Smart Grid Interoperability Standards

You can download smart grid interoperability standards documents from the ansidotorg blog, here.

I'm not going to pretend I know what any of these are, but doubtless there are armies of people out there who do. Here is a list of the documents you'll be able to download:

• Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and Smart Grid end-to-end security
• Revenue metering information model
• Building automation
• DNP3 Substation and feeder device automation
• Distributed Network Protocol
• Inter-control center communications
• Substation automation and protection
• Application level energy management system interfaces
• Information security for power system control operations
• Phasor measurement unit (PMU) communications
• Physical and electrical interconnections between utility and distributed generation (DG)
• Security for intelligent electronic devices (IEDs)
• NERC CIP 002-009 Cyber security standards for the bulk power system
• North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Standards
• Cyber security standards and guidelines for federal information systems, including those for the bulk power system
• Price responsive and reliability DR event information
• Home Area Network device communication, measurement, and control
• Home Area Network (HAN) Device Communications and Information Model
• Plus additional standards and organizations related to Smart Grid.

The link to the ansidotorg blog is courtesy GlobalSpec.

600-Mile California Renewable Energy Transmission Line Canceled

The Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC) has dropped plans to build a 600-mile transmission line from northern California to the Sacramento area. Three of the largest utilities backing the project had pulled out earlier this month, causing TANC to cancel all development plans.

The line would have carried energy from renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal systems.

As we reported earlier, several communities along the transmission corridor had opposed the line's installation.

Clean Electricity Needs Power Lines, Just Like Fossil-Fuel Electricity

The electricity may come from a futuristic source, but transmitting it still depends on a 100-year-old technology: Put up tall towers and string lines between them.

And as new sources of electricity come on line, new transmission lines are going up or being planned. Which has several citizens steamed.

The Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC) is planning to build a new 600-mile, 500 kV transmission line to bring solar, wind and geothermal energy from northeastern California to the Sacramento area. Some residents of Winters, Calif., about 30 miles west of Sacramento, have learned the power lines will run right next to their homes.

Utilities must build the new lines because the government may soon require them to get a third of their power from renewable sources by 2020, and the existing lines can't handle the extra power. Siting the new towers next to current ones would compromise security, so TANC is investing $1.5 billion in the new route.

A NIMBY sentiment has taken hold in several communities along the proposed course. While everyone's in favor of clean energy, they also want a clean environment. One that doesn't feature massive masts on their land.

Some residents are asking why the government doesn't put resources into smaller solar power projects that could serve nearby towns.

But utilities and energy experts say the erection of new power lines is inevitable. As a member of the California Energy Commission said, "If we are going to have to move away from fossil fuels, we are going to have build some transmission lines."

The Grid Is Getting Smart

If today's grid were smart, it would know a lot about you -- such as what time you awoke, which days you were away on vacation, whether you have a home office, how cool you like your home in the summer, and how often you forget to empty your clothes dryer at the end of its cycle.

Too sci-fi?

Well, you still have a few years to get used to the idea. Because the smart grid is coming, albeit the scenario painted above is still a decade or two away.

This year's economic stimulus bill included $4.5 billion for smart grid investments. That's just a "down payment," said a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

As a down payment, it's minuscule. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates the total cost of a smart nationwide grid to be $165 billion.

Talk of smart meters and smart grids had been buzzing around since the 1980, but the Great Power Blackout of 2003 turned the buzz into a clamor. That was when scattershot notions of a national smart grid -- with self-healing networks and two-way communications between power generator and consumer -- began coalescing into a solid plan.

No longer were the people in charge of the nation's electricity content to let power lines simply carry a charge from one place to another. The smart grid would have smart sensors along the wires, together with smart meters, smart sockets and smart appliances -- all of which would talk to one another.

And reveal all kinds of secrets about your behavior.

If you're curious about life under a smart grid, listen to Val Peterson of Boulder, Colorado, America's first smart grid city:

"I pretty much get on my computer, tell my house and my car [a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle] what to do and then I walk away. My solar panels are talking to my house, are talking to my car, are talking to my house. It's a beautiful system."

Not so sci-fi now, is it?

Some New Power Lines May Be Approved by Feds, Not States

The best renewable energy sources are located in the western part of the U.S. But the great energy hogs are in the Northeast. And therein lies a problem.

