A new device to protect New York City’s electrical system

Zenergy Power has been contracted by The Consolidated Edison Company to build and test a smart grid device to improve the stability and reliability of New York City’s electrical system.

The equipment, known as a Fault Current Limiter (FCL), instantly detects and absorbs spikes in power that, left unmanaged, could damage electrical equipment or trigger power outages.

In practice, Zenergy’s FCL is electrically connected to the grid it protects. It allows normal current to pass through unimpeded but, when it senses a fault current, instantly counters the electrical flow. This reaction, created in part by the superconductor in the device, chokes off a potentially damaging electrical spike. Once the fault current subsides, the FCL again allows standard levels of current to flow, protecting the electrical system automatically without human intervention.

This approach has the advantage of being able to absorb long-duration faults or multiple faults occurring in succession.

Con Edison, a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, authorised a project to design, build and test a single-phase FCL of a type that would be applicable to a number of substations within the utility’s electrical system.

Zenergy expects to deliver the prototype by the end of August.

Fault current limiters will be an essential element of the smart grid to maintain reliability and improve its resilience and flexibility, said Pat Duggan, a Con Edison project manager and specialist in fault current limiters.

“This is especially important as the load grows, including the move to electricity as a preferred source for new uses such as plug-in hybrids,” added Duggan.

Tests that Zenergy conducts in its development of the FCL for Con Edison will ensure the device is able to protect equipment from the damaging effects of fault currents that occur on the utility’s 13.8 kilovolt (kV) “feeder system” -- an electrical distribution network that delivers power to customers. At the conclusion of testing, Zenergy expects to extend its designs to other FCLs that are customised for protecting Con Edison and other utilities’ equipment on higher voltage lines of up to 138kV.

Landis+Gyr on track to complete its 280,000-meter project

The company began deploying its Gridstream two-way smart grid communications network at electric utility Austin Energy last year.

Landis+Gyr is on schedule to complete the 280,000-meter project, currently undergoing at Austin Energy, in August this year.

More than 165,000 two-way meters have been installed so far, and integration with the utility’s meter data management system is underway. The two companies are testing access to interval usage and metering data, and will soon begin testing other advanced features, such as remote disconnect and load management.

Landis+Gyr is providing support services for the deployment of advanced meters and turn-key network hardware upgrade as part of its managed services agreement with Austin Energy, a utility which serves nearly 400,000 electricity customers in and around Austin, Texas.

The company began deploying the Gridstream two-way RF mesh network as part of an expanded management contract with Austin Energy that was signed last year. The deployment will enable the utility to leverage its network for smart grid and demand response applications, including in-home networking, and distributed generation and automation.

Gridstream focuses on maximising the effectiveness of energy management assets through the seamless integration and flow of technology and information.

FERC steps up smart grid development

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has come with a proposed policy statement and action plan that would help set the “rules of the road” of a modern grid.

The proposed policy statement seeks public comment on standards for four priority issues critical to the smooth functioning and operation of the Smart Grid.

After weighing public comments, FERC plans to adopt a final policy statement providing guidance to the electric power industry on standards for:
· Cyber security;
· Communications among regional market operators, utilities, service providers and consumers;
· Ensuring that the bulk power system operators have “wide-area situational awareness” with equipment that allows them to monitor and operate their systems; and
· Coordinating operation of the bulk power system with new and emerging technologies for renewable resources, demand resources, electricity storage and electric transportation systems.

Prioritising the development of key standards will speed up the process of achieving an interoperable smart grid, said Commissioner Suedeen Kelly. Kelly said the proposed policy will require the sharing of information associated with smart grid deployments with the Smart Grid Clearinghouse being developed by the Department of Energy. “This will help to demonstrate the real benefits that investing in a smart grid can bring to the public,” said Kelly.

As per the plan, smart grid advancements will apply digital technologies to the grid, and enable real-time coordination of information from both generating plants and demand-side resources.

Related links: FERC

Consert opts for Marlabs as its technology partner

Consert, Inc. has chosen Marlabs to build a smart grid energy management solution, which will allow a utility to better manage overall energy usage.

Marlabs stated that such an integrated smart grid solution - benefiting both the utility and its consumers – “will be a first for the industry”.

According to Consert, a specialist in designing and implementation of intelligent energy distribution and management solutions, the solution from Marlabs will not only provide savings of up to 15 percent to families and small businesses, but actually allow distributing utilities to lower demand peaks.

Marlabs provides solutions that enable utilities to make the transition to the smart grid and implement demand management technologies.

Other than Marlabs’ systems integration experience and software engineering expertise, Joseph W. Forbes, Jr., COO, Consert also referred to the fact that Marlabs, as an IBM Regional Systems Integrator, could help the company to effectively leverage IBM technologies was also a reason behind going ahead with the pact.

Jeff Holden, VP, Marlabs, said, “Based on real-time two-way response techniques, the system will create a virtual power plant, promote green renewable energy, and improve efficiency of the grid.”

