Carbon-Pros Analyst Blog

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Meter Data Management (MDM) handle the greatly increased volume and complexity of meter data. AMI supports all phases of the meter-data life cycle from acquisition to provisioning to providing customers with usage information. Instead of monthly readings, AMI provides periodic readings around the clock. AMI must meet stringent requirements for data latency, persistence, and scalability of energy consumption data. AMI functions span both the IT data center and grid operations and is an important enabler of the smart grid.

MDM applications support the loading, validation, editing, and estimation of meter data. Due to the very high volumes of data logged by smart meters (as often as 15 minute intervals), new MDM applications must achieve high levels of scalability. In the Austin Energy roll-out of 500,000 meters with 15 minute sampling, the annual storage requirement went up 10X to 200TB. This is roughly 400MB per meter per year. Pacific Gas & Electric is sampling twice per day and is adding storage to accommodate 170MB per meter per year.

Smart metering can aid utilities in optimizing revenue by providing alerts that detect idle usage and energy theft. Theft costs utilities about 1-3 percent of revenue or about $6 billion across the industry. Analytical functions can extract information from interval data and translate it into reports for trigger appropriate proactive actions. MDM may include functions such as:

• Connections to meter systems
• Meter data validation, estimation, and editing (VEE)
• Error handling
• Meter data access
• Meter inventory management
• Usage analytics
• Information delivery to customer portals

Sources:
meter data volumes: Smart Grid News
smart meter estimate: FERC Aug-09 report on Demand Response

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Google refers to its architecture as a three-layer stack, most of which was developed in-house. At the top of the stack are Google software services such as search, advertising, email, maps, and many others. In the middle of the stack is their distributed system architecture. This includes the Google File System (GFS), a distributed storage system (Bigtable), and a programming model (MapReduce) to support parallel processing.

At the bottom of the stack are the hardware and OS. Google operates hundreds of thousands of machines in 30-40 data centers. Each machine uses a standard AMD/Intel x86 chipset running a customized version of Linux. Each server has its own 12-volt battery to supply power in case the main power supply goes down.

Google does not say how many servers they operate but observers have estimated that the power required for a half-million servers ranges upwards of 20 megawatts and would cost in the neighborhood of $2 million per month in electricity charges. Google has an obsessive focus on energy efficiency. Fortunately, they have recently started to share some of their knowledge with the rest of the world.

If you wonder what this has to do with smart grid, it's simple. The smart grid needs to be architected for massive scalability with millions of devices including meters that transmit readings as often as every 15 minutes. This particular note will appear in the book as a sidebar relating to our discussion of enterprise application architectures.

Sources: High Scalability, Wikipedia, and CNET
http://highscalability.com/google-architecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_platform
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10209580-92.html

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

• Generation portfolio management
• Multiple supply/demand scenarios
• Integration with demand response
• Integrated economic analysis with market pricing
• Decision support tools

Advanced capabilities such as these will be essential for managing the increased complexity of the smart grid's ability to integrate new ways for producing power and managing demand. It gives grid operators the forward-looking view required for making better decisions.

Sources: Areva ASPCON-09 paper by Cheung et al. 2009

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

DLR is best understood in comparison with static line ratings in which the capacity of a transmission line is determined based on worst-case assumptions of full sun, high air temperature, and no wind. Those factors reduce the capacity of a line because hotter lines are more likely to overheat when carry electricity at their rated capacity. If operators knew that clouds were blocking the sun, the weather was cool, and the wind was blowing, they could use the full capacity of the transmission line. It turns out that line tension is a robust predictor of the environmental factors affecting its capacity. The Valley Group produces the tension and environmental sensors along with the software to generate realtime capacity information for grid operators. The system uses data on average line temperature, sag, clearance, and a realtime rating-factor. The system interfaces with the operator's EMS/SCADA and is customized for the operator’s requirements.

Dynamic line ratings improve system reliability, as they allow operators to make fewer corrections in system dispatch, while providing advance warnings of impending thermal/capacity problems. They save money by fully utilizing transmission assets. Aivaliotis says that operators can transmit up to 30% more power over 90% of the time. This extra capacity can be used to manage delays in line construction and management of the network during major system disruptions. DLRs are an enabling technology for more effective use of renewable energy. For example, wind farm production is often limited by transmission constraints. Production is highest when the wind is blowing. That same wind increases the capacity of the transmission system. DLR is the key to unlocking its full capacity.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Smart grid architecture will develop as a composite of many system and subsystem architectures. This will allow for maximum flexibility during implementation and will simplify interfacing with other systems. It also supports evolution of smart grid as new applications and technologies become feasible.

To support the standards development process, the GridWise Architecture Council (GWAC) created an eight-layer model. The model illustrates the many levels of standards and technologies required to support end-to-end interoperability.

As you can see in the figure, end-to-end interoperability involves everything from the electrical connections at the bottom of the stack to the regulatory environment at the top. Levels 1-2 involve standard connections across the myriad of grid components and communication networks. Levels 3-4 insure that the meaning of data and information remains intact as it flows across different elements. Levels 5-6-7 deal with the business and organizational issues of interconnected systems. Level 8 points to the need for a regulatory environment that does not impede the interoperability of systems.

The GWAC Stack is a means to identify well-known interfaces. Unambiguous interfaces are essential to interoperability. This s demonstrated on the Internet which has a physical and data link layer that allows messages to cross any type of network (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, microwave, optical) and still be managed end-to-end by a common network layer. On the Internet, protocols such as TCP/IP handle the transport details making sure that data packets get to their destination correctly, while higher level protocols such as HTTP and XML structure the message so that it can be interpreted properly at each end of the network.

Source: GWAC Interoperability Context, March 2008
http://www.gridwiseac.org/pdfs/interopframework_v1_1.pdf 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

• switching power through fully automated substations
• re-routing power around bottlenecked lines
• detecting power outages
• proactively identifying outage risks
• automating three of four distribution substations
• automating four computer monitored power feeders
• monitoring 23 feeders for voltage irregularities

A grid monitoring system, installed by CURRENT Group has helped avert four power outages by alerting Xcel operators to transformers that were ready to fail. Not a bad start to Xcel's "grid optimization" efforts.

I live in Boulder and have applied to be a beta tester for Xcel's next phase of development which will include demand response programs, in-home displays, and other energy-saving devices. We'll see what happens. --JCB

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 02:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

While most storage systems remain very expensive, pumped hydro and compressed air are cost-effective today. Pumped hydro is well established and makes hydroelectric power one of the most dispatchable of all fuel sources. With a storage option, hydroelectric production can be turned up or down in minutes (see post). Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is in an earlier stage of development but is starting to see commercial pilots and deployments. Both have limitations in terms of location. Hydro needs a vertical drop and plenty of land for the storage reservoir. Compressed air needs favorable geological strata deep underground (see post).

The smart grid will provide the communication and software solutions to make large-scale storage systems work. Their charge and discharge cycles need to be tightly managed to match charging with periods of excess power and to match discharging with optimal periods of demand. In a dynamic pricing environment, this is no easy task.

Utility-scale storage is a natural match for utility-scale renewable generation.

In the case of wind power, excess power generated when the wind is blowing (often at night, off-peak) can be used to charge any of these systems (CAES is illustrated above). An effective storage system can make wind dispatchable, greatly increasing its value to utilities. The combination of dynamic pricing and intermittent generation requires sophisticated modeling tools. To meet future needs, advanced wind forecast models are under development at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

Utility-scale storage systems promise to increase efficiency by better matching supply with demand. They will increase reliability by smoothing out power fluctuations. And they will increase stability by providing ride-through during short power disruptions.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The current strategy for matching supply with demand is to build a certain percentage of generating capacity using gas turbines that can quickly be turned up or down as needed. These plants are quite expensive given that they are not needed very often. The classic situation is the utility that spends $250 million for a plant that is used ten days a year for a hour or two each day. You can guess that a “peaker plant” such as this is very expensive per kilowatt-hour. When we amortize the plant's expense over 10-100 hours of operation per year, we are producing very expensive electricity.

Because almost all utilities in the US charge flat rates, those extremely expensive kWh's get averaged in with the low-cost baseload kWh's and consumers never experience the true cost of peak power. If that peak power is essential, then it is worth every dollar. However, when it is used to raise idle hot water tanks from 110 to 120 degrees on hot sunny afternoons, then it is a bad deal for consumers. If enough demand on those few superpeak days can be shifted to a few hours later in the day, then the entire cost of a $250M power plant can be avoided. Everybody wins with a more intelligent system.

Peaker plants usually make up part of the utility's “spinning reserve.” Just as banks are required to have a certain percentage of cash on hand to cover unexpectedly high withdrawals, utilities are required by law to have a certain percentage of spinning reserve capacity. The plant has to be “spinning” so the generators can be switched on instantly to provide power in case of unexpectedly high demand. Spinning reserve is even worse than an idle plant because it is burning fuel and emitting CO2. Think of having your car on the driveway with its engine running for several hours per day just in case you need a quick get-away. Luckily cars start up fast enough that we don't have to go through what utilities go through every afternoon.

Large capital investments with low utilization rarely make economic sense in a free market. GTM Research (2009) estimates that the capital cost necessary to build 1 MW of demand response capacity is roughly $240,000. This is a bargain compared to the approximately $400,000 (prorated) cost to build 1 MW of a natural gas plant. Analysts have estimated that reducing peak demand can save approximately 40GW of electricity and $3 billion dollars annually.

More intelligent management of peak demand requires both technology improvements to support demand response and regulatory change so that utilities can pass through their actual cost of generation based on time of day. This will allow the market function as it should by letting consumers decide whether they want to buy power during those periods when prices go to superpeak.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Fort Collins has been a leader in many areas of sustainability but John said the city's wake-up call for electricity was its historical trendline showing a period of 44% population growth to be matched by 74% energy growth and more than 100% growth in peak electrical demand. Managing peak demand has a major impact on the average price of electricity. The city government knew those trendlines were not sustainable. They certainly didn't match up with Fort Collin's growing reputation as one of America's green cities. As a result, Fort Collins Utilities has recently added the objectives of energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) to their historical policy objectives of reliability and low cost.

John said that he has personally looked at dozens of studies on potential savings from energy efficiency. They vary in small ways but always come to the same conclusions:

• EE is the lowest cost resource, bar none
• EE savings compound over time, so small savings add up
  
• EE programs never get the participation expected from economic models, so we cannot expect to achieve 100% of the theoretically possible benefits.
  

John shared his thoughts about some fundamental aspects of energy efficiency saying that:

• EE requires capital investment, you have to spend some money to save even more
  
• EE savings are fragmented into thousands of locations and millions of end-uses across the city
  
• EE has very low mind share across the general population
  
• EE is difficult to measure, if not impossible because we are always comparing our actual data with a projected scenario. The best we can do is make a good estimate. 

There is no "silver bullet" for energy efficiency. Instead, John said that we have to deal with "1000s of Silver BBs". Each small change (or BB) makes a tiny impact, that impact gets added to many other impacts, and each one compounds over time. By making small systemic changes, you can have a major impact over a period of years. 

Major initiatives at Fort Collins Utilities include the following:

• Put EE programs in place and keep building on them
  
• Put green building codes into place including high-performance incentives to go beyond code
• Deploy an advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) for smart grid. With city budget approval, John believes they can deploy AMI in 18-24 months. AMI will then provide Fort Collins with a foundation for smart grid.
  

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Standalone EMS applications are available off-the-shelf at various retailers. These EMS bypass the utility altogether. They connect to the service panel behind the meter, monitor electricity flows, and send data wirelessly to an IHD. Some go a step further by connecting to the LAN, using the broadband connection to support a web portal. Some also add water metering to the mix.

We focus on EMS' designed to use the grid overlay network to connect with the utility EMS and its demand response applications. The full value of residential EMS comes from the utility and consumer working together in ways that promote energy efficiency and allow the utility to shave peak demand by reducing nonessential loads. Residential housing consumes more than one-third of all electricity in the US. Within a typical home, HVAC, appliances, and lighting represent more than 80 percent of electricity use. Equipping these electrical loads with demand response controls saves money for homeowners and the utility. Since electric utilities may also be in the water and gas business, EMS' may provide water and gas monitoring and reporting through the same application.

All components of the EMS communicate through the home area network (HAN) operating wirelessly or through power lines. Depending on its design and functionality, the EMS may or may not interconnect with the home LAN. Below, we profile some of the residential applications that take advantage of the capabilities of the smart grid and the home area network.

Residential EMS Applications

In-Home Display (IHD). Knowledge is power. The flip side of the smart grid is the smart consumer. In-Home Displays (IHDs) let consumers make informed decisions about their home energy consumption. They help consumers reduce their energy bills and do good things for the environment.

IHDs are connected to a smart meter (with AMI) to access realtime energy data. This allows utility customers to track their energy usage on a realtime basis and for past periods such as days, months, and years. Formats range from digital text to graphical charts to colorful high/low efficiency indicators. These displays also accept energy control messages from the utility. Messages from the utility can cover energy pricing, demand response events, billing, and more.

The display itself can vary from a tiny screen on a smart thermostat to a larger countertop or wall-mounted unit. Most operate on batteries to make them fully portable. Some have remote controls to move around the house. They use push buttons and/or touch screens to display information and allow control of all functions tied to the EMS. A key success factor for these devices is offering a simple user interface and a stylish appearance. They also need to be inexpensive. Cost-control is important for the entire suite of EMS devices because utilities may need to purchase quantities that will scale into the millions.

Web Portal. Web portals are popular in the residential environment because they let consumers adjust their energy usage while away from home. This can be convenient when you've rushed off to work without turning off the lights or you've left for vacation and forgot to adjust the thermostat.

