Neural Energy

Smart Charging

2011-11-06T16:04:00.000-08:00

Today, the grid would be unable to cope if a large number of commuters arriving home plugged in their cars more at the same time to recharge them. Yet if those same cars were recharged at three o’clock in the morning, when demand is low, it would benefit both consumer (who would get cheap power) and producer (who would be able to sell otherwise wasted electricity.)

In the Future, Vehicle Batteries Could Provide Grid Storage

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Back to Electric Vehicle Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Success Factors
7. Next Steps
8. Companies
9. Links

1. Background

Due to energy security concerns, President Obama has called for bringing one million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the road by 2015. To make this a reality, we must prepare the smart grid for this plug in hybrid electric vehicle load. If we get a million electric vehicles on the road the impact in areas like California and the Northeast, where they’re going to be sold, will be dramatic. Managed charging is not a desirable, it’s a critical, mandatory thing we’ve got to achieve.
The upgrade to the 240V/30A connection that is needed for "fast charging" is going to cost roughly $1500-$2000 per home, but guess what? Anyone that buys an electric vehicle is going to want one of these outlets. We live in the age of broadband, and nobody is going to accept the charger equivalent of a dial-up connection for their car. We have to expect that these loads increasingly will be part of the overall equation; it is only through smart grid technologies and systems that we will have a chance to flatten the overall load curve in attempting to keep electricity affordable and meeting our other societal commitments in the face of skyrocketing EV charging loads.
Utilities will need to have real-time insight into what is happening on their distribution grids down to the transformer level. Having some kind of Distribution Management System (DMS) in place will be the only way grid operators will be able to spot, or to know in advance, if a circuit is overloaded or experiencing any difficulties that could lead to wider disturbances. A mass rollout of EVs without smart grid would be inviting serious trouble.
How can we maintain the reliability of the electric system if we have a million plugged-in electric cars drawing electricity off the system at different hours of the day? How do we provide incentives for vehicles to charge during off peak hours? Is it a simple price signal or something more?
The Electric Vehicle probably represents the highest unpredictable residential load. This is a challenge as the consumer will want to choose when to charge (or when charging should be complete) and the utility will want to manage the load per transformer, especially as we move towards fast charging. This requires intelligence and prioritization both in the EVSE and the meter while making it transparent to the user.
Without an integrated communications infrastructure and corresponding price signals, handling the increased load of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles would be exceedingly difficult and inefficient. Smart Chargers, enabled by the Smart Grid, will help manage this new energy device on already constrained grids and avoid any unintended consequences on the infrastructure.
PHEV add a significant load, but it is comparable a typical household. Typical U.S. households consumed approximately 11,000 kWh annually in 2001. The addition of a PHEV with 5–10 kWh of useable battery capacity that is charged once per day could add an additional 21–43% (2200–4600 kWh) per year to the household electricity load, comparable to average central air conditioning and refrigeration loads.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

ECA - Energy Cost Application – Calculates HAN Device energy consumption cost. The application may use information from multiple sources including:

The AMI Meter(s)
The AMI System
Customer HAN Gateway
Other application(s)
Other HAN device(s)
Human Machine Interface(s) (HMI)

EVSE - Electric Vehicle Service Element - The EVSE provides the direct interface with the PEV, including a charger and information exchange capabilities. The charger can either be on-board the vehicle or off-board. On-board chargers require AC energy transfer to the vehicle (either 120 or 240V single phase) and Off-board chargers are within the EVSE.