One solution to this problem is long-distance power lines.

President Obama knows this. He wants the U.S. to build 3,000 miles of new transmission lines by 2012. The economic stimulus legislation he signed includes $11 billion toward the price tag for doing the job.

Laying out the money is one thing; putting up the lines is another. During their journey east, the power lines will have to traverse many states. Each state has its own way of planning for and certifying electricity infrastructure. This creates roadblocks for multi-state projects.

Proposed legislation would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the authority to approve certain kinds of power lines of 345 kv or more. The legislation would get rid of state bottlenecks and improve availability of energy from wind and solar power plants.

Wonder how the states feel about this.

8 Non-carbon energy sources

Two ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants:

1. Use existing technologies and better carbon-management practices to cut CO2 releases. Scientific American magazine calls this Plan A.
2. Generate energy through new technologies that bring emissions down to zero -- Plan B.

The Scientific American story linked above is a recent repost of September 2006 story that focuses on Plan B. It describes 8 potential energy sources that discharge no CO2.

Some of the technologies the story mentions have advanced somewhat, while other new ones have emerged. It's an interesting analysis of what's out there. I found myself generally agreeing with the author's predictions.

The 8 energy sources are:

1. Nuclear fusion. Considerable progress has been made in this field since the Scientific American story ran.
2. High-altitude wind. Some serious winds blow at 33,000 feet, where, at certain latitudes, they pack 5,000 to 10,000 watts of power per square meter.
3. Sci-fi solutions, such as cold fusion, bubble fusion, and matter-antimatter reactions. Unrealistic, says the story's author.
4. Space-based solar power. In space, the sun never sets.
5. Nanotech solar cells. Because it's going to be a long time before silicon-based solar cells can compete with grid power on price.
6. A global supergrid. A worldwide network of supercooled, superconducting wires. Not so much a source of energy as a means of efficiently distributing it.
7. Waves and tides. These sources are already being tapped in several places around the world. A proposed project in the UK's Severn River will be the world's largest.
8. Designer microbes. Bespoke cells that could, for example, convert cellulose to fuel, or turn the carbon dioxide from a smokestack into natural gas.

(Photo: Carbon dioxide crystals. Credit: USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.)

The Smart Grid could do with better PR

Nearly 70% of the attendees at this year's RETECH event believed the smart grid would benefit their business. And almost as many -- 62% -- thought utilities had not been successful in publicizing the grid.

Those were the conclusions of a survey by the UK firm Sentec, which develops products for energy management and metering.

"Attendees at RETECH are the people with their fingers on the pulse of the energy industry," said Sentec's marketing manager Hermoine Crease. "... it's a strong reflection of belief within the sector."

I'm not surprised at the slow pace of PR for the smart grid. While we've made great progress in building the smart grid, we've still only scratched the surface. We're not yet at the stage where it makes sense to go out and herald the smart grid's arrival.

But we'll get there.

Smart meters from the utility

We are one of 3,000 Connecticut Light & Power customers who will take part in its smart meter pilot project this summer.

The smart meter, which the utility installed last week, will track our electricity usage by time of day between June 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009. Those dates make sense, because that's when refrigerators and air conditioners work hardest.

But everyone already knows that demand for power goes up during summer. Why do we need a smart meter to tell us what we already know?

Because the smart meter tells the utility what present meters don't: How much power we use at specific times during the day. And it allows CL&P to bill us more for electricity we use during the peak hours of noon to 8 pm.

Theory being, when we see how much power we use in the daytime, and how much extra it costs us, we'll be more responsible about our energy usage. Let's see if it holds true in practice.

Actually, we know the smart meter is going to cause our electric bill to rise this summer. The $100 incentive from the power company should just about cover the additional cost, leaving no net monetary gain. So why did we agree to participate in the project? Just doing our bit for the environment, I guess.

Here's the bigger picture. The smart meter is the critical link between the production and consumption ends of the smart grid. It's what tells the utility how homes and businesses really use electricity.

Even though the smart grid is years or even decades away, smart meters help utilities today better manage and predict demand. That means more reliable power, with fewer burps and blackouts.

And smart meters enable utilities to reward those consumers who can be flexible about how much electricity they use -- and when.

It's a small step. But from small steps are revolutions made.