Using standardized internet protocols, web access also means smartphone access. The smartphone market now exceeds 100 million consumers in the US and is growing rapidly. More and more people are relying on their phone for basic web functionality. With some EMS products, the same portal is used on the PC and on the mobile phone. In more advanced designs, the EMS includes a mobile portal customized for its small screen size.

Smart Thermostat. US consumers spend about $2,000 per year on energy bills. Heating and cooling accounts for about half of total household energy consumption and about one-third of electricity consumption.

Smart thermostats often appear to be positioned at the center of residential EMS because of their potentially high impact on energy efficiency. Even though most US homes are heated with natural gas or other fossil fuels, about one-third are heated electrically. In these homes, heat consumes more than 50% of total household electricity. Most homes in the US are air conditioned with electrical power. Air conditioning consumes about 16% of total household electricity. It accounts for a significant percentage of peak demand on hot summer afternoons.

Most digital thermostats are programmable to provide night time set-backs, day-of-week scheduling, and vacation mode. That may be one definition of smart, but it is not what we are talking about. What we refer to as a smart thermostat is one that is connected to the smart grid through the utility's AMI network. It communicates across the network with the utility's demand response application. An example can illustrate.

On a hot summer afternoon with millions of homes air conditioned at 72 degrees, the local utility can run low on power. To avoid a brownout, it will be forced to buy the needed power at peak prices. Smart thermostats work with the utility's demand response (DR) application to accept electronic requests to reduce electrical demand. For example, the utility DR application might ask the thermostat to change its set-point from 72 degrees to 76 degrees. Yes, it gets a little warmer in the house after an hour, but this may be acceptable if it puts money back into the household budget. If grandma is visiting, she can override the DR signal right on the thermostat (or IHD) using its remote opt-out capability. Most demand response events last only a hour or so. The DR application will reset the thermostat to its original set-point as soon as the utility sees its peak demand safely dropping off.

(Smart) Hot Water. Resistance heating is a major user of residential electricity. You see resistance heating in toasters and electric stovetops when the heating elements get red hot. Devices such as electric ranges, ovens, hot-water heaters, and space heaters are part of the long list of resistance heating equipment. Compared to air, water stores a lot of energy. So heating water requires a lot of electricity. This makes electric hot water tanks and dishwashers major users of household users of electricity. Dishwashers preheat their water and heat up the air afterwords to dry the dishes.

Water heating presents a significant electrical load. It makes up almost ten percent of total residential electrical demand. When tied to the utility demand response application, the temperature for hot water heating appliances can be turned down for short periods. This keeps the heating element from turning on and sheds an important part of the utility's electrical load. Hot water tanks are ideal candidates for dispatchable demand response because in most cases, turning down the temperature a few degrees won't ever be noticed in the household. Smart hot water water tanks will be very high-efficiency and connected to the smart grid with a demand-response controller.

There are about 60 Million U.S. homes with electric hot water heaters, if just 10 percent are converted to high-efficiency models, it would save billions of kilowatt-hours annually. If they also have demand-response control, the cost savings will far greater to higher peak pricing.

Other (Smart) Appliances. Although there are a number of smart-plug products that can endow legacy appliances with the networking and monitoring abilities required for the smart grid, these don't provide the fine-tuned capabilities that can be offered when the controller is fully integrated into the appliance. A new generation of appliances will be coming out in 2010 and 2011 that are designed to work with smart grid applications.

GE and Whirlpool, for example, are planning a full line of appliances designed to be connected to the home EMS and the smart grid. These include refrigerators, washers, dryers, ranges, dishwashers, and microwaves. All of these appliances will report usage to the EMS and coordinate with utility DR applications.

For example, GE's demand-response refrigerator can make adjustments to its settings based on time-of-use (TOU) price signals from the utility. It can also reduce its consumption significantly by deciding when to run the defrost cycle. Refrigerators normally defrost themselves based on how often the door is opened and closed. They start the defrost cycle as its sensors indicate, whatever the time of day. Energy costs can be reduced by running the defrost cycle and making ice, in the middle of the night when electricity demand and prices are low. GE has said that these capabilities only add $10 to the cost of the appliance but cut electrical use by 20 percent. That's a small premium for the typical $1,000 refrigerator and results in a payback period under two years.

Smart Plugs. Since smart appliances are still more of a thing of the future, consumers need a way to make legacy appliances work with their EMS. Smart plugs are simple devices that insert between an electrical appliance and a standard wall outlet. They come in different sizes to handle small or large loads. These plugs measure and control whatever is plugged into them. At minimum, they report power usage to the EMS. At best they communicate with utility DR applications through the smart grid to help shed loads during peak periods. Essentially these plugs turn legacy appliances into smart appliances.

EV Charging and V2G Storage. With tight budgets, energy security, and climate mitigation on their mind, consumers are gravitating towards high-efficiency vehicles. If automotive analysts are correct, we will put tens of millions of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) on the road in the next two decades. This makes the batteries in these vehicles potentially available for buffering peak electrical demand using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) storage. Most EVs will be charged at night and will store enough power to let the utilities draw on battery power during peak demand. A DOE study found that the idle capacity of today’s electric power grid could supply 70% of the energy needs of today’s cars and light trucks without adding to generation or transmission capacity—IF the vehicles are charged during off-peak times.” DOE estimates the potential benefits to include: 1) displacement of about half of U.S. net oil imports, 2) reduction in U.S. carbon emissions by about 25 percent, and 3) reductions in emissions of urban air pollutants of 40 percent to 90 percent.

These benefits won't be achieved unless EVs are supplied with smart charging stations to ensure that daily charging is done at night at the lowest cost power. A challenge will be the development of smart charging stations that balance the customer's need for driving range with the utility's desire to borrow power during peak periods. It may seem futuristic but by next year, Nissan's Leaf will have many of the components needed for connection to the smart grid. This car includes network connectivity so that drivers can use their smart phones to modify charging preferences, reset the air conditioning temperature, or ask Nissan to run remote diagnostics.

What difference can a car battery can make? A lot. There is a lot of power packed into electric cars. We're not talking about today's car batteries. By 2020, EV battery packs should be able to store 100kWh. That's enough juice to power the electrical needs of several of your neighbors' homes for 24 hours. Since the utilities will draw power only to cover peak demand, the power stored in one EV can go a long ways.

Distributed Generation. Distributed generation is the opposite of centralized generation via gigantic power plants. It implies generation of small amounts of power close to the point of use. It employs small-scale power generation technologies typically in the range of 3-10 kW for residential applications and up to 10,000 kW for commercial applications. The power generated is used to provide a supplement to the electric power from the grid. Distributed generation reduces the amount of electricity lost during transmission because the power is generated very near where it is used, usually in the same building. For the utility, this reduces the size and number of power lines that must be financed and constructed.

Distributed generation has experienced high costs in the past. Technology breakthroughs for wind, solar, and small gas turbines make these sources more cost competitive every year. Government subsidies help make up the difference. Well-intentioned consumers use solar and wind as part of their sustainability and carbon-reduction efforts. Although payback periods can exceed 10 years, they make economic sense for anyone committed to long-term energy reduction and long-term savings. Homeowners can essentially lock-in part of their energy costs for 20-30 years. A well-designed distributed generation system has low maintenance costs. Manufacturer warranties on solar panels typically run for 25 years.

Within the residential segment, grid-tied, roof-top solar PV is growing rapidly in sunny regions of the US. Small wind turbines are gaining ground on farms and ranches. Solar thermal is also popular, but is used to generate heat or hot water rather than electricity.

In grid-tied systems, utilities use a net meter to track surplus electricity not consumed by the home. The surplus power feeds into the grid distribution system where it is used by neighboring homeowners. Depending on contract terms with the utility, the net meter is set up so that the utility gives full retail price credits to the homeowner. A future point of contention will be whether utilities should pay for power based on TOU pricing. If so, it would give a big edge to solar PV since it generates at peak capacity during the day when the utility experiences intermediate and peak demand.

While the most common rooftop solar applications today use silicon-based PV panels. Thin-film technologies are rapidly catching up. They lower up-front investment costs but also offer lower efficiency (requiring more space on the rooftop). But costs for thin-film are dropping rapidly and efficiencies are going up. One advantage is that thin-film can be more easily integrated into roofing products. That allows it to be integral with the building architecture rather than just bolted on.

DOE analyses have shown that in a best case scenario, the US could see installed rooftop solar generation rising from about 2,000 MW in 2008 to almost 25,000 MW in 2015. Utilities will need smart grid technologies in the sensor network to make sure this electricity gets used as efficiently as possible. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 05:02 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Commercial environments for energy management systems (EMS) are far more complex than residential environments. They are characterized by large scale, multiple tenants, diverse uses, and are often professionally managed by a full-time facilities staff.

Commercial EMS Applications

BMS' generally have a sophisticated user-interface that brings together its many functions and for control by security and facilities management. This may include an energy dashboard that bring together its energy control and usage functions. The most sophisticated systems will include diagnostic tools to alert facilities staff to potential problems.

BMS' can be configured to use (dynamic) time-of-use (TOU) pricing to shed non-critical loads to maximize energy savings during peak pricing periods. Some utilities give commercial customers TOU pricing if they have a smart meter installed. The utility may charge $0.11/kWh at peak, $0.07/kWh at intermediate, and $0.04/kWh during off-peak times. Shifting energy use into lower priced periods saves money for the customer and the utility.

Major suppliers of BMS include Siemens, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, and others. All of these companies are developing extensions to make their software compatible with the smart grid. Standardized communication paths and data protocols are needed to integrate systems within the building and to tie the building to the smart grid. These standards will be important for both utilities and commercial customers.

Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) may be controlled by the BMS or by a demand-response subsystem supplied by the utility. Such controllers are complex because the building may be divided into many zones with different temperature thresholds. For example, mechanical rooms and store rooms will have different conditioning parameters than medical treatment rooms and general office space.

Lighting Control applications manage interior and exterior lighting which makes up a significant proportion of total electrical energy consumed. In homes and offices it represents 20 to 50 percent of the electrical load. Lighting represents a critical component of commercial energy use and is often controlled by standalone applications or through integration with the BMS.

Lighting control systems consist of computers, sensors, and controllers that operate the lighting in a building. There are applications in the residential space, but lighting control is much more important in commercial buildings because it is often the largest consumer of electricity. For some commercial buildings over 90 percent of lighting energy consumed may be unnecessary due to over-illumination. Lighting control interfaces (standalone or in the BMS) provide the ability to raise or lower lighting levels throughout the building. The major advantage in commercial applications is the ability to control all lights on all floors in all buildings from a single interface. In addition, lighting can be controlled automatically based on events such as time of day, day of week, room occupancy, and many other conditions.

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) can provide short-term energy storage. A battery-based UPS provides emergency power that lasts anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for small loads. A rotary UPS uses the inertia of a high-mass spinning flywheel to provide short-term ride-through in the event of power loss. The batteries and flywheels also act as a buffer against power spikes and sags. UPS' are commonly used to manage power quality by conditioning the line for highly sensitive electronic equipment.

Backup Power. Today, most commercial consumers see backup generators as their only viable means of “energy storage.” Backup generators are designed to start within seconds of a utility power outage. They supply power to the most important electrical circuits in the building. After utility power returns, the electrical load is automatically transferred back to the utility and the generator shuts off. Most commercial units run on diesel or natural gas. They are increasingly required by commercial building codes to support safety and security during power outages.

Backup generators cannot start instantly. This prevents them from providing realtime protection from momentary power loss. In some cases the UPS is designed to carry the load for just a few minutes until the backup generator can be turned on.

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Storage. Major car manufacturers are developing electric vehicles (EVs) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) for launch in 2010-11. If analysts are correct, we will put tens of millions of PHEVs and EVs on the road in the next two decades. This makes the batteries in these vehicles potentially available for buffering peak electrical demand. EVs will be supplied with home-based smart charging stations that make sure that normal daily charging is done at night. In scenarios for commercial distributed generation, EVs will be topped off with power during the day by plugging them into solar panels in the company parking lot. These cars can charge themselves in the morning and then give some of the power back to the commercial building (or the utility) during the afternoon peak. Revenue sharing agreements between the employer (or building owners) and employees will be needed to equitably divide the benefits.

Thermal energy storage (not electrical) is the most cost-effective storage application based on current technology. In the future, V2G, hydrogen fuel cell generators, flywheels, and new battery systems show promise. In the smart grid, distributed energy storage represents another option for utilities to reduce peak demand by drawing on stored energy at critical points in time. Whatever its form, there is no doubt that distributed energy storage will grow in the future as new technologies are developed and commercialized.

Distributed Generation. Among commercial customers, distributed generation varies from putting up a token number of solar panels over the main entrance as a marketing ploy to investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in significant generating capacity.

As in the residential sector, rooftop solar PV is a common application. Commercial buildings often have large expanses of unshaded, flat roofs ideal for roof-mounted solar. Ground mounts can also be used where the land is spacious. Parking lots represent a great opportunity. Solar-PV can be combined with car-ports and parking garages to take advantage of the solar radiation that otherwise turns the parking lot into a heat island.

Southern California Edison (SCE) plans to install solar PV covering two square miles of existing commercial roofs with a total of 250 MW of capacity. Big-box stores such as Walmart and Kohl's are now generating a meaningful percentage of their electricity from solar and lowering their operating costs.