In addition to the safety concerns, EVSEs will, depending on their level of intelligence, ease the
integration of plug-in vehicles into the grid and offer consumer benefits. Simple EVSEs can control charging start time. More complex units enable variable charge control based on pricing or grid loading process user identification and payment; handle vehicle-specific metering; enable vehicle diagnostic reporting; and in the future will control vehicle-to grid capacity, among many other novel, and as yet unimagined functions.
Green Charging - Linking the electric vehicle charging to renewables production. The people who buy electric vehicles are going to be people who are motivated to reduce their personal carbon consumption, so they’ll be the kind of folks who would want to run their car with renewable energy. So how do we somehow? One of the Detroit automakers is looking into contracting for wind farms. And in the dealership, when you go buy the car, they’ll ask you do you want to sign up for our wind farm? They are not expecting to make money off the energy, but are promoting the value to the consumer of the car.
Grid-Aware Vehicles -Communicate driver requirements, battery requirements, SOC, etc. Grid and external inputs Schedule charging per driver, grid needs.
HomePlug Green PHY - A new specification that is a subset of HomePlug AV and is specifically designed for the requirements of the smart grid market. It has peak rates of 10 Mbit/s and is designed to go into smart meters and smaller appliances such as HVAC/thermostats,, home appliances and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.[10] so that data can be shared over a Home Area Network (HAN) and back to the utility. For these applications, there’s not a great need for high capacity broadband; the most important requirements are for lower power, robust, reliable coverage throughout the home, smaller size and less costly Bill of Materials. GreenPHY uses up to 75% less energy than AV.[10] The HomePlug Powerline Alliance worked closely with utilities and meter manufacturers to develop this 700-page specification (downloadable from the HomePlug website). HomePlug Green PHY-based products will be fully interoperable with products based on HomePlug AV, IEEE 1901 or the upcoming HomePlug AV2 specification.

In October 2011, Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen agreed to use HomePlug GreenPHY as the communication protocol for smart charging. This approach will facilitate integration of the electric vehicle into future smart grid applications
IBP - Increasing Block Pricing - May discourage PV adoption, The current IBP schedule does not account for energy savings and environmental benefits that may be gained from fuel switching from gasoline to electricity.
Orphaned Charge - A device that incurs a cost at a premise other than its registered, “home” premise and generates a billing charge to be reconciled through the Utility System. This term refers to proper premise association. For example, a plug-in hybrid that charges at a grocery store or a friend’s house.
SAE – Society of Automotive Engineers - Publishes automotive related standards in North America.
SAE J2836/1: Use Cases for Communication between Plug-In Vehicles and the Utility Grid. The standard, published in 2010, establishes use cases for two-way communication between plug-in electric vehicles and the electric power grid, for energy transfer and other applications.

It also provides a set of communication requirements for use with various load management and rate programs that will be established by utility companies related to the charging of plug-in electric vehicles. The various utility programs will enable consumers to charge their vehicles at the lowest cost during off-peak hours, and helps the utilities reduce grid impacts by minimizing electric vehicle charging during peak periods.
SB 626 (Kehoe) Electrical Infrastructure Plug-in Hybrid and Electric Vehicles - This law passed in 2009 requires the CA Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with the CA Energy Commission, the CA Air Resources Board, electrical corporations, and the motor vehicle industry, to to develop infrastructure sufficient to overcome any barriers to the widespread deployment and use of plug-in and electric vehicles, and to adopt rules by July 1, 2011, on specified matters, including infrastructure upgrades necessary for the widespread use of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.
Trickle Charge - A method of recharging in which a secondary battery is either continuously or intermittently connected to a constant current supply that maintains the battery in a fully or near full charged condition. Typical trickle charges are between 0.03C and 0.05C.
V1G – Grid to Vehicle One Way Communication - Utilizing Electric Vehicles in demand response include providing proportional charge rate signals.
V2G –Vehicle to Grid - Letting the vehicle take and give power back to the grid Electric utility may be willing to purchase energy from customer during periods of peak demand.
V2H - Vehicle to Home– Linking the car to house rather than the grid. This potentially provides three benefits: it obviates the issue of exporting energy back to the grid; can reduce demands on the grid as a supplementary supply to the house; and could also provide emergency backup in the event of power outages.
V2L - Vehicle to Load - Use of the PEV storage to provide power to a remote site or load that does not otherwise have electrical service. Examples include construction sites or camp sites.
V2V – Vehicle to Vehicle - Use of the PEV storage to transfer electrical energy to another PEV

