Comments by Steven Collier Subscribe

On Was Edison Right After All? Reconsidering DC Power

I just learned about an interesting company that is pursuing DC technology for the smart grid. You can learn more about NexTek Power Systems at http://www.nextekpower.com and you can follow them on Twitter as @nextekpower.

There is even an industry association, the EMerge Alliance, to develop industry standards. Learn more at http://www.emergyalliance.org.

leading the rapid adoption of safe DC power distribution in commercial buildings through the development of EMerge Alliance standards 

On Was Edison Right After All? Reconsidering DC Power

James,

Thanks for reading and commenting.

You are spot on! Now think of supplying some or all of your DC subsystem with rooftop solar and some electric storage.

This principle can apply to commercial and industrial facilities as well. And it is not limited to DC subsystems.

On Was Edison Right After All? Reconsidering DC Power

Nathan,

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. 

I guess that we disagree fairly categorically across the board? 

I don't think that "it is somehow noble and empowering to be off the grid." I do think that the realities of the grid now and into the future (e.g., increasing costs, declining reliability, inadequate physical security, lack of environmental sustainability, etc.) will cause an increasing number of residential, commercial and industrial customers to take some or all of their needs "off the grid." Even in the unlikely event that none do, the grid of the future will be far different than that of the past.

I am quite confident that continuing revolutionary advances in electronics, telecommunications, information, energy and materials technologies will make it possible not just for us to operate a century old grid better, but will enable us to do things with power production, distribution and utilization that we were never able to be before. Perhaps more importantly, as has already proven to be the case in telecommunications, they will enable us to do things that we never thought of before. I definitely fall in the camp of Peter Diamindis (the X Prize sponsor) and Steven Kotler in their book "Abundance."

I also agree with the conclusion of the Electric Advisory Council (not bureaucrats, regulators, academics, etc. but rather the very folks who manage the grid in this country) as communicated to the US DOE in their 2009 report:

“Keeping the Lights On in a New World,” January 2009 

http://energy.gov/oe/downloads/electricity-advisory-committee-eac-2009-keeping-lights-new-world

that ". . . the current electric power delivery system infrastructure . . . will be unable to ensure a reliable, cost-effective, secure, and environmentally sustainable supply of electricity for the next two decades . . . Much of the electricity supply and delivery infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life."

On Electrical Grid Woes and the Rise of Edge-Power Players

Roger,

Thanks for reading and commenting. Your perspective is terrific.

I agree that the single greatest barrier to accommodating both conventional and renewable energy sources, facilitating the most efficient organized power markets, and operating the grid, locally, regionally and nationally, most efficiently is the absence of what you call a supergrid. Outside ot the New England, the PJM, MISO and ERCOT, the lack of transmission interconnection and capacity is a severe limitation on all of these. Unfortunately, considerable investment, time and regulatory review will be required to achieve a physical supergrid. A desirable intermediate step would be to, as much as possible, get the interconnections in place to allow local, regional and national transactive energy markets.

It turns out that Thomas Edison may have been right about the superiority of DC to AC (apologies to Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse). One of the significant advantages of DC power is the ability to directly regulate the power flow in a DC line. Of course, doing so in a large interconnected system is not simple and would require considerable remote monitoring, analysis and control hardware and software. Hmmm, Moore's Law, Metcalfe's Law, Gilder's Law, Kurzweil's Law, Wright's Law have been resulting in rapid, disruptive advancement in the electronics, telecommunications and information technologies that would be required. This is why I firmly believe that the Smart Grid is ultimately a part of the Internet of Things.

Thanks again for your input.

On Electrical Grid Woes and the Rise of Edge-Power Players

Ivor,

I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on my post.

Roger's comments are spot on in response to your questions. 

The traditional centralized grid is having difficulty in accommodating wind, photovoltaic and customer-owned and operated conventional generation because base load power plants simply cannot ramp up and down (much less be brough on line from a cold start) as rapidly as these stochastic resources vary in output. In MISO, for example, this results in a utility having to actually pay to deliver power from their baseload power plants into the grid during off peak periods (i.e., night time during spring and fall). Furthermore, in ERCOT where I live, the greatest source of wind generation is where there are the fewest people and business and therefor the most limited transmission capacity. So, even if conventional generation plants could accommodate the variability fo the wind energy, the transmission system is a limit on how much wind capacity can be accommodated.

As to outages caused by storms, accidents, utility equipment failures (or vandalism . . . or terrorism), it could be effective to put all of the lines underground and all of the substations inside hardened structures, but the capital investment required would be staggering. Decentralizaing the grid with smaller generating units sited closer to load centers, including renewable energy sources and energy storage facilities, would  increase overall grid reliability. It could also substantially increase efficiency (e.g., reduced losses), sustainability (renewable energy sources), and grid security (i.e., it is much harder to disable a decentralized system of sources and loads than a centralized one whether it be by physical threats or cyber ones).

Thanks again for participating in the discussion.

On Electrical Grid Woes and the Rise of Edge-Power Players

Douglas,

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and provide your feedback.

i think that you are generally right about the inertia caused by the immense finacial investment the incumbent infrastructure, reluctant management and overwhelmed legislators/regulators. Utilities see value in reducing peak demand primarily because it allows the continuation of a monolithic, centralized grid based upon cost=plus monopoly market division and pricing. Few utilities yet see the value to their consumers, the public, and ultimately themselves of energy efficiiency and distributed generation that can significantly reduce energy sales. Hence, for example, their tendency to pursue VVO and CVR to reduce demand while being careful not reduce energy consumption.

Essentially all of the electric utilties that own and operate generation continue to believe that the solution to the grid for the present and the future is to remove the regulatory barriers and constraints on siting, building and operating a centralized grid. Hence the disproportionate emphasis by the industry on demand response to "flatten the load duration curve" so that fossil fueled, basel load generation can continue to meet consumers' needs.