Rooftop wind is gaining attention among commercial customers but still faces questions about economic feasibility. Some new turbine designs are engineered for the gusty and turbulent conditions found on building rooftops. In partnership with MIT, the Boston Museum of Science put up several different rooftop wind turbines to compare their feasibility. Theoretically, these systems are well suited to the flat rooftops common on warehouses. The jury is still out on whether rooftop wind will be cost effective. Where land and wind are plentiful and high-rise towers are permitted, large commercial wind turbines can be installed. These are based on the same designs as used in utility-scale wind farms. Larger turbines are more cost-effective but they also require large initial investments and more specialized maintenance. For favorable sites, large wind turbine generation is less expensive than solar PV. In many cases, however, rooftop solar offers a better fit with commercial buildings.

Other technologies used for distributed generation include microhydro, bioenergy, fuel cells, gas microturbines, hydrogen, combined heat and power, and hybrid power systems. DOE's Distributed Energy Program website has the details.

I know that recent posts are getting long-winded, but we are laying a broad foundation for deeper analysis. Next we'll cover the residential side of smart grid energy management systems. With all the major applications identified, we'll be able to go deeper into the implications for privacy and security.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:58 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The complex distributed network to manage the smart grid involves grid optimization, automated transmission and distribution, and SCADA networks as part of the supply chain of bringing electric power to the consumer. Demand response systems and AMI networks enable new opportunities for peak energy shaving and shifting. Supporting systems include customer care and billing as well as mobile workforce management and asset management. New enterprise applications will require greater integration than in the past. Security will need to be improved to face new threats, both from external sources and from within the enterprise.

Below, we profile some of the utility enterprise applications that will need to be replaced or evolved to respond to the increasing level of sophistication of the grid.

Utility Enterprise Applications

Grid Optimization refers to the set of applications that automate the grid's sensor and control network. These typically include Transmission, Substation, and Distribution Automation along with the SCADA network. Together these applications provide the grid operations center with a realtime view of where the power is flowing, at what voltages, where the bottlenecks are building, and which lines are getting overheated (and therefore in danger of sagging into nearby trees). They know where power is needed and where an excess is being generated from rooftop solar systems. For example, Distribution Management Systems (DMS) can detect an electrical fault, determine its location, and open the nearest available switches to isolate the problem segment from the rest of the line. After further validation, these applications can automatically close switches to restore power to the undamaged parts of the line. This so called “grid optimization” lets the utility:

• respond to peak demand loads more efficiently
• identify outages more precisely
• restore power more quickly
• switch generation to cost-effective and low-carbon fuels
• re-route energy to avoid bottlenecks and unnecessary strain
• eliminate “truck rolls” with automated disconnects, reconnects, and troubleshooting

Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) generally refers to the computer systems for monitoring the flow of power across the grid. Today most utilities use SCADA to monitor their largest assets such as power plants and substations. Demands on SCADA will grow exponentially as the size of the sensor network increases. In the future, potentially millions of sensors and controllers will be deployed. In a smart grid, SCADA evolves beyond monitoring to include control functions. Automation of controls are necessary to provide the smart grid with self-healing capabilities. Functions include:

• Sensor data acquisition
• Real-time analytics
• Remote control of grid devices

Outage Management System (OMS) applications help utilities improve public safety, shorten restoration time, and reduce the costs of outages. This area may integrate several functions including trouble management, outage analysis, operations dispatch, crew management, and safety documentation. OMS functionality may be standalone or be absorbed into other grid optimization applications. Functions may include:

• Real-time monitoring
• Asset status
• Outage alerts
• Dispatch notification

• Handling multiple types of DR programs
• Remote control of customer premise devices on the HAN
• Verification of load reductions
• Communicate with customer care systems

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Meter Data Management (MDM) handle the greatly increased volume and complexity of meter data. Instead of monthly readings, AMI provides periodic readings around the clock. MDM applications support the loading, validation, editing, and estimation of meter data. Due to the very high volumes of data logged by smart meters, new MDM applications must achieve high levels of scalability. MDM may include functions such as:

• Connections to meter systems
• Meter data validation
• Error handling
• Estimations
• Meter data access
• Meter inventory management

Load Profiling and Settlement applications are used to settle energy purchases and sales across wholesale electricity markets. They may include functions such as:

• Validating meter data
• Making the necessary interval data calculations
• Automating information flows across applications
• Automate market settlements

• Enrollment in multiple products including multiple DR programs
• Billing for multiple products
• Transaction records and history
• Analytical tools
• General support for engaging with customers

Mobile Workforce Management (MWM) applications help ensure that field service delivery and maintenance are conducted in the most efficient way. Customer service representatives (CSRs), dispatchers, and technicians must be in sync with one another at all times. They need access to realtime status information to keep customers informed as appropriate. MWM applications manage information about service availability and automate field operations via dispatch, scheduling, and routing. Functions may include:

• Dispatch routing
• Automated field operations
• Operating expense management
• Embedded real-time scheduling
  

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) applications provide real-time, enterprise-wide visibility into the status and location of grid assets. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capabilities are often included to support locational awareness. Utilities have a massive investments in plant and equipment. Preventive and efficient maintenance can make a big difference to operations, in terms of productivity and expense control. EAM may include features such as:

• Real-time asset visibility and availability
• Maintenance scheduling
• Cost-tracking
• Capital asset management
• Warranty recovery
• GIS locators and tracking

As can be seen, utility IT data centers and grid operations grow in sophistication and complexity as intelligence is distributed throughout the grid. Enterprise applications will need to be carefully secured from attacks as will other components of the grid. Stay tuned for more discussion of security issues.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:04 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In contrast to the legacy grid, the smart grid will be dominated by an “overlay” of two-way digital networks. Some elements are already in existence, but not on the scale envisioned in the smart grid. These new networks will be constructed using a broad array of technologies including fiber optics, hybrid-fiber coax, twisted pair, broadband over power line (BPL), and wireless technology such as WiMAX, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and 3G cellular (see smart grid communication discussion).

There is a lot at stake. The smart grid can help us achieve nationally important goals such as energy security, climate mitigation, and technology leadership. But at the same time, the smart grid must help protect:

• Electricity flows (business continuity and society in general)
• Physical security of grid (electronic disruption of surveillance systems)
• Quality of service (voltage fluctuations, brownouts, etc.)
• Integrity of AMI and grid overlay networks (intrusion protection)
• Personal information (customer privacy)
• Financial flows (fraudulent meter and generation data)

There are many layers in a smart grid network. Each layer will employ a set of technologies chosen for their cost effectiveness considering factors such as functionality, reliability, security, and longevity. For this discussion, we consider several of the layers in a smart grid communication network. We have marked the HAN-AMI connection as layer 1. It may be tightly connected with layer 2, the neighborhood area network (NAN) which connects a number of meters to a data collection/aggregation point. Meter aggregation-to-backhaul is labeled as layer 3. And other networks include #4, the sensor network for transmission and distribution and #5, the backhaul network connecting the other networks with the utility operations center.

Smart Grid Communication Network

Network topologies will vary from utility to utility. In the design of smart grid networks, tradeoffs must and will be made. Urban implementations dictate different technology choices than rural implementations. The AMI layer requires different choices than the backhaul network. Every network layer and every technology represents a potential avenue for attack. Here are some of the major areas of vulnerability:

Legacy grid communications – The legacy grid already uses many different communication paths and protocols to connect utility operation centers with system operators such as ISOs and RTOs. Paths range from public networks such as plain old telephony and the Internet to private networks such as dedicated fiber links and leased microwave connections. A wide variety of data transfer protocols are used. Most existing protocols have some form of vulnerability or another. Some (but not all) of these vulnerabilities are in the process of being mitigated.

AMI security – Advanced meter infrastructure and its network of smart meters provides a foundation for smart grid (layers 1 & 2). With approximately 340 million meters in North America, AMI will represent a large part of the grid-overlay network. Research firm Parks Associates estimates that 8.3M smart meters have been installed in US homes, about 6% penetration. They project rapid growth to 13.6 million smart meters by 2010 and 33 million by 2011. AMI will be composed of many different networks; most of which will not be directly connected to one another. Meters are important not just for their massive numbers, but because they are at the outer edge of the utility's network and must be accessible for ongoing maintenance and operations. Once a meter is compromised it can be used to attack other parts of the network. 

Wireless networks  – Wireless is the preferred communication strategy for HAN and AMI because it offers ubiquitous and inexpensive connectivity. Mesh topologies add to its reliability by offering multi-path connections between in-home devices, meters, and data aggregation points. This applies to layers 1 & 2, and potentially to layer 3. Many of the protocols under consideration are still in the early stages of development. Without more extensive testing, we cannot know whether the manufacturers will implement the meter and AMI network in the most secure way. In the rush to market, it is reasonable to assume that short-cuts will be taken during development and testing.

Substations – Transmission and distribution substations contain many power control devices such as circuit breakers, transformers, capacitors, and monitoring devices. According to the US DOE, most transmission substations (81%) and distribution substations (57%) already have some form of automation (layer 4). Potential consequences of successful substation cyber attacks include the destruction of generators, power outages, and grid instability. The smart grid increases the level of automation in substations. Increasing the number of electronic control elements increases the potential vulnerabilities.

Sensor networks – Because grid optimization is an important part of the smart grid business case, the size of the sensor will grow rapidly. The new sensors will enhance the situational awareness of the grid and enable operators to react to power anomalies more quickly. The data collected by these sensors will be used to optimize control of the grid both within a utility and across the national grid. These sensors will help make the grid self-healing but the sensor network itself opens up an additional line of attack. Increasing the scope and scale of the sensor network (further expanding layer 4) increases the number of potential vulnerabilities.

Utility operations centers – The operations center is often ignored in discussions of smart grid security, but it is one of the most important elements of the network. Vulnerabilities can exist in the utility enterprise firewall, its enterprise applications, and/or its operator authentication and training systems. This makes the ops center vulnerable to a top-down attack from an intruder or to an insider-attack from a disgruntled employee. With the ops center having full control over every network element and every power system element, security will be paramount. For major utilities, this is already true today. However, the scale and complexity of enterprise software and data will grow with the smart grid. This further increases the utility's need for a strong electronic security force.

The risk of successful attack is difficult to assess because every part of the smart grid is in motion. The grid itself is in a constant state of evolution and will be for the foreseeable future. There is an ongoing dynamic between new attack methods and the development of new defenses. This can be seen in everyday life on the internet and regular updates to virus databases.

Resistance to attack is one of the defining characteristics of the smart grid vision. There must be a coordinated and ongoing effort to secure the smart grid as it is developed and deployed. This challenge is being taken seriously. NIST, DOE, EPRI, and major utilities are taking the lead. One piece of the puzzle is setting technical standards for different elements of grid security so that manufacturers can produce interoperable equipment. Bringing all these moving parts together will be no easy task. Stay tuned for more coverage.

Reference: http://www.inl.gov/scada/publications/d/securing_the_smart_grid_current_issues.pdf

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 05:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In my last post, I mentioned that we are collaborating with Securosis to take a detailed look at end-to-end security across the smart grid. I told you they were really good and that I was excited about the collaboration. Now that I have a few minutes to spare I can tell you why.

Rich and I go way back. I was a professor at the University of Colorado for eleven years through 1998. As a teacher, good students come and go. On the Boulder campus, I was lucky to have a lot of great students in my information technology classes. Many have gone on to build great high-tech companies.

Every few years, however, you get someone in class who is so talented and so much fun that you don't want to let them go. That's how I feel about Rich. He's got world-class talent, high integrity, and he's too much fun to let go. Over the past dozen years Rich and I have collaborated to produce online training for O'Reilly, start a successful e-commerce business, build a client-base in Europe, and rock the establishment at Gartner. And we had a blast working together on each project. Needless to say, I am thrilled to have Rich's firm as our research partner on grid security. As you read Securosis' work in the weeks ahead you'll see why. Below you can read the blurb Rich wanted me to post, but now you know the story behind our collaboration.

Securosis is an information security research and advisory firm dedicated to transparency, objectivity, and quality. It was founded in 2007 by Rich Mogull, who was Research Vice President at Gartner. Securosis works with some of the biggest (and smallest) companies in the security industry, providing users, vendors, and investors with clear, pragmatic advice on improving security without breaking the budget.

In upcoming posts Rich and I will lay out our research agenda and outline our report(s). Please read Rich's kick-off post at the Securosis blog. But do me a favor and skip the first few paragraphs. ;-)

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Electricity is fundamental to modern life. It fuels our government, the military, our hospitals, businesses, and homes. In the future it may power significant parts of our transportation fleet. Glancing at the figure, it's hard to imagine social continuity without a reliable supply of electricity.

Concern about grid security is nothing new. There has long been a danger from terrorists blowing up key substations and taking out large blocks of electricity consumers. The US federal government admits that the legacy grid is also susceptible to electronic attacks from cyberspace. In 2009, reports surfaced that unidentified assailants had infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind programs that could be used to disrupt the system.

The vulnerability of the grid represents a threat to national security and business continuity. Maintaining electrical service in the event of a crisis is crucial. Major military bases can isolate themselves from the grid and run off their own private generators and microgrids. But even the military would experience disruptions from civilian supply breakdowns in the event of regional blackouts. Businesses are the lifeblood of the economy and need to be able to continue operations. The economic impact of a grid failure can be enormous. The economic losses attributed to the 2003 blackout were at least $10 billion.

Given its reliance on digital networks, there is concern that smart grid will be even more vulnerable to cyber attack. Massive power outages caused by a cyber attack, could disrupt the economy, camouflage a military attack, or spread fear and panic. Bruce Willis' movie Die Hard 4 brought the specter of grid hijacking to the mass Hollywood audience. When designed properly, nothing like the movie will ever happen.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 directs federal agencies to support the modernization of the grid, including cyber security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) works with the utility industry to identify and minimize grid vulnerabilities. They are also working to ensure that security is built into the smart grid as it develops. The top-level regulator, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), coordinates work across agencies. The Department of Energy (DOE) specifically requires all smart grid projects funded with stimulus dollars to include privacy and security measures in their proposals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is working with the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) to set standards for smart grid development. Together, they are responsible for leading the effort to establish electronic security standards.

