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03.09
Coverage
of IEEE Energy2030 Conference:
Development of Smart Grid Builds Momentum
By Patrick E. Meyer and
Abby Vogel
In November 2008, hundreds of
engineers, economists, public policy experts,
and citizens gathered in Atlanta, Georgia for
the
IEEE Energy2030 Conference on Global
Sustainable Energy Infrastructure. The
unprecedented event may prove to be one of the
most important conferences ever hosted by IEEE
in terms of developing the future energy pathway
of the United States, as well as setting the
future path for IEEE itself.
Overview of Keynote Speakers
Energy2030 began strong,
launching directly into a keynote speaker
session at the beginning of the first day. David
Ratcliffe, chairman and CEO of Southern Company,
was among the first to speak, and provided an
excellent introduction and laying of grounds for
the remainder of the conference. Ratcliffe
argued that the U.S. should expect electricity
demand to grow by 40 percent by 2030 and meeting
this demand would be amongst the nation’s
toughest challenges in the years ahead.
Ratcliffe asserted that meeting the growing
demand would require the simultaneous
undertaking of three broad projects: (1)
increasing the level of global energy
interdependence; (2) developing renewable
energy at a much faster rate than current
development; and (3) increasing the level of
cooperation between countries, industries,
companies, and other entities. Although he
maintained that renewable energies would be a
necessity, Ratcliffe insisted that meeting
demand would require deployment of new coal
technologies with carbon sequestration, new
nuclear technologies including the building of
new plants, and new energy efficiency and demand
side management technologies and techniques.
As the day’s events proceeded,
it became evident that smart grid would take
precedent over most other issues to be
discussed. For example, John McDonald, Member of
IEEE Board of Directors, provided a presentation
entitled “Moving Forward with the Smart Grid” in
which he made a case that we must take greater
initiative to allow the economy to grow in a
more sustainable manner. Power generation,
explained McDonald, accounts for 40 percent of
the US carbon footprint and thus is a primary
area of concern. Yet we cannot jeopardize grid
stability when implementing sustainable or
environmental measures; McDonald argued that
there can be up to a 10 million dollar per
minute penalty if there is a power interruption
at a financial data center. Today, losses in
transmission, distribution, and use are
considerably too large. We must, according to
McDonald, implement efficiency and demand
response measures to simultaneously tackle grid
loss, efficiency, and sustainability issues. The
smart grid as envisioned by McDonald is a
journey rather than a specific destination — a
journey including the widespread implementation
of advanced metering, asset management, mobile
applications, data management, demand side
management, and advanced automation.
Marilyn Brown, professor of
public policy at the Georgia Institute of
Technology, presented an argument that the need
for early action in the realm of energy
reduction and carbon mitigation has become
clear, but energy use worldwide has continued to
surge. Indeed, there are very few examples of
economic growth without carbon growth, but if we
act now then we have the opportunity to uncouple
economic and carbon growth. One problem,
explained Brown, is that people continue to buy
less expensive technologies despite the fact
that the more expensive technology would have
positive payback over time while simultaneously
aiding the environment.
In an interview with Brown after
her presentation, she explained to
IEEE.tv the carbon emissions problem in
greater depth. Brown pointed out that evidence
is mounting that there is a major carbon problem
— evidence such as the clearing of the ice in
the Northwest Passage for the first time in
recorded history. Of course, humanity’s role in
the melting is not definitively certain, but the
science is becoming more and more concrete. To
tackle climate change, Brown maintained that we
need more solutions that make money; that a
major barrier to electric utilities’
implementation of environmental measures is that
they don’t make a profit on the projects. The
Obama administration, according to Brown, will
almost certainly help the situation, as he
implements incentives that will make
environmentalism more financially attractive to
electric utilities.
In an interview with Clark
Gellings, vice president of technology at EPRI,
he explained that from a technology perspective
we need more renewable energy, more nuclear
power, more advanced coal, more carbon
sequestration, and more hybrid technologies —
essentially we need everything that we can get
our hands on. A key point raised by Gellings is
that we must make the best of how we are going
to utilize old infrastructure; we cannot
outright replace the old infrastructure because
it would be considerably too costly. Even with
the utilization of old infrastructure, $800
billion is needed for smart grid development,
but, according to Gellings, the total cost can
be paid by customers over time for the same cost
as a pizza a month.
Overview of Key Subjects
The topics presented by the
plenary speakers were described in greater
detail during the technical program, which was
divided into the following four categories:
smart grid, energy generation, energy efficiency
and public policy. In the following sections we
provide an overview of discussions pertaining to
each category.
Smart Grid
Twenty-five papers and
presentations discussed how to implement,
optimize and control a smart grid system,
including strategies for networking smart
meters, integrating plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles and wind farm operation, and optimizing
the grid for higher levels of renewable energy
penetration.
Smart grid is an advanced grid
system that includes increased use of
information control, optimization of grid
operations, use of distributed resources and
renewable energy; and involves the development
and integration of demand response, demand-side
technology and resources, energy-efficiency
resources, smart appliances, advanced
electricity storage, peak-shaving technologies,
and other advanced technologies.