BP Solar to work with Comverge

BP Solar has selected Comverge to develop data acquisition and deployment solutions for stored energy.

As per the agreement, Comverge’s recently announced Apollo integrated demand response platform, AMI enabling technology, and information command center technology are going to be used.

The new contract with BP Solar calls for Comverge to integrate its advanced metering infrastructure technology utilising its advanced PowerPortal In-Home Display.

Comverge highlighted that it is becoming generally recognised that, because of the uneven nature of solar and wind generation, demand response programmes can act in concert with these alternative energy supplies to `level’ capacity.

Developing interfaces that provide solar production and other system information, BP Solar will have the option to integrate demand response using ZigBee enabled intelligent thermostats and digital control units.

Onsite systems data will be acquired and communicated offsite for performance monitoring, control, utility and customer information portals, according to Comverge.

Intelligent agents to enhance open communication and self-healing

Interview with Dr. Maher Chebbo, VP Utilities EMEA, SAP

smartelectricnews.com Special

An emerging technology area facilitating the development of smart-grid infrastructure is the use of intelligent agents, which are increasingly being used to participate in electrical utilities' demand response programmes.

These devices combine components for sensing, computing, device control, and communication in order to optimise energy usage.

It is said that these intelligent agents interact with each other in a more localised fashion before they interact with the centralised utility grid. When agents in a group interact, they can analyse the predetermined reduction programmes for each customer and react accordingly. This autonomy provides greater efficiency and is more cost-effective than a purely centralised system.

Going forward, Dr. Maher Chebbo, Vice President Utilities for Europe ,Middle East and Africa (EMEA), SAP AG, who presented during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009 held in Amsterdam recently, says the intelligent agents will include more ICT and Electronics and a result they will further help in open communication and self-healing processes.

A fundamental capability of a self-healing grid is its ability to prevent or contain major disturbances. The vision of a "self-healing" smart grid is feasible using a distributed infrastructure for monitoring and control.

Utilities now acknowledged that today's distribution grid is more than an interconnected system of generating units, power lines, substations and transformers that deliver electricity to customers. Smart Grid refers to a modern, intelligent electricity transmission and distribution system that incorporates traditional and advanced power engineering to enhance grid performance and support a wide array of functionality for customers and the economy.

And technologies that help save energy at households include:

· Time of use Pricing Information
· Dynamic Pricing signals
· Smart Thermostat
· Home Energy management Systems like devices.

"These technologies help peak demand reduction up to 40 percent plus in some cases," says Dr. Chebbo.

Two-way communication

For a utility to monitor the power used by its customers, then to transmit demand-response commands to a customer's automated energy management system, there must be a two-way communication.

The utility receives the usage information from the customer's meter, and can then send messages, via email or telephone, informing them of the need to reduce power. During demand response events, the utility can activate automatic controls to reduce air conditioning, lower lighting levels, or momentarily turn off appliances – usually with an override option by the consumer.

On the two-way communication process, Dr. Chebbo said utilities companies send tariffs and contract information + price signals to the consumers through Smart Meters and Internet.

"Consumers will change their options (if their contract allows) on the Smart meters and through the Internert Self Services (also SMS or mobile transactions could be used). Demand Response is one of the scnearios that are enabled by Smart Metering Infrastructure," said Dr. Chebbo.

One of the critical components of communication systems for demand response includes software, which is used to perform the various tasks required to run smart grid networks and demand-response applications.

"There are different kind of software required for the smart grids and demand response : the technical software like SCADA (they have to evolve to become smart grids compliance), the management software (like SAP ERP, Customer Information system, Asset Management, Smart Metering Application scenarios), the technical software for management the Smart metering Infrastructure (Meter Data Unification System) and they have to talk to each other in real time and interoperability is key," said Dr. Chebbo.

The industry has already witnessed the development of turnkey "energy intelligence" software to electric utilities for use in residential applications. These offerings include software, hardware, and "smart
meters" that help control energy load. For instance, hardware products include meters with Internet capabilities, which make it possible for clients to access their usage records on demand, and software offerings include programmes, which allows customers to monitor their meters, automate usage reduction, and receive alerts and grid demand status.

On procuring such solutions, Dr. Chebbo recommended: "The ones who should be providing a platform for smart grids and demand response should be system integrators with a good knowledge of the industry, rather than a single software vendor."

Enabling consumers to know how their behaviour affects energy consumption

Energate has introduced a new solution in Consumer Connected Demand Response (CCDR).

This solution, according to the company, will enable utilities to engage their customers and deploy technology which will integrate seamlessly with AMI and the smart grid as it is built.

It builds from advanced in-home consumer options and supports multiple communication technologies from the home to utility load management software.

CCDR offers a variety of options for utilities and their customers, including ZigBee Smart Energy profile certified smart thermostats, load control switches, energy display, and web portal; communication options (broadband connectivity, FM digital radio, and support for AMI interoperability); utility application options (load management systems including one-way direct load control or two-way DR).