AMI ties together the meters on the smart grid for a given utility and a given service territory. One of the things that makes a new digital meters “smart” is the ability to transmit and receive information from its (private) digital network connection. The network connection is used to read the meter remotely. In older designs, utility meter readers would drive down the street with a digital receiver automatically recording data from each meter. In the smart grid, these readings will be sent upstream through the grid's digital overlay network for permanent recording at the utility operation center. Data capture, transmission, and recording leads to concerns about privacy.

Privacy. Smart Grid technology potentially lets your utility know who, what, when, where, how much electrical stuff you are doing inside your home. Instead of simply logging a running total for electricity usage, smart meters will log data with a date, time, and usage every 15 to 60 minutes. They will also collect power quality data such as voltage, phase, and frequency. They can also gather detailed operating information from networked thermostats, smart appliances, vehicle chargers, and anything else on the home area network.

This is all for the good. The utility can use this information to help its customers reduce their energy use and save money. Appliance manufacturers will be able to remotely diagnose problems so they can send a repair professional with the right parts. Medical device manufacturers will do the same. Over time, the scope and scale of organizations wanting access to meter data will grow (think law enforcement, public safety, social services, insurance companies, etc.). But where there is light, there is dark. And it's the bad guys we worry about.

Smart grid surveillance will be a concern to consumers wishing to maintain a high degree of privacy. But it should be a concern to anyone who might not want the bad guys to know when they are away from home. Access to meter data gives potential burglars an electronic profile of daily activities otherwise hidden inside the home. The bad guys would be able to “case the joint” remotely. In competitive electricity markets, competing utilities could try to get this data for industrial espionage to attract and retain the most profitable customers. Just as the Internet enabled new threats such as identity-theft, the future will bring new ways to exploit meter data.

Security. Going beyond privacy, the current generation of smart meters have much more functionality than old ones. Burglars, terrorists, and others with political agendas could use unauthorized access to AMI command and control systems to disrupt the delivery of services, create blackouts, disrupt load balancing commands, or create fear and panic. Crackers may be interested in breaking into command and control systems for personal satisfaction and/or bragging rights.

Some utilities will use the meter network connection to connect and disconnect electrical service. It's a money-saving extension to meter reading. This leads to speculation about the potential for “drive-by blackouts” in which a vehicle-mounted device could break into a wireless meter network and send commands to shut-off service. Since the meter network is localized at the neighborhood level, these would be relatively small-scale problems. If the attackers were to break into the network at the utility operations center, disconnect commands could (theoretically) be issued system-wide. Even still, electricity distribution is highly decentralized across thousands of utilities. So an attack on one utility will not necessarily take out other utilities.

With proper security in place, smart meter deployments and grid optimization should make the grid stronger and more resilient. Much of the grid is already automated but with older technology that may not be able to withstand new types of electronic threats. The smart grid's advanced capabilities will allow utilities to anticipate problems and mitigate its effects on the system. It will support broad use of distributed generation and storage. These will give some customers the capability to operate in island mode, isolating themselves from the public grid.

There is a lot of work to do in the area of grid security and privacy. It is crucial to confront and solve problems during the development phase. It won't be easy, but given that we successfully run our government, the military, our hospitals, and businesses on computer and communications technology, we have the intelligence and the technology to surmount similar challenges on the smart grid.

Stay tuned for continuing in-depth analysis of grid security. Carbon-Pros is pleased to announce that we are partnering with Securosis for in-depth security research on the smart grid. These guys are good! This is an exciting collaboration, details will be announced soon. Meanwhile check out their blog at securosis.com/blog.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 05:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Telecommunications technology is advancing so rapidly that there is considerable FUD factor (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) in the idea of locking in your communications strategy for 20 years. So the Telco says to the Utilityco: no worries, just outsource your grid communications to us!

Given the past problems with BPL and the expense of optical cable, wireless is attractive for avoiding the expense of adding relays and/or stringing new cable. Last week, we reviewed ZigBee as the emerging standard for short-range, wireless networks in the home and for aggregating data across the meters in a neighborhood. Here, we review the use of 3G cellular networks for wireless smart grid connectivity.

Third-generation (3G) cellular networks carry high-speed data as well as voice. They give your smartphone the ability to do email and surf the web. 3G is a collection of communication technologies including GSM EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, and CDMA2000 (details on Wiki). 3G supports data rates up to 14.4 megabits for downlink and 5.8 megabits for uplink. You'll never see these speeds on your smartphone, those speeds apply to stationary devices such as will be used on the grid. The two largest wireless carriers in the US use different versions of 3G. AT&T uses UMTS and Verizon Wireless uses CDMA2000. As you know from switching cell phone providers, their gear is not interoperable. Standards groups are already working on the next-generation (4G) which uses an all-IP infrastructure and achieves gigabit speeds

Smart grid deployments use the cellular network for machine-to-machine communication (M2M). This market it heating up. Verizon Wireless and Qualcomm have formed a joint venture to provide M2M wireless services to a wide range of markets including medical monitoring, consumer electronics, and utilities.

One approach is to embed tiny cell phone SIM cards into the meters. The meter uses the SIM card to communicate with software applications on the network and at the utility operations center. In some architectures, groups of meters will communicate via powerline with one meter acting as a router and using its SIM card to send data from the group to the utility backhaul network. Another approach is to use short-range wireless to aggregate a group of meters and put the cellular connection on the meter aggregator. The strength of cellular is the ability to install a connection anywhere it is needed on the grid. This could be at the meter, aggregator, substation, or anywhere in between. The architecture will vary for urban and rural environments.

3G cellular networks may be the fastest way for utilities to deploy a digital network. Major wireless carriers can connect grid assets such as meters, breakers, transformers and substations directly to the utility operations center. This minimizes up-front deployment costs and turns over network maintenance to the carrier who can do it cost-effectively. That said, the tilities are accustomed to financing infrastructure on 40-year life cycles. They know that in the long-run, it may be cheaper to build and own their own network. Cellular may prove too expensive to become the dominant solution but it will certainly be valuable for some utilities in some parts of their network. And if the wireless carriers drop their rates low enough, they could become major players.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Wi-Fi has a lot going for it, but is still searching for a clear role in the smart grid. It is too expensive and power-hungry for many types of meters, sensors, and switches but it lacks the range to serve as a general-purpose backhaul network (with the exception high-density urban areas). Wi-Fi falls short of ZigBee inside the home and it falls short of WiMAX across the neighborhood. Different companies are working on solving both of these problems.

SkyPilot, makes a turbo-charged version of Wi-Fi that promises a range of up to 10 miles. That might remind you of WiMAX. Indeed, SkyPilot takes standard Wi-Fi chips and makes them look like WiMAX in terms of range and capacity. This development potentially puts Wi-Fi into the meter aggregation, backhaul part of the network. If Wi-Fi proves reliable in this role, it could be less expensive than cellular or WiMAX.

Trilliant supplies radio communications cards that go into meters and software for utilities to run these networks. Trilliant recently purchased SkyPilot. Trilliant said the acquisition complements its short-range technology (based on Zigbee) to link meter collection points.

Tropos places 1-2 Wi-Fi routers per square mile (less dense than a municipal Wi-Fi network). The Wi-Fi devices sit between the meter and the utility operations center. Tropos' equipment works with smart-meters from Itron, Elster and Echelon.

Cisco has been building municipal Wi-Fi networks since 2005 and plans to incorporate energy management features into Wi-Fi access points and other devices. They will certainly look at outdoor Wi-Fi networks as an adjacent market opportunity.

Duke Energy, the giant utility, has said it is planning to use Wi-Fi in its suite of communication technologies but they have not announced the details.

Wi-Fi is also being positioned to challenge ZigBee in the home-area-network (HAN). GainSpan, with funding from Intel, is producing a low-power Wi-Fi system-on-chip. It targets applications such as energy management and building automation using battery powered devices. This is right on top of ZigBee's space.

For now, Wi-Fi will retain its current role as the leading technology for wireless LANs. It remains a dark-horse within the smart grid communications landscape. We'll keep an eye on it, as this race is far from over.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

ZigBee is a registered trademark of the ZigBee Alliance, the industry association and standards body which guides definition of the protocols and promotes applications. For example, it publishes technical application profiles to assist suppliers in creating interoperable products. To give you and idea of the range of ZigBee applications, current profiles include:

• Home Automation
• ZigBee Smart Energy
• Commercial Building Automation
• Telecommunication Applications
• Personal, Home, and Hospital Care

ZigBee operates in the ISM radio bands of 915MHz in the US, 868MHz in Europe, and 2.4 GHz in most jurisdictions worldwide. New designs placing all functionality on one chip reduce ZigBee's footprint and increase its reliability. The cost of this system-on-chip (SoC) is expected to fall to a few dollars at volume.

ZigBee's role in the smart grid will be to power the home area network (HAN) and related networks for commercial and industrial buildings. In the residential sector, this includes in-home displays, thermostats, plugs, appliances, electric vehicle chargers, and utility meter(s). ZigBee will also support home automation, home health monitoring, and security systems but those applications should not be confused with smart grid applications.

The ZigBee Smart Energy Profile defines the standard behaviors of smart grid devices. Utilities could potentially use it as their primary standard for AMI-HAN communication. Tendril Networks, GridPoint, Itron, and many other smart grid suppliers employ ZigBee in their customer premise equipment. Due to its broad scope, ZigBee could become the defacto global standard for sensor and control networks.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

WiMAX supports long range connections, covering 10s of kilometers, similar to a cell phone tower. It uses licensed or unlicensed spectrum to deliver point-to-point connections. IEEE 802.16 standards define mobile and fixed access. Typical speeds are on the order of 1-3 megabits. WiMAX is an emerging technology. Unit costs are in the 100's of dollars.

Wi-Fi supports short range connections, covering 10s of meters. It uses unlicensed spectrum to provide access to a local area network (LAN), typically covering a home, small office, or a public space. It is based on IEEE 802.11 standards. Wi-Fi is often used to access a private network, which is usually connected to the Internet. Typical speeds are on the order of 10-100 megabits. Wi-Fi is ubiquitous and is embedded in desktop computers, laptops, printers, smartphones, gaming devices, and others. Unit costs are in the 10's of dollars.

ZigBee also supports short-range connections, covering 10s of meters. It is based on IEEE 802.15 standards and engineered for use in low-bandwidth applications where cost, battery life, and security are at a premium. ZigBee targets large-scale, low cost deployments such as monitoring and control. Connection speeds are in the range of 10 to 250 kilobits. Batteries can last for years. Unit costs are a few dollars.

If you think of WiMAX connections as similar to cell phones, then Wi-Fi connections are similar to cordless phones, and ZigBee connections are similar to digital watches with wireless heart rate monitors. 

Wi-Fi and WiMAX trade-off range versus speed. Wi-Fi and ZigBee trade-off cost and power consumption versus speed. All three can be successfully combined to take advantage of their complementary strengths. For example, ZigBee can be used to provide local access to tiny devices such as thermostats and light switches. Wi-Fi can be used to provide local access bandwidth-hungry devices such as laptops and home entertainment systems. WiMAX can connect with both and be used to provide long range backhaul capabilities. Together, they form a three-tier wireless wide-area-network. Since the smart grid is designed for sense and control applications, ZigBee and WiMAX make a good combination for utilities. WiMAX eliminates the need for intermediate collection points since it can go directly into the home. Wi-Fi will also be operating within many customer premises, but it will not necessarily interconnect with the ZigBee network unless the utility has specific applications that require it.

There is more to the smart grid connection puzzle than meets the eye. Stay tuned.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

You may have never heard of Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, but you probably have heard of WiMAX. This promising technology might be the solution for providing broadband wireless access over the troublesome “last mile” to the home and office. This technology for broadband wireless access is based on IEEE 802.16 standards. The strength of WiMAX is best understood by comparing it with more mature technologies such as WiFi and 3G cell networks. WiFi, for example, works at high speed but only at short range. It delivers megabit speeds while you are near the access point, but it fails as you move 10 to 20 meters away. 3G cellular networks such as GSM, UMTS, and HSPA work at lower speeds but at much longer range. They are used with smart phones and engineered to emphasize mobility over speed. The chart at the right shows WiMAX falling into a sweet spot between WiFi and the 3G technologies. Given its unique combination of range and speed, WiMAX has promise for many applications:

• Connecting WiFi hotspots to the Internet
• Wireless alternative to cable and DSL for broadband Internet access
• Providing portable connectivity to mobile devices
• Rapid recovery of communication following natural disasters
• Connecting data from meters and home area networks on the smart grid

WiMAX can either operate at higher bitrates (20+ megabits) or over longer distances (20+ miles) but not both. Most WiMAX networks run between 1-3 Mbps. WiMAX has built-in algorithms for reducing contention problems, especially for distant network nodes and during peak traffic periods. Like most wireless systems, available bandwidth is shared between users in a given radio sector, so performance deteriorates with the number of connections in a sector.

The technology has some history and momentum. The WiMAX Forum is the industry association promoting the adoption of WiMAX compatible products and services. One of their major roles is to certify device interoperability across suppliers. Grid Net, backed by GE, is focused on using WiMAX to connect smart meters to utility back offices. GE produces a WiMAX smart meter. Intel produces chips and is a major supporter of the standard.

