http://smartgridman.com/index.php en steve.coller@milsoft.com Copyright 2011 2011-09-08T17:52:00+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/revisiting_what_the_heck_is_smart_grid_anyway/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/revisiting_what_the_heck_is_smart_grid_anyway/#When:17:52:00Z This question continues to be the subject of innumerable conferences, seminars, publications, debates.  My answer is to make electric utilities smarter by taking advantage of existing and emerging:         1. distributed intelligent electronic devices,         2. fast, two-way digital telecommunications, and         3. information technology & software applications in order to better monitor, analyze and control generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.  My definition is utility centric, not customer centric as I explain further below.  . . . A “Simple” Answer time ago Renewable Energy World posed this question on its website:     What the heck is smartgrid anyway?  Now, a couple of years later, this question continues to be the subject of innumerable conferences, seminars, publications, debates.  Here’s my answer:  Make electric utilities smarter by taking advantage of existing and emerging:         1. distributed intelligent electronic devices,         2. fast, two-way digital telecommunications, and         3. information technology & software applications to better monitor, analyze and control generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.  My definition is utility centric, not customer centric as I explain further below.  Why Is Smart Grid Important? For nearly one hundred years the electric utility industry faced limited change in its business model and technology. Steady growth in demand for power and energy, economies of scale, and a cost-plus franchise monopoly resulted a stable, profitable business model.  The technologies for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity have changed little since the days of Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.  However, the world has changed profoundly in every way.  Risk of unintended consequences has overcome economies of scale. Competition has eroded the cost plus monopoly franchise.  And Moore’s, Metcalfe’s and Gilder’s Laws have resulted in a revolution in electronics, telecommunications and information technologies.  According to the US DOE / EAC Final Report on Electricity Supply Adequacy,       “Keeping the Lights on in a New World” the U.S. electric system, “the supreme engineering achievement of the 20th century,” is aging, inefficient, congested, and incapable of meeting future energy needs.  The report states that the existing US electric grid has largely reached the end of it’s useful life due in part to the topology, capacity and condition of the generation, transmission and distribution facilities and in part to new business environment and operating circumstances.  The traditional approach of building more fossil fueled, central station generation and bulk transmission lines is not only no longer as desirable, it will be more difficult if not impossible in many instances for a variety of reasons. The US DOE / EAC companion Final Report on Smart Grid,       “Smart Grid: Enabler of the New Economy” concludes that a smarter grid can better achieve a number of desirable objectives including economy, efficiency, reliability, sustainability, and customer service.  Manifold Motivations While it is clear that the traditional approaches to planning and operating the electric power grid have to change, it is not at all clear how to go about it.  There is an overabundance of objectives and a profusion of proposals to achieve them.  Aficionados assert manifold motivations and bountiful benefits.  Some are complementary, some are contradictory and some are controversial.  They include but are not limited to the following:       Control costs       Diminish the need for new capital expenditures       Maximize operational efficiencies       Reduce fuel consumption     Change customer behavior       Shift / reduce peak demand       Reduce energy consumption       Accept higher energy costs           Maintain / improve grid reliability     Assure grid security     Protect public safety     Protect national security     Reduce adverse environmental impact       Reduce pollution       Mitigate climate change       Preserve aesthetics     Minimize (or maximize?) nuclear generation     Reduce dependence on imported oil     Minimize fossil fuel generation (or maximize natural gas generation?)     Accommodate new operational challenges       Distributed generation & storage       Stochastic renewable generation       PHEVs       Microgrids       Competitive wholesale & retail markets     Improve customer service       Maintain / improve reliability       Maintain / improve power quality       Offer more service / price options       Provide more and better information       Achieve better communications       Facilitate customer participation       Enable customer energy management systems     Stimulate economic recovery       New jobs       New business opportunities for incumbent vendors       Opportunities for inventors / entrepreneurs       Return for investors     Maintain global competitiveness I have no doubt missed a few.  