Smart Grids - Save Energy!

With the increase of renewable energy, de-centralised energy will also increase, just think of solar energy, wind energy or even hydropower. They are rarely centralised like when using nuclear power. As noted at Gristmill, this poses a challenge for energy distribution and can have serious consequences as an example in the US shows.

But today's power grid cannot do it. A system built on central generating stations, little changed from the first power grids deployed in the late 1800s, lacks flexibility and smarts. We need a new grid capable of networking millions of distributed energy devices such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and smart appliances. We need an internet of energy that employs the latest in digital technologies. We need a Smart Grid.

On August 14, 2003, an overheated transmission line in Ohio sagged into the power grid's greatest natural enemy, a tree branch. The resulting power failure cascaded from the Midwest to Broadway in seconds. Power grid operators were quickly on the phones trying to grope through the grid equivalent of the fog of war, but it was too late. The biggest blackout in U.S. history was underway, leaving 50 million people without power.

But with Smart Grids, not only reliability can be improved, but also energy efficiency! A core component of the Smart Grid would be the two-way communication (instead of the one-way communication we have now Supplier->Consumer). Both supplier and consumer can benefit from this technology, as a case study from EnergyPriorities notes!
In order to level and stabilise demand, the company "charged customers more for energy during the peak periods, and less during periods of lower cost and demand. The goal was to encourage customers to shift certain loads by a few hours." And the benefits:

Instead of visually checking meters and manually recording the readings, PSE could use automated meter reading (AMR) technology to gather the data electronically, four times a day, over a fixed wireless network.

AMR is a system of intelligent electric meters, a communications network, and servers to gather the data and deliver it to the utility's billing software. The technology had matured enough that PSE could choose from several vendors and minimize its own technology-related risks.

[...]

As PSE hoped, customers shifted their loads according to the price incentives. The average residential customer shifted 13 kilowatt hours out of peak periods and into off-peak periods. That four percent shift might not seem like much, but it translates to about 25,000 kilowatts of reduced peak demand.

[...]

There were a few surprises for PSE from their PEM experience. One was that some customers in the control group also shifted their loads, even though they didn't have the incentive of a lower price.

This may be reflective of customers' desire to do the right thing, the effect of having the information and being educated about energy costs, short-term curiosity, or confusion about whether the TOU rates applied to them.

The second surprise was a net decrease in energy consumption among PEM participants. Says Starnes:

"One area that was a nice surprise for us was the conservation effect. We weren't asking people to use less energy, we were strictly asking them to move their loads. Instead, they actually used less energy. We got a measurable conservation effect of one to two percent, which is significant when you multiply it by the thousands of kilowatt-hours involved."

Unfortunately due to other reasons the programme was discontinued, but there are countries that are moving forward with automated meter reading (AMR), a big first step towards Smart Grids. Hopefully this could lead to more energy-conscious consumers.


AngryBee says: Consumers won't change their behaviours! It's useless, we should just continue with our old ways.


SustainaBee says: I believe that with the right technology and some incentives we can change things! And also the business development manager of the company in the case study said: "I think the major lessons are that it works, customers understand it, and they are in fact willing to step up and make a change in their behaviour if they're given the right information."


Further reading:

• Powering the Smart Grid (pdf, Climate Solutions)