Even if adopted widely, WiMAX will be deployed alongside other communication technologies. Here is one scenario. Inside the home, ZigBee and/or WiFi appliances connect to a base station and from there to a WiMAX smart meter. The meter connects with a neighborhood WiMAX node. The neighborhood node collects electricity usage from many consumers and relays it to the utility backhaul network for long-distance transport.

Going wireless the last mile offers many advantages. It eliminates the speed bottleneck of broadband powerline (BPL), it can be simpler to install, and it provides a future-proof connection to support utility application bandwidth requirements for decades into the future.

Right now, most utilities are deploying low-bandwidth wireless for the last mile, since its hundred-kilobit speeds are sufficient for today's energy management applications. But as more complex applications are brought online, and as smart meters scale into the tens of millions, extra bandwidth will be required. Grid optimization, for example, requires very fast response times to react to real-time grid sensors and to make instantaneous decisions for routing power across the distribution network.

The catch for utilities is that WiMAX remains a technology of the future, even if it's the near future. Developmental issues include still evolving standards, too few technology suppliers, and limited network deployments. Utilities don't necessarily require widespread national deployment because they can set up their own private network. Lack of national deployments, however, does not inspire confidence.

WiMAX could solve a very important piece of the smart grid communication puzzle. In WiMAX, utilities are exposed to the risks of early adoption. But they can also reward themselves by future-proofing the troublesome last-mile. That's a risk/reward that cuts both ways.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Some of the major telephone companies are rebuilding their copper networks with fiber to the home (FTTH). Telcos justify the investment as a way to retain telephone customers, attract and retain internet customers, and sell new services such as high-definition video on demand. The telcos aging infrastructure based on twisted-pair copper wire is no match for their future bandwidth requirements.

Here are the fiber deployments (FTTH) in North America as of 1Q2009 (source FTTH Council):

• 15.2 million homes passed
• 4.4 million homes connected (~3.3M by telcos, mostly Verizon)
• 2.7 million homes receive video over fiber
• connections growing at 1.5 million homes per year
• “take rate” is an impressive 32%
• annual growth rate is 52%

By contrast, BPL is used in about 5,000 homes. Clearly fiber optics has succeeded in the competitive market where BPL has not. 

Fiber can be used as the backhaul network for BPL. In that case, fiber is brought to a location near each electrical transformer, which blocks BPL signals. If the fiber is close enough, a single device can be used to bridge directly to the customer's electrical service. This potentially makes gigabit speeds available at every AC outlet in the home (or office) using the soon to be available G.hn.

G.hn is the next generation standard for legacy-wire home networking. It achieves gigabit per second sppeds and operates over existing wires for telephone, cable TV and electrical power. This new technology specifies the physical layer for the connection. It contains optimization algorithms that maximize performance when operating over each type of wire. Analysts believe that G.hn-compliant chips will be available during 2010 with equipment available before 2011.

While it will be expensive for utilities to install any type of dedicated line, at least fiber optics poses no bandwidth limitations for the foreseeable future. It is future proof. FTTH will be difficult to cost-justify solely for smart grid applications because most smart grid applications do not currently require high bandwidth. Yet, with utilities accustomed to building infrastructure with 50-year life cycles, fiber fits with their long-range strategic thrust to “build once and build well.” At least in urban areas, you can count on the more farsighted utilities to use fiber as part of their grid overlay.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Current data are revealing (courtesy of Pew Internet). As of 2009, US homes connect to the Internet in the following ways:

• Cable – 41% (46 million households)
• DSL – 33% (37M households)
• Sat/fixed wireless – 17% (19M households)
• BPL is used in about 5,000 households. That's about zero percent.

BPL has failed to achieve meaningful penetration for a number of reasons. First, power lines are inherently noisy. Devices such as switches, relays, transistors, and rectifiers create disturbances on the line. Some devices add harmonics. PLC must be engineered to work around these signaling disruptions. Second, PLC signals cannot readily pass through transformers because they act as line filters, blocking high-frequency signals. Repeaters are needed to bypass every transformer. These often consist of three stages, a filter in series with a protection stage, and a coupler. Third, PLC signals do not propagate long distances necessitating even more repeaters on runs greater than one mile. Fourth, the initial costs for PLC are high and the maintenance costs are uncertain. The cost-benefit is questionable when considering its moderate (mid-band) data transfer speeds. Fourth, PLC can interfere with ham-radio signals and has been confronted with legal challenges from the ham-radio community. Finally, utilities may not have the risk tolerance to compete with telcos. Most operate as regulated monopolies so they tend to become shy when they move outside the regulatory guarantees that insure their profitability.

Even with these obstacles, there is little doubt that PLC/BPL will play a role in the smart grid. It might play a supporting role, however, in combination with other technologies. For example, BPL can be combined with wireless by hanging WiFi (or cellular) access points on utility poles. In Boulder's Smart Grid City, Xcel Energy uses BPL in combination with short-range radio links. BPL carries data from meters, thermostats, and renewable-energy systems. Signals flow along the power lines for about a half-mile before being shunted to a fiber-optic (or cellular) backhaul network.

In the future, BPL will also be used in combination with WiMAX (long-range broadband) networks. So even on the power-line itself, communication is not a simple matter. No one knows for sure which communication technologies will dominate the smart grid. Most utilities will only have one chance to get it right. Stay tuned for more.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:34 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

• http://www.gridweek.com/2009/default.asp
• Major event, don't miss it.

Smart Grid News (SGN)

• http://www.smartgridnews.com/
• Industry news, supplier and product evaluation, company background, well-staffed and written. Want product details and benchmarks? SGN has it. Want the latest news? Register with SGN.
• Noteworthy: SGN's Product Scorecard

Green Tech Media (GTM)

• http://www.greentechmedia.com/channel/gridtech/
• Well organized coverage of smart grid technologies including T&D, AMI, HAN, Storage, and applications. Want relevant news and research? GTM has it.
• Noteworthy: Hacking the Grid

GTM Research

• http://www.gtmresearch.com/
• Financial and market analyses, sector forecasts, emerging (clean tech) market reports, renewable energy coverage. Offers both free and paid reports. Very insightful.
• Noteworthy: The Smart Grid in 2010 (145 pages)

Green Biz

• http://www.greenbiz.com/browse/energy-climate
• Covers the business of energy and climate (among others). A general resource connecting smart grid with business sustainability issues. Looking for broad non-technical coverage? GreenBiz is your place.
• Noteworthy: State of Green Business

Clean Edge

• http://www.cleanedge.com/
• Broad market and company coverage including smart grid, energy efficiency, renewables, and low carbon-transportation. Want to hear the investors perspective? Visit CleanEdge.
• Noteworthy: Clean Energy Trends 2009 (links to in-depth PDF)

Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

• http://my.epri.com/
• Industry trade organization performing R&D for the electricity sector. A wealth of research on all aspects of the electrical supply chain. Need to understand the utilities perspective? This is the place.
• Noteworthy: The Green Grid
  
• and Demand Response and Energy Efficiency

National Electrical Manufacturer Association (NEMA)

• http://www.nema.org/gov/energy/smartgrid/
• Industry trade association for suppliers to the electricity value chain. Since the smart grid requires so many new products, smart grid is a hot topic at NEMA. Need the suppliers perspective? Visit NEMA.
• Noteworthy: Levels of Intelligence on the Smart Grid (overview, deep dive also available)

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)

• http://www.ferc.gov/
• Want to wade into the details of the US regulatory environment? This site provides the final word.
• Noteworthy: FERC's Smart Grid Coverage

US Department of Energy (DOE)

• http://www.oe.energy.gov/smartgrid.htm
• Funding ($$$$), research, data, forecasts, publications, and tutorials. A gold mine with too many resources to mention. Spend time on the DOEs website.
• Noteworthy: DOE's Smart Grid Introduction

Energy Information Administration (EIA)

• http://www.eia.doe.gov/
• Covers all forms of energy with forecasts and data. Primarily US coverage but has some international data. Want data? And more data? EIA has it.
• Noteworthy: Electric Power Industry Overview
•  and Electric Power Industry Companies (comprehensive list)

International Energy Agency (IEA)

• http://www.iea.org/
• Like the US-based EIA, this covers all forms of energy with forecasts and data. Want international data? IEA has it.
• Noteworthy: World Energy Outlook

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

• http://www.nrel.gov/eis/
• NREL covers much more than renewables. Coverage includes electric infrastructure systems research, distributed generation, and electricity reliability. They offer reports, data, and software models.
• Noteworthy: Energy Management and Grid Support Applications

• http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/
• Coordinates development of standards and protocols to achieve interoperability of smart grid devices.
• Noteworthy: Smart Grid Standards (overview)
• and NIST/EPRI Standards Roadmap (270 pages)

Interested in smart grid security and privacy?
Start with these articles and reports.

• Hacking the Grid (overview)
• Thee Dangers of Meter Data (overview)
• Smart Grid Security Requirements (overview)
• AMI System Security Requirements (115 pages)
• White House Cyberspace Policy Review (76 pages)

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eTec as been selected for a grant of nearly $100 million to deploy the charging infrastructure for 1000s of EVs. This will be the largest EV pilot project announced to date. eTech brings its smart charging technology to the project. Nissan USA will match the DOE grant by providing 1000 vehicles. The Nissan Leaf is a 100% electric vehicle, not a hybrid (see post on low-carbon transportation).

Infrastructure testing will take place in five states including Arizona (eTec's HQ) Tennessee (Nissan USA's HQ), California (with its Clean Cars law), Oregon (a dark green state), and Washington (both green and high-tech). All are logical choices, with state governments ready to support this project and boost local business participation. The cities involved are likely to include Phoenix and Tucson (AZ), San Diego (CA), Portland, Eugene, Salem, and Corvallis (OR), Seattle (WA), Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga (TN). 

Here are some of the key features that make this project important:

• Large-scale footprint spread across fives states and 1000s of state-of-the-art EVs.
• Build-out of 2,500 charging stations in the selected markets.
• Deployment of 12,500 Level 2 (220V) and 250 Level 3 (fast-charge) charging systems.
• Field testing EVs in diverse topographic and climatic conditions.
• Tests the effectiveness of charge infrastructure in the real world.
• Experiments with revenue systems for commercial and public charge infrastructure.

Let's face it, if EVs are to become mainstream we need to jump start our charging infrastructure. We will track this project with great interest.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Stage four of smart grid, smart home begs a question about the reality of low-carbon transportation. There are more skeptics about electric vehicles (EVs) than about climate change. Despite this, I strongly believe that we entering a decade-long transition towards low-carbon vehicles. EVs in particular will be cleaner, quieter, and fun to drive. The technology-base for EVs will mature rapidly. They will be less expensive to operate and in time they will be less expensive to purchase. As a side-benefit, they will boost energy security and mitigate climate change. Right now, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) such as the Prius, Insight, and Focus represent the industry standard. That standard will evolve rapidly over the next 18 months. The next generation of vehicles represents a quantum leap in automotive engineering.

Today's HEVs recycle power from regenerative braking to charge a conventional battery pack. During stop-and-go traffic the batteries are engaged to increase fuel efficiency. The electric motor serves as a booster to the primary drivetrain powered by a conventional gasoline engine. By contrast, PHEVs and EVs will draw power from the grid and enable the vehicle to squeeze more miles out of each gallon of gas, *if* they use any at gas at all. These vehicles will have larger, more powerful battery packs using nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion technology.

Among the majors, some manufacturers are taking an evolutionary approach, others are taking a revolutionary leap. Future power-train design will be different than today. Only time will tell which designs become dominant. Here are three examples representing a range of thinking about the future of low-carbon transportation:

• Toyota is taking the evolutionary path. The 2010 Toyota Prius is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) based on the popular Prius design. Like current model, the plug-in version uses its 1.8 liter internal combustion engine as the primary drive. It has a nickel-metal hydride battery pack to store a few kWh of power from the grid (details). The gasoline engine provides 98HP while the electric motor provides 34HP. The electric motor serves as a booster to the gasoline engine, kicking in during stop-and-go traffic, on up-hills, and in reverse. The electric boost improves the Prius' gas mileage in the city, making it comparable to its highway mileage. This increases gas mileage to 50MPG (from 46MPG for non-plug-in models with 1.5kWh batteries). Due to a design favoring the gasoline engine, the Prius-10 may only have an electric range of 12-18 miles. The 3rd generation Prius is an important step forward but it remains a gasoline-based vehicle. Of the advanced designs, it is a sure bet to hit the market in 2010. Of the three cars discussed, this is the one you can order right now.
  

• General Motors is reversing Toyota's logic. The Chevy Volt is a PHEV with much more powerful batteries. The Volt uses the electric motor as its primary drive. Its small internal combustion engine serves as an on-board charging station to extend the driving range of its 16kWh lithium-ion batteries (details). With a battery-electric range of 40 miles most trips will be made on 100% electricity. For longer trips, the gas engine will kick in, adding a few hundred miles to the driving range. The Volt represents a step into the future because it is based on a battery-electric drive train. If successful, it positions GM with a platform that provides extended driving range today and can evolve into a 100% electric car in the future.
  

• Nissan is taking the revolutionary road. The Nissan Leaf is not a hybrid. It eliminates the internal combustion engine and gas tank. The Leaf is a 100% EV with an expected range of 100 miles. Its all-electric design makes the car mechanically simpler, 100s of pounds lighter, and less expensive. Nissan betting that its lithium-ion battery technology will provide a market-leading range of 100 miles (details). Just as important, they are developing a smart charging system to recharge the batteries in 15 minutes, about the same time as it takes to fill-up with a tank of gas. The battery packs 24kWh of energy storage with a maximum output of 90kW. That's enough juice to power an average US home all day long. Nissan is betting that battery technology will progress rapidly over the next few years and that mass-production will drive battery prices down. In the Leaf, Nissan is leapfrogging its competitors into the future of low-carbon transportation.
  