And, as time passes and the world continues to change, there will be new challenges and demands for the electric utility grid. Who Should be Smarter - The Utility or the Customer? Much if not most of the Smart Grid dialogue and activity is about how best to get customers to fundamentally change their behavior in ways that achieve one or more of the objectives described above.  The means range from voluntary response to complex pricing schemes, to active load control by the utility, to on-premises energy management systems.  They presume that customers will be willing to invest the effort and expense not only to become experts on electric utility operations and pricing, but to inconvenience themselves to solve their electric utility’s problems.  My friend Brewster McCracken of the Pecan Street Project calls this “the secret plan to kill the smart grid.”  That is, try to keep customers from using electricity when they want or need to use it the most, and tell them they are going to pay an arm and a leg if they do.  Brewster also suggests, “I have a hard time seeing my consumers spending their money at Best Buy on devices that are necessary to unwind a longstanding structural defect in the electric utility industry.”  Electric utilities can go a long way toward a Smart Grid with many benefits to consumers without having to ask consumers to become utility operations and pricing experts and reduce their quality of life. In the telecommunications industry which has preceded electric utilities by several decades in having to deal with open retail competition and revolutionary new technologies, the move has been to simpler pricing schemes that are not dependent upon time of use or distance involved.  And consumers have many, many more options and applications available to them in their telecommunications services than ever before.  Why would the electric utility industry move in exactly the opposite direction. Make the Utility Smarter First Electric distribution utilities can and should deploy state of the art intelligent electronic devices for monitoring and control (e.g., smart meters, SCADA, PMUs, power flow controllers), fast two-way digital telecommunications (i.e., public wired and wireless networks augmented where necessary by private wired and wireless networks), and decision software (e.g., engineering analysis, outage management, geospatial information systems, work & workforce management, automated distribution management, customer communications).  There are already many proven devices, software systems, and operational methodologies that make it possible for electric utilities to better monitor, analyze and control the electric grid and thereby achieve many benefits of Smart Grid.  Existing electric utility distribution systems can by doing this dramatically improve reliability, safety, security, efficiency, economy, power quality and customer service . . . and be better prepared for an increasingly uncertain future in the bulk power system.  Teeming Possibilities There are diverse opinions on how a Smart Grid can or should be designed, deployed and operated.  Many different approaches, technologies and systems are being proposed.  Not all will prove to be technically, economically or institutionally feasible.  Some of the ones that are will may not be compatible or able to coexist on the same grid with others. There will be some successes and there will be many failures.  Many new vendors will come and go and even some existing vendors will fade away.  More importantly, circumstances will continue to change requiring ever new approaches and methods.  There are ways for electric utilities to manage the risks that they face in deploying a Smart Grid.  I will be talking more about these in future posts. “This Is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile” I believe that the real payoff of a smarter grid will go way beyond just doing what the grid has always done a little or a lot better.  It will utilities and their customers to do desirable, amazing things that were not possible before, things that we haven’t thought of yet . . . just like the Internet.  The Smart Grid is ultimately revolutionary, not evolutionary.  It is quantum leaps, not incremental improvements.  But, to get there, electric utilities are going to have to get smarter, and do it before they expect their customers to.  2011-09-08T17:52:00+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/voltage_var_monitoring_control_-_low_hanging_fruit_for_the_smart_grid/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/voltage_var_monitoring_control_-_low_hanging_fruit_for_the_smart_grid/#When:16:25:05Z John Lowery, a writer for NRECA’s RE magazine recently circulated some questions about voltage / VAR control.  Here is a summary of my responses . . . they provide a quick overview of voltage / VAR control for electric distribution systems in the context of the Smart Grid.  Electric distribution cooperatives have long used real time voltage / VAR monitoring and control for: 1.  Traditionally, to maintain voltage within reasonable limits for consumers, 2.  To improve power factor / reduce losses, and 3.  To reduce wholesale purchased power demand. This has been accomplished through automatic voltage regulators and tap changing transformers as well as through automatically or manually switched shunt capacitors.  