Commenting on the CCDR solution, Niraj Bhargava, CEO, Energate said: "It is an ideal offering to let utilities deploy Demand Response today, while building their smart grid infrastructure for tomorrow."

"Energate's strength in AMI interoperability and in-home devices gives the utility peace of mind that short term DR benefits are supportive of long term smart grid strategies."

Enhanced TREE platform to scale DSM for utilities and energy providers

Tendril has released the latest version of its Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem (TREE) platform.

The new version, according to the company, will further engage consumers in smart energy programmes and provide an extensive Demand Response (DR) platform for utilities and energy retailers.

According to the company, Tendril's "scalable, unified and integrated enterprise-class energy management solution brings together the smart energy ecosystem and allows utilities and energy providers to connect and personalise tools and programs for their customers like never before."

New benefits for utilities include: Extended value through enhanced DR and dynamic pricing programmes; Improvements to utility and back-office system user interfaces; Ability to push out updates "Over-the-Air" or "Over-the-Internet" seamlessly.

The company also referred to: Additional DR and load control reporting and monitoring, leading to improvements in predictive modeling for utilities to better forecast scenarios and avoid brownouts or other emergency grid preservation tactics; Increased interoperability with third-party thermostats, backhaul environments such as Itron and SSN and ERT integration; Enhanced support for backhaul environments and legacy metering systems.

For consumers, there is going to be significant increase in amount of information and visualisation for consumers through Tendril Vantage, the consumer web portal and Tendril Insight, the interactive in-home display, including up-to-the minute demand response (DR) data and ambient conditions such as weather.

Also, there is one-touch demand response opt-out function, allowing consumers to easily and hassle-free override a DR event, and a multi-coloured screen with interactive backlights that prompt consumers of changes in consumption and DR events, and other features such as "compare to yesterday."

Plus, there will be addition of consumer-controlled and pre-packaged rules (such as home/away settings) to automate and regulate thermostats and other devices remotely via the web and mobile devices.

Reduction in energy usage via connectivity to a customer's house

smartelectricnews.com Special

Development of standards-based smart grid connectivity that offers easy home area networks (HAN) access to utilities deploying Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solutions continues to pave way for a "greener" environment.

AMI provides energy savings for consumers through management of devices and appliances in the home area network.

As a result, there is energy saving through improved demand management and lower energy costs to consumers.

The industry has already witnessed developments related to broadband smart meter HAN interface, coupled with ultra low-power chips that leverage the widely-deployed Wi-Fi infrastructure, enabling programmable, connected devices such as thermostats and smart appliances to optimise the control, delivery, and usage of power.

Home energy monitoring

The industry has been working on shaping up new software for home energy monitoring products, designed to provide consumers with a more detailed information on the energy they use.

Via such systems, customers are offered energy bills with a comprehensive information. It is hoped that providing customers with more details about the appliances and times of day that use the most energy will encourage them to think more about curbing energy use.

New manufacturing techniques can produce devices – including a microprocessor, a unique Internet address, a controller, and simple network communications – at a very low cost per control point, so these devices can be embedded into electrical appliances and lighting ballasts.

Sharing his viewpiont, Dr. Maher Chebbo, Vice President Utilities for Europe ,Middle East and Africa (EMEA), SAP AG , who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009, says Chips applicances have been produced by different labs like Northwest National Lab.

For instance, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that providing homeowners with smart appliances and information on how to save money cut their energy costs but also reduced overall power consumption during peak use periods.

"(Such initiatives) help in sending real-time information about the energy consumption of each electrical appliance at home and also to help self programming in terms of turn-on, turn-off when energy if more expensive and at peak times," said Dr. Chebbo.

As per the information available, appliances outfitted with computer chips are able to sense when the transmission system was stressed and partially turned themselves off to save critical kilowatts — potentially staving off catastrophe.

In terms of reach news of efficiency in communication, there are several new ways of looking at it. For instance, there are initiatives related to an existing software that allows consumers to see which appliances are most power hungry getting integrated into the data warehouse. If a customer's bill is high one month, instead of sending engineers to check the meter, the databases allow energy firms to know if the household has just added a new energy-intensive appliance. It would also allow utilities to notify customers if thier energy use is higher than usual, potentially heading off a particularly hefty bill. Conversely, the system would also be able to notify the energy company if the meter reading looked wrong, saving the customer and energy company time and money.

Commenting on selection of local devices and control systems online to create virtual control center without enterprise software, systems, or device-level integration, and how should they help in administering demand response (DR) programmes and manage energy consumption, Dr. Chebbo referred to integration of the virtual control center and enterprise software through an automated metering infrastructure.

"The smart meters should be the link between the HAN and the enterprise software. All the intelligence about the customers and their behaviour (in terms of consumption profiles) is in the enterprise software taking care of customer information system and assets management," said Dr. Chebbo.