Let's hope that all three of these vehicles (and their competitors) stay on track for release next year. In addition to the three profiled above, Ford, Chrysler, Mercedes Smart, and dozens of small companies will hit the market by 2011. More low-carbon choices for consumers mean more ways to gain energy security and more ways to to mitigate climate change. As automotive history gets rewritten over the next decade, 2010 will go down as a very important year.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Stage four represents the long-term view. Yesterday we covered stage three, utility-scale power storage systems. Today, we cover two additional advanced components of the smart grid: 1) using electric vehicles (EVs) as part of the grid's storage infrastructure and 2) supporting energy trading markets with real-time pricing.

Globally, every major car manufacturer is developing EVs or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Next year Nissan, will bring to market an EV named "Leaf." Nissan estimates that 10% of all vehicles will be electric by 2020. Germany aims to have a million plug-ins by that time. If automotive analysts are correct, we will put tens of millions of PHEVs and EVs on the road in the next two decades. This makes the batteries in these vehicles potentially available for buffering peak electrical demand. Most EVs will be charged at night and will store enough power to let the utilities draw on battery power during peak demand.

A challenge will be the development of smart charging stations that balance the customer's need for driving range with the utility's desire to borrow power during peak periods. It may seem futuristic but in less than 18 months, Nissan's Leaf will have many of the components needed for connection to the smart grid. The car includes network connectivity so that drivers can use their smart phones to modify charging preferences, reset the air conditioning temperature, or ask Nissan to run remote diagnostics. Ideally, EVs will be topped off with power during the day, say by plugging them into solar panels in a parking lot. Theoretically, these cars can charge themselves in the morning and then sell some of the power to the utility during its afternoon peak. If you are wondering what difference a car battery can make, you may not realize the power packed into electric cars. We're not talking about today's car batteries. By 2020, EV battery packs could store 100kWh. That's enough juice to power the electrical needs of several of your neighbors' homes for 24 hours. Since the utilities will draw only to cover peak demand, the power stored in one EV can go a long ways.

The final elements in smart grid stage four are real-time pricing and energy trading. With pervasive high-speed digital communications in place and real-time pricing available, localized energy supply and demand imbalances will become more transparent. Real-time pricing includes an advanced form of demand response where consumers can "program" their electrical loads to take advantage of such things as the low cost electricity available during a wind storm. In initial testing, consumers see real-time pricing as too complicated. They more readily adapt to time-of-day pricing with the general understanding that power is cheaper at night than during the day. Energy trading markets would allow all participants, including the consumer, who may own distributed generating assets, to sell power to the highest bidder. Such markets are admittedly far off. They are impossible in our current regulatory scheme. But consider that market forces will push electricity towards a much more efficient system. Open source supply and demand will reveal many inefficiencies. The opportunity to profit will lure capital towards whatever means and methods cost effectively eliminate these inefficiencies.

Stage four is almost two decades into the future, i.e. the 2025-2030 timeframe. At this point the grid may appear to be growing into a “big brother” phenomena with tentacles reaching deep into our personal lives. Keep in mind that none of the demand-side efficiency programs will be forced on consumers. Consumers will opt-in or opt-out of these programs based on their relative merits. Utilities who effectively market the smart grid's energy-saving features will find many customers willing to accept the incentives offered and become a partner with their utility.

My own household is already in the early stages of this transition. We generate about 90% of the electricity we consume. We fully expect to become a net-producer of electricity by 2010. We will achieve that without giving up our modern lifestyle and its many conveniences. As many pioneers have done before us, we have educated ourselves and become smart electrical consumers. The smart grid will make us even more so. More important, it will enable the mass market of 100M households to do the same while requiring very little of their time or attention.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Stage one was built on a foundation of smart meters and two-way communications (AMI-advanced metering infrastructure). On top of AMI we added a limited amount of demand-response (DR) capability. We called this “DR-lite” and it allowed your utility to control a small but important part of your electrical demand. In stage two, we added many more options for DR (e.g. appliances and other grid-aware devices). Demand response is so important it has been called the “killer app” for the smart grid. Stage two also introduced grid optimization (GO) and supported better integration of distributed renewable energy sources. Stage three and represents a  fully developed view of smart grid. Stage three includes integrating utility-scale power storage systems, while stage four includes using large-scale electric vehicles (EVs) as part of the grid's storage infrastructure and supporting energy trading markets. Let's take a look at grid-attached energy storage.

The amount of storage in the legacy grid is very close to zero. This is because it is very expensive to store energy. You may have experienced this if you recently bought a new battery for your laptop. In some cases the costs approach the value of the entire computer. Because storage is one of those “silver bullets” that solves many problems, a lot of money has gone into R&D. Energy storage can simultaneously 1) reduce peak demand, 2) smooth out production from wind and solar, and 3) power a low-carbon transportation system. Today, long-term research programs are finally starting to show promise. The idea behind grid storage systems is to use the low cost energy available at night for charging and then draw on that stored power during the day to cover peak demand. Twenty years out, storage systems will eventually replace peaking power plants.

Right now, pumped hydro is our most cost-effective system. Coming up fast are compressed air energy storage (CAES) and massive batteries (flow and sodium sulfur). In CAES, night-time power is used to spin a turbine that pumps compressed air into underground caverns and porous rock strata. When power is needed, the system is reversed and compressed air is used to spin the same turbine to generate electricity. Large-scale batteries store power as chemical energy similar to the way your car battery works but on a massive scale (see picture on right). Flow batteries, for example, are the size of a small building and can release megawatt-level power with the flick of a switch. When attached to the grid, these storage systems will act like power plants to cover peak demand for a few hours per day.

Storage systems also compensate for the intermittent nature of renewables. They can absorb the energy whenever it is generated and store it until needed. On the North American plains, the wind most often blows at night when there is minimal demand for energy. If this energy can be stored until the next afternoon, it has far higher value. All utilities pay a premium for power that can be dispatched on demand, i.e. throttled up or down as needed. Thus storage systems will raise the investment value of wind and solar. Smoothing out electrical peaks and valleys may not require massive storage capacity because the highest costs are at the peaks. These peaks can be short duration. Whatever its form, there is no doubt that energy storage will be a critical component of the smart grid.

We will continue this discussion in the next post.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A microgrid is a small version of the electrical grid. It is usually privately owned and operated for the benefit of a large commercial or industrial customer (or group of customers). You can think of “the grid” as a collection of generation, transmission, and distribution assets. The generation assets are power plants converting coal, nuclear, natural gas, hydro, or wind into electricity. The transmission assets are high voltage, high power lines that carry electricity from a power plant to a substation near the population (or demand) center. The distribution assets are power lines that carry lower voltage electricity from substations to neighborhoods and homes. These are the local lines running on what some folks call “telephone poles.”

A microgrid is a much smaller version of the grid containing generation, distribution, and various load centers. The generation assets are essentially small-scale power plants known as “distributed generation.” These could be anything from diesel generators to solar PV or wind turbines. Smart microgrids employ many of the same technologies as the smart grid. They have a digital network overlay complete with monitors and a control center for operations. They include both grid optimization and demand response functions.

The microgrid is connected to the “grid” in a way that presents its electrical load to the utility as though it is one controllable load. Monitors and switches at the grid-interconnect allow it to be quickly disconnected and run as a self-sufficient electrical “island.” The microgrid operator may have an agreement to supply electricity to the utility during peak periods or whenever it has excess capacity. The surplus power can be stored if storage assets are attached. Some microgrids are designed to produce cheap power (e.g. for an industrial complex), some are designed to produce high quality power (e.g. for a computer chip fabricator), and some are designed for secure power (e.g. a military base).

The Department of Defense has signed GE for its $2M smart microgrid project at its Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base in California. Like most military bases, Twentynine Palms generates enough power to cover critical needs. It has a solar plant as well as a fuel cell installation. It will be connected to the regional grid through a GE microgrid controller. The GE product will support grid optimization and connection to the base's grid control center. The Twentynine Palms base is huge, almost the size of Rhode Island. This will be the largest microgrid project to date. Click on the image for details on GE's website.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The communication question revolves primarily around that part of the grid downstream from substations. Most substations are connected by some type of backhaul network which may not bear any resemblance to what will be be used to tie meters together into a “neighborhood area network.” Several criteria must be factored into the decision including reliability, scalability, bandwidth, latency, evolvability, and cost.

One key decision point is between wireline and wireless communications. Wireless is attractive as a way to avoid the expense of stringing new wires. But wireless technologies have drawbacks too. Below are three different wireless technologies attracting interest from the utilities:

RF Mesh – These wireless “radio frequency” networks allow each node on the network to communicate with any other node within range. This increases flexibility and reliability. If a node or a link goes down, it can be bypassed by the neighboring nodes. This improves the fault tolerance of the entire network. And since we're talking about our electrical grid, fault tolerance is a key requirement. Another key requirement is scalability due to the myriad of devices involved (e.g. sensors, meters, thermostats, displays, appliances, and various load plugs). We are talking about tens of millions of nodes. As a peer-to-peer network like the Internet, RF mesh is scalable. PG&E is using RF mesh in their 5 million meter deployment in California. This technology has gained more traction in the US than any other approach. This is the key technology for innovative startups such as Silver Spring and Trilliant.

Cellular 3G – This is the option to outsource your network to public wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. This approach minimizes high up-front deployment costs and turns over network maintenance to the wireless carrier who presumably know how to do it cost-effectively. If the big carriers move into this business full-force, you can count on cellular to be one of the winning long-term solutions. The key part of the previous sentence is “one of the winning solutions.” Cellular may prove too expensive to become the dominant solution but it will be valuable for some utilities in some parts of their network. SmartSynch, for example, is betting that this will be the most cost-effective and scalable solution for many utilities. Given the conservative nature of utilities, they may be right.

WiMax – This is the “holy grail” of communications because it is wireless, long-range, high bandwidth, and low latency. It's everything we need. There's only one problem. It does not exist on the scale needed and no one can be sure that it will rolled out on any particular time table. Even though it is further out on the tech radar, WiMax is an appealing option that adds a FUD-factor to decisions around more mature technologies. Utilities may want to keep their options open, but they certainly can't bet on large-scale deployment of WiMax within a defined timeframe. WiMax uses licensed spectrum which will make it more expensive than the unlicensed frequencies used by RF mesh networks. Despite the negatives, the fact that General Electric is offering a WiMax solution for grid optimization makes it all the more intriguing. Startups such as Grid Net are betting on WiMax.

There are more wireless options including WiFi, optical laser, satellite, and numerous radio bands. There are many wireline options including: power line carrier, broadband over power line (BPL), fiber optics, and DSL (phone line).

Every utility has to deal with a mix of urban and rural deployments. Most have some legacy deployments and other internal technical constraints. Most utilities will end up using a mix of technologies including both wired and wireless. We will look at the wired options in a future post. Stay tuned.

btw, Jim is traveling through Friday, so this week's posts may not come out on the usual daily schedule.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

As we head into stage two, let say you like what was happening in stage one: (check all that apply)

• Reducing your carbon footprint.
  
• Lowering your impact on the environment.
• Lowering your monthly utility bill.
• Getting an annual check from your utility for lets say $100.

After rolling out a million smart meters and 50,000 smart thermostats, a few years has gone by and your utility has its enterprise (software) applications in place to control all these devices. Your utility is ready for stage two and offers a you a variety of devices that can be used to reduce your electrical demand. You quickly sign up, because you are keen on the idea of (see checklist above). Plus you would not be reading this if you were not an early adopter.

Here's what the utility offers:

• In-home display with readouts on your energy use
• Web interface to see the same information on your PC and smart phone
• Smart plugs that go between your larger appliances and the outlet
• A $500 rebate on smart appliances such as a fridge, dishwasher, and dryer.

At your request, the home display gets mounted on the kitchen wall where your phone used to be, back when you still had a landline. The display does not need the phone line, but it covers up the scar left from the old wall jack. Your installer inserts a chip-card into your dishwasher authorizing it to communicate with the utility. And one of the smart plugs gets inserted between your old electric dryer and its 240V outlet. The plug automatically connects to your home network, just like the new dishwasher. The installer also leaves behind a handout giving you the web address for a customized energy portal where you can monitor and control your electrical usage from any PC or smart phone.

On the dog days of summer and the icy days of winter, you are more than a customer. You have become a valued partner for your utility as it attempts to reduce both its costs and its carbon emissions. On that hot summer afternoon during a “super peak” when your utility is running out of megawatts, it sends the command to 1) raise your thermostat by two degrees, 2) delay your dryer for a couple of hours, and 3) put the dishwasher on hold. And you don't mind because 1) you barely notice the changes, 2) you are being paid for your flexibility, and 3) and on the rare occasion when these subtle changes do matter, you can push a button to override the utility's DR request. If your grandmother is at the house and you are away, you'll be able to push the override button from the convenience of your iPhone. Back at the utility, they just saved a bundle by not needing to buy super peak power on the spot market.

Our scenario focuses on the smart home, but in stages one and two, demand response may see its biggest payoff with commercial and industrial customers. Even though the long-term energy savings might be split equally between residential and commercial demand. It will be easier to implement demand response for a few hundred thousand commercial customers than it will be to implement it for a hundred million residential customers. 