The level of control that has been possible has been limited because of: (1) limited voltage monitoring and control, usually only at the point of voltage regulation or shunt capacitance, (2) relatively loose control systems and coarse control increments for the regulators and capacitors and (3) conservative upper and lower limits on the amount of voltage control attempted to prevent unacceptable voltage excursions elsewhere on the distribution system. With the advent of the Smart Grid, electric utilities are contemplating better monitoring and control capabilities throughout the electric distribution system.  This will facilitate more aggressive and effective use of voltage / VAR control, not only for the purposes outlined above, but also: 4.  To reduced power demand by consumers and 5.  To reduce total energy supplied to consumers (sometimes known as conservation voltage control). In fact, many Smart Grid experts and vendors consider demand reduction and conservation through voltage / VAR control to be one of the most immediate and significant benefits of Smart Grid technologies. Utilities will be able to do this because of (1) improved voltage monitoring capabilities through SCADA, distribution automation and Smart Meters (i.e., those Smart Meters that are capable of monitoring and reporting voltage), (2) improved system monitoring, analysis and control software, and (3) refined control capabilities for voltage regulators, capacitors and consumer energy management systems. There are a number of requirements for better voltage / VAR control.  They include: 1.  Voltage / VAR control can only be optimized with fast, two-way digital telecommunications between and among SCADA, distribution automation and Smart Meters along with the IT platforms and software being used by utilities for system montoring, analysis and control. 2.  Smart Meters will be helpful but only if they have the capability to monitor and report voltage.  3.  Wider deployment of distribution SCADA and other distribution automation technologies will facilitate increased capability for voltage / VAR control.  4.  A detailed distribution grid circuit model along with the best electric distribution analysis software, eventually including real-time distribution analysis or state estimation, will enable more effective voltage / VAR control. 5.  Deployment of more and better voltage regulators / tap changing transformers, shunt capacitors, customer EMS systems and the associated monitoring and control systems. I am not aware of any electric utilities that are fully engaged in daily, seasonal or year around conservation voltage / VAR control.  This represents a huge cultural shift in a business that has from its inception considered growth in energy sales to be essential.  There are some vendors that sell devices to retail consumers to enable them to reduce their energy consumption through voltage control.  These range from simple resistive buttons that go in the base of incandescent light fixtures to sophisticated energy management systems. The traditional benefit of voltage / VAR control has been the ability to maintain adequate voltage for consumers during peak periods.  The newer applications of voltage / VAR control have several potential benefits: 1.  Reduced wholesale purchased power demand charges (or, for vertically integrated utilities, deferred generation capacity additions), 2.  Reduced capacity and energy losses, 3.  Reduced need to upgrade or add distribution system capacity, 4.  Improved customer service through better voltage control, 5.  Enabling residential consumers to reduce their power bill by consuming less energy, 6.  Enabling C&I consumers to reduce their power bill by reducing their power demand and energy consumption, and 7.  One more degree of freedom in active grid management to accommodate distributed, stochastic generation and storage (e.g., wind, solar, PHEVs). There are several challenges for voltage / VAR control: 1.  Voltage / VAR control works best with resistive loads.  2.  Non-resistive loads (e.g., induction motors, electronics) many not demonstrate reduced power demand and energy consumption when voltage is reduced or power factor is improved.  However, so long as the controlled voltage and power factor is maintained within industry standard limits, the implementation of voltage / VAR control should not have any adverse effects on non-resistive loads. 3.  When shunt capacitance is used to improve power factor (to reduce losses) it increases voltage and can actually increase demand and energy consumption. 4.  If voltage is not monitored carefully at the endpoints farthest from the voltage regulation devices, it is possible for consumers to experience unacceptably high or low voltages. 5.  If the voltage monitoring and control systems are not adequately pervasive and sophisticated, the desired voltage / VAR benefits may not be possible.  6.  The speed and bandwidth of the underlying telecommunications system must be sufficient.  Few if any of the conventional AMR/AMI systems being deployed today have sufficient speed and bandwidth to optimize voltage / VAR control. 7.  Maximizing the extent of voltage / VAR control may require changes in how the electric distribution system is designed and deployed.  The traditional approach has emphasized maintaining adequate voltage at the far extremes of the system during peak load periods.  The new objectives may require a new way of thinking about distribution system analysis, planning and operations. For the layman, voltage / VAR control is similar to the pressure reducers that are used to reduce the amount of water use for showers.  