3. Business Case

Analyst John Gartner of Pike Research anticipates that a growing need for “intelligent management” of electric vehicle charging will create a $297 million industry in the U.S. as of 2015. That forecast encompasses the market for tech ranging from applications, servers, networking equipment and other hardware, to ongoing services for collecting and monitoring data about vehicle charging. Globally, he expects revenue from EV management to climb to $1.5 billion in 2015, up from $383 million in 2010.
Widespread consumer charging of PHEVs during peak periods in the day, for example, could increase peak load and increase utilities’ operational costs. The development of a Smart Grid is therefore vitally important to utilities, since it entails the intelligence to send signals to consumers on when to charge their vehicles or provide differentiated rates to encourage off-peak charging.
To manage limited range and long charge time, the electric car must be smart

Learn typical travel routines
Up to date on travel plans
Interact with grid and decide at real time if it can help or if it needs help
Have up-to-date charge stations and optional locations Recommend best course of action Information cached while in your garage
Know if to charge or discharge into house/work/hotel Process dynamic pricing information from charge station
Integrate with spouse car to plan daily and weekly charging Keeps up to date on your weekend plans Talk to your refrigerator
Use weather forecast to predict Relying on house solar Home energy needs
Manage credentials and repel attacks

In the new world of plugs-ins, your car should be able to sell energy you don't need back to the grid during times of peak power demand, such as in late summer afternoons, when both office buildings and homes are running air conditioning. Today, that peak demand is served by older, usually dirtier and less-efficient "peaker" generators that utilities fire up when needed. A national fleet of a million or more EVs, most sitting idle roughly 90 percent of the time, could serve as a massive national storage device that can be tapped as needed to meet peak demand.
When the customer plugs the PEV into the grid at a location different from their “home” location, different scenarios will address who and how the PEV charging will be accounted for and billed. These roaming scenarios include:

The customer connects their PEV to the energy portal at another premise. The premise customer pays for the energy use.
The customer connects their PEV to the energy portal at another premise. The PEV customer pays for the energy use directly with the utility, such as with a credit or debit card. In this scenario, the customer would get billed at the rates in their PEV tariff.
The customer connects their PEV to the energy portal at another premise outside the enrolled utility's service territory. In addition to the previous 2 scenarios, the customer could become a “guest” of the external utility and pay rates as such a guest, or could indicate the PEV program they are enrolled in at their “home” utility, and pay those rates. The external and “home” utilities would then make a settlement between them on any differences.
The customer with a PEV that is not enrolled in any program (or cannot prove enrollment) connects their PEV to the energy portal at another premise. Either private party arrangements would be needed (first scenario) or “guest” arrangements (third scenario) would be used for payment.
The customer connects their PEV to the energy portal at a public location, multi-family dwelling, or workplace infrastructure. Either private party arrangements (first scenario) or direct utility interactions (second scenario), or “guest” arrangements (third scenario) would be used for payment.

This kind of intelligence can be enabled by the Electric Vehicle but participation of a Clearing House and a nationwide effort on a common standard is also needed. Utilities need to be able to manage vehicle charging as with other major smart appliances (home A/C, pool pumps, refrigerators, etc.) and to verify the PEV load –to implement Smart Charging.
The automotive and utility industries have agreed for PLC- (power line carrier-) based wired interface to be the physical interface between the PEV and the AMI/HAN, with the PLC(HomePlug AV or IEEEP1901 are the currently adopted technologies) transceiver chipset and associated Smart Grid communications “application layer” software with requirements defined by SAEJ2836/J2847 and SE2.0, residing onboard. That would include a PLCto X bridge residing off-board, with X being the transport layer of the AM I/HAN network, which also implements SE2.0- based messaging as the application layer.