Other than such software, going by the developments in the industry, it is clear that the focus is also coming up with in-home energy displays and smart meter solutions that enable utilities to put the end user in control.

And in terms of the exterior of such products, the onus is on companies to produce attractive products. And at the same time also add real value to this information by providing an intuitive web service that puts raw data into a usable context.

Assessing the role of devices in empowering customers to control their energy costs

smartelectricnews.com Special

Recently, in an interview with smartelectricnews.com, Petri Trygg, Researcher, Institute of Power Engineering, Tampere University of Technology had spoken about consumers' interest level as far as electricity is concerned.

"In general, consumer´s attitude towards electricity must be quite uninterested one," Trygg, who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009, had said.

In order to ensure optimal results from a demand response programme, experts advocate that timely information is critical to making demand response decisions.

It is said that consistent information develops habits for consumers that can greatly affect energy use and price responsiveness. Accurate, real-time data allows consumers and energy managers to control their energy consumption more precisely, producing increased energy efficiency and savings.

Plus, feedback helps customers understand the cause-effect link of behaviour and energy consumption, and time between action and consequence or resulting energy use and cost is very important to ensure maximum savings.

Precise communication, be it for informing consumers about their usage patterns or eliciting response from them, has several benefits.

It is believed that faster feedback results in savings upto 10 percent, conveying price information lets customers know when to conserve or shift use, and use and cost displays show alerts for events and results in customer decision result in real-time.


Advancements in communication devices

Over the years, the industry has seen Advanced Metering Infrastructure or AMI ready display devices that allow consumers to closely track their electricity consumption and receive messages or alerts from their utility provider.

There are LCD displays that show messages that are clear and intuitive, making it easy for consumers to manage their energy usage and costs in real-time and wireless communication allows for use anywhere in the home.

According to Comverge, Inc., research has shown consumer energy savings of up to 15 percent can be realised with the use of devices that allows the end user access to real-time energy usage data.

For its part, in October last year, Comverge expanded its AMI compatible product portfolio with the introduction of the PowerPortal Home, in-home display (IHD), that provides customers with current energy usage, energy price information and utility messaging. PowerPortal Home weighs less than 5 ounces, has a battery life of up to 2 months, and is one of the most portable IHD devices available.

As an AMI ready display, PowerPortal Home shows messages that making it easy for consumers to manage their energy usage and costs in real-time. Designed for ZigBee, the PowerPortal Home utilises the smart energy wireless profile, which allows for broad compatibility with many AMI systems and use anywhere in the home. PowerPortal Home has a magnetic backing, an integrated base and a rechargeable battery, so it can be placed on a table, countertop, or even on the front of a refrigerator.

The industry is also witnessing steady advancements in devices, which serve as a wireless communications portal between utility companies and their customers.

For instance, in the first week of January, LS Research shared that it has teamed with Ember to develop Rate$aver. The focus is on homeowners and utilities to collaborate on conserving energy and reducing costs. The emphasis is on offering reliable, wireless communication of consumption data from the utility meter into the home.

Rate$aver is being described as the first battery-powered, wireless graphical display employing the ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile, which supports pricing, security, simple metering and messaging clusters, and is interoperable with other ZigBee Smart Energy certified products including electric smart meters.

Rate$aver runs for up to two years on two AA batteries and uses a unique display technology that allows the display to remain visible even after the radio and the power are turned off. The Rate$aver provides an advanced radio architecture and a 100mW power amplifier that eliminates the need for repeater devices in most homes. Rate$aver also employs Ember's bootloader capability enabling easy implementation of software updates.


Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009 is scheduled to take place in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com
T: +44 (0)207 375 7581

ECS secures 30 MW target for a DR programme

Energy Curtailment Specialists (ECS) has shared that in only one summer season it successfully delivered a demand response portfolio, representing more than 30 MW of on-call load reduction, to KCP&L.

Approximately 350 commercial customers were recruited by ECS to take part in the MPower programme which is designed to provide grid stability and manageable energy prices while offering an incentive to businesses for conservation. This portfolio was called upon and delivered essential load reduction four times during the 2008 season, which runs from June through September.

According to Paul Tyno, executive vice president program development for ECS, the most successful demand response programmes are the ones that effectively bridge the needs of the utility with the realities of the customer.

"While it's important to enroll megawatts in a DR portfolio, it's far more important that those megawatts are reliable and acquired in a fashion that preserves and enhances the utility's long standing customer relationships," said Tyno.

ECS will get down in the trenches with customers to understand their business and in turn help them understand and better manage their energy use.

KCP&L utilises a demand response curriculum to assist in managing summer peak electric demand. These DR programmes are a vital component of their Comprehensive Energy Plan, the company's long-term action plan for providing sustainable, environmentally responsible energy to the region.

