Avoiding voltage collapse on transmission and distribution lines

smartelectricnews.com Special : Interview with Jack McCall, Director Business Development - HTS T&D Systems, AMSC Power Systems

American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) identifies the U.S. power grid market as one of its core growth drivers.

Recently, in its third quarter (ended December 31, 2008) results, AMSC shared that more than $27 million of its $46 million in third-quarter bookings were for its D-VAR Smart Grid solutions. With these new orders, the company now has more than $175 million out of the total of $602 million in backlog that it expects to recognise as revenue in fiscal 2009.

Commenting on plans for this year, Jack McCall, Director Business Development HTS T&D Systems, AMSC Power Systems told smartelectricnews.com: “We are focused on increasing global sales volumes for our D-VAR and SVC reactive compensation solutions. We also will be completing our prototype Secure Super Grids system for Consolidated Edison in 2009.”

McCall spoke in detail about preventing blackouts, AMSC’s Smart Grid D-VAR and Static VAR Compensator (SVC) solutions, and much more. Excerpts:

smartelectricnews.com: With reference to your company's technologies, can you provide an insight into what sort of progress has been made when it comes to preventing blackouts and relieving congestion on existing transmission lines?

Jack McCall: Superconductor power cables offer tremendous power handling capacity combined with very low impedance, making them an ideal solution to addressing grid congestion, particularly in urban areas or where right-of-way is limited. Superconductor cables are also being deployed in NYC in a configuration called Secure Super Grids that allows for a unique method to interconnect substations as a means of increasing grid reliability and preventing blackouts.

On overhead transmission lines, utilities are increasingly looking to install real-time monitoring systems, reconductoring and using other methods of increasing line thermal limits. Often, they find that this is only increasing amperage ratings and any increased power transfer may be limited by overriding voltage stability concerns. AMSC D-VAR and SVC systems provide real-time voltage stability and VAR support necessary to assure that this increased ampacity translates into more power transferred.

smartelectricnews.com: How efficiently are voltage problems being sorted out today?

Jack McCall: Reactive power compensation is necessary to stabilise voltage, relieve power grid congestion, improve electrical efficiency, and prevent blackouts in power grids. AMSC’s Smart Grid D-VAR solutions detect and instantaneously compensate for voltage disturbances by dynamically injecting leading or lagging reactive power into the power grid.

D-VARs are being used in a wide range of applications, including voltage regulation and grid reliability, optimisation of power transfer capacity on stability-limited transmission networks, and reactive power support for wind farm grid interconnection. These solutions allow wind farm developers to meet the dynamic voltage requirements being adopted by countries around the world to protect the grid from the variable voltage levels stemming from wind farms.

AMSC recently announced that National Grid will deploy a large-scale, turnkey D-VAR solution to ensure reliability of the local power grid it manages under an agreement with Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Including this latest deployment, AMSC has received orders for over 60 STATCOM or Static Compensators power grid solutions worldwide showing these solutions are now coming of age. In total, AMSC’s D-VAR customers include a total of more than 20 electric utilities and 40 wind farms worldwide.

smartelectricnews.com: How does AMSC's SVC provide many benefits at the transmission, distribution and even end-user level?

Jack McCall: AMSC's Static VAR Compensator (SVC) solutions eliminate voltage sags and flicker, giving electric utility companies and manufacturing operations a cost-effective way to safely connect large electrical loads to the local power grid. AMSC’s SVC systems are highly portable, modular and can be field-modified, thereby reducing the costs normally associated with upgrades. They routinely solve problems caused by starting large motors, metal shredders and crushers, sawmills, pump or pipeline stations, shipyards, coal mines, feed plants or kindred processes. These solutions also solve arc furnace flicker problems and are utilized to stabilize power transmission grids.

By using an SVC, electric utilities can eliminate voltage sags and flicker issues caused by such problematic electrical loads without making larger permanent or fixed investments in their power system. SVC solutions offer customer-side benefits as well by providing a more stable voltage supply and a higher power factor to the end user. In many cases, the availability of an SVC will permit an end customer to further expand their facility without impacting other customers located on the same circuit.

smartelectricnews.com: There are devices in the marketplace that can optimise new and existing transmission and distribution lines. What new trends have you witnessed in this arena from AMSC's perspective?

Jack McCall: Our D-VAR and SVC solutions help to optimise existing transmission and distribution assets. Because our solutions eliminate voltage instabilities, power grid operators can oftentimes increase power capacity of their existing T&D assets, providing a very rapid return on investment.

smartelectricnews.com: Can you describe the role of superconductor power cables and AMSC’s Secure Super Grids technology in a smart grid?