It is also similar to driving a vehicle at a lower speed or more gradually accelerating and decelerating to improve gas mileage. Unexpected benefits include better monitoring and control of the electric distribution system, better customer service, better modeling and analysis of the electric distribution grid for planning and operations, and expertise and experience for the evaluation and deployment of other technologies and applications for monitoring and controlling the electric distribution system (e.g., distributed generation, consumer EMS, PHEVs). Voltage / VAR control is an option that electric distribution cooperatives should be analyzing and planning for now.  It is one of the first and foundational milestones on the way to a smarter grid. 2011-01-25T16:25:05+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/Global_Environment_Compels_More_Electric_Utility_Innovation/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/Global_Environment_Compels_More_Electric_Utility_Innovation/#When:16:55:20Z The Economist’s Vijay Vaitheeswaran gave the opening keynote presentation to the NRECA CEO Conference in St. Petersburg, Florida a week ago.  He described the global environment for the electric utility industry.  His remarks were a clarion call for more innovation in the electric utility industry.  He described three pillars of instability that will force major change globally as well as three of the most important global trends.  He addressed what he considers to be three false forecasts that are hampering productive innovation.  He suggested that the most successful innovation will be by those who move faster, engage in open systems and are willing to take more risk. Here are my notes from Vijay’s fascinating and compelling presentation. Three pillars of instability are forcing major change globally: 1.  Poverty – desperately poor people who do not have adequate food, shelter, clothing, health care – 2 billion people have no access to modern energy, just open fire, burning noxious, toxic fuels, do not have clean drinking water, have an annual income equivalent of less than $1,000 US. 2.  Local environmental impact – pollution of air, water, dwelling, workplace – swamps concerns about global climate change. 3.  Energy + Geopolitics – 2/3 of the worlds known oil reserves are held by five small neighboring countries in the Middle East – but the issue is not just oil – most countries, especially China, recognize that their national security is compromised by importing very much oil, gas, coal, nuclear fuels and related technology, hardware and software. The three most important global trends forcing change are: 1.  Urbanization – 50% of global population lives in cities today – 75% within next twenty years - China has nearly 150 cities with population of 1 million or greater 2.  Demographics – aging population profoundly affects economics including investment in innovation, infrastructure, improvement in quality of life 3.  Rise of the “BRICs” economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China (and S Africa, Korea) - 1 billion people in these countries have been lifted out of poverty in one lifetime, another 1 billion in the next - they are not contrained by the need to protect incumbents in the marketplace Another crucial reality – telecommunications, the Internet, air travel create a flat world in which global population is in constant contact. Three false forecasts: 1.  Population - “Too many people” - the solution is education and empowerment, not reducing population 2.  Resources - “There will be wars over water, oil, etc.”  –  if resources get scarce enough, ingenuity and innovation plus market forces (more production to meet increased demand) will forestall major conflict 3.  Conservation – “We’ve all got to adjust our lifestyle to use less energy”  =  the solution is increasing energy efficiency while maintaining / improving quality of life and productivity of business - far better than voluntary deprivation at the expense of quality of life and productivity of business The way forward is innovation – not the same as invention – instead is new thinking that creates value – for example, global salt shortages led to adopting the oil well drilling technology for salt production. The three principal ingredients of successful innovation are NEED, GREED, SPEED NEED:  The need is clear as already described GREED:  In a good sense – the desire to improve one’s productivity and quality of life – the power of capitalism and entrepreneurship – for example, the way that the Internet has changed the world, growing entirely out of private enterprise SPEED:  Adapting successfully not only to the forces already described herein but, more importantly, to the steady disruption caused by others’ innovation – you snooze, you lose. Innovation has changed profoundly: Faster - not repetitive physical trial like Edison’s light bulb, but fast forward based upon IT and software -  like the Internet. Open – goes beyond trade secrets, patents, copyrights, corporations, countries – involve everyone in improving open source – for example, the Netflix competition to improve its movie selection algorithm – thousands of entries worldwide, won by group of seven who met face to face for the first time at the award ceremony. Riskier – more disruption from more sources with increasing speed – get it going or fail fast and move on to something else The electric industry is the least innovative of any comparable industry – less the 0.5% of revenues invested in R&D – other industries at least 5% and IT/Software industries >30% - global innovation will pass US innovation if we don’t wake up and get going. 