“Demand response currently accounts for over 20 gigawatts”

Comverge Inc.’s chairman, president and CEO Robert Chiste has highlighted that demand response and energy efficiency provide the “fastest, cleanest and most economic” megawatts.
Chiste also pointed out that regulators and legislators at the Federal and State level are encouraging and approving funding for increased investment in energy efficiency and demand management.

According to Chiste, who made these observations during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, the demand response and energy efficiency opportunity has the potential of far greater impact on energy independence than other alternatives such as solar and wind.

“In fact, wind and solar projects have slowed considerably because the financial and transmission constraints in the current install base of solar power in the United States is about 2 gigawatts,” said Chiste. “By comparison, demand response currently accounts for over 20 gigawatts or ten times the size of the entire solar installed base in the United States.”

In the recent past, the US industry witnessed the signing into law of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and provisions to modernise the U.S. electricity grid.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contains specific provisions for the establishment of a $4.2 billion grant programme that will support the rollout of smart grid and smart metering projects across the country. Smart metering solutions provide utilities with a two-way flow of data required to manage energy use, efficiency, demand response and network protection. Consumers benefit from improved usage information and with it, the ability to reduce overall energy costs and carbon footprints.

IBM and EDF embark on an energy sustainability project

IBM has signed a collaboration with EDF to jointly develop high performance computing solutions which can significantly advance the operation and optimisation of the complex systems and processes involved in electricity production and power management.

The two companies will also work on a project to explore key aspects of the energy systems that are important in EDF operations, in an effort to further energy sustainability.

Acknowledging the significance of extensive collaboration between the scientific and business communities, and new approaches in technology, John E. Kelly III, senior vice president and director of IBM Research said this ambitious initiative will explore how to apply technologies with new intelligence to seek significant improvements in energy efficiency and alternative energy.

Together, the companies will develop and validate sophisticated computational solutions to model a number of complex processes critical to EDF activities. EDF expects that this common initiative will increase its ability to further advance the efficiency of its power plants.

IBM expects that its work with EDF will help advance IBM's systems, software, middleware and applications capabilities in its Power Generation, Intelligent Utility Network and Advanced Water Management solutions, as well as many other industrial, environmental and research activities and lead to improved computer systems and applications designs in the future.

For its part, EDF has been investing in research and numerical simulation to support efficient and sustainable use of power production. Its R&D teams have developed a set of highly validated numerical codes and simulation platforms that play a key role in optimising plant operation.

"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

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

HSBC to use advanced mini-building management system

HSBC is teaming up with energy management specialist t-mac Technologies to reduce energy consumption in its retail outlets by 20 percent.

t-mac Technologies will provide HSBC with its advanced mini-building management system (BMS) - t-mac.

By deploying the t-mac system, HSBC will be able to monitor and control the amount of energy their buildings are using.

The system gathers metering data and energy consumption information from sources of power, such as a building's air conditioning unit, lights and heating. The technology then identifies waste, with information collected into reports that can be used to gain an understanding of energy consumption patterns. HSBC will use the system to identify areas where buildings are losing and wasting energy, providing the bank with recommendations on how to cut carbon emissions and costs.

Stephen Gathergood, data centre and engineering manager, HSBC Bank, said, "The technology deployed through our partnership with t-mac is a good example of how our buildings can be more efficiently managed, without any material increase in operating costs, which enables us to continue to deliver the same value to both our shareholders and our customers."

The vendor says t-mac system works via the Internet and is therefore fully interactive from any location. In practice, when an air conditioning unit is leaking energy or operating outwith pre-set criteria t-mac will send the bank a text message or email to alert them to rectify this inefficiency. The bank can then log on to the Internet where they can, by the click of a mouse, turn down the heating or turn off the lights instantly without having to go on site.

Tampa Electric launches Demand Response programme for commercial customers

Tampa Electric has received approval from Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) to expand its Energy Planner pilot programme to all new qualified customers.

According to the company, Energy Planner allows customers to make energy consumption decisions based on near real-time energy prices by using a programmable "smart" thermostat provided by the company at no charge. Customers participating in the pilot study saved an average of one month's worth of electricity over the course of a year.

In all, Tampa Electric has added 12 new energy efficiency programmes to its roster; the company also made improvements to several longtime programmes.

Other new programmes include a Low Income programme, where qualified customers can receive a number of items geared toward increasing their home's energy efficiency.

The company has also launched a new programme for commercial customers. Known as Demand Response, the programme will pay incentives to participating commercial customers when they conserve energy at times of peak demand.

Tampa Electric has also filed a revised fuel forecast with the FPSC. Due to lower projections for 2008 and 2009 natural gas prices and the company's team members' ongoing efforts to maximise the availability of its coal-fired generating units, the bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity is now projected to be almost $11 less than originally expected.

The company now expects that it will be $133 million under-recovered by year-end, compared with its original September filing projection of $209 million. The company did not seek a surcharge this year to address the under-recovery. Instead, it intends to address it through its 2009 fuel charge.

Starting in January 2009, the bill for a 1,000-kWh per month residential customer would be $128.44, compared with the original projection of $139.25. This does not reflect the company's recently announced plans to request an increase to its base rates and service charges. If approved, the base rate increase would result in an additional increase of $10, effective in May 2009.

Pentadyne Power asserts its supremacy

Pentadyne Power Corporation is asserting its supremacy as the world’s number one producer of flywheel energy storage systems.

The company has stated that it has surpassed Active Power for the same, sharing that during the first half of this year it shipped 34 percent more flywheel systems than Active Power.

Pentadyne president and CEO Mark McGough pointed out that at a challenging time for capital expenditure sales, the company is still growing at a rate of over 40 percent.

The company stated that its systems also offer greater value in terms of energy efficiency – 90 percent less standby energy use than that of the Active Power CleanSource flywheel – and fewer, shorter and far less costly maintenance needs because the service-intensive vacuum pump and mechanical bearings have been engineered out of the product.

McGough said despite the fact that Pentadyne’s 190-kW product has only been commercially available for just over 24 months, it is an inherently reliable product.

“And reliability is what customers pay for in the backup power market,” said McGough. “We expect that our next generation products will see similar market uptake.”

Recently, Pentadyne had signed a five-year partnership agreement with UPS manufacturer Socomec for distribution of Pentadyne-made products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

In April this year, Pentadyne had shipped its 500th flywheel energy storage system. In addition, the company announced that the installed fleet of Pentadyne flywheel energy storage systems – primarily used with large-scale uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems instead of lead-acid batteries – has amassed a total of two million hours of operation.