Jack McCall: Superconductor power cables and AMSC’s Secure Super Grids technology meet each of the following Smart Grid criteria detailed by the Department of Energy: 1) Accommodate all generation and storage options, 2) Provide power quality for the digital economy, 3) Optimise assets and operate efficiently, 4) Anticipate and respond to system disturbances self-heal, and 5) operate resiliently against attack and natural disasters to resist attack.

AMSC’s Secure Super Grid (SSG) technology is a “system-level” superconductor cable solution that fulfills these criteria, which are vital to enhancing over-taxed and aging power grids in the U.S. and around the world.

AMSC’s SSG technology increases both the capacity of T&D infrastructure and the fault current handling capability of dense urban circuits. This solution utilizes customised superconductor power cables and ancillary controls to deliver up to 10 times more power than conventional copper cables while at the same time suppressing power surges - or fault currents - that can result in critical outages including widespread blackouts. Superconductor cables create resilient, self healing power grids that can survive attacks and natural disasters. HTS cables can increase transmission efficiency and significantly enhance the flow of power under city streets to enable, for instance, widespread adoption of PHEVs. Uniquely, AMSC’s SSG technology also allows for the construction of multiple paths for electricity flow in metropolitan power grids to ensure system redundancy when individual circuits are disrupted due to severe weather, traffic accidents or willful destruction.

High-capacity, very low impedance superconductor power cables generate little to no magnetic field. The very high power capacity and small footprint of superconductor cables makes them much easier to site, particularly in dense, urban areas. As such, the compact size and low environmental impact of HTS cables offers new ways for grid planners and operators to upgrade and increase the capacity of electric distribution networks.

HTS cables have been well demonstrated at electric utilities and are now being deployed in the grid. Over the past two years, three of these cables have been energized in the United States. Stand-alone fault current limiters based on superconducting materials also offer a new vista in grid security and technical control of system operating parameters.

smartelectricnews.com: How can superconductor power cables be utilised to transport renewable energies from remote areas to highly populated urban areas where power is needed?

Jack McCall: We believe superconductor power cables will play a big role in the mission to efficiently transport renewable power to the load center. While much of the long-haul power transmission from large renewable generation sites over the next several years will be accomplished with overhead power lines, as that load approaches cities, it must be carried underground. Superconductor cable technology is able to carry this power more efficiently and in a much smaller space than conventional copper cables. We also believe that direct current (DC) superconductor power cables will eventually play a role in long-haul power transmission.

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."

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

Renewable Energy Systems, Electric Vehicles, and Smart Electricity Grids for a Carbon-Constrained World

Lawrence E. Jones, Ph.D.
December 20, 2008


Global warming is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. The general consensus is that unless concerted actions are taken to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) that are emitted in the upper atmosphere, the Earth’s climate will continue to change – resulting in increases in mean global temperature, more frequent extreme weather conditions, precipitation changes and reduced availability of fresh water. The realization that we must act now or face grave consequences has prompted the United States of America, Europe, and other global players to begin transitioning to a carbon-constrained energy future.


One solution to a low-carbon energy future is to increase the use of renewable energy sources (RES) such as wind and solar and also electric vehicles, all connected to smart electricity grids. The challenge is how to best integrate these non-conventional forms of energy and loads with the existing grids and eventually the emerging smart grids of the 21st century.


According to independent projections from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other organizations such as the European, American and Canadian Wind Energy Associations (EWEA, AWEA, CanWEA), tremendous growth in wind and solar power worldwide is expected in coming decades. While the capacities of most existing renewable energy systems produce few megawatts (MW) of electricity, to meet the anticipated demand for more clean energy, the capacity of new RES must be several hundreds to thousands of MW. Integrating such large utility-scale wind and solar plants, along with electric vehicles presents unique challenges and opportunities. We will discuss some of these, the enabling information technology solutions to address them, and potential opportunities.


Wind and solar power are intermittent resources and as such make it difficult to operate the power grids to which they are connected. To successfully integrate RES, electric utilities must have reliable forecast information about the quantity and availability of the power output. Thus, forecasting systems are one of the primary requirements to achieving increased penetration of wind and solar energy. The second requirement is combining the forecast information with the real-time operational data in the utilities’ control centers for decision making – both in the front and back offices.


What has emerged as a third requirement is the need for a fully integrated renewable energy information system (REIS) that uses the information from smart sensors and other intelligent applications to optimize the utilization of the generation resources and grid assets for reduced environmental impact. While progress has been made on the first and second, not much work has been done on the third requirement. The need for REIS is based on the fact that utility operators have to assemble an avalanche of data from disparate sources in order to make informed decisions about the impacts of RES on grid operations and reliability. Operators need tools that will enhance their local and global situation awareness. Other users of REIS may include utility executives, managers and regulators. The executives and managers need decision dashboards to better manage their portfolio of RES and mitigate operational risks and uncertainty. REIS will also allow them to maximize their asset performance based on the opportunities in emissions markets. Finally, regulators will need REIS to monitor and determine renewable power plants are in compliance with environmental and reliability standards.