IEEE.tv was at Energy2030 to film a
Web-based video on smart grid. The video was
posted to YouTube in January 2009. The video
highlights Energy2030 events as well as presents
behind-the-scenes interviews with Energy2030
speakers.
During one of the smart grid
technical presentations, Deepak Divan,
Energy2030 conference chair and professor in
Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, and graduate student Harjeet Johal
presented a new technique that would allow the
power grid to operate like a network of
pipelines, where the currents flow only where
directed. By tracking and regulating electricity
like oil, overloads and congestion would be
avoided. This would also allow the delivery of
validated “green” electrons from renewable
sources and “black” electrons from
carbon-emitting sources, and allow investments
to be directed to improving specific corridors.
In another presentation, a
research group including UC Berkeley Electrical
Engineering and Computer Sciences professor Seth
Sanders and Gigascale Silicon Research Center
executive director Ken Lutz proposed a method
for enhancing operation for the existing power
grid to function more like the Internet. Termed
a “LoCal” grid, at its core it is a connected
group of loads, energy sources and energy
storage that intelligently manages its own power
needs and interfaces to external power systems
in a well-behaved manner.
With all the talk of smart grid,
one must wonder how much is hype and how much is
reality. To this notion Divan, who is also
president-elect of the IEEE Power Electronics
Society, responded, “well, where there’s smoke
there’s fire,” implying that while the full
visionary conception of smart grid may not come
to reality for many decades, a fire is now
burning, progress is being made, and smart grid
developments will certainly come to fruition
sooner rather than later. As explained by
Marilyn Brown, public education will greatly
assist in propelling the smart grid forward as
consumers learn that smart grid technologies in
their home can save them money as well as help
the environment. It is vital, therefore, that
education regarding the smart grid go beyond
electrical engineers and successfully reach
everyday citizens. It is the adoption of smart
grid by the general populace that will propel
the technology forward to the advanced stages
prophesized by the engineers at Energy2030.
Energy Generation
Technologies
Engineers at Energy2030
discussed many sustainable energy technology
choices including solar, wind, biomass,
geothermal, hydro and oceans. Professor Shmuel
Oren and graduate student Anthony Papavasiliou
of the UC Berkeley Department of Industrial
Engineering and Operations Research presented a
method for direct coupling between wind
generators and deferrable loads to integrate
wind into power systems. While wind power has
grown to the point that large-scale integration
of wind in power systems is technically and
economically conceivable, the random and
variable nature of wind power supply imposes
severe limits to the integration of wind power
in power systems. In order to mitigate these
problems, Oren suggested utilizing load
flexibility and simultaneously bidding in the
electricity market. A major advantage to their
proposal is that it is compatible with existing
technology, grid operations and market
operations, and is also justifiable on economic
grounds.
In a presentation about solar
power, a group of researchers from Rowan
University, Rutgers University, PHI, Suntechnics
Energy Services and Exelon Energy described the
lessons they’ve learned from the three megawatt
photovoltaic power plant nearly complete in
Pennsylvania. According to the team,
photovoltaic technology has significant benefits
over nuclear or conventional coal-fired power
plants, including its ability to be deployed in
a fraction of the time, its capacity for
kilowatt to multi-megawatt sizes, its reduction
of “Not my in my backyard” (NIMBY) issues, its
lack of environmental threats, and its ability
be cost competitive.
Another emerging technology
described during the conference was capturing
carbon dioxide from flue gas of coal burning
power plants, cement plants and steel plants and
using well-understood chemical reactions to
mineralize it at a competitive energy penalty.
The chemistry, thermodynamics, material balance
and financials for the SkyMine™ process and the
field results from a pilot demonstration plant
were presented at Energy2030. The SkyMine™
process includes the production of marketable
chemicals including hydrogen, chlorine and
sodium bicarbonate. The process also prevents
the release of the acid gases associated with
the burning of coal, regulated heavy metals such
as mercury, and other not yet regulated heavy
metals such as selenium and chromium. The
combination of remediating carbon dioxide, acid
gases and metals yields an all-in-one cost
effective, profitable solution.
Reducing Energy
Consumption
Switzerland researchers Matthias
Galus and Göran Andersson introduced an approach
for integrating plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
(PHEV) into the power network. They suggested
implementing a smart demand management scheme to
intelligently distribute available energy.
Nonlinear pricing will be adapted to model and
manage the recharging behavior of large numbers
of autonomous PHEV agents connecting in one
urban area modeled as an energy hub.
The approach offers a
possibility to model the prospective demands of
PHEV owners in a smart electricity grid and to
tackle possible network congestion problems
through efficient demand management. This scheme
is able to distribute limited energy depending
on an individual PHEV’s departure time, battery
charge levels and plug power. The optimal
dispatch of available energy maximizes the total
utility of the PHEV agents connected.
