If you know me personally, you know that I don't take well to bullshit or oversimplification. Many times the two are one in the same.
First, let's clear something up about "smart grid" technology. The electric power distribution grid (The Grid, for short) is already pretty smart. Yes, it consists of some antiquated technology. So do the public telephone system, the aviation system, the sewer system, the Internet, and my much-loved Rivendell Atlantis touring bicycle. View image
So let's not oversimplify things too much by implying that the current Grid is dumb. Let's just agree that it could be smarter. In that context, the term "smart grid" isn't quite right. I think I have a better term.
I'll use the phrase advanced energy management to talk about the general category of technology we apply to the problem of managing the energy supply chain. Because, as my wife will tell you, energy management is not all that different from manufacturing and distribution of hot-house tomatoes. Really. What we did before is energy management. It works. Doing it better is advanced energy management. That will be better, but not perfect. The relation sticks indefinitely because there's always room for improvement.
At present, advanced energy management is getting a lot of hype specifically in the area of energy demand management. We're basically trying to solve the problem of reducing our peak power consumption levels to align with existing generation capacity. Why? Because adding generation capacity means building more power plants. Building power plants is expensive, environmentally problematic, fraught with political obstacles, and, in light of the global warming situation, generally ill-advised. If we can't make more power, we'll have to figure out how to better allocate what we have. Rolling blackouts are one way of dealing with that problem. Demand-response pricing is, in my opinion, a more civilized way. In the short term, we'll have to settle for direct consumption monitoring and feedback directly to the power consumer, as documented thoroughly by Primen for the Southern California Edison "glowing energy orb" pilot.
Any production capacity we manage to add through wind or solar installations will likely provide highly variably supply. (See Heat by George Monbiot) The sun only shines certain times of the day, and only when the clouds decide they want to break. Wind is, well, wind. It blows. Sometimes. Neither wind nor sun are like coal, something we can turn into electricity whenever we need to.
Basic economics tells us that demand presently has very little reason to track with supply. Residential electric rates are fixed in most places in the United States through government oversight. The stuff costs me about $0.07/kilowatt-hour here. It's the same any time of the day, any day of the year. If any part of the grid could be called dumb, it's the pricing part. Not because it's unsophisticated, but because a combination of cheap fossil-fuel generation and government regulation has made it unnaturally lazy.
Because rate increases take ridiculous amounts of political jockeying due to (perhaps justifiable) fears of monopolistic abuse by utility companies, our inflexible rate structure is not able to accurately reflect short-term supply fluctuations. And, sadly, it results in higher overall bills than we would see if the system were more efficient.
Beyond energy demand management, advanced energy management encompasses the longer-term decision-making related to production and distribution infrastructure. Should we build another wind farm in the Palouse Hills of southeastern Washington State? Should we provide tax incentives in the short run to encourage individuals to plaster their roofs with solar panels? Should we mandate certain levels of "green energy" production, and, if we do, how will it impact what we pay to heat our houses? And how to we figure carbon emissions into the equation?
All this, I say, is within the domain of advanced energy management. If we don't educate ourselves to think about the problems at this holistic level, we are doing ourselves and our fellow citizens a grave disservice.
First, let's clear something up about "smart grid" technology. The electric power distribution grid (The Grid, for short) is already pretty smart. Yes, it consists of some antiquated technology. So do the public telephone system, the aviation system, the sewer system, the Internet, and my much-loved Rivendell Atlantis touring bicycle. View image
So let's not oversimplify things too much by implying that the current Grid is dumb. Let's just agree that it could be smarter. In that context, the term "smart grid" isn't quite right. I think I have a better term.
I'll use the phrase advanced energy management to talk about the general category of technology we apply to the problem of managing the energy supply chain. Because, as my wife will tell you, energy management is not all that different from manufacturing and distribution of hot-house tomatoes. Really. What we did before is energy management. It works. Doing it better is advanced energy management. That will be better, but not perfect. The relation sticks indefinitely because there's always room for improvement.
At present, advanced energy management is getting a lot of hype specifically in the area of energy demand management. We're basically trying to solve the problem of reducing our peak power consumption levels to align with existing generation capacity. Why? Because adding generation capacity means building more power plants. Building power plants is expensive, environmentally problematic, fraught with political obstacles, and, in light of the global warming situation, generally ill-advised. If we can't make more power, we'll have to figure out how to better allocate what we have. Rolling blackouts are one way of dealing with that problem. Demand-response pricing is, in my opinion, a more civilized way. In the short term, we'll have to settle for direct consumption monitoring and feedback directly to the power consumer, as documented thoroughly by Primen for the Southern California Edison "glowing energy orb" pilot.
Any production capacity we manage to add through wind or solar installations will likely provide highly variably supply. (See Heat by George Monbiot) The sun only shines certain times of the day, and only when the clouds decide they want to break. Wind is, well, wind. It blows. Sometimes. Neither wind nor sun are like coal, something we can turn into electricity whenever we need to.
Basic economics tells us that demand presently has very little reason to track with supply. Residential electric rates are fixed in most places in the United States through government oversight. The stuff costs me about $0.07/kilowatt-hour here. It's the same any time of the day, any day of the year. If any part of the grid could be called dumb, it's the pricing part. Not because it's unsophisticated, but because a combination of cheap fossil-fuel generation and government regulation has made it unnaturally lazy.
Because rate increases take ridiculous amounts of political jockeying due to (perhaps justifiable) fears of monopolistic abuse by utility companies, our inflexible rate structure is not able to accurately reflect short-term supply fluctuations. And, sadly, it results in higher overall bills than we would see if the system were more efficient.
Beyond energy demand management, advanced energy management encompasses the longer-term decision-making related to production and distribution infrastructure. Should we build another wind farm in the Palouse Hills of southeastern Washington State? Should we provide tax incentives in the short run to encourage individuals to plaster their roofs with solar panels? Should we mandate certain levels of "green energy" production, and, if we do, how will it impact what we pay to heat our houses? And how to we figure carbon emissions into the equation?
All this, I say, is within the domain of advanced energy management. If we don't educate ourselves to think about the problems at this holistic level, we are doing ourselves and our fellow citizens a grave disservice.
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