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Recent Posts by ElisaWood
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February 5, 2010
Podcast: Making solar more efficient -
February 5, 2010
Hot Sectors for Energy Efficiency -
February 2, 2010
Podcast: New technology for the Smart Grid part 2 -
January 29, 2010
Obama, energy efficiency and accountability
What the heck is smartgrid, anyway?
You know the old adage, ‘Never talk about politics or religion in polite company’? I’m beginning to think we need to add a third restraint, one against debate over the meaning of smart grid.
Okay, it’s not exactly a dinnertime topic. But I’ve discovered in gatherings of energy nerds (I’m one), discussion can become fairly heated over what constitutes “smart grid.”
On the one side are the engineering purists who stick to what I believe was an early definition: automated two-way communication on the grid by way of digital technology. At some point this came to widely include a smart meter that lets your utility ‘talk’ to your house and your house talk back.
On the other extreme, are those that seem to use the term to describe any grid innovation, particularly green or energy efficient technologies. It doesn’t even have to be a new technology. Combined heat and power is sometimes included in the smart club and it is more than 100 years old. (But then, just because something is old, doesn’t mean it’s not smart.)
Sometimes solar panels are described as smart. (They become stupid on the rare occasion when they leak.) And demand response, probably rightly so, has secured its position as part of the wired Mensa club. Integrating wind energy into the transmission system is often cited as a reason the grid needs to smarten up.
It seems important that the industry stop fumbling with this definition. As Jesse Berst said in an excellent article, published March 5, 2009, SmartGridNews.com: “Can you imagine if an automobile CEO began his bailout plea with “I don’t really know what an automobile is, but can I have $20 billion please?” Or if the CEO of CitiGroup began a speech with: “I don’t really know what a bank is, but…” http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/commentary/Why_the_Smart_Grid_Industry_Can_t_Talk_the_Talk_and_What_to_Do_About_It-530.html.
Here are a few definitions of smart grid that show the range of thinking. Please let me know what you think and post yours as well. Virtual table pounding acceptable; no name calling please!
*“A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology to save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and transparency.” Wikipedia
*“In terms of transmission, a smart grid makes it easier to deliver alternative energy sources like wind and solar from rural installations to city centers.” Ariel Schwartz, http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/04/30/energy-101-what-is-a-smart-grid/
*“Smart grid is a transformation. Just as the Internet revolutionized communication; the smart grid will transform how we produce energy, how we transport energy, how we store energy and how we use energy.” GridWise Alliance
*“The Smart Grid isn’t a thing but rather a vision and to be complete, that vision must be expressed from various perspectives – its values, its characteristics, and the milestones for achieving it.” – Joe Miller http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/commentary/What_Is_the_Smart_Grid-567.html
*“Smart grid is the new big thing in the world of green…” http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/amsterdam-smart-grid-pilot-project-ibm-cisco.php
*“While many conversations about the Smart Grid center on communications and metering technologies, the actual definition of Smart Grid is much broader and encompasses grid infrastructure -- the brawn as well as the brains.”American Superconductor
*“Over the past twelve months, Smart Grid has matured from a marketing buzzword to an industry strategy, with everyone from electric utility providers, to consulting and solution firms, to our country’s executive and legislative leaders referencing it as a key strategy for any number of objectives. Experts seem to agree that the Smart Grid is past the tipping point; however, agreement on strategy doesn’t necessarily constitute an agreement on deployment tactics.” http://www.smartgridroadshow.com/2/
See more of Elisa Wood's articles at www.RealEnergyWriters.com
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Reader Comments (14)
Why does the grid need to be smarter? According to the US DOE in it's January 2009 electric adequacy report, the existing US electric grid has largely reached the end of it's useful life due both to age of the facilities and obsolescence caused by new business environment and operating circumstances. And the traditional approach of adding fossil fueled, central station generation and bulk transmission corridors is not only no longer as desirable, it will be impossible in many instances for a variety of reasons. Further, the US DOE in it's January 2009 smart grid report concludes that a smarter grid can better achieve a number of desirable objectives including economy, efficiency, reliability, sustainability, and customer service.
Here is where the confusion arises. The smart grid dialogue has expanded to contemplate many, many concepts and objectives, not all of which are compatible.
Obviously, not all of the manifold goals and objectives will prove to be technically, economically, institutionally feasible. Nonetheless, each has unique implications for how a Smart Grid is to be designed, deployed and operated. So, there will continue to be great confusion about "what the heck is the smart grid" until some are proven to be feasible and beneficial.
The fact is that there are already technologies available and more will come that make it possible not just to do what the grid has always done, only better, but to enable the grid and its customers to do things that were never possible or even contemplated before.
See my expanded development of this discussion of this on my blog at www.smartgridman.com.
Once you start putting technical constraints and codifying things, an awful lot of totally rubbish CEO-speak (designed for the press and investors) evaporates like the morning mist under a hot sun.
That's what we need now.
