Smart Electric Grid

By: Andy Maslowski

Jan/Feb 2010
 
Smart grid technology relates to the appliances and electronics you use at home. But it also applies to the electricity-generating place, whether that is a hydro-plant, or a small distribution generator, or even a photovoltaic cell. The grid itself is about delivery of electricity; a smart grid is about doing this with efficiency and intelligence.” These words by Larry Sollecito, president and CEO of GE Digital Energy, sum up the drive to establish a smart electric grid.
 

Better communication software, advanced meters and natural gas all have a role to play in the new electricity network.

Basically, the nation’s electricity distribution system is set to enter the digital age. But people have different ideas how this will come about. Billions of dollars, private and public, have already been earmarked toward various smart grid projects. And many companies as well as public utilities across the land are investing in and vying for demonstration projects to test new technologies for delivering, storing or monitoring electricity usage.
 
Sadly, not much is being said about our old friend, petroleum, in reference to the smart grid. That’s too bad. But even if it remains a silent partner, various petroleum fuels will continue to generate electricity — especially natural gas. And if and when the smart grid system fails, generators serving as backup and fueled by natural gas, diesel or gasoline will immediately fire-up. You can bet on that!
 
Advanced components
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.1 billion megawatt hours (MWH) of electricity was generated in the U.S. in 2008. For the same year the Energy Information Administration (EIA) also estimated about 48.5 percent of this was derived by burning coal, 21.3 percent from natural gas, 19.6 percent from nuclear reactors, 6.0 percent from hydroelectric plants and less than 3.0 percent from renewable sources like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal. The remainder, about 1.6 percent, came mostly from petroleum products and gases like fuel oil, kerosene, blast furnace gas and propane.
 
Not all electricity makes it to market. Much of it is lost in the transmission process because of the long distances that electricity travels from its point of generation to the point of usage. In addition, a great deal of electricity is wasted getting to its final destination and after it arrives in our homes or other places.
 
“Even as demand has skyrocketed, there has been chronic underinvestment in getting energy where it needs to go through transmission and distribution,” the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) describes in a 2008 report entitled, The Smart Grid: An Introduction. “While hundreds of thousands of high-voltage transmission lines course throughout the U.S., only 668 additional miles of interstate transmission have been built since 2000. As a result, system constraints worsen at a time when outages and power quality issues are estimated to cost American business more than $100 billion on average each year. In short, the grid is struggling to keep up.”
 
The DOE said the nation must apply new business strategies and install high-tech equipment to make the electric grid smarter. The agency lists five fundamental technologies that will drive the smart grid:

GE wireless receivers attached to a utility pole in Houston are helping monitor electric meters remotely for CenterPoint Energy, the region’s main utility.

1. Integrated communications, connecting components to open architecture for real-time information and control, allowing every part of the grid to both “talk” and “listen.”
2. Sensing and measurement technologies to support faster and more accurate response such as remote monitoring, time-of-use pricing and demand-side management.
3. Advanced components to apply the latest research in superconductivity, storage, power electronics and diagnostics.
4. Advanced control methods to monitor essential components, enabling rapid diagnosis and precise solutions appropriate to any event.
5. Improved interfaces and decision support to amplify human decision making, transforming grid operators and managers quite literally into visionaries when it comes to seeing into their systems.
 
The smart grid hopes to “seamlessly” draw down energy from a variety of sources and be able to respond quickly to grid problems, ensuring recovery after power outages. In certain instances, consumers will be able to use, and pay a premium for, renewable energy sources. New wireless, digital meters will be connected remotely, recording electricity usage for purposes of billing and two-way communication between utilities and consumers. And home energy “dashboards” will give consumers the ability to more efficiently regulate energy usage with thermostats, washers, dryers and refrigerators — the major electricity users in the home. For example, if someone decides to use their dryer late at night, or during other off-peak times, they can save money. If everything is working correctly, you’ll be able to see what you are using and saving on this dashboard in real-time.
 
Business opportunities
The smart grid will rely heavily on computer hardware and software applications. As we all know, computers are wonderful tools when they are working properly. When they are not, watch out! How many power outages will result from computer hardware or software malfunctions? Will remotely placed equipment work under extremely cold conditions?
 
Another big question to ask during the recession: will the smart grid create new jobs as some are forecasting? Well, yes and no. An automated meter reading system will no longer require meter men and women to physically check residential meters. So thousands of meter readers could lose their jobs around the country.
 
But new jobs are expected to be created by companies like GE, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel and others who build the physical equipment — meters, transformers, communications gear, hardware and software — to run and monitor the system. Some companies are already building wind turbines and solar panels for the grid, and testing new and expensive battery systems for backup.
 
