Texas winter storms 2011 rolling blackouts, are the energy companies to blame?

by Adam Cox


Where was Smart Grid and why didn’t it help?


Well now the rubber has really met the road. For the past 24 months consumers have been hearing about Smart Grid, Sustainable Communities, Energy Conservation, etc…and how the grid can now heal itself, blah, blah, blah and they will never be out of power again. We have those really entertaining TV commercials from some large technology and consulting firms to thank for this, plus the oversell done by the federal government and other energy advocacy groups.

Now in a week of extremely severe weather those implied promises have fallen dramatically short and the consumers are as usual upset with the utility companies. It is now time for the evil energy corporations to once again bear the brunt of the public outcry. Now in the interest of fairness the energy companies did make some mistakes in the week leading up to the storms and during the storms themselves; that will be a topic for another day. Back to the issue at hand, I can guarantee you that were you to search through all the articles and watch all the news reports no one will be talking about what consumers have done in the past 24 months to work with, or in most cases roadblock, local utilities to enable all this great new technology. Which puts in sharp focus the root cause of the entire Smart Grid controversy, now exposed for anyone paying attention;

Consumers demand perfect service, low rates, 100% control & privacy, and instant response in the event something happens.

Utilities want to deliver perfect service, keep consumers rates as low as possible yet still earn a profit, create alternative demand response approaches by more granular control of consumption on the grid, and have the highest possible response times in the event something happens.

Opposing point number 1: Perfect Service
Doesn’t exist and won’t exist in our lifetimes. In order to provide perfect service the national electric and gas distribution infrastructure would have to be built to accommodate maximum peak demand. This level of consumption is fair below average or base load and would represent an enormous amount of assets that would be idle for long periods of time. Construction costs would be enormous, rates would skyrocket, and the target is always changing. Some may vaguely at this point remember speeches by President Obama, Secretary of Energy Chu, and other industry leaders about why 10 – 30% reductions by 2020 were important. If not you can search on energy reduction policies for 2020 and find tons of information at the state and federal agency levels. Bottom line, demand will outpace capacity for the next decade. The question for consumers and utilities to ask is how to achieve these reductions, because in emergency situations more efficient homes and business make a difference between rolling blackouts and no rolling blackouts.

Opposing point number 2: Low rates
Rates are not going to go down. There it is, accept it and move on. Basic supply and demand applies here; demand is continuing to grow while supply is struggling to keep up. Smart Grid is not going to lower rates, consumers could see a reduction in their bill from using energy smarter but rates per kilowatt hour will not be lowered as a result of putting a smart meter at homes, smart plugs/IHDs in the home and enabling more granular control. If you add in the demand of perfect service referenced above lowering rates becomes impossible. What consumers should be demanding are the tools to manage their power consumption better. Shockingly the exact opposite is happening as vast amounts of consumers dig in at the thought of the utility, who supplies all of their power already, knowing how it is being used in the home at the major appliance level. Unless you are Dr. Evil channeling off power to build your next generation death ray, what is the real negative impact to you as a consumer?

Going back to our title and original two questions:

1. Last week’s rolling blackouts, are the energy companies to blame? The energy companies have to share some blame in the event, but consumers do not get to skate on this one. Many of the major utilities in Texas have been advancing Smart Grid and Sustainable Community programs for the past 18 – 24 months and consumers have not shown the slightest inclination as a majority to get on board or acknowledge the reality that electricity, natural gas, and water is a shared commodity. Consuming energy more intelligently is not infringing on your constitutional rights, in fact it is just the opposite. Being a smarter consumer of energy in all its forms is being a good citizen of this country and member of your local community.

2. Last week’s rolling blackouts, where was Smart Grid and why didn’t it help? The electrical grid, with the exception of some large and small pilots, has not changed just because a smart meter has been installed at a consumer’s home. Without the cooperation of consumers to allow, some parts of the home to managed, aka turned off for short periods of time, utilities are constrained to turning off blocks of homes being powered on a shared circuit at the substation. The same method we have always used, or at least the last 25 years. In short Smart Grid didn’t help because on a large scale it does not exist yet.

There were a lot of contributing factors beyond those I have discussed today, to last week’s rolling blackouts. All parties share blame including regulators, consumers, and energy providers. The way forward is to work together as consumers and providers, a simple concept that is now and will continue to be a struggle to make a reality.

I saw the weather forecast, did you?

By Stephen Daniels

Why didn't my utility see this coming? I saw the news.

"Winter Blast 2011"... "Lay in heavy supplies, this one is going to be a bear"..."Colder in Dallas than it is in Anchorage today".

So, I prepared. I rushed to the supermarket and prepared for the blizzard. I called the school weather hotline. No school, thank goodness, so won't have to worry about getting the kids up and out of the house. Nothing to do now but go to bed and see if we wake up to real snow in Texas.


That is what many Texas consumers did last week and they thought they had covered their bases. Unfortunately, the folks responsible for making sure the lights stay on seem to have been asleep at the wheel. Unprecedented spending on the Smart Grid is in the news everyday and the deployment of smart meters has moved at a break-neck pace. Trucks have rolled up to houses across the state and extended their ability to see how much energy is being used and exactly when it is being used. Forecasting demand for electricity should be a fairly exact science.