EPRI estimates the per-vehicle cost overhead for PLC transceiver is about $20 per vehicle in the near term, reducing to $10 per vehicle longer term, as PLC is already a very widely deployed technology. On the PLC to X bridge aspect, the X in most cases is ZigBee, but WiFi (802.11x-based) is also rapidly emerging as the HAN contender. The per-unit PLC/ZigBee or PLC/WiFi chipset prices vary between $10 and 20 per unit as well.

Given that there are likely to be 1.2 charging stations long term for every PEV sold, the per-PEV PLC to X bridge costs will run to $12 to $24. Therefore, the per-PEV infrastructure costs will run to between $25 and 50 for long-term and short-term volumes respectively. Assuming 2030 PEV installed base volume to be about 10 million vehicles, the cost of deploying Smart Grid infrastructure will approach $250 million ($25 per unit times 10 million
vehicles) in 2030.

4. Benefits

Utility Gains

Reduced grid stress
Aggregated Distributed Applications can be “loads as resources” to help with renewable integration
Robust anti-islanding
Shared benefits with vehicle owner and manufacturer (like HVAC incentive programs)

Vehicle Owner Gains

Lower-cost ‘electric fuel’
Greener vehicle
Grid-tied (V2G) See Blog

Vehicle Manufacturer Gains

Reduced-cost charging for vehicle customer
Green product-line enhancements

Smart Charging Helps – If Done Right
Badly Managed Charging Worse than Uncontrolled Charging Source: EPRI

5. Risks/Issues

Fast Charging- Simultaneous fast charging of a significant number of EVs, directly from the grid, will impact on the grid and local distribution particularly at the peak generation period. Fast Charging equipment can charge at up to 500V and 125 amps, or 62.5 kilowatts (kW). Charging just one vehicle at this rate is equally to approximately 43 vehicles being charged via Level 1 (aka standard household current) or 9-18 vehicles at Level 2 using charging equipment. Complicating matters is that DC charging is by necessity immediate – delaying a 15-30 charge defeats the entire purpose. Plus, these charge locations are likely to be at truck stops, gas stations, or mini-marts, which aren’t places that most folks plan on spending a lot of time.

While DC charging is a much bigger drain on the grid, charging stations won’t ordinarily be placed to impact residential transformers or transmission lines But if fast charge spots are connected to substations that experience peak demand, the potential for making a bad situation worse exists. For example, in California, the average peak demand per household in most service territories is between 1.3 and 1.9 kW, so one DC charging station is tantamount to about 30-45 houses.

Fast charging stations will need to be planned to reduce any grid impacts, and located in areas where distribution networks can cope or are able to be reinforced. An alternative is to provide local energy storage (e.g. batteries or flywheels) at the charging station. These could be trickle charged from the grid at times of low grid utilization, and provide high energy transfer rates direct from the local storage. The capital cost of the charge stations is likely to be higher using this technique, although this could be balanced by the reduced need for grid reinforcement.

If a consumer wants to charge her EV at 4pm on a hot afternoon, is a fast charge permitted at a full rate, partial rate (and how does that impact how much she pays?), or is it delayed? Whatever the choice, someone’s not going to be happy.
Local Power Distribution Issues - There’s plenty of aggregate power capacity, but not in local areas. Five plugged in PEVs on the same street plugged can create a problem. They also need to verify and measure value –utilities want to pay incentives for verifiable conformance to load management programs. EVs are likely to be owned and used in city centers. These clusters of EVs could potentially all connect to the grid simultaneously, which may require the local distribution system to be reinforced. A detailed analysis of the local situation regarding distribution should be carried out in these areas, along with a series of pilot studies to assess the real-life effects of vehicle charging.
Consumer Preferences - For consumers the preferred time (without any incentives to change their preference) is likely to be as soon as they are within easy access of a plug. This is both most convenient since they are at the vehicle already, and also improves their options since they may need the vehicle soon and would prefer a more fully charged battery.
PEV Charging Needs to be Managed in Non AMI Territories - Hydro Quebec and large segments of United States will not deploy AMI anytime soon –but desire alternative options for load management of PEVs (i.e. OnStar) PLC offers several options capable of vehicle communications including: Eaton Smart Outlets with Home Heart Beat System, and Car Connect (Cordset Adapter)
Regulatory Constraints - Currently regulations do not permit electricity to be resold. This means that all the accounting and settlement issues must be handled by utilities (or energy service providers) without the middleman reseller as is the normal market method. This puts the burden on the utility to manage the complex accounting and settlement processes usually handled by credit card companies or other retail accounting providers. However, if regulations were to change to allow the unbundling of electricity so that stored electricity could be resold, then the accounting model would change dramatically, since normal retail methods could be used.

