Monday, August 31, 2009

Smart Grid and renewable energy mean new infrastructure

As a follow up to the issue of infrastructure proliferation I would like to include the following excert from an article in Power Magazine:

In June, California issued yet another report on renewable energy. This one, a joint effort of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Energy Commission (CEC), analyzes implementation issues related to increasing the state’s renewables portfolio standard (RPS) to 33% by 2020. The report is the latest in an increasingly growing number of assessments, policy pronouncements, and administrative decisions examining renewable energy and climate change issues.

This most recent CPUC/CEC report provides some updated numbers quantifying the task at hand, but it doesn’t break any new ground. It comes as no surprise that statewide electricity expenditures will be significantly higher under a 33% RPS than under an "all-gas" scenario in which California stops investing in renewable energy.

The real surprise is how little has changed since California began its latest push to increase its use of renewable energy. Consistent with prior assessments, this latest report identifies existing infrastructure planning and permitting processes as the key barrier to attaining RPS targets. For years, market participants and policy makers have recognized this imperative to fundamentally change and streamline the permitting process for infrastructure projects, which begs the question — Is California moving any closer to meeting renewable energy and climate change goals?

Transmission, Transmission, Transmission

Transmission persists as the largest obstacle to bringing renewable resources online. Large-scale renewable generation projects necessary to meet RPS targets tend to be located far from load centers and existing transmission lines. Without assurances that transmission will be in place to deliver their power to the grid, renewable developers cannot offer purchasing utilities a viable product and thus cannot obtain financing or otherwise move forward with projects.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Smart Grid - What is it?

At iTeres we have like most in the industry seen many conflicting statements about what Smart Grid is. The DoE and other groups have proposed definitions and while all share some common elements none seem to really hit the nail on the head. We feel that the definition below fits our understanding of Smart Grid as an industry today.

'A closed electric ecosystem with energy and information traveling bi-directionally from the point of consumption to the point of generation across inter-connected systems, for the purpose of improving reliability, reducing the proliferation of infrastructure over time, creating energy awareness, and improving the capability to forecast trends and events.'

For this week I would like to focus on the reducing the proliferation of infrastructure over time.

This is an interesting dynamic when you view the issue from a comprehensive national energy startegy that includes significant increases in renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biomass.

These sources of energy are not capable of generating the same amount of energy that fossil fuel and nuclear powered generating plants are. Leading to the logical conclusion we will need more renewable plants to accomplish the shift into alternate fuel sources for power generation. This also means additional transmission infrastructure is required to connect these new plants to the grid.

Smart Grid and demand management is the critical element to making the shift feasible. If the envisioned demand management and demand destruction strategies are not effective, the amount of new infrastructure required will sky rocket. Thousands of miles of new transmission lines will have to be constructed and the devices required to operate and monitor will have to be deployed right along side. This will create incredible amounts of data and complexity if the point of consumption behaviors are not modified.

This is why iTeres views Smart Grid as a closed ecosystem. Each component from generating plan to point of consumption must be working in concert for Smart Grid on a national scale to be a success.

Monday, August 17, 2009

iTeres Smart Grid Discussion

Welcome to the iTeres Smart Grid discussion!

Smart Grid as a concept can be daunting and at times a challenge to determine what the benefits and risks actually are. Each week we will be discussing one aspect of Smart Grid technology, architecture, solutions, and implementation strategies.