achieve President Obama's goal of 1 million PEV's by 2015.

What we need is a well financed ,government coordinated effort to bring the R&D together to test and optimize the batteries, the vehicles and the interface of the vehicle with the electricity grid. Don't get me wrong. I firmly believe in the abilities and the power of the private sector. And I know the government has pockets of money invested in vehicle programs in many places. But a rapid transition to electric vehicles on a scale that makes it economically viable requires a grand scheme--a well coordinated, really well financed public/private sector effort to accelerate technology development and minimize variability that if not controlled could scuttle the transformation before it gets started. Standards are needed as soon as possible to create the kind of system uniformity and predictability that will encourage widespread market adoption of PHEV's The government needs to jump in with both feet to make this happen.

Where Do You Plug-in Your Electric Vehicle?

Moldoveanu, Andrei — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:50:00 GMT

Plug-in vehicles, either hybrid or all electrical, are just around the corner. The big question is how are they going to be recharged?

The answer depends a lot on who you are asking. In the US the most significant effort is made by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International). A number of standards are in the works to cover vehicles charging. That, by the way, includes a vehicle-to-grid option (V2G) that could become an interesting Smart Grid option in a not too distant future.

In parallel, in Europe efforts are made by a group comprising mostly auto manufacturers under the DKE banner (German combination DIN-VDE). They are pushing proposals through IEC TC69, SC23H (coupler) and others.

The problem is that the approaches are not similar. If the situation continues we'll end up with different car chargers and car couplers in various parts of the world. The cars would have to be different too. Since chargers will be part of the infrastructure things would remain in this situation for many years to come. Is there a serious reason for that? Couldn't automotive manufacturers get together and settle on one system good for whole world? We'd all benefit.

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.

Low Hanging Sustainability Fruit: Energy Efficiency

Moldoveanu, Andrei — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:53:00 GMT

Energy consumption is by far the low hanging fruit on the sustainability tree. Since, according to Energy Information Administration, a whopping 65% of the energy produced by mostly non-renewable sources is lost in conversion processes, it stands to reason to look closer at these conversions and develop more efficient technologies to get what we need.

Seen from this perspective a lot of the current market trends head in that direction. The transition of incandescent lighting to the substantively more efficient CFLs is a good example. No sooner the industry “switched” there another, even more efficient technology showed up: LEDs.

We’ll see this in cars quite soon. The electrical motor is way more efficient than the combustion engine. Once the battery issues are mastered (by the way, another energy conversion issue) there would be no stopping it.

Examples in the component area abound: appliances especially water heaters, washers and refrigerators, AC units, motors, transformers, etc.

But systems are in my view the areas with the fastest payoff. You’ll find them in the commercial buildings. You start applying modern daylight harvesting, combine it with advanced heating/AC systems and efficient building materials and architectural concepts, back all this up with some local energy storage all conversant with the smart grid and you could stop dreaming about a net zero-energy building and actually start build it! Now!

Andrei Moldoveanu

GPS and the Grid: The New Weakest Link?

Hsieh, Eric — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:15:00 GMT

By 2010, the GAO predicts that the probability of maintaining at least 24 satellites may dip below 95%, the service quality standard set by the Air Force. Due to development delays, the current constellation of GPS satellites may begin to fail before new satellites are ready for launch. Normally, this news might be of interest to national defense and navigation system buffs, but the U.S. electricity grid is slowly developing its own dependence on the GPS system.

Syncrophasors are highly accurate measurement devices that are now being deployed to monitor the grid’s health. As half of the smart grid’s “monitor and control” mentality, syncrophasor data will be critical for system operators to anticipate and locate problems in advance of catastrophic outages. Now here’s the dependency: syncrophasors get their time from the GPS signal (part of the origin of the “synchro” name).

When grid operators base their decisions on data from syncrophasors, an interruption of the GPS signal could shut off useful data from the new smart grid devices. The grid will now be vulnerable to interruptions caused by natural or hostile actions not only on the wires themselves, but also on the GPS satellites. Certainly, having grid status data most of the time is better than having no data at all, and there are ways to provide time accuracy without using GPS (although more costly). However, like environmental mitigation measures, grid architects need to consciously avoid swapping one reliability problem for another.