My definition:
A 'Smart Grid' is an electrical energy transmission and distribution system that includes an associated communication system, or systems, which improve the efficiency and effectiveness with which the energy transmission and distribution is done.
The purpose of a 'Smart Grid' is to optimise the amount and efficiency of energy transfer possible for a given grid infrastructure whilst maintaining continuity of supply to consumers and enabling energy sourcing from a diverse range of energy generating technologies and sources.
The passing of Ted Kennedy opens new doors for the current governor.The governor wants to get the Massachusetts Wind Energy Siting Reform Act through the legislature as fast as possible before local residents realize the legislature is giving legislative powers to the governor forever.
The beneficiaries of the Massachusetts Wind Energy Siting Reform Act are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.
Massachusetts, through the new legislation, chooses to redefine property rights through the Wind Energy Siting Reform Act.
The Wind Energy Siting Reform Act will transfer power from towns, legislators, and the courts to the executive branch, giving the governor and his successors unprecedented power to determine the future landscape and economy of every community. This is similar to the 40B housing laws .
The Wind Energy Siting Reform Act is an assault on our rights.
Check out this link RE a standards effort that Fat Spaniel launched in July: http://sunspec.org/
Here's a quote from that site:
"The initial project of the SunSpec Alliance is the definition and publication of the SunSpec MODBUS specification. The alliance is developing the specification in cooperation with standards organizations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)."
--John
Any resemblence? And I don't mean it sarcastically.
We know that to stay lean all we need is to eat no more than we spend. We know that to stay energy-lean, all we need to is to use no more energy than we need. The human body already has numerous smart features to turn lights off and unplug appliances, ie, digits and toes. Even dogs and 3-year old children can be trained to turn lights off. Yet, we're willing to spend a billion dollars to do something we already do for free. No wonder we don't have money for healthcare.
It is, at best, a learning grid, or a switching grid, being upgraded and increasing in sophistication all the time, and in different areas. I like Pauls tag of grid X.0. and even X.0.0.0. to lable grids with their particular level of capability to satisfy production, transmission, and load management. I realize management labling of certain grid capabilities and age parameters already exists. It needs national coordination.
I can see that the grid itself can be seen much like a grandiose computer chip, routing millions of electrical paths to a determinable series of loads and levels. Computers, like minds, require an operating system to function efficiently. Perhaps the OS could be determined by a combination of all the required functions a grid can provide into a plot scenario mixer and assesing the viable and the workable with the doable and affordable.
It needs to be somewhat biologic, like the mind, so it can repair and construct itself in needed areas. People would serve its needs of course, and it could indeed become a monster. Maybe it already is.
Dear Secretary Chu,
Although the advantages of a smart grid would be, as you have noted, many, I'm sure you would agree, they are not, as presently construed, likely near term prospects. It may, however, be possible for our nation to reap some of the major rewards of a smart grid sooner than later . . . and at relatively little cost.
Typically issued when extreme weather is forecast, "Peak Alerts" are electric utility advisories designed to minimize grid overload caused power failure. Apprised of these events via email and local media, cooperating customers (usually limited to large commercial users, but sometimes extending to private accounts) are advised to turn off nonessential lights and appliances for a specified number of hours, easing demand at critical periods. Additional benefits of these programs include decreased need to run expensive, polluting backup generators and the deferral of new power plant construction.
I believe such energy load shedding initiatives should be greatly expanded wherever appropriate across the United States — while at the same time being made to allow for increased participation by the general public. A national call to service announcing a countrywide Department of Energy administered program involving state energy offices working together with power utilities to this end could potentially yield significant environmental and economic dividends. The recent success of the Earth Hour movement, where individuals around the world voluntarily coordinate their reduction of unnecessary power use, demonstrates that everyday people can play a large scale role in wise energy management.
Sincerely,
Thomas Sullivan
Smart Grid will continue to evolve. What it will be in the end will most likely be much different than anything we can envision today. That is the nice thing about innovation. I do believe however, that we will see effective use of early smart grid technologies much sooner than many have stated. As with many technologies, there is a tipping point that will accelerate its acceptance and implementation.
Thanks for the lively discussion.
Don
So, if a sag seems imminent, calls would go out from a utility to ask customers who have volunteered for sag-reduction strategies, to reduce use as pre-arranged.
If a surge is imminent, calls may go out to pump water uphill so that it can be used to generate energy when needed later.
It would also arrange energy-donation stations for hospitals perhaps, where hybrid owners could pull up and donate energy for life-maintenance systems if remotely generated power were to be interrupted.
Information on such a system could be reported to schools and libraries so that students and citizens interested in tracking such things could do so, thereby contributing to the illusive transparency we are so often promised but so rarely presented with.
Someone said it will soon be called "Grid 2.0". It probably wont. (Un)fortunately, too many companies have too many opinions on what the grid will look like in 2020. It's about time legislation (Congress, or European Commission, or IEEE) comes up with a method or standard to fix boundaries and parameters to this evolution, and ensure integration of renewables, better energy management, smarter dispatch systems, more reliability and of course, demand response systems !
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