However, there are encouraging signs of some electric distribution cooperatives and public power systems not only recognizing and accommodating but actually embracing and leveraging a new, decentralized grid model with edge power technologies and vendors. One of my favorites is Wright-Hennepin Electric Cooperative in Rockford, Minnesota.  They are aggressively pursuing community solar, Modlets, home and business security monitoring, home and business autiomation, Silent Power, distributed generation monitoring and a variety of other technologies, applications and business partners that they see as being necessary for success in the 21st century. One of their wholesale suppliers, Great River Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative, has also been a long-time pioneer in energy efficiency.

My post is premised upon the fact that edge power is inevitable and the incumbent industry players can either promote it or be diminished by it. Just as has been the case in the closely regulated telecommunications utility industry, it really doesn't matter in the long run wither the incumbent utilities, their management or their regulators are willing to embrace a new grid model (i.e., the Internet) and the disaggregation and reaggregation of the retail market by disintermediaries. Disintermediaries have little to lose and everything to gain. They are first adopters of the latest and best technologies and they seek the levels of return that only occur when there is great risk. Furthermore the old electric utility paradigm is neither feasible nor desirable for the future. So there will be churning and thrashing, there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and their will be financial hardship for the incumbent utilities. But innovation, in technology, in business model, in customer service, will happen one way or the other. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Thanks again for reading and commenting.

On Distributed Smart Metering for Utilities and Their Customers

In the context of distributed metering, I just learned today about the Modlet.  Consumer owned, distributed metering with a cloud based user app. Add some analytics with AI and you have a giant brain for the New Grid?

Learn more about this at http://www.themodlet.com 

On Technology transforms the utility business model

Greenwell Future,

Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my post.

Wow! 100% renewable energy in only 40 years. We can't keep burning everything in sight to supply our every expanding energy needs.

I have been suggesting for several years in my presentations and writing that much of the smart grid innovation that we will see in the world will not be in the USA. Some will occur in the developed countries who have different circumstances, challenges and competencies as well as alternative industry and institutional frameworks. Even more will occur in the developing countries where the great majority of the population lives, where they have the least energy per capita but need it the most, and where they don't have the time, capital or foundation to build out a monolithic, centralized electric system like we did in the USA.

On Automation key to supply and demand

Karl,

Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I agree that the cost of distribution automation is a barrier, especially when the economic justifications are largely based upon today's circumstances and wholesale power costs, not the true future costs (and grid failures) that are being avoided by a smarter grid. The incentives have been somewhat misaligned, putting all the eggs in the demand response basket. And the demand response programs are largely relegated to voluntary behavioral change based upon complex pricing options and data displays, not automated systems in tight integration with a fully automated distribution grid.

Perhaps the biggest barrier is the reluctance of the industry to recognize that the fundamentals of the industry are changing, that we can no longer rely on a single monolithic, centralized power grid based upon economies of scale that no longer exist and a cost plus monopoly franchise social contract that will erode as decentralized disintermediaries (e.g., Solar City, National Power Partners, Direct Energy LP, etc.) increasingly define the market.

On a side note, I think that there are some distribution system executives that are recognizing not only the necessity, but the tremendous benefits of a truly smart grid. A couple of weeks ago, I made a presentation to an electric cooperative board of directors and executive team. The CEO came up to me afterward and said, "Our SCADA and smart meters are showing us something about our distribution system.  What we thought was a very sharp knife is actually dull and pitted.  And we are only just beginning to understand it."

Steve C

On ‘Energy rationing’ ≠ a smart grid.

John,

Thanks for taking the time to read and for your truly excellent response.  You have articulated much better than I my underlying proposition . . . I am absolutely not against demand side management . . . in fact, I strongly favor real-time monitoring and management of the grid from the generators all the way to the end use devices. Well-designed, systematic transformation of the grid from one that is rigid to one that is flexible is paramount . . . and systematic transformation of the way that we operate the grid from ex post facto reactionay to real-time, active grid management is not only possible, it is the only way to meet the needs of the 21st century.  Who knows, taking John Archibald Wheeler's vision to the extreme in conjunction with Bob Metcalfe's vision of the "Enernet" we will someday be delivering electric energy in packets . . . after all, a bit of information is actually a quantum of energy.

Steve C

On ‘Energy rationing’ ≠ a smart grid.

This topic generated some interesting comments on Intelligent Utility

http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/12/07/change-grid-not-customer...

On The Real Concern about Smart Meters

I think that there is another legitimate concern about the so-called smart meters.  In the 21st century a smart phone sets the standard for what is truly a smart consumer or utility device.  It is a sharp break from whatever has gone before in terms of resident computational capabilities and telemetry, two-way broadband digital communications, and integration with cloud apps. Almost all of the smart meters on the market today are merely electronic versions of the 100+ year old electromechanical meter, outfitted with the memory and rather primitive teleommunications to be read remotely and more frequently.  Where is the intelligence to unbundle the various components of usage within the home or business to enable customers to see what is actually driving their consumption and costs?  Where are the analytical, automation and other apps that would truly enable customers to actively monitor and manage their energy purchases with convenience and confidence? Where are the capabilities to monitor, record and report on power quality (e.g., voltage, power factor, on/off, blinks) that would enable utilities to use truly smart devices to improve reliability, power quality, customer service?  

There is yet another legitimate concern.  The necessary enabling institutional and administrative systems are not even in place at the electric utility to take advantage of today's AMR/AMI capabilities.  I have had a smart meter on my house for two years now, yet I continue to get a single bill, once a month, weeks after my meter is read, with only my total KWH consumption and total cost for the month.  This is no better for me in any way than the traditional electromechanical meter.