"Demand response is clearly the 'killer application' for the smart grid"

Demand response and advanced metering programmes have made significant progress in serving more consumers across the country, according to a new report released by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The report, 2008 Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering, while notes progress on overcoming regulatory and financial hurdles over the past three years, also points to continuing obstacles – the limited number of retail customers on time-based rates, restrictions on customer access to meter data and the scale of financial investment necessary to deploy enabling technologies during an economic downturn – that could limit opportunities for continued growth in these programmes.

According to FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, who leads the Commission's efforts in the Collaborative Dialogue on DR with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, DR is clearly the 'killer application' for the smart grid.

"With our FERC report gauging progress and identifying continuing barriers to demand response, we can effectively assess our progress in deploying essential smart grid technologies," said Wellinghoff.

The report's conclusions are based on a survey that shows the ratio of advanced meters to all installed meters has reached 4.7 percent for the US, a significant jump from the less than one percent in 2006. The report is FERC's third annual report on DR issues.

On the demand response side, eight percent of energy consumers in the US are in some kind of DR programme and the potential DR resource contribution from all such US programmes is close to 41,000 megawatts, or 5.8 percent, of US peak demand. This represents an increase of about 3,400 MW from the 2006 estimate. The largest DR resource contributions are from the Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern and Southeastern regions of the US. The report also notes that in the past year, Colorado, Maryland, Ohio and other states promoted DR through utility regulation legislation. Alabama and California led states in approving time-based rates for consumers. And multi-state groups from the Mid-Atlantic to the Pacific Northwest are coordinating across jurisdictions to enhance DR through research, education and planning.

RLtec and npower to trial Dynamic Demand technology

RLtec is gearing up for the trial of Dynamic Demand, a new technology that helps maintain the balance between supply and demand across the national electricity grid, in homes across the UK.

The company is working with npower to trial the same.

The trial is the first Demonstration Action to be approved by Ofgem under the CERT (Carbon Emissions Reduction Target) legislation and will contribute towards npower's carbon reduction obligations.

RLtec's technology will be trialled in a number of stages. In the first phase, 300 fridges fitted with this technology will be distributed to consumers so that analysis of how the technology works in appliances in everyday use can be carried out. Following the initial rollout, a total of 3,000 fridges and freezers of different types and models will be deployed so that the carbon savings from Dynamic Demand can be assessed and calculated against a full range of variables.

According to RLtec, appliances fitted with the Dynamic Demand technology automatically modifies power consumption in response to second‐by‐second changes in the balance between supply and demand on the grid ‐ without affecting the fridge's performance. This means that the amount of carbon emitting generating capacity used to maintain that balance can be dramatically reduced.

"The technology has the potential to create a 'virtual' power station and if widely used in the UK could eliminate the need for these carbon emitting balancing stations and save 2,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year," said RLtec's Andrew Howe.

"Our analysis shows that more than two‐thirds of the UK's balancing capacity comes from carbon emitting sources. Dynamic Demand helps reduce that carbon‐intensive balancing requirement, with no loss of performance from the appliances in which it is fitted, and with no action needed on the part of the consumer," said Howe.

General Mills focuses on energy savings

General Mills has chosen EnerNOC as its preferred partner for demand response. The company has added its West Chicago facility to EnerNOC's demand response network.

General Mills, a manufacturer and marketer of consumer food products, has chosen to work with EnerNOC to help prevent brownouts and blackouts in the West Chicago area.

This will be done by reducing demand on the electricity grid by as much as five megawatts -- the equivalent of roughly 2,500 households -- when called upon by EnerNOC. In exchange, EnerNOC rewards General Mills with periodic payments.

The company decided to go ahead with this initiative to bolster its sustainability efforts and practices.

"We feel that demand response is something that's good for our business, our community and the nation at large," said General Mills' spokesperson Jim DeLaPena.

Tim Healy, chairman and CEO of EnerNOC said energy conservation at the community-level, whether by individuals, small businesses, or large organisations like General Mills, can powerfully impact how electricity is managed and used.

"Demand response is an opportunity for businesses to do something that is positive for the environment and actually generates money for them, without the need to lay out capital," said Healy.

The company uses its Network Operations Center, or NOC, to remotely manage and reduce electricity consumption across a network of commercial, institutional, and industrial customer sites and make demand response capacity and energy available to grid operators and utilities on demand.

"Consumers must be motivated for DR"

smartelectricnews.com Special - Interview with Petri Trygg, Researcher, Institute of Power Engineering, Tampere University of Technology

Specialists recommend a thorough study or an insight into customers' requirements and behaviour before involving them for DR programmes right from the pilot/ test phase for any project.

Be it for what customers care about and what their "need drives" are (is it the environment-related or financial savings or social responsibility); a lot of introspection is required before one factors these into a communication and implementation strategy and starts reaching out to the customers. There are initiatives or rather new precedents taking place in a market like the US where the electric utility industry is testing the response of residential customers to different innovative pricing options under one programme to test an advanced metering technology. The consumer is checking out pricing options that could assist them in curbing their monthly bills by better controlling their power consumption.