2011-01-18T16:55:20+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/comparison_of_existing_grid_with_intelligent_grid/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/comparison_of_existing_grid_with_intelligent_grid/#When:20:38:24Z A Smart Grid Overview Article in IEEE Power & Energy Magazine, January/February 2010, pp 18-28, provides a number of interesting ideas.  This includes a comparison of an imagined intelligent grid to the existing grid.  I am interested in your reaction to my expanded comparison. . . . The January / February 2010 issue of the IEEE Power & Energy Magazine has an interesting Smart Grid overview article by Hassan Farhangi with the Technology Centre of British Columbia Institute of Technology.  I was particularly interested in Figure 1 on page 20, a comparison of characteristics of the existing grid versus an intelligent grid.  I expanded the comparison for a recent presentation at Ignite Austin.  EXISTING GRID //  SMART GRID Centralized //  Distributed Hierarchical //  Network Monolithic //  Modular Fixed Assets //  Mobile Assets Reliability via installed capacity //  Reliability via monitoring & control Electromechanical Switching //  Digital Switching Sparse sensors //  Manifold sensors Few remote controls //  Many remote controls One-Way, Intermittent, Proprietary Telecom //  Two-Way, Continuous, IP Telecom Blind //  Self monitoring Manual Check, Test, Restore //  Automated Check, Test, Restore Economies of Scale //  Economies of Flexibility Concentration Of Risk //  Dilution Of Risk Installed Capacity As Insurance //  Monitoring And Control as Insurance Asset Failures & Service Interruptions //  Adaptive & Self Healing Limited customer information, options, control //  Unlimited customer information, options, control I would be interested in your comments regarding how an intelligent grid will differ from the existing grid?   2010-01-25T20:38:24+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/choose_internet_protocol_Internet_for_your_smart_grid_communications/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/choose_internet_protocol_Internet_for_your_smart_grid_communications/#When:18:41:29Z Electric utilities have till now used proprietary, closed telecommunications systems for communications with their AMR devices.  The Smart Grid and Smart Meters will ultimately require open, industry standard Internet Protocol (IP).  If you are contemplating Smart Meter deployment, you should choose a packet switched, IP telecommunications system, not a proprietary, circuit switched one.  Electric utilities have till now used proprietary, closed telecommunications systems for communications with their AMR devices.  The Smart Grid and Smart Meters will ultimately require open, industry standard Internet Protocol (IP).  If you are contemplating Smart Meter deployment, you should choose a packet switched, IP telecommunications system, not a proprietary, circuit switched one.  What is the difference between packet switched IP telecommunications and proprietary, circuit switched ones currently being used for AMR communications? “Circuit switched” means that data is communicated in a continuous stream over a dedicated communications circuit.  The easiest example to visualize is the old telephone systems where the operator physically plugged your line into a switchboard for the duration of a conversation.  Almost all AMR devices in use today communicate via a dedicated telecommunications path or circuit which may be fiber, wire or wireless.  Some of them utilize power line communications by which each meter communicates via a signal superimposed over the distribution line back to the substation.  They may communicate simultaneously over a unique frequency band for each endpoint, or communicate serially, one at a time, or be multiplexed in some way. “Packet switched” means that the message is broken into small, independent packets of data (1s and 0s) with an origination and destination address and indexing information to allow them to all be recombined when they arrive.  Each packet takes whatever path is available, and the packets do not necessarily all travel on the same path or arrive in the same order that they were sent.  This allows the packets of data to be rerouted in the event that any particular path (circuit) becomes overloaded or unavailable.  The Internet is the ultimate packet switched network.  Smart Grid and Smart Meter communications in the future will be mostly if not entirely via packet switched networks using Internet Protocol (IP).  In fact, most of this will ultimately occur via the Internet, not LANs and WANs owned and operated by the utility. The advantage of packet switched communications over the Internet are many: 1.  Capacity, speed & reliability The Internet is for Smart Grid and Smart Meter purposes, a practically infinite capacity, nearly instantaneous (i.e., no latency), two-way, digital, self healing network.  When is the last time that you remember the entire Internet being down?  Never!  When was the last time that you got an email back with the message “all circuits are busy now” or “the network does not have enough capacity to accommodate your message”? . . . or “your message wasn’t delivered because the Internet was out of service”? 2.  Open, industry standard There is a global industry standard for packet switched telecommunications over the Internet . . . TCP/IP (transmission control protocol / Internet protocol).  