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Pricing Constraints - The current IBP schedule does not account for energy savings and environmental benefits that may be gained from fuel switching. Households using PEV's would be increasing their overall energy efficiency and conservation through switching from gasoline to electricity.
Mobile Billing — it may be one thing for me to charge my EV at or near my home in El Cerrito. But what if I drive to Reno? Will I be able to buy and sell electricity in another state — or even another utility district in my own state? Much like the early days of cell phones, where calling from outside one's home territory resulted in onerous fees — remember roaming charges? — there's the potential for EVs to lose their luster if they can't affordably do buy and sell power wherever you go.
Visibility - PHEV and EV load is behind the meter and there is currently no separate measurement and control.

6. Success Factors

Dynamic Pricing - TOU rate, Demand Response, and Real Time Pricing signals Enabled through AMI would allow customers to recharge vehicles at reduced cost during off-peak hours. Communication of utility rate tariffs to the customer.
Bi-directional Metering - Allows customers to purchase energy at off-peak hours and sell unused, stored energy back to the utility during peak periods at higher rates.
Integrate billing systems while roaming including parking lots, work, malls friends
Public Education - Can customers be encouraged to charge when it’s “best” for the utilities? Requires understanding consumer habits and market expectations.
Identity Management - Data Collection –Expectations for road taxes and carbon credit allowances –Needs to evolve

7. Next Steps

Model Impact of PEV’s on the Grid - Develop processes to model PEV impact on the grid operations along with impacts of other widespread distributed resource impacts (local storage, high penetration PV, demand response as a distribution resource, etc.) – NIST plans to work with DOE to explore the business and technical impact of these widely distributed resources (including aspects of PEV as highly portable demand/storage) on the grid with the objective of mitigating severe contingencies due to the widespread adoption and use of these technologies. Ensure that work includes transactional elements (settlement when charging/discharging away from “home”.

8. Companies

Ford - Has developed an intelligent charging system that previews how its production vehicles will interact with the grid. The unnamed system enables all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners to restrict charging to when electricity prices fall below a certain threshold, or even “when the grid is using only renewable energy such as wind or solar power,” according to Ford.

Being able to drive “emissions free” could be a huge selling point for the upscale and eco-minded early adopters who will be buying EVs and plug-in hybrids during the next few years. There’s a natural synergy for customers to put solar on their homes and buy hybrids/EVs, who can then drive free of fossil fuel guilt.

In its ongoing testing of converted PHEV Ford Escapes, the company is leveraging communications systems it designed including SYNC, SmartGauge, and Ford Work Solutions. The vehicles are communicating with the grid through smart meters over a wireless network using the Zigbee protocol, but Ford hasn’t committed to a network platform for its production vehicles.

Ford has lined up some impressive utilities to help with the tests, including Southern California Edison, American Electric Power, Progress Energy, and 10 others, which will each receive some of the test fleet. The agreement is to continue testing for three years, which is interesting because the company plans to have a commercial PHEV for sale in 2012 — you might think that testing of PHEV grid interaction would be moot at that point. Ford received $30 million in DOE grant money to pay for part of the testing.
General Motors' ATOMS (OnStar Advanced Telematics Operations Management System) In July 2011, GM announced the launch of a pilot program that can let utilities and customers skip the need to install physical smart grid points to manage recharging of their EVs. The new OnStar service will act as a remote brain, wirelessly tracking and governing the EV's charging behavior, coordinating the timing and billing, and potentially dramatically lowering the costs to extend smart-grid management features to EVs. GM estimates that by skipping the need to install physical smart apparatus, the OnStar system can save utilities some $18 million per 1,000 customers. Since it doesn't matter whether the EV is connected to a smart-grid charge point, OnStar should let utilities more accurately model how to manage peak versus non-peak charging too.