Time goes by and demand response is providing your utility with better load control each year. At the same time, another revolution is sweeping across the grid. During stage one, while your utility was installing two-way meters, it was also installing sensors, relays, voltage regulators, circuit breakers, and other grid devices. And each one of these is connected to the utility's digital network. As the utility's enterprise software capabilities have matured, its operations staff now has a real-time view of where the power is flowing, at what voltages, where the bottlenecks are building, and which lines are getting overheated (and therefore in danger of sagging into nearby trees). They know where power is needed and where an excess is being generated from rooftop solar systems. This so called “grid optimization” lets your utility:

• respond to peak demand loads more efficiently
• identify outages more precisely
• restore power more quickly
• switch generation to cost-effective and low-carbon fuels
  
• re-route energy to avoid bottlenecks and unnecessary strain
• eliminate “truck-rolls” with automated disconnects, reconnects, and troubleshooting

This part of the revolution will lack fanfare, but it will make the grid more responsive and more manageable. It represents a big change from the past. On the legacy grid, a bird flying around town might have had a better idea about what was going on inside the grid than your utility. In Boulder Colorado, Xcel Energy was so bullish on the benefits of grid optimization, that it built the business case for the smart grid investments primarily on the economics of optimization (rather than demand-response). In contrast to demand-response which helps utilities get through peak periods, grid optimization benefits accrue 24 hours/day, 7/days week, 365/days per year. At scale, the resulting savings will be in the tens of billions of dollars over the life of the equipment. To the extent that blackouts and brownouts can be avoided the long term savings are greater. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimates power outages and disruptions cost the US more than $100B per year... that's PER YEAR.

During the several years of stage one, renewable energy generation was also growing rapidly. New wind farms were put into place, concentrating solar thermal plants are operating in sunny regions. More important, millions of homes have rooftop solar PV and thousands of commercial buildings and warehouses have rooftop wind and solar. When wind and solar represented a few percent of total generation, it was relatively easy for your utility to use this capacity whenever it became available. But with penetration pushing past 10% and needing to get to 20%, the legacy grid had no way to handle these large intermittent sources. Utilities had no way to know how much power these distributed sources were generating and little idea whether they were ramping up or down.

The smart grid's ability to let utilities absorb and use low-carbon renewable sources of power is the other big success in stage two. Only time will tell how soon this will become a major factor. A great deal depends on the declining cost curves for solar and its overall economics. But without a smart grid in place, we will be forever stuck with a low level of renewable integration. Geeks want to know a lot more about this, but most people won't care if they see their costs going down AND their electrical carbon footprint shrinking. Stage three is still a few more years down the road past stage two, but we can't wait so we'll talk about it next week. Stay tuned.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The first stage of smart grid deployment arrives when the utility installs a “smart meter” on your house. Your new meter will establish two-way communication with the utility. Depending on the technology (and this is a big decision point for utilities), meter communication could be over the power line itself, via cell phone network, via radio-frequency network, or several other alternatives. The choice matters greatly to the utility, but not much to you. The main point is that the utility will now be able to “read” your meter on a continuous basis. Instead of just monthly, data can flow hourly, daily, or on whatever schedule the utility determines. The meter will also log your electrical use by the hour of the day and the day of the week. That's because in the future, just like riding public transport, the rate you pay for a kilowatt-hour will vary depending whether use it at peak or off-peak periods.

This gigantic step toward the smart grid (your shiny new smart meter) might come and go with very little fanfare. Your bill will still come monthly and your electrical service will be the same as before. Back at the utility however, good things are happening. They will know within seconds if you have a power outage. They will also know the extent of the outage and very likely what caused it. With the other sensors and controls the utility has installed on the grid, they may not even need a truck-roll to restore your power. Smart meters, when deployed in mass and in parallel with sensors on the electric distribution network, provide the utility with a capability called grid optimization. Instead of flying blind, they will know where the power is, what the voltages are, where bottlenecks are building, and where faults are happening. Over time, this will be revolutionary for the utility... but let's get back to our smart house.

The second gigantic step toward becoming a smart home is when your utility offers, and you opt-in, to a demand-response program. Hopefully they won't call it by that name. These programs will be infinitely more marketable if they have a catchy name like eco-power-saver or super-moms-home-efficiency-program or sooper-smart-consumers or you get the idea. Marketers will do their thing. At this stage, the utility will send someone out to your home to install one or more devices. The major reason people will join these programs is because utilities will open their pocketbooks and pay you to join. They will give you a rebate, a monthly discount, or some other incentive. That's right, they will pay YOU.

At this stage, the utility might offer you several devices ranging from thermostats, to energy monitoring displays, to switches for your electric dryer or dishwasher. To keep it simple, let's say your utility only installs one device, a “smart thermostat.” Like your new meter, your new thermostat will have two-way digital communication built-in. It will send and receive signals from the utility. That means your utility will be able to “read” your thermostat. Those signals might use the same communications technology as the meter uses, or the signal might take a different path. You won't really care unless you are a geek who needs to know “how things work.” The technical term “demand-response” is appropriate because your new thermostat gives the utility a tiny bit of control over your electrical demand. On hot summer afternoons, when electrical loads are peaking and the utility needs to fire-up expensive natural gas turbines, or buy extra power on the spot market, they will instead, send a signal to your thermostat to turn it up a couple of degrees.

The utility did the heavy-lifting when it installed the smart meter and its network (AMI for advanced metering infrastructure) and the thermostat and its network link (HAN for home area network). With a robust network in place (robust is the operative term), the data flow is relatively simple as illustrated in the diagram. At 2PM on that hot summer weekday when the utility is “running out of power” they'll send a signal to their smart homes requesting a 2-degree reduction in cooling. At 6PM when other loads are dropping, they will send another signal to restore your thermostat to its initial setting.

By tweaking your thermostat, your AC unit will skip a few cycles and your house will slowly warm up to the new set point of 78º. The net effect to you will be negligible. The net effect for the utility will be huge when they can make these slight reductions in demand to millions of homes. When demand-response is implemented at scale, whole new power plants won't be needed and that will bring reductions in air pollution and carbon emissions. The real selling point: will save money for both you and your utility. That's two giant steps for the smart grid. But there's much more of course. So stay tuned.

For more information on the chart, see Smart grid ecosystem, part 4. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Research firm Parks Associates estimates that 8.3M smart meters have been installed in US homes, about 6% penetration. That's almost double the penetration of one year ago. Smart meters are capable of two-way digital communications. They are crucial because they provide the foundation for widespread deployment of the smart grid. Parks' projects rapid growth with 13.6M smart meters by 2010 and 33M by 2011. This hypergrowth explains the large number of smart-grid startups and the recent entrance of the tech giants. To give you an idea of the momentum behind smart grid deployment, we profile some of major projects in the US. We start with the first proof-of-concept project on the Olympic Peninsula. Some of these projects are full end-to-end smart grid deployments, others are smart meter projects which incorporate demand-response functionality for reducing peak electrical demand.

Olympic Peninsula GridWise – In 2007-08, Pacific Northwestern National Lab (PNNL) conducted a one-year demonstration project with many partners including IBM and Whirlpool. This was one of the earliest field experiments in the US. It included dynamic pricing, real-time EMS, and homeowner tools for managing energy consumption. Consumers responded by adjusting their behavior to save an average of 10% on their electric bills. Peak demand went down by 15% on average for the year and in some cases went down by 50%. The overall energy savings was 20%. If scaled up nationally, the results would provide savings of $70B over 20 years, putting the $4.5B federal stimulus investment into perspective.

Pecan Street Project - The municipal utility Austin Energy (Texas) already has version 1.0 of its smart grid up and running. Key components include 400K smart meters, 86K smart thermostats, and more than 2K grid sensors. Version 2.0, dubbed the Pecan Street Project will integrate renewable power generation, energy storage systems, smart appliances, electric vehicle charging, and home portals. Austin Energy is opening up its grid for entrepreneurs and researchers. The city of Austin Texas will be the laboratory. They have attracted a long list of partners including Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, Freescale, GE, GridPoint, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, and SEMATECH.

Boulder Smart Grid City – Xcel's Boulder Colorado project is one of the most advanced in the country. The grid overlay is a dedicated fiber optic network. Xcel is using the project as a test bed for many new technologies. Xcel estimates that it will cost $100 million to connect 45,000 customers to its Boulder network. Xcel has an extensive list of partners who also invested in the project. These include Accenture (project management), Current (monitoring), GridPoint (software platform), OSIsoft (data and asset management), SEL (sensing and control), SmartSynch (smart meters), and Ventyx (utility application software). See our previous post on Smart Grid City.

PG&E Smart Meter Program - The California utility is deploying 5.3M smart electric meters by mid-2012. This is the foundation for their smart grid project. PG&E uses programmable solid-state meter technology with secure wireless communication between the meter and the utility. Meters are provided by GE and Landis+Gyr. P&E's communication partner is Silver Spring Networks. The utility used Aclara for communications in the first phase of meter deployment. They will use ZigBee to communicate between smart meters and in-home devices. The estimated cost for up to 10 million gas and electric meters is $2.2B.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In this installment of our smart grid ecosystem, we begin our look at the startups and focused players. In part 5, we placed the giant tech companies into the ecosystem. That was the easy part. The giants cover a lot of territory, there are few of them, and they have well known competencies. The startups, by contrast, are all over the map. True to their DNA, entrepreneurs come up with new ideas and run with them. They expand as niches open up, as capital and talent allow. They don't follow a predictable pattern. Nor do they acknowledge established industry and sector boundaries. Entrepreneurs are boundary spanners. So consider the chart below a work-in progress, a rough approximation. There are more exceptions than rules.

If you are not familiar with the smart grid, we suggest that you review our July 2 post illustrating the major companies competing for space in the smart grid.

We'll discuss this chart in several more posts coming up. We will take a look at the partnerships that are forming (and in some cases de-forming). Meanwhile, if you have suggestions for clarifying our model, please let us know. We'd love to simplify it, but then again, that's not necessarily how innovation drives new technology and new markets.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:44 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The companies placed on the first chart below are primarily from the technology space. The companies placed on the second chart are primarily from the power systems/industrial space. The latter group includes industrial giants such as GE, ABB, Areva, and Siemens. These Goliath's are major suppliers to the legacy grid. Each of them manufactures and markets a full range of new and legacy technologies for the utility industry. They know more about the legacy grid than anyone on the planet, but their expertise thins when it comes to IP networks, scalable real-time databases, and enterprise-class software. The tech and industrial giants need each other. 

Across the board, those companies that already compete in their core business will continue to do so on the smart grid. This is a land-grab and the giants play the game better than anyone. Natural competitors include:

• Google vs. Microsoft (software giants)
• GE vs. Siemens (industrial giants)
• Verizon vs. AT&T (wireless giants)
• Cisco vs. small innovators such Silver Spring (e.g. Goliath vs. David)
• IBM vs. Oracle (Oracle has announced it will go end-to-end)

At the other end of the spectrum are the natural collaborators. These are companies that come to the smart grid with complementary strengths. They may come from different industries or from different technologies. Prominent examples include:

• IBM & GE
• Intel and IBM or Microsoft
• Intel and the industrial giants
• Cisco & IBM & GE (three Goliath's that could work together)
• Google & Oracle & GE (possibly three more)
  

In between are dozens of companies with overlapping competences. Examples of partially competitive overlaps include:

• IBM & Google or Microsoft
• IBM & Oracle
• Cisco & Silver Spring or Trilliant

 This market is moving very fast. All the big players want to expand their reach. For example:

• Cicso would like to cover all the major networking components by itself
• Oracle has announced an end-to-end solution, though it's not clear if anybody believes them
• IBM wants to get into industrial solutions such as grid-connected storage smack in the middle of GE and Siemens turf
• Some of the tech giants want to extend into the industrial space and vice versa.
  
• Metering/AMI players want to extend through the networking space and into utility enterprise apps.

When you add 100 small innovators into the competitive mix, it leaves utility executives scratching their heads about which technologies and companies will survive the next five years. When in doubt (and they are), the utilities will move very slowly. That pacing difference will set up some interesting dynamics for the tech giants. Next week, we'll look at the smaller innovators. Stay tuned. 

See related posts on the smart grid. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:53 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Continuing from part 3, giant companies (both tech and industrial) are jumping into the smart grid business. Since the opportunity is too big for any one company, an ecosystem of partners and competitors is starting to emerge. Battle lines are drawn clearly in some areas and not at all in others. To convey the size and scope of the opportunity, we have sketched out the landscape in the chart below. Sketch is the operative word, because the smart grid has too many dimensions to capture on one chart. We'll start with this chart and develop it further in upcoming posts.

The upper half of the chart represents the software applications of the smart grid. The lower half represents the facilities and networks that transport data about electrical supply and demand. The left side of the chart represents the domain of the utilities and generators, whereas the right side represents the residential and commercial customers. This gives us four quadrants labeled Enterprise Apps (software to run the utilities), EMS (energy management systems for use by customers), the HAN (the home area network, usually wireless, to connect all the devices in a home or building), and "Grid overlay" (the new digital network that will overlay the legacy grid for monitoring and control).

If you read clockwise from the upper left, we can walk through a flow of requests and responses and monitoring and control. For example, the utilities use Enterprise Apps such as Demand Response systems to balance electrical supply and demand. At 1 PM on a hot summer day, they know the peak load is coming. They send out a signal to cut back on non-essential power use. Back at the customer's site, the consumer (or facilities manager) uses their own EMS (Energy Management System) to set their preferences, possibly overriding the utilities' request. The actual communication between applications takes place down at the network level (lower half of chart). In the consumer's home or building, devices are connected to one another through the HAN (home area network) to coordinate signaling. For example the smart thermostat might let the utility turn down the air conditioning because no one is home, but the smart fridge might override the smae signal because it's full of fresh cold beer from the local microbrew. Connected to the house or building, the AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) picks up these signals and monitors the flow of electricity as it's being adjusted by the above systems. The AMI is logging real-time power consumption so that prices can be set higher during peak periods when the utilities' generation costs are higher. The network signals continue through the Grid overlay in a clockwise direction feeding back to the utilities' Enterprise Apps including billing which is part of BOSS. They also feed back into Demand Response thus showing the utilities how much power is needed from which generators and which transmission lines so the power can flow where it's needed.