Assessing such approaches, Petri Trygg, Researcher, Institute of Power Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, says, "I think it heavily depends on the issue [being] studied. In general, consumer´s attitude towards electricity must be quite uninterested [one]."

Trygg, who is also MD of PowerQ Oy, Finland, a company specialising in metering information analysis e.g. power quality monitoring and web-applications, pointed out that in Finland, price difference of electricity between different companies is few hundred Euros.

"In DR, potential of savings must be quite high to really boost usage of it in real life situations compared to simulations," said Trygg, who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

Through pilot programmes, companies or utilities are looking to get an insight into how consumers react to pricing information. They also want to learn whether consumers alter their usage habits, potentially resulting in lower energy costs, achieving energy efficiency gains and a reduction in the amount of kilowatts.

But Trygg categorically says before all this consumers should be informed first about the test and recommends communicating with them on a regular basis. "Like in medicine development using placebos for comparison group. Then comparing the different situations. Alternative with different compensation levels," Trygg told smartelectricnews.com.

On how the government/ state authorities and other organisations can get an insight into how consumers react to pricing information or any initiative, Jessica Stromback of VaasaETT Global Energy Think Tank recently told smartelectricnews.com: "Well, the very best way of course is to try them - and like the Canadians try a variety of possibilities so that you can build on previous knowledge and create real comparisons. You not only learn about how your customers' would react but also what such measures would really require in reality from your utilities, regulators, grid operators… If you don't have the budget for a pilot study - ask them."

It is also critical to remember that most consumers know almost nothing about the industry and they may not understand the ramifications of their answers. As Jessica says, for example, most customers that are asked if they would like to have "accurate billing" rather than the widely used estimated bills, say yes – until they are informed that their winter electricity bills may double. Therefore, the questionnaires must be carefully designed.
"A third method, which should not be forgotten and is always an important first step - is to review the excellent pilot studies that have already been done all over the world," says Jessica.

On the same, Trygg said, emphasis should be given to price difference for electricity versus amount of changes.

"Consumer must be motivated for DR. And for finding out the motivating compensation study of the electricity sales price differences versus the rate of consumer changing the sales company should be done locally in the markets DR is designed," said Trygg.

On inducing a change in consumers' usage habits, Trygg said the approach would depend upon the market.

"In Finland, the main factor is the compensation to the consumer. Also knowledge that high demand situations require more polluting energy production may influence some of the customers. So by reducing peak loads only polluting production is limited and renewable is kept going. Cheaper "green" tariffs are also key to success. Currently, they are more expensive and this is not motivating consumers."

With reference to a "smart meter" getting installed at each participant's residence (for a pilot study) to measure electricity use at hourly intervals and transmit usage data each day through a wireless communications network, Trygg says in any case AMR is the solution also for DR.

"But alternative and independent models also exist. In critical network situations, frequency based DR is also new possibility. Customer behaviour is dependent on price differences also. Also, predictability of prices in each hour is key in changing the load profiles," said Trygg.

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Petri Trygg, Researcher, Institute of Power Engineering, Tampere University of Technology is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com
T: +44 (0)207 375 7581
==

"It is worth investing in DR resources if its cheaper than the alternative resources"

Interview with Ulrik Stridbaek, Chief Economist, Regulatory affairs at DONG Energy

smartelectricnews.com Special

During the hottest days or any other period of maximum demand, demand can rise to a level where even if generating capacity is available, the delivery infrastructure or the grid may be pushed to the point of failure. According to experts, demand response (DR) can be used at such times to reduce spikes and increase grid reliability.

This type of DR usually involves end users on `standby' able to be dispatched - often times automatically - by grid operators or utilities when demand is spiking and grid equipment failures are possible.

Apart from increasing grid reliability, another option would be to reduce short-term price volatility.

Depending on the configuration of generation capacity, DR may be used to increase demand (load) at times of high production and low demand. Some systems may thereby encourage energy storage to arbitrage between periods of low and high demand (or low and high prices).

As the proportion of intermittent power sources such as wind power in a system grows, demand response may become increasingly important to effective management of the electric grid.

According to Ulrik Stridbaek, Chief Economist, Regulatory affairs at DONG Energy, greater volatility in supply from variable resources such as wind power will create greater value in shifting demand from hours with a high price to hours with a low price.

"So if power is priced correctly the incentives for customers to respond will increase with the expansion of e.g. wind power. If incentives are sufficient to trigger DR, this can contribute balancing the system. Otherwise other sources of flexibility will have to be found. New intelligent generation and demand such as micro generation and electric cars can help creating the framework where demand becomes more responsive, by triggering the necessary investments for intelligent demand," says Stridbaek, who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

Stridbaek also spoke about few other issues in an interview with smartelectricnews.com. Excerpts:

smartelectricnews.com: What according to you is the appropriate way to merge pre-existing energy infrastructure to intelligent ICT, Smart grids and Virtual Power plants?