But it wasn't. Rolling blackouts started early in the day and affected significant portions of the state. Residences, businesses, schools, even hospitals were in the mix. As we saw on the news, the group responsible for electric reliability (ERCOT) put out the call for additional capacity but utilities were unable to answer the bell. The blackouts continued throughout the day. I have heard my whole life that Texas has little to worry about when it comes to power because we have our own grid. Sounds great until your "own grid" doesn't have enough power for the people who live on it.

When the utilities were confronted by consumers about the value of smart meters, the standard marketing campaign double speak told us that they were the key to the Smart Grid and were going to give us unparalleled reliability. Instead, we saw a first in my lifetime, outages across the state. Then, to add insult to injury, we were told to expect more blackouts and that everyone should curb their usage at home during this record cold. How about, "We are working hard to rise to the challenge and get the necessary resources online."?

The federal government decided that fast-forwarding our utility infrastructure into the future was worthy of hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and you all lined up to get your share but we are left wondering if "spend it fast" was the total depth of the plan to use that money. Electrons are a commodity but when you start asking me to participate by checking my daily or hourly consumption, curb my demand at peak times, and work with you to ensure the health of the systems you have to start thinking differently. It is time for you to start thinking about your service in terms of product.


We are past the era of being amazed that the lights come on when we flip the switch. Complicated problems require thoughtful answers. Quality service, clear customer engagement, and a well-communicated plan must be part of the strategy.

Smart Meter deployment creates consumer concerns

Smart Grid and smart meters hold the promise of long term consumption management and reduction but how reliable is the new technology? Recently consumers in California have contended that the new meters do not capture consumption at the same rate as traditional meters and have resulted in increased power costs. Are the new meters more accurate than the old meters or are there calibration issues in the new meter technology? The link below is to a recent New York Times article describing what some states and commissions are dealing with.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/us/14meters.html?_r=1&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell&partner=rss&emc=rss

If additional oversight will be needed to ensure meter benchmarking and calibration testing above what utilities have done historically is required, what is the incremental cost of deployment and long term support going to be?

Why put an IHD in the home?

This question has been floating around for a while now and with the grant release recently it seems like a good time to address this issue.


Couple of interesting facts about smart phones and the market forecast for adoption:

1. GSM and Smart Phones combined made up 63% of the world market in 2006

2. The iPhone & Blackjack for consumers, and Blackberry for businesses have completely changed the way phones are viewed and utilized

3. Each new generation of phones enhances capability and security

The role of the In-Home Display is to provide the consumer with relevant actionable data about their energy consumption and account. Yet, how many of us keep our phone/PDA within easy reach, even at home? While the IHD would give a counter top presence in the home, is it likely to become just another item on the counter taking up space that is eventually disregarded completely?

The long term view has to be yes without a doubt. The global cell phone market devotes billions to marketing and sales, constantly touting the smart phone as a lifestyle device. Utilities may have a unique relationship with consumers, but why try to compete for consumer attention?

If you want to get the most out of those federal funds not allocated to smart meters, refocus grant dollars going towards IHD’s into, Smart Thermostats, Consumer Portals, and Web Applications targeted to smart consumer devices.

Smart Grid...where do you start?

In discussions with various utilities and listening to other vendors providing both products and services over the past couple of years I hear a common question, "how do we get started?"

Smart Grid creates a unique challenge, mainly based on the fact that the scope of a given smart grid project can have widely varying scope. It can be targeted to the home, specifically inside the home beyond the meter, or focused on the telecommunications and managing assets more effectively through distribution automation. Given all the variables and conditions that can exist it can be daunting for managers and executives to get a comfort level with all the costs associated and value they can expect in return.

The good news is, smart grid solutions can be adapted to suit most situations. Leaving managers and executives to ask some fundamental questions: What do my customers really want? What does my utility really need?

Those two answers will help determine a direction for not only smart grid but for the overall business and technology strategy of the organization.

Smart Grid Standards Update

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to Present Major Report on Smart Grid Interoperability Standards

NIST to Host Detailed Briefing Following Report’s Unveiling

WASHINGTON—U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will present a major new report for public comment next Thursday on the Smart Grid—the planned next-generation network for distributing electricity throughout the country by incorporating modern information technology—in Washington, D.C.

The draft report, entitled NIST Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards, Release 1.0, was developed during the first phase of NIST's three-phase plan to identify technical standards to support the interoperability of Smart Grid devices and systems. Following Locke’s unveiling of the draft report at the GridWeek 2009 Conference at 8:30 a.m., an in-depth public briefing by NIST will include an opportunity for stakeholders to review the report’s contents and learn about next steps. The public will have 30 days to comment on the report.

“This report represents input from more than 1,500 stakeholders who have participated in NIST’s process of developing a Smart Grid framework,” said NIST’s George Arnold, National Coordinator for Smart Grid Interoperability. “It identifies a foundational set of standards for grid interoperability and security, as well as high-priority action plans to fill gaps where additional standards are needed.”

Commerce Secretary Locke Unveils Smart Grid Report
WHEN: 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009
WHERE: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20004

Web site: http://www.gridweek.com/2009/

NIST Smart Grid Report Briefing
WHEN: 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009
WHERE: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20004

The three-hour briefing is free and open to the public. For more information on NIST’s work with Smart Grid, visit http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/.

The agenda has been posted at http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/GRIDWEEKAGENDA.pdf.

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.