The market for REIS is in its wellspring phase as electric utilities are only now beginning to realize the scale of the challenges they expect to encounter with higher penetration of large RES. New operational paradigms are emerging that will require the development and use of advanced analytical tools and techniques. Some of these include: data mining and pattern recognition, faster and more accurate near real-time forecasting, ultra-fast simulators that correctly mimic the interaction between RES and smart electric grids.


It is inevitable that the transition to a carbon-constrained world will also involve using non-fossil based fuels for transportation. Transportation sector in most countries is major consumer of energy and is a big emitter of GHG. In the USA for example, the transportation sector accounts for more than 30% of the energy consumption. Acknowledging this, there is major push for sustained government and private sector investments to develop batteries and other technologies for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). So much so that recently, in approving several billions of dollars in loans to three US automobile manufacturers, the US government required that these companies as part of their restructuring include plans to begin manufacturing more environmentally and fuel efficient electric cars.


Research and demonstration projects in the US, the European Union (EU) and Australia have shown that PHEVs connected to the power grid can provide ancillary energy during peak hours. Electric cars and emerging battery storage technologies make the power from wind and solar dispatchable. However, for this to happen, utilities also need decision support systems that accurately model the electricity demand of new automotive load. Such a system would also need to constantly and reliably monitor and predict the available stored energy from fleets of geographically dispersed electric cars and other storage devices.


Finally, a critical infrastructure for the low-carbon energy economy is an efficient delivery system (Transmission & Distribution networks) for electricity. Today, regulators, policy makers and utilities around the world are responding to the need for modernizing existing T&D grids by utilizing advanced information, communications and control technologies. These modernized so-called “smart” or “intelligent” grids, will facilitate greater electricity demand elasticity, and make integration of renewable and electric cars easier.


Operating smart grids with large wind and solar plants, fleets of PHEV, and energy storage devices will present unidentified problems for utilities. Developing solutions to resolve these problems will require in depth knowledge of the new kinds of interactions between utilities and their customers. Also required is an understanding of new utility business models as well as the regulatory environments in which they must operate.


The markets along the value-chains in a carbon-constrained energy economy are expected to exceed hundreds of billions of dollars within the next 5 years. In spite of the current global financial crisis, governments around the globe seem determined to stick to their commitments of investing directly or indirectly through policy measures in clean energy. Dealing with climate change and the economic crisis simultaneously has become a global imperative. This was evident from the sense of urgency expressed by world leaders at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change held on December 11 – 13, 2008, in Poland. Another strong positive signal has come from US President-Elect Barrack Obama who is expected to propose an economic stimulus package that will promote investments in wind, solar, energy storage, and smart electric grids. Collectively, these global actions will spur growth in clean technology sector.


To effectively integrate large amounts of renewable power generation with existing and emerging smart power grids, there will be increasing need for modern information, communications and control technologies. But these are not the only prerequisites. There must also be investments in education and training a new work force to carry out the millions of new jobs expected to be created. Work force development must be an integral part of every country’s long term goal in order to compete in the 21st century global economy.


Having skilled human capital is a competitive advantage, and the critical hinge-point for wide-scale deployment of renewable energy, building smart grids, efficient energy storage devices and other clean technologies. However the emerging work force demographics could pose a major problem. In especially North America, Western Europe and Japan, the energy sector is facing a looming crisis of an aging work force within the next 5-10 years. Fewer new and younger people are coming in to replace those leaving. This trend may continue in spite of any potential negative impacts of the current economic crisis on retirement savings. Therefore the recruitment, education and training of more young people in energy related fields must be accelerated.


Transitioning to a carbon-constrained energy future will result in transformation of markets and industries. Given the current pace of technology advances, this will happen much faster and have impact on scale bigger than previous industrial revolutions. The market opportunities for harnessing wind, solar and electric cars along with smart grids can be found all over the globe - from North America, to China, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the emerging economies in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Those who invest in human capital, business innovation, as well as clean technologies today will be the market leaders of tomorrow.


About the Author: Lawrence E. Jones is a contributor to the Smart Electric Newsletter. He has affiliations with academic, Think Tanks, and business institutions including: University of Washington, AREVA T&D Inc., E. E. W. Jones Electrical Engineering Foundation and LAUVICOM Group. He is also Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc… He received his PhD, Lic.Eng., and Civ.Ing. degrees from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.


Disclaimer: The views expressed in this document by the author are his and not necessarily those of the organizations with which he is affiliated.

"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