Every Internet device uses this protocol.  With circuit switched telecommunications, bandwidth may be limited, latency may be significant, reliability may be poor, and not all transceivers are compatible on any given network.  For example, meters from different vendors using power line communications are not compatible or interchangeable, and cannot even coexist on the same system.  Even wireless communications from different vendors may not be compatible or interchangeable.  That means that if your current AMR vendor cease to be able to satisfy your needs, or another vendor offers better features, prices or terms, you may have to entirely replace your legacy system with the new vendor’s system.  For example, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative in Bastrop, Texas, is taking out their entire recently completed power line communications AMR system to replace it with a Smart Meter and IP based telecommunications system from Silver Spring networks.  In fact, Pike Research stated in a report released in November that, “Major utilities worldwide, enticed by savings and prodded by governments, are embarking on wholesale replacement of over 45% of the North American and European installed base by 2015, breaking the traditional 15-20 year meter replacement cycle.”  Smart Grid potential gated by broadband 3.  Mix and match vendors and devices A global industry standard means that you can mix and match compatible equipment no matter the vendor, and within limits, no matter the vintage.  For example, if you need a new wireless router at your home, you can go get one at Best Buy and not worry at all which brand to get as long as it meets the global IEEE 802.1X standard.  Similarly, any Internet compatible “appliance” (e.g., hard drive, webcam, DVD drive, Smart Meter) regardless of the vendor will communicate via the Internet. 4.  Ubiquitous Internet vs constrained utility telecomm networks In the not too distant future every single home or business in the USA will have access to broadband Internet.  Almost 80% already do.  In fact, they will likely have multiple means . . . wired and wireless.  Remember that most mobile telephone networks are increasingly Internet capable as well.  This means that it is no longer necessary for an electric utility to build and operate its own proprietary telecommunications network to communicate with its customers.  You’ll hear a lot of horror stories about “hacking the Smart Grid” but they are red herrings and straw men.  Billions of people worldwide use the Internet for communications, commerce & banking, entertainment and even remote monitoring and control with adequate safety and security.  5.  Consumers will own and operate Smart Meters and home energy management systems Consumers are already beginning to acquire and use their own metering methods and devices ranging from Google Power Meter and Microsoft Hohm to GreenSwitch and Tendril.  These will communicate via the Internet, most likely via wireless technologies.  Consumers are going to want to be able to access these devices and systems via the web, perhaps even by iPhone app, even when they are not home, and they may not be owned or operated by the electric utility. 6.  Consumers increasingly demand self service web portals Many of your customers will want (if they are not already asking you for) the ability to do their business with you from service orders to billing / payment to monitoring service quality via self service web portals.  There is no way that you could offer the scope and range of communication over your own telecommunications network as can be obtained via the Internet.  Any of your members can communicate and do business with you with an Internet device anywhere in the world. I believe that any Smart Meter technology that will remain viable into the forseeable future have to be able to communicate via IP on the Internet.  If the manufacturer that you are dealing with only has a proprietary communications protocol (i.e., a closed system with a proprietary method that no other vendors use) then you should only do business with them if they can demonstrate to you how you will be able to migrate to IP communications for some or all of the endpoints AND be able to accommodate and preferably integrate other Smart Meter and Home Energy Management System (HEMS) devices from other vendors.  I am convinced that in many ways the Smart Grid will simply be an extension of the Internet . . . or, as Robert Metcalfe says, the Internet will be the control plane for the Smart Grid Internet as control plane for Smart Grid. Here are links to some more resources that you could take a look at:     Packet switched communicaions for smart meters     C/NET article about Smart Grid and broadband Internet communications     Paper on implementing Smart Grid communicataions Thanks for visiting and reading my smartgridblog.  Your comments are welcome. 2009-12-03T18:41:29+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/some_take_aways_from_the_2009_nrucfc_independent_borrowers_executive_confer/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/some_take_aways_from_the_2009_nrucfc_independent_borrowers_executive_confer/#When:16:10:22Z I attended and presented Smart Grid issues and methods at this conference in Tucson.  There was much exceptionally good content, and lots of opportunities to network with electric cooperatives and vendors.  