Sioshansi F.P. Smart Grid: Integrating Renewable, Distributed & Efficient Energy
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videos, listen to music, and access the Internet—as opposed
to talking—mobile phone companies have gradually migrated
to a new pricing paradigm. Most mobile consumers are now
charged based on bandwidth and data transfer speeds, not
minutes talking on the phone. The definition of service has
changed from what it used to be. The time has arrived for
utilities to consider alternatives to billing customers based on
flat rates and volumetric consumption.
Still, other technical developments are likely to further
complicate matters for the traditional grid and traditional
utility service paradigm. A new generation of hybrid and full
electric vehicles (EVs), for example, not only promises to
serve as a potentially huge storage medium for grid operators
to “dump” vast amounts of unneeded intermittent energy
when network demand is low, but also offers the possibility
that some of the stored energy may be fed back into the grid
during high demand periods, the so-called vehicle-to-grid
(V2G) technology.
Several chapters in the book cover a number of interesting
features of EVs and the critical role that the smart grid must
play in turning these fictional scenarios into reality.
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Energy
storage, whether in EVs or in centralized plants or in the form
of energy stored in other media, water, ice, compressed air,
etc., is recognized as a central requirement of any smart grid
of the future.
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In particular see Chapter 18 and Chapter 19.
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Chapter 5 provides further details on storage.
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Will customers buy it?
While discussing such exciting developments, it is not
unusual to lose sight of the central role of customers in the
rapidly evolving smart grid paradigm. Engineers, technicians,
economists, and everyone else, it seems, all have grand
designs for the smart grid, smart meters, smart prices, and
smart devices. Others envision grand schemes where all these
components will be coordinated and integrated so that the
inherent synergies of the smart grid can be captured and the
vision realized. But will consumers buy any of this? Will they
do as the experts hope? Will they behave as the models
predict? Will they be engaged as many expect them?
As a number of chapters in Part III of this book point out,
customer acceptance and participation, by all accounts, are
among the biggest and most challenging pieces of the smart
grid puzzle. Consumers, most social scientists and
anthropologists insist, have their own needs and priorities.
With increasing demands on their limited disposable time and
even more limited attention span, they may or may not behave
as the experts and engineers want them to.
Moreover, consumers are wary of the data privacy issues and
increasingly concerned about “big brother” looking over their
shoulders, remotely monitoring and controlling their devices,
and managing their electricity consumption. A number of
smart metering implementation projects have already
encountered significant consumer backlash, and this may be
the tip of the iceberg.
In California, for example, where utilities are engaged in an
ambitious rollout of smart meters, a significant number of
consumers have expressed concerns about the smart meters,
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for a number of reasons. During a recent trip to Europe, I was
equally surprised at the level of distrust and skepticism I
heard from many I spoke with.
Data access and privacy issues aside, all indicators are that a
majority of consumers may take limited interest in many of
the features of the smart meters, smart devices, and dynamic
pricing espoused by the experts in this book and elsewhere. In
the end, many of the purported benefits of the smart grid may
not come to fruition if consumers do not perceive them as
benefits in ways that are meaningful and practical to them.
And that would be a great tragedy.
But as further described in several chapters in this volume,
there may be ways for consumers to participate in the smart
grid environment without taxing them too much.
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Clearly,
much more research is needed in this critical area.
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Chapter 14, Chapter 15 and Chapter 16 provide further insights.
Are the benefits worth the costs and the risks?
I hope that the preceding discussion has highlighted some of
the key applications of the smart grid, which explain the high
level of interest and investment going into it. However,
implementing these schemes and achieving their purported
benefits will not be easy nor can be taken for granted. For
every great opportunity, there are multiple challenges,
obstacles, and pitfalls. Part IV of the book, which presents a
number of case studies, offers anecdotal examples of some of
these difficulties that lie ahead and must be confronted and
successfully addressed.
