National Renewable Energy Laboratory Hard At Work on “Energy Systems Integration”

Until earlier today, I hadn’t spoken with George Douglas, spokesperson for the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in five years; I had interviewed him in 2010 in preparation for my first book, “Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies.” During our almost hour-long chat this morning, we covered a great deal of ground, including NREL’s top priority, which they call “ESI” or “energy systems integration,” which is an examination of exactly what happens when we have an enormous number of new factors affecting the power grid.  ESI uses supercomputing and traditional systems modeling tools to show precisely what a utility faces when it tries to support lots of rooftop solar, control of appliances with smart phones, aggressive renewable portfolio standards, etc.

The goal of ESI is laudable to say the least: identifying and removing risk factors associated with the reregulation of our utilities. Understand that we live in an era when our needs are far more complex than they were 90 years ago, when all we wanted was cheap and reliable power. I don’t think it’s asking too much to allow us citizens to review the situation and make corrections every century or so, but we do need to know what we’re getting ourselves into.