I heard several things in the presentations that I thought were particularly useful. . . . I attended and presented Smart Grid issues and methods at this conference in Tucson.  There was much exceptionally good content, and lots of opportunities to network with electric cooperatives and vendors.  I heard several things in the presentations that I thought were particularly useful. Keynote speaker Marcus Buckingham was simply terrific . . . great content and hugely entertaining.  He suggested that, to succeed, an organization needs a single driving mission . . . “Who do we serve?”  I firmly believe that the Smart Grid movement also needs some simplification in this regard.  I believe that the principal focus and the primary beneficiaries of the Smart Grid should be the customers.  Marcus also suggested that an organization, in order to succeed, needs to have a single, overriding metric for success.  Again, the Smart Grid could benefit from this as well.  I believe that the overriding metric for success should be whether customers are obtaining what they want from their electric utility. In a breakout session, “Should Your Co-op Be on Facebook?” presenter Greg Brooks of Walton EMC said, “YouTube gives us our own TV station!”  He observed that it is very unlikely that his utility will obtain live media coverage except when there is sensational bad news.  But, YouTube gives customers the opportunity to find and view a variety of video information that they are interested in.  All of the presenters suggested that utilities must rely more upon customers pulling to themselve the information that they are interested in, and doing it from diverse web resources, and less upon pushing information that the utility is interested in to customers through traditional media. I’ll try to relay more of my take aways in the next few days. 2009-11-20T16:10:22+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/kurt_yeager_of_galvin_electricity_initiative_identifies_favorite_arra_smart/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/kurt_yeager_of_galvin_electricity_initiative_identifies_favorite_arra_smart/#When:16:07:25Z You all know that I have strongly supported Kurt Yeager’s view that most of the ARRA SMIGs will not really advance a truly Smart Grid.  Read Smart Grid Today’s report of Kurt’s favorite SGIGs at Yeagers Favorite SGIGs 2009-11-16T16:07:25+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/gridpoint_acquires_admmicro_expands_market_focus_to_include_the_ci_sector/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/gridpoint_acquires_admmicro_expands_market_focus_to_include_the_ci_sector/#When:20:44:00Z Milsoft Utility Solutions’ fellow Hometown Connections vendor partner, Gridpoint, has acquired ADMMicro to expand its market focus to include commercial and industrial consumers. . . . GridPoint’s press release  says: “GridPoint is pleased to announce the acquisition of ADMMicro, a leading provider of energy management systems to the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector.  This acquisition extends GridPoint’s smart grid solutions to a broader customer base, furthering the company’s mission to transform the global distribution and consumption of electricity. ADMMicro enables enterprises to cost-effectively increase their energy efficiency.  The Roanoke, VA-based company’s energy management and submetering systems automatically monitor and control energy consumption, including high load systems such as HVAC and lighting, at thousands of sites nationwide. ADMMicro’s clients include public sector and Fortune 500 businesses, including leading national retail, pharmacy, and restaurant chains. Gridpoint will leverage the combined expertise in data analytics, user interface design and energy management to provide significant benefit to both producers and consumers of electricity. To learn more about GridPoint, visit GridPoint. 2009-11-09T20:44:00+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/reminder_mrea_accessing_the/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/reminder_mrea_accessing_the/#When:14:20:12Z This Thursday and Friday will be the Minnesota Rural Electric Association Conference “Accessing the Electric Cooperative Market for Renewable Energy” in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This Thursday and Friday will be the Minnesota Rural Electric Association Conference “Accessing the Electric Cooperative Market for Renewable Energy” in Minneapolis, Minnesota. SmartGridMan will be attending and presenting at this landmark conference on renewable energy for the electric cooperative market.  Hosted by the Minnesota Rural Electric Association and Dorsey and Whitney LLP, the two-day conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota is intended to inform renewable energy developers on the electric cooperative market.  National leaders and experts on renewable energy, Smart Grid and rural electric cooperatives will be presenting at the conference, including yours truly, SmartGridMan. To register, visit MREA or call MREA at (763) 424-1020. Read the images below for more information, or download the Program Flier. 2009-11-09T14:20:12+00:00 http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/prepaid_meters_may_be_the_smartest_meters_in_the_industry_right_now/ http://smartgridman.com/index.php/site/prepaid_meters_may_be_the_smartest_meters_in_the_industry_right_now/#When:16:19:02Z I was recently delighted to find a brand new electronic meter on my house.  