Ulrik Stridbaek: Investments in the grid, including smart grids, will probably require regulatory incentives. When necessary regulated infrastructure is in place, there must be proper incentives to make use of the infrastructure (e.g. for VPPs) and integrate traditional and new types of resources.

The best way to create these incentives is through well designed markets, competition and market forces.

smartelectricnews.com: How should companies go about planning and executing DR and DSM programmes and also partnering with specialists for the same?

Ulrik Stridbaek: It is worth investing in DR resources if this is cheaper than the alternative resources. So first step must be to have a good feel for the cost and value of marginal resources in any given system. Next step is to have knowledge about the cost of DR.

This also requires close relationships with customers. Partnerships with consultants, aggregators and vendors comes after that, and must depend on the specific circumstances.

smartelectricnews.com: How can DSM play an important role in helping balance supply and demand in any energy market as well as help reduce price volatility and increase system reliability and security?

Ulrik Stridbaek: DR is a resource to be compared with other alternative resources to balance power supply and maintain reliability. DR can help reduce prices and volatility but volatility is also what gives incentives for DR in the first place.

smartelectricnews.com: When it comes to installation, maintenance and data management of such programmes, what factors do you think need to be taken into consideration for enablement cost where one-time cost includes equipment installation and administration and annual maintenance cost?

Ulrik Stridbaek: This is complex. One point for consideration is that a lot of potential DR resources requires up front investment, but once these have been incurred and demand has been automated, the cost of responding may be low. So once the investment has been incurred it is highly competitive with other alternative resources, such as generation from peakers.

smartelectricnews.com: It is said that Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) programme costs are less than half the cost of peak generation resources. How do you assess developments related to Auto-DR platform designed to automated, electronic price and reliability signals as well as site-specific demand response strategies?

Ulrik Stridbaek: This is under development but probably focused on specific sectors and applications, rather than in a broad roll-out. Initial target sectors could be electric cars and specific appliances.

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Ulrik Stridbaek is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com
T: +44 (0)207 375 7581

"Supply companies will need to learn about DR possibilities and efficiencies"

Interview with Alastair Manson, senior consultant, Engage Consulting Limited

smartelectricnews.com Special

The decision to go for a demand response programme in case of businesses depends upon a number of factors. For such initiatives, organisations have to diligently plan, implement, and monitor activities, which best fits in with the kind of business they are in, scale of their operations and other factors.

While for smaller retailers there might be not be a lot of electric load they can shift to off peak times, for relatively larger businesses the issues tend to be much more complex considering decisions related to production schedules, selection of equipment and much more.

Still, the general consensus seems to be that the understanding of such process, which is all about reducing load when contingencies occur that threaten supply-demand balance or market conditions occur that raise supply costs, is only gradually picking up.

"You would have to say that there is a lot to be learnt. There is much that is understood about demand response but more that is not known. Similarly, the generation profile will change in ways that are unknown," says Alastair Manson, senior consultant, Engage Consulting Limited.

Manson, who is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009, says smart meters do not in themselves deliver demand response but can offer a number of ways that can provide or facilitate various levels of demand response: They can be linked to displays (giving consumption and pricing information including potentially CPP); They can have load limiting capability – in line or auxiliary switches that could control all or part of supply; They can be linked to other devices in the home directly or via an energy control device to allow automated management of devices usage and so on.

"It is probably fair to say that suppliers are investigating various levels of load control and with various levels of sophistication but that our initial challenge in Great Britain is to get the implementation of smart metering underway with the right functionality to allow for options to be decided into the future," Manson told smartelectricnews.com.

DR programmes are like other programmes but there is a particular need to learn along they way and to take in innovation, says Manson.

According to Manson, supply companies will need to learn about DR possibilities and efficiencies.

"There is a constant learning process and they need to keep learning what is effective with customers and what customer's abilities to change usage are. They need to understand what the rules are and have an understanding of what the rules will be and keep learning what technologies can provide," he added.

Automated DR systems have been deployed for critical peak pricing and demand bidding and are being designed for real time pricing.

On how does automating DR allows greater levels of participation and improved reliability and repeatability of the demand response and customer facilities, Manson said automation will suit many customers who will not want to manually micro-manage their consumption.

"It is a service that has to be seen as acceptable to customers rather than being inflicted on them. There needs to be an education process from suppliers and beyond including government. There needs to be an energy service to customers not just an energy supply service. Customers need to appreciate benefits of DR -this will take learning and time and they will need alternatives that make DR acceptable and a benefit rather than just reducing their demand," said Manson.

While the lack of knowledge about how to develop and implement DR control strategies is a barrier to participation in DR programs like CPP, another barrier is the lack of automation of DR systems.

At least one way that DR can be facilitated is via smart metering with sufficient abilities.

"But DR cannot be implemented by stealth," said Manson.