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But the benefits are certainly real and potentially significant,
supporting the business case for pursuing the investments
(Box 2). Among the benefits is that the smart grid offers great
potential to address the challenges posed by climate change,
something that may not be immediately obvious or generally
acknowledged. As already mentioned, the smart grid
promises to integrate a growing percentage of clean
renewable energy resources as well as a better balancing of
generation and load, both of which will go a long way to
address concerns about climate change.
What Are the Costs and Benefits of the Smart
Grid
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?
25This box is excerpted from EEnergy Informer, May
2011.
In 2004, the Electric Power Research Institute
(EPRI), the collaborative research arm of the electric
power industry, estimated that to implement the smart
grid would cost around $165 billion for the US. That,
many said, is a lot of money, and questioned if the
benefits would outweigh the costs.
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Fast forward to 2011 and an updated EPRI
assessment, which puts the cost figure for a fully
functioning smart grid for the US electric power
sector somewhere in the range of $338–476 billion.
If you think that is a lot, the US Interstate Highway
System that began under President Eisenhower, cost
roughly $500 billion if measured in 2011 dollars. It
was a lot of money, but by most measures, it was a
real bargain. EPRI claims that the same will be true
for the smart grid, but only better. It estimates the
potential benefits of the smart grid somewhere around
$1.3–2 trillion.
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The purported benefits of smart grid would come
from multiple sources, some more difficult to assess
or put a value on, including the following:
• More reliable power delivery and quality, with
fewer and shorter outages;
• Enhanced cyber security;
• A more efficient grid with reduced energy losses
and a greater capacity to manage peak demand,
lessening the need for new generation;
• Environmental and conservation benefits
including enhanced capabilities to integrate
renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs); and
• Potentially lower costs for customers through
greater pricing choices and improved access to
energy information.
As useful and timely as it is, the EPRI report is a
“high level” exercise with ballpark guesstimates of
what the costs and benefits may be. While this is
helpful, for many technical people working in the
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trenches, the numbers are fluffy and the estimated
cost/benefits suspect. Moreover, EPRI takes a holistic
perspective of smart grid from a national point of
view. This may be helpful for a policy maker but not
necessarily for someone trying to justify the cost
effectiveness of a particular smart grid, smart
metering, or dynamic pricing scheme.
But as is often the case, one must start somewhere,
and this is as a good place to start as any. A study by
the International Energy Agency (IEA) provides
another assessment of the benefits of the smart grid at
an even higher level of abstraction.
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The Technology Roadmap: Smart Grids, IEA, 2011.
Explaining the increased price tag of the updated
study, Mark McGranaghan, EPRI's VP of Power
Delivery and Utilization, pointed out, “This cost
assessment factors in new technologies and customer
benefits that create a more resilient, self-healing and
interactive grid that were not available when the 2004
analysis was completed.”
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EPRI considered projected costs over the next 20
years in four key areas, transmission, substation,
distribution, and customer interface. Broadly, the
costs fall into two categories:
• Investment required to meet load growth and to
address existing deficiencies— such as power flow
bottlenecks and high-fault currents that damage
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critical equipment—through equipment
installation, upgrades, and replacement; and
• Investment needed to develop and deploy
advanced technologies to achieve “smart”
functionality of power delivery systems.
As is usually the case, it is harder to put a value on
the benefits than the costs, but that does not prevent
people from trying.
The reality on the ground, however, is rather
different, at least as reported in a recent survey
conducted by Microsoft Corp. and presented at the
CERA Week Conference in Houston in mid-March
2011. According to a poll of 210 utility executives
and smart grid experts from around the world, only
8% of the companies reported that they have passed
from the planning into implementation phase—which
means that 92% are still thinking about it, if that.
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Why hesitate when the benefits of the smart grid are
so overwhelming, according to EPRI's assessment
and others like it? The main barriers often mentioned
include uncertainties on the financial, regulatory,
technology, and return on investment aspects of smart
grid initiatives – that covers the entire utility business
spectrum.
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