It was put there by one of the most progressive public power systems in the nation (i.e., Austin Energy).  Yet, I still get billed the very same way as if I still had that 100+ year old electromechanical meter technology mounted on the East wall of my home.  Some time after the utility reads the meter (now without having to send a live person into my neighborhood to do it), I get a bill in the mail or I can view it online.  It is a total dollar amount for my energy consumption for the past billing period, about a month.  There is no detail at all about by day of the month or by time of day.  There is no information at all about which of my appliances account for what portion of the total.  Even if some or all of this information were available, by the time that I get the bill, I have already made the decisions that caused my energy consumption and spending for that billing period. I was recently delighted to find a brand new electronic meter on my house.  It was put there by one of the most progressive public power systems in the nation (i.e., Austin Energy).  Yet, I still get billed the very same way as if I still had that 100+ year old electromechanical meter technology mounted on the East wall of my home.  Some time after the utility reads the meter (now without having to send a live person into my neighborhood to do it), I get a bill in the mail or I can view it online.  It is a total dollar amount for my energy consumption for the past billing period, about a month.  There is no detail at all about by day of the month or by time of day.  There is no information at all about which of my appliances account for what portion of the total.  Even if some or all of this information were available, by the time that I get the bill, I have already made the decisions that caused my energy consumption and spending for that billing period. I have called my utility (ad gone to their website) to ask, “How much have I spent on electricity so far this month?”  They cannot tell me.  “Wait for your bill,” they said.  Obviously, then, they could not tell me how much I spent yesterday or the same day a week ago or in the last hour, etc.  So, I asked them some questions about the last monthly bill that I got from them.  They could not tell me anything about which days, much less which hours of the day, cost me the most.  They could not tell me how much of my energy consumption or costs was caused by which appliances.  They offered to provide me with a lot of data to try to estimate this for myself.  I’ve been looking at it.  Have you ever tried to understand your electric bill?  Sheesh!  Customer charge, kilo-watt-hours, price per kilo-watt-hour, adjustment factors, etc.  What is a kilo-watt-hour, anyways.  Why are there so many more on the bill the past few months than there were earlier in the year?  How much of the bill was caused by my yard full of Halloween decorations?  (Oh, yeah, that will be on the bill that I get in December?) Then I asked them if they could tell me how much of what I spent on the last bill was for coal power and how much was for wind energy.  And while the customer service representative remained polite, he was obviously ready to be done with my call after he had to tell me that he had no idea how big my carbon footprint was for the month in question.  I am assuming that I just lost the cell phone connection (and that he didn’t just hang up on me) when I asked when they would be able to tell me how much my carbon foot print is and how much of it is accounted for by the four big screen plasma TVs in my home. I have a friend who has a prepay meter device.  It’s a kind of pay as you go arrangement where she goes online to add funds to her account when it gets low.  After learning more about how her arrangements works, I see that if I have a prepaid meter, I can know in almost real time what I have spent since the last time I made a payment.  With a little time and effort (monitoring and calculation), I can figure out what I am spending per hour.  With more time and effort (turning appliances off one at a time and repeating the hourly calculation) I can begin to understand which appliances are driving my energy consumption and costs.  With a even more monitoring and calculation, I can figure out how the utility’s price (actually, my cost per hour for a given menu of appliances running) is changing.  If I invest a lot more time and effort, I can start turning appliances off and on at the right times to save money (or reduce my carbon footprint, or help the utility not have so many outages).  It’s sure a pain going up in the attic to turn the hot water heaters on and off, though.  Especially when I’m not at home.  There’s got to be an easier way to do this? Why won’t the smart meter that recently appeared on the side of my house do the same thing?  Why can’t I choose to see this information in real time in an iPhone app?  After all, I’m not at home a lot of the time.  Why doesn’t my utility offer an iPhone app that will let me turn some appliances off when the utility is charging me the most?  What if I want to turn some appliances on only during the times when I am sure that the additional power that Austin Energy gets for me is from wind or solar or natural gas and not from coal or nuclear? Again, as I asserted in my post earlier this week, a smart meter needs to be (and existing technology options make it possible to be) much more than a real time price signal.  It needs to be an “easy button.” 2009-11-04T16:19:02+00:00