In terms of opting between Manual DR programme, and Semi-Automated DR, which involves a pre-programmed demand response strategy initiated by a person via centralised control system, and Fully-Automated Demand Response, which does not involve human intervention, but is initiated at a home, building, or facility through receipt of an external communications signal, Manson said this has to be done by study of what works and what is acceptable to and desired by customers, bearing in mind that conditions may well be very different not so far in the future.

Recently, it was indicated that less than one percent of all commercial and industrial companies use advanced technology to measure and manage energy spend, whereas nearly 100 percent use advanced technology to measure and manage telecommunications spend in the US.

Assessing the situation as far as the maturity level of Advanced Metering in Total Energy Management in the UK is concerned, Manson said, "I would be surprised if it is really one percent. I would have to say that UK is in its infancy but will grow quickly."

Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009

Alastair Manson, senior consultant, Engage Consulting Limited is scheduled to speak during Intelligent Demand Response for Electricity Summit 2009, to be held in Amsterdam on 28-29 January 2009.

For more information, click here: www.smartelectricnews.com/demand08

Or

Contact:
Abbie Badcock ,
Smart Electric News,
abbie@smartelectricnews.com
T: +44 (0)207 375 7581

EnerNOC set to achieve its 2008 targets

EnerNOC says its on target to end this year with over 2,000 megawatts under management and it has dispatched the liability based capacity in its demand response network over 90 distinct times year-to-date and delivered an average performance of 98 percent based on nominated versus delivered capacity across all reporting events.

Sharing its third quarter results, in which EnerNoc posted record revenue performance of $44.2 million, 131 percent increase overall revenue in the third quarter of 2007, the company stated that this performance track record demonstrates the scalability and robustness of its network operation center and its fifth generation proprietary software application called Power Track, which is the primary application that it uses in EnerNOC for notifying, monitoring, and managing its expanding network of active customers' sites.

It uses this application for both demand response and its growing energy efficiency business.

On the performance during the quarter, Tim Healy - chairman and CEO, EnerNOC Inc., said, "This year-over-year growth was the result of many things including the significant expansion of our presence in the PJM market and our continued strong performance in New England as well as the growth and diversification of our portfolio demand response and energy management solutions throughout North America."

The company grew its demand response network ending September with over 1,760 megawatts under management, which is the capacity equivalence over 17 average size peaking power plant.

"These megawatts come from 3,400 different end-use customer sites in our network as of September 30, 2008 up from 3,067 customers' sites in our network as of the end of the second quarter," stated the company. "We have sold approximately 100 new megawatts since the end of the third quarter, with over 1,850 megawatts in our network we feel good about our ability to exit 2008 with over 2,000 megawatts under management."

LCA increases its equity stake in RLtec to 77.4 percent

Low Carbon Accelerator (LCA) has made a further equity investment of £300,000 in ResponsiveLoad Ltd (RLtec).

LCA's investment was part of an overall £550,000 funding round, with £250,000 provided by a private investor. Further details weren't shared.

As part of this investment, LCA has converted its £900,000 convertible loan in RLtec, previously announced on 21 December 2007, into preference shares. These transactions result in LCA's equity stake in RLtec increasing to 77.4 percent and takes LCA's total investment in RLtec to £2,053,500. In addition, LCA has agreed to provide a further £300,000 in funding subject to the achievement of milestones.

It was originally envisaged that the convertible loan note would finance RLtec to the completion of a larger third party funding round. The company now expects to pursue this larger funding round after RLTec has agreed terms with the National Grid for the provision of grid balancing services using RLtec's patented dynamic demand technology. RLtec is targeting agreement of this contract in early 2009.

For its part, RLtec has shared that it is making steady progress towards agreeing a demonstration project with Ofgem and a major utility supplier under the UK's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERTs) programme. It has also recently received an order to trial its product using electrical load available in the Sainsbury retail store estate, in addition to successfully completing application testing with a major appliance manufacturer.

RLtec has developed technology suitable for demand- response and Smart Grid energy balancing applications.

PowerCentsDC implements demand response CRM software solution

PowerCentsDC has gone live with Mincom's real-time, event-driven billing and demand response CRM software solution.

The smart billing solution supports the advanced 'smart' meter project managed by Smart Meter Pilot Program (SMPPI), a non-profit corporation in Washington D.C. It delivers demand response, time of use, critical peak and critical peak rebate pricing and daily billing information to residential customers in metropolitan D.C. using smart meters and smart thermostats provided by PowerCentDC under the programme.

"The solution plays a key role in the project by enabling us to calculate monthly bills for our PowerCentsDC customers successfully and reliably using three different dynamic pricing options," said Rick Morgan, chairman, SMPPI.

The solution will also manage the participant recruitment and enrollment process for the demand response programme.

The project was delivered through a strategic alliance between selected vendors, industry groups and the Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco).

Morgan added that the solution has also helped in avoiding major CIS customisation expenses. "Keeping costs low is critical to the success of PowerCentsDC project. Mincom's smart billing system allows us to deliver the programme's complex, real-time rating and pricing without disrupting the local utility's enterprise CIS."