In tomorrow's post, we will overlay the tech giants. You'll see they are literally all over the map. Soon after, we will add in the smaller, more focused players. Stay tuned.

See related posts on the smart grid.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 06:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Continuing our discussion of the smart grid ecosystem...

The smart grid has been called the “energy Internet” so it makes sense that giant tech companies are rolling out products and services. The enterprise IT companies, in particular, are ramping up their investments. IBM has been focused on utilities consulting and software for several years. They offer enterprise software with extensive systems integration and IT support. Some of IBMs solutions are purpose-built for the grid, but many are just reconfigured from its extensive portfolio of enterprise applications. You can count on Cisco to get involved in every application of IP networks. The smart grid is no exception. Cisco will work with utilities on home area networking (HAN), backhaul services, network security, and network operations. Microsoft is naturally focused on software. A late mover, it recently jumped in with a software suite now in field trials. Coming out of the web, Google is experimenting with a web-based solution which it offers free to partner utilities (and their customers). Google sees a major play in all the data that will be generated. As in their primary market, they will go head-to-head with Microsoft, courting utilities and their customers. Oracle is focused on utility data management and operations integration around their database, middleware, applications and back-end technology infrastructure. Most of the majors are also making investments in the smaller players. And last to mention here, Intel is developing microprocessors for embedding into transmission and distribution equipment.

The other tech giants are not (yet) as deeply involved but they won't sit on the sidelines and let this market develop for long. Consumer electronics (CE) competencies revolve around the digital home and creating stylish, easy to use products. The growth of the smart grid will depend heavily on consumer acceptance and the CE companies know the consumer better than anyone. With the smart grid's requirement for digital networks spanning the continent, telecoms giants such as Verizon are offering 3G wireless networking services to the utilities so they don't have to build their own networks from the ground up. They will also offer consumer solutions based on their cell-phone platforms. In Boulder's smart city, Xcel built out it's own fiber optic network, but that won't be the norm.

Each one of these companies brings its core competencies into the utility industry. Each one is building large partner networks. This opportunity wide and deep, no single company can provide all the solutions. The utilities industry is America's largest, almost double the size of the telecoms industry. Electric utilities control more than $600B in assets with $260B in annual revenue. There are more than a billion meters worldwide with more than 100M in the US. Upgrading so many meters, homes, and network assets is an opportunity on the scale of the internet. Next week, we'll discuss some of the smaller, innovative players in this space.

See related posts on the smart grid.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The world is moving from a fossil-fuel economy to an electricity economy based on nuclear and renewables (see previous post). There are  major obstacles to overcome including rapid technology change, a fragmented regulatory landscape, and the conservative nature of utilities. The grid will collect information about energy use and display it for the consumer and their utilities. Consumers win if they use the information to save money. Utilities win by providing opt-in incentives for shaving peak loads and avoiding the cost of new power plants at $500M to $1B each, with nuclear at $10B. The home energy management system (EMS) might appear to take center stage, but it's just one element in the digital home (see Smart Grid News). You can view the full-size map.

If the smart grid represents the future of electricity, then it also represents the future of home technology. Consider that the digital home already includes a combination of broadband, PCs and Macs, iPods, smart cell phones, digital televisions, media centers, game players, music controllers, and more. Consider that these devices are becoming more interoperable year-by-year. Smart phones are becoming as capable as PCs, iPods run home stereo systems, digital televisions record and playback TV on demand with recordings controlled from PCs or smart phones, media controllers connect to computer downloads, etc. Yet the potential of all these devices has not been realized. Synergies have not been achieved.

Both the digital home and smart grid will be based on open standards which embrace and extend those that power the web today. In a mere 15 years, the web has completely redefined the global landscape of communication and business technology. In the next 15 years, the smart grid (in concert with the digital home) will again redefine our technology experience. This won't be restricted to residential digital homes, it will grow even faster in commercial buildings. Together they use almost 70% of US electricity. The focus in commercial buildings will center on building automation and energy management.

With the emphasis on digital networking and standardized technologies, tech giants are being sucked in like steel to a magnet. The grid is pulling in top companies from information technology, consumer electronics, telecoms, and the web. Not to mention the industrial giants such as GE and Seimens. In upcoming posts we will profile the giants and work our way down to the focused players who are making the needed technological breakthroughs. I don't believe this is hype. Capital is pouring in, standards are being set, and infrastructure is being deployed. I've written about the city-wide project in Boulder, CO. More projects are starting up every quarter. Sure, it's going to take longer than everyone wants. But look at what happened in 15 years of commercial internet development. Tech change builds on itself and accelerates over time. Therefore the 15 years of internet-time could easily shrink to 10 years. And these next 5 years will set the stage for the next 50. Fasten your tech seat-belts. We live in interesting times.

See related posts on the smart grid.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 07:36 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

There is a lot of money pouring into development of the smart grid. The federal stimulus package set aside $4.5 billion for starters. That's not bad for seed money. Private money is also pouring in because investors believe this is the "next big thing." However the architecture develops, the smart grid will be tied together using a digital network running open standards. These standards will overlap heavily with those running the internet. All the tech giants are jumping into the smart grid at some level or another. It makes perfect sense. They have the capital and the digital pedigree. The scale and scope of this problem-set is so large that each one has a variety of partners. Partners range from big utilities, to tiny start-ups, to legacy grid suppliers. There are direct competitors in opposing camps (e.g. Microsoft vs. Google), as well as companies placing bets across competing technologies to increase their chances of winning market share (e.g. Cisco and IBM). It's reminiscent of the early days of the commercial internet when new giants were born and others consolidated their power. We're posting our "ecosystem map" for reference in an upcoming discussion. If you receive our blog posts by email, visit carbon-pros.com to view the full-size map. Stay tuned.

See related posts on the smart grid. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 05:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

• Energy efficiency – The smart grid includes digital tools for managing demand. We've not had these before on a widespread basis. We're talking about an array of monitoring and control tools for utilities, residential customers, and commercial consumers. Demand-response tools help shave (or shift) peak electrical loads. With comprehensive data available, the smart grid supports variable pricing, incentives for load shifting, sub-metering, smart appliances, and household energy dashboards. When the right incentives are provided, consumers will reduce their energy use. Reduced energy use means fewer carbon emissions (climate mitigation) and fewer imported fuels such as liquid natural gas (LNG) and the remaining oil-fired plants (energy security).
  
  
• Renewable energy – The smart grid also includes digital tools for managing supply. This allows utilities to make greater use of renewable and distributed energy sources. Because wind and solar power fluctuate unexpectedly, the legacy grid can only accommodate a small share of renewables. Even when wind or solar is available, utilities are required to have spinning reserves based on more stable sources such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas. A coal plant produces CO2 whether we are using the power or not. Greater integration of renewables will radically reduce carbon emissions (climate mitigation). Nuclear will also support renewables, but let's cover that in a different post.
  
  
• Low-carbon Transportation - Biofuels will play a supporting role. Clearly we can grow fuel inside the US. But biofuels can't play a major role because they won't radically reduce carbon emissions. In the long run, electric vehicles (EVs) will play the major role because they allow substitution of imported oil for renewable sources of electricity. EVs and renewables go together. EVs make no sense if they are running on coal power. With the smart grid more renewables will come online and some of that will power our transportation fleet. For example, the smart grid will let utilities delay the full charge of a EV until excess power is available such as after midnight or when the wind is blowing. So the smart grid supports EVs in a major way (energy security + climate mitigation).

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Shortly after we installed solar PV, we bought a data monitor. Our system has a centralized inverter, typical of most installations. The inverter takes DC power generated by the solar array and converts it to AC power for use inside our home. The data monitor measures and records the kilowatt-hours (kWh) generated on the roof. The inverter a good place for monitoring because the solar power flows though it before joining the electrical service panel. Data logging occurs at frequent intervals whenever the sun is shining. Our inverter manufacturer, SMA, offered several options for receiving data feeds including direct-to-PC, wireless-to-countertop display, and Ethernet-to-Internet for capture on SMA's web portal. We chose the latter option because it was the most flexible approach. From the web portal, we can see real-time and cumulative statistics. And we can view it on any device from our PCs and Macs to our iPhones. Therefore we know what's going on whether we are at home or traveling. Data monitoring has been more valuable than we anticipated. If not for the data monitor, we'd have no idea how much power is coming off the roof. Solar PV is totally silent and because our panels are installed flat to the roof, they are virtually out of sight. The SMA web portal sends us a daily email with production statistics and provides web access to accumulated data. Last May, we had a defective breaker shut off the power feed from the roof. Fortunately, our installer receives the same daily emails, noticed that our production had dropped to zero, and quickly fixed the problem. Without monitoring, we may not have noticed the outage until our month-end utility statement. In the future, several components in the "smart grid" will perform a more complete monitoring function including energy production (if any) and energy consumption by circuit. Even though SMA's monitor only provides production data (not consumption) it has become a daily reminder of our electrical usage. This has led to an ongoing effort to reduce usage through better lighting, more efficient appliances, and reduction of phantom loads. With a year of minor tweaking behind us, we have shaved about 10% off our annual power use. This year, we estimate that our solar array will produce about 90% of our electricity. We last paid for electric usage in February 2009. With the meter running backwards every week of the summer, we don't expect to pay any more usage fees until November 2009 when the days are short and the snow is flying. Now that's a happy thought. --JCB

Start at the beginning with NZE step 1.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 09:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

We are fortunate to work in Colorado in a community that supports carbon reduction through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and smart grid technology. Yesterday, Rebecca Johnson from the University of Colorado, and Craig Eicher from Xcel Energy gave us an update on the the roll-out of the smart grid in Boulder. Xcel Energy, the Minneapolis-based, investor-owned utility, has been deploying smart grid infrastructure since April 2008. To date, Xcel has laid more than 200 miles of fiber-optic cable. They are ready to deploy broadband-over-power-line (BPL) communications to 40,000 households. Xcel has installed 10,000 devices on the network with real-time monitoring and are ramping up for broad deployment in 2010. Xcel and its partners will use this pilot project as a test-bed to experiment with various demand-response tools including variable pricing, incentives for load shifting, sub-metering, smart appliances, and household energy dashboards. No one really knows how consumers will change their behavior when given real-time information about their energy consumption and costs. The few studies with real data have found that consumers reduce energy use an average of 10% just by having information readily available. This may be an early-adopter effect that won't prove true for the mainstream, but most people like to save money so we will likely see energy savings just from the information feed. More important, smart grid technologies give the utility flexibility to more pro-actively manage both supply and demand. This supports the integration of renewable and distributed energy sources since wind and solar production can fluctuate unexpectedly. Integration of renewables will help reduce carbon emissions. Utilities are required to have ‘spinning’ reserve capacity of approximately 7% of anticipated load. Spinning reserve is generation that is synchronized to the system and is available to come online within minutes should demand spike, equipment fail, or wind power decrease unexpectedly. In other words, they have a regulatory requirement to overbuild. As customers, we are required to pay for that spare capacity just so we don't run out of power for a few minutes on a hot afternoon. The demand-side management tools on the smart grid give Xcel the ability to reduce its peak load. They could shut off a percentage of central air conditioners for five minutes at a time, or they could temporarily lower the temperature setting on electric hot water heaters on a hot afternoon, or they could delay the full charge of a plug-in hybrid until after midnight. This won't be an invasion of privacy. It will apply to customers who give permission and join the program. The smart grid represents the future of electricity. There are hundreds of unknowns. Therein lies the importance of city-wide pilots such the Boulder project. Soon, Xcel and its partners will be able to test the thousands of interconnections required and experiment with a wide range of technologies and incentive packages. The lessons learned will be invaluable for mass-deployment. The federal stimulus package set aside $4.5 billion for smart grid projects. That's a lot of money, but we have even more at stake considering the twin goals of energy security and carbon mitigation. Smart grid projects will pay for themselves over time. The US DOE estimates that modernizing the national electrical grid could save between 46 and 117 billion dollars over the next 20 years. It's good to see us moving on this important front.

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The term “smart grid” refers to a set of related technologies based on common technical standards. It's not one specific technology but rather it's made up of many components (Wiki), most of which do not exist in the legacy transmission-distribution system. Key components include:

• Two-way digital communication network – this runs alongside existing power lines to provide detailed information about operations including the status of millions of components along with dynamic data about supply and demand.
  
• Real-time monitors – to be installed at generating plants, transmission and distribution lines, and substations to report operational status and to respond to changing conditions.
• Smart meters – to do more than just track lump-sum monthly usage; they also track usage by time of day and day of week, they automatically report outages and can monitor usage on multiple circuits.
• Home automation network – this lets the smart meter transmit control information to major load centers (such as air conditioners and plug-in hybrids) and major appliances.
• Smart appliances and thermostats – these must adhere to the same technical standards so they can receive signals requesting temporary load reductions or informing them that electrical costs are at peak levels.

It's the combination of all these (and more) that we refer to as the smart grid. It's always difficult to change existing infrastructure on a mass-scale, and the grid is truly a mass-scale infrastructure. 

Posted by Carbon-Pros at 09:10 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)