23 September 2009

U.S. Smart Grid Effort Requires New Technologies, Partnerships

Work is beginning to determine grid architecture and key standards

Electric meters in Dayton, Ohio

This is the third in a series of articles about the transformation of the U.S. electric power system into a 21st-century smart grid.

By Cheryl Pellerin
Staff Writer

Washington — Up ahead in the smart-grid future, an intelligent system will work with consumers to save energy, produce electricity from a range of renewable sources, anticipate its own failures, see to its own repairs, store energy out on the grid and provide a fueling system for a new generation of electric vehicles.

Here in the less-efficient present, new partnerships and collaborations are coming together to make sure the advanced technologies, architectures and standards needed for such a grid transformation happen on schedule. (See “U.S. Electric System Begins Long Transformation to a Smart Grid.”)

“There is no one-size-fits-all for the smart grid,” Steve Bossart, division director for integrated power systems at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the laboratory’s representative on the Smart Grid Task Force, told America.gov. “It’s not a thing — it’s more of a vision of functionality that people would like to have for their electricity grid. But technologies enable the functionality.” (See “Technology Demonstration Projects Pave Way for U.S. Smart Grid.”)

To advance the modernization of the grid, DOE has entered into public-private partnerships with leading smart grid proponents, including:

• The GridWise Alliance is a collaborative venture of DOE and GridWise, a consortium of public and private electricity-sector entities. The alliance identifies challenges facing the electricity industry as it moves farther into the 21st century.

• The IntelliGrid initiative from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is creating the technical foundation for a smart power grid that links electricity with communications and computer control to increase reliability, capacity and customer services.

• The Galvin Electricity Initiative, launched in 2005 with sponsorship by former Motorola chief Robert Galvin, seeks to create an environmentally sound, fuel-efficient power system able to withstand natural disasters and mitigate potential damage caused by terrorist attack.

MAKING THE GRID SMART

According to DOE and other experts, five technologies will drive the smart grid evolution.

These include integrated communications that connect grid components to open architecture — software that can be upgraded and enhanced over time — for real-time information and control, allowing every part of the grid to “talk” and “listen”; and sensing and measurement technologies that support remote monitoring and time-of-use pricing (pricing determined as the power is used, rather than weeks later when a meter is read) for companies and consumers.

Such interaction is demonstrated in a direct-load-control technology program that the independent, nonprofit EPRI is working on with Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L). For one part of the project, Matt Wakefield, EPRI’s smart grid program manager, told America.gov, the utility communicates with residential and commercial air-conditioning units in a region of New Jersey.

The sun sets behind power transmission lines near San Diego, California, in 2007.

“JCP&L can tell when one of these air-conditioning units is running and when it’s not,” Wakefield said. “By knowing that, they know at any moment in time how much load [power being used] can be shed [temporarily eliminated] if there’s an emergency, rather than guessing.”

Other smart grid technologies include advanced components that apply the latest research in superconductivity, storage, power electronics and diagnostics; advanced control methods to monitor essential components; and improved interfaces and software to amplify human decision making for a more complex, autonomous grid.

“Today in the United States we have about 30,000 [electricity-generating devices] on the network. Over the next 10 years we will probably move to something like 500,000 or 1 million,” Steve Pullins, president of Horizon Energy Group, told America.gov.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

A true smart grid will not be possible unless each new major device and system that is part of the grid is able to communicate with every other system on the grid. This critical “interoperability” depends on a coordinated framework of protocols and standards that is in a very early stage of planning.

On April 7, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced that it would work with EPRI to develop a plan to determine the smart grid architecture and initial key standards.

The effort, Wakefield said, “coordinates with many other efforts at EPRI, like EPRI’s IntelliGrid, and in the industry, like DOE’s smart grid demonstration initiative. The major focus is to work toward industry consensus on smart grid architectures and a plan for standards that can support interoperability within these architectures.”

Contributions to the plan will come from throughout the electric power industry.

“This is phase one of a larger effort at NIST,” Wakefield said, “to coordinate the standards implementation and eventually work toward a framework for testing and certification.”

On August 21, NIST announced it would work with Tennessee company EnerNex to convene a panel that will identify, prioritize and address new requirements for smart grid interoperability and security. The panel will include utilities, independent power producers, federal agencies, state regulators, equipment manufacturers, consumer groups and developers of information technology applications and devices. It will begin meeting in November in Colorado.

The work will contribute to efforts to develop a framework for smart grid standards that will be released for public comment in September.

More information about the smart grid project is available on the Department of Energy Web site.

More information about EPRI is available at the organization’s Web site.