From 2GreenEnergy Intern Nikita Rao: Smart Grid – Current Progress, Issues and Investment

The failure to achieve clean energy in the U.S is not because it lacks technology and innovation but because it lacks the idea of implementing the technology. We should focus on laying a strong foundation and going forward to build a smarter electricity system in which the consumer and producer have two-way communication to achieve the required results.

Most of us have heard the term “smart grid” development which would bring a revolution to our power industry. The Los Angeles utilities, LADWP (L.A. Department of Water and Power) and SCE (Southern California Edison) are working to contribute their efforts to develop the same.

Now before I go further, I would like to explain what smart grid actually means:

In their account to explain smart grid “ The Department of Energy” refers to a class of technology people are using to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, using computer-based remote control and automation. These systems are made possible by two-way communication technology and computer processing that has been used for decades in other industries.

The LADWP smart grid department defines it as an amalgamation of:

Renewable energy including distributed generation
Transmission automation
Substation automation
Distribution automation
Advanced metering infrastructure
Demand side management
Communications initiative
System and data integration initiative

Having given the definitions from the utilities and energy department point of view, I would like to sum up smart grid as a technology which is a merging of two infrastructures: the already existing electrical infrastructure with the intelligence infrastructure that includes the telecommunication, routers and switches.

Hoping not to sound cliché I would say the research and thought that has gone into the idea is equal to the job half accomplished. But again the problem is: just because the concept works perfectly in the research labs and in theory, does not guarantee success practically.

The problem is the investment and funding that is required to test it practically. The risk here is that one would just be taking a leap of faith while investing in the smart grid technology.

As an analogy I would like to bring in a concept of making a movie; a lot goes into movie making from writing a script to hiring the right crew, raising the finance required to make the movie, to directing it, producing it, marketing it, selling it and paying back creditors out of the profits. These various functions involve different sets of people working on it; similarly smart grid involves writing down the idea, hiring the right work force, collecting the funds required in smart grid, directing the practical application of it, producing the results, comparing the results and analyzing them, marketing it and selling it to achieve the desired results of improved efficiency.

There are various functions involved in applying smart grid technology. To clarify this concept, I would like to go back to the LADWP definition of smart grid and explain what goes into the making of this technology.

Renewable energy and distributed generation: what this actually means is the addition of solar panel or wind mill to your smart meter. The energy produced as a result is then given to the utility in exchange for some credits or reduction in cost of the power units you are buying.

Transmission automation system includes:

The ability to remotely monitor and measure transmission lines.
To be able to read a transmission line mid mile.
To re-route power, in case of outages one should be able to divert the power transmission.
Temperature reads, i.e, if a transmission line gets hot then the line elongates, to avoid this a thermistor( temperature measuring device) is added to measure the temperature of the line and thus more current is pushed through the line, capacity increases and this is advantageous to the utility as it cuts down the cost of having to upgrade the transmission line.

Synchrophasors: These are devices installed in the substation which measure the frequency and power factor and if there is a sudden decrease in efficiency then the phase angle is reduced to eliminate the outages.

Substation automation: It includes protection of the equipment, cables, and metering the data. It also gives data obtained to a control center, and regulates and controls voltage.

Distribution automation: It includes transformer monitoring, capacitor control, line switch control, fault management, cable monitoring, voltage and current monitoring, surge protection, lightning control and weather monitoring.

AMI monitoring: This is a two-way communication. Many people mistakenly believe AMI to be the only feature of the smart grid technology; they ignore the involvement of any of the above. That is obviously not true based on the functions and requirements of the earlier features.

With advanced metering technology, utilities and the meter can talk to one another. This requires a network and has the abilities of: customer billing, remote on/off switching, and outage notification,(loss of power message is then sent to the utility as a text message and once the power is restored, the utility gets a message of restoration).

Now that we are clear that smart grid is not just a small modification of the current electricity grid but a complete remodeling of the existing one, we can clearly discuss the finance required to complete the whole concept.

Thus far, I have only explained the electrical aspect of the smart grid; the intelligence aspect has not been delved into yet.

The article by “The Department of Energy (smart grid report) “, discusses the contribution made in recent years towards the development of smart grid financially.

The progress in smart grid deployment has been significant due to the timely investments made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA – 2009).

ARRA:

Funded the deployment of 877 phasor measurement units (PMUs), expanding the prior nationwide network of 200 by more than 400%.
Funded the Center for the Commercialization of Electric Technologies (CCET), Smart Grid Demonstration Project, a demonstration-scale micro grid project in Texas.
Provided $4.5 billion in awards for all programs described under Title XIII (111 USC 405).
Funded a $2.4 billion program designed to establish 30 manufacturing facilities for electric vehicle batteries and components.
Provided $812.6 million in federal grant awards for advanced metering infrastructure deployments.
Provided $7.2 billion to expand broadband access and adoption.

Recent achievements in smart grid technology are:

There are now 29 states that have renewable portfolio standards.
Distributed resource interconnection policies have been either implemented or expanded in 14 states since 2008, thus promoting the advancement of distributed generation technologies.
Incentives to purchase and own electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are either planned or provided in 21 states.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology published the first release of the framework for smart grid interoperability standards and guidelines for smart grid cyber security.

Despite the funding, problems in development of smart grid still persists. The most important challenges among these are tied to the value proposition and the capital required to purchase the new technologies envisioned for communicating information between end-users, energy generation, and transmission and distribution providers.

NIKITA RAO

MS IN ELECTRICAL POWER