Katherine Wang of the Rocky
Mountain Institute presented data on the
economic efficiency potential of new and
existing residential buildings. The results
showed that the potential electrical energy
savings, by 2030, for new construction is 48
percent nationally. The potential existing
residential electricity savings by 2030 is
calculated to be 44 percent nationally. The
combined potential savings for the residential
sector is 44.7 percent, far exceeding the
required savings to offset projected load
growth. These savings can be achieved using
commercially available technologies that are
economic overall for consumers. Wang’s
conclusion — it is feasible not only to
eliminate future demand growth, but also move
total demand along a negative growth trajectory.
The challenge in achieving these efficiency
savings is not in the availability of technical
solutions, but rather motivated implementation.
Utilities and state and local governments can
help residential customers increase awareness
through education and marketing, and overcome
the first cost barrier by providing incentives
and low-interest financing to encourage
demand-side adoption.
Public Policy around the
World
While the United States has not
developed a long-term energy plan, some
countries — including Brazil, India, Pakistan
and Saudi Arabia — have already developed energy
plans for 2030 and beyond.
The Brazilian government
approved a policy aimed at promoting the
expansion of distributed power generation
through renewable sources, and diversifying
primary sources of electricity, thus improving
the long-term supplying conditions of the
national system. The first phase of the
renewable energy incentive program has an
overall goal of installing 3,300 megawatts of
generating capacity from renewable energy
sources, distributed equally between wind,
biomass and small hydro resources. So far,
Brazil has shown that biomass is competitive
with other energy sources, but hydro sources and
wind have not been as competitive. One reason
small hydro sources were not as competitive,
according to the presenter, was due to the
distance from the transmission system and
logistics associated with the construction of
small hydro plants. For wind energy, the
challenge lies in implementing national industry
incentives toward the production of wind
equipment at levels compatible with the energy
demand.
Presentations by representatives
from Pakistan and India emphasized the need for
high quality energy prediction models. India
took into account its government’s plans and
used the latest energy planning tools to develop
strategies and policy requirements for a
sustainable energy infrastructure for India. The
importance of hydro, nuclear and renewable
sources was highlighted in the study. The study
recommendations included accelerated development
of nuclear and hydro power, effective use of
clean coal technologies, enhanced transport fuel
efficiency, maximization of wind, solar,
biomass, and biodiesel generation, vigorous
energy conservation endeavors in all sectors and
carbon mitigation.
Pakistan developed the Medium
Term Development Framework to forecast the
electricity generation capacity possible by
2030. The program projected an increase from
about 20,000 megawatts today to more than
162,000 megawatts by 2030. However, according to
the analysis presented at the conference, this
forecast is grossly overestimated. “There is no
likelihood that the targets fixed and forecasted
for the first milestone in 2010 will be
achieved. Underlying assumptions and methodology
used need to be revised,” claim the authors. The
presenter emphasized that serious deliberations
are needed to ensure the supplies of gas for
power plants, feasibility and timelines for the
creation of infrastructure particularly for
hydropower and coal projects, and technology
assessment and availability for renewable energy
technologies and clean coal technologies.
Frank Felder, director of the
Center for Energy, Economic and Environmental
Policy at Rutgers, declared the need for a
classification scheme to arrange and evaluate
numerous energy proposals that are responding to
multiple challenges — technical, economic,
social and political. Successful proposals, he
said, must be examined within the context of the
world energy system, which is a complex,
large-scale, integrated, open, sociotechnical
system with sunk assets subject to uncertainty
and the response to incentives of consumers and
producers. The result is that policymakers have
a tool to classify, understand, and critique
energy proposals, enhancing their ability to
evaluate them, and analysts have a framework to
guide their work.
Final Thoughts
In summary, Energy2030 was a
wide-reaching monumental event encompassing many
energy, environmental, economic and social
concerns to be faced by the energy sector over
the next twenty years and beyond. The event has
laid ground for many future developments within
the electricity sector and within IEEE itself.
Accomplishing the goals envisioned by Energy2030
attendees within the next twenty years will
require unprecedented levels of commitment;
commitment which, given the overall positive
attitude of the attendees, will not be all that
difficult to attain. Indeed, the smart grid,
widespread renewable energy and drastically
improved energy efficiency may all come to
fruition sooner than we think.
Abby Vogel, Ph.D., is a
communications officer in the Research News and
Publications office at the Georgia Institute of
Technology. In this position, she writes about
Georgia Tech research discoveries and
developments, and assists reporters in their
coverage of Georgia Tech research. Vogel also
serves as chair of the IEEE-USA Communications
Committee and as an editor for IEEE-USA
Today’s Engineer.
Patrick E. Meyer is a
doctoral student and research associate at the
University of Delaware’s Center for Energy and
Environmental Policy and is also a research
associate with Energy and Environmental Research
Associates, LLC., Pittsford, New York,
specializing in energy and environmental
life-cycle analysis. Meyer also serves on the
IEEE-USA Communications Committee and is
IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer Government
Relations Editor.
Comments on this article may
be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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