Thanks in part to funds from federal stimulus plans, many public utilities across the USA are installing new digital and wireless meters to monitor electricity usage and sales. One such utility is CenterPoint Energy Houston, which received a $200 million federal grant to spur its deployment of new grid components.
 
“Smart grid investments will create jobs, save energy, and empower consumers to cut their electric bills,” Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said during his visit to CenterPoint’s headquarters last October. “They will help to improve the reliability and efficiency of the electrical grid serving millions of consumers in Texas and make our country more secure.”
 

The smart grid will rely heavily on computer hardware and software applications.

CenterPoint’s grant will be used to accelerate the deployment of an advanced metering system and install the first phase of “grid hardening and automation.” The company has already installed more than 100,000 meters that are fully functioning and will spend $639 million between 2010 and 2012 to speed the installation of 2 million additional smart meters and activate its portion of the smart grid.
 
The federal grant covers an estimated 30 percent of the total project costs for CenterPoint. It is part of an initial $3.4 billion investment that President Obama announced in 2009 to spur the nation’s transition to smart energy technology. The grants are being matched nationally by other companies for a total public-private investment worth more than $8 billion.
 
 
A regulated electric utility, CenterPoint provides transmission and distribution delivery services to more than 2 million metered customers in a 5,000-square-mile area of the Texas Gulf Coast, including Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. Secretary Salazar said increasing the reliability and self-healing capability of CenterPoint’s electric grid is in the national interest because a significant portion of the nation’s essential energy and petrochemical facilities are located in the utility’s hurricane-susceptible service area.
 
Salazar has made the modernization of the nation’s transmission infrastructure a top priority at the Department of the Interior, which has already identified and designated more than 5,000 miles of energy transport corridors on the lands it manages to facilitate the siting and permitting of energy transport projects. Interior agencies are working with other federal, state and tribal governments, as well as private landowners to identify the best places on the landscape for transmission facilities, especially as renewable energy generation comes on-line.
 
The Interior Department is processing more than 30 applications for major transmission corridor rights-of-way on lands it manages and seven of these applications — in Idaho, California and Nevada — are being “fast tracked” and could clear the permitting process during 2010. Together, these seven projects would add more than 1,000 miles of new transmission lines.
 
Natural gas
Just like the oil and gas business, the nation’s electricity industry is a complicated one. Each state has is own regulatory commission, while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission oversees open and equal access to transmission lines for all electricity producers.
The Energy Policy Act of 1992 and subsequent revisions have had one major objective: “to remove impediments to competition in wholesale trade and to bring more efficient, lower cost power to the nation’s electricity customers.” While some electricity consumers around the nation can choose different retail electricity providers, others cannot because of consolidation and mergers of existing companies.
 
Just about everyone agrees more electricity will be needed in the future for the growing American market. Will the smart grid be able to meet the demand? Perhaps. But in its early stages people working with the smart grid seem to be more concerned with modernizing its aging infrastructure than securing future electricity supplies.
 
Yes, renewables are providing increasing amounts of electricity. The EIA reported more than 123 million MWH of electricity was produced from wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other sources in 2008. But natural gas derived electricity was seven times this amount, more than 876 million MWH.
 
Natural gas is getting the job done. And many are turning to it when adding new electricity generating capacity. Even our friends in Congress did so in 2009 when they decided to convert the coal-burning Capitol Power Plant in Washington, D.C.
 
Already very healthy, the relationship between natural gas and electricity is expected to get even healthier. The EIA said that 31 percent of the natural gas sold in the U.S. in 2008 was used to generate electricity — about 6.6 Tcfg out of 21.2 Tcfg delivered to customers. It is a growing phenomenon. In 1997, the EIA said about 4.1 Tcfg was used to make electricity through generators and turbines. Many states, including many big states like California, Florida, New York and Texas, now generate most of their electricity with natural gas. For American natural gas producers this means another valuable market will remain stable in the years ahead.
 
Some people want more renewable energy, like wind and solar, to help power the new smart electric grid. But can these sources reliably fit the bill? Will they provide even 10 percent of the nation’s electricity during the 21st century?
 
A few new reactors installed at existing nuclear plants could certainly fit the bill! But considering the lack of respect nuclear energy receives, it too should be regarded as a fossil fuel! Welcome to the club! The movement to modernize our nation’s aging electricity infrastructure is needed. But will the smart grid create more efficient deliverability? And where will future electricity supplies come from? We’ll find out in the years ahead.