Data Gathering - With customer permission, OnStar will provide the utility with overall charge level as well as charging history—by time and location—for the Volt pilot fleet, without the vehicles having to connect to a charging station. This will give the utility better insight for forecasting demand, setting rates and determining the best location for charging infrastructure
Demand response - OnStar will allow the utility to actively manage EV charging for those who opt in to the service. The utility can then reduce peak loads by offering discounts or other incentives to encourage drivers to charge their EVs when overall electricity demand is lowest, typically in the early morning hours.

General Electric Digital Energy Atlanta, GA - General Motors’ OnStar announced at the Plug-In 2011 conference, that the company’s wireless vehicle communications platform is being connected to General Electrics’ Grid IQ Demand Optimization System. Data from thousands of Chevrolet Volt PHEVs will be made accessible to GE’s software, which is used by utilities for managing the load on the power grid. By enabling the platforms to share information in both directions, utilities can incorporate Volts into their existing systems for shedding load while studying customers’ driving and charging habits. An aftermarket version of OnStar, to be sold by Best Buy, was announced in July 2011, enabling owners of competing models to use the communications system. While other PEV makers are developing their own wireless communications platforms, new models could incorporate OnStar as their platform and gain access to GE’s utility platform as well.GE is purchasing 25,000 PEVs, including 12,000 that will be leased by its fleet customers, including utility companies (GE Finance has a large fleet business). The smart grid pilot program, which will start with one unannounced utility, will provide access to charging history – including location, time, and amount of energy consumed by the vehicle – and will be made available to understand how PEVs will impact the grid.
Juice Technologies - Columbus, OH - A leading provider of products and technologies that enable the intelligent charging of electric and plug-in electric vehicles as well as products to optimize home and business energy use. Juice Technologies' products are sold under the brand Plug Smart and are distributed worldwide through electric utilities and the consumer electronics channel.

In February 2010 GE and Juice Technologies announced a joint development agreement to create intelligent plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) charging devices for U.S. and global markets. The chargers integrate GE's smart meters with Juice Technology's Plug Smart(TM) engine to help consumers charge their cars during low-demand, lower cost time periods.
GridPoint , Arlington, VA - Developing version 3 of its Smart Charging software (due to ship to customers in September) that will schedule and monitor vehicle charging while keeping track of the grid’s health. The software includes tools that enable utilities to understand how vehicles individually and in aggregate are impacting power demand. Utilities can compare recent vehicle demand on the grid with what would have happened with no control over vehicle charging to see how well their attempts at shifting the load are doing. The Smart Charging software also provides day-ahead demand projections based on previous charging data.

For over two years, GridPoint has been delivering the smart grid software utilities require to easily and cost-effectively support the wide-scale adoption of plug-in vehicles. GridPoint, Inc. received $15 million of VC funding in 2008 for their management of distributed storage, renewable generation, and load, bringing the firm’s total funding to over $100 million.
Silver Spring Networks, Redwood City, CA - Unveiled in January 2011 a prototype tomorrow of a charging station enabled with its technology for the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid. The charging stations are made by ClipperCreek and are a part of a smart grid and electric vehicles pilot announced in July 2011, in conjunction with PG&E and Electric Power Research Institute. The pilot aims to integrate electric vehicle charging with Silver Spring’s smart grid platform, allowing for the charging station to relay electricity usage data to PG&E. From there, PG&E can monitor energy usage of the charger (looking at it separately from the energy consumption of the home), and also give consumers a snapshot of their charger’s energy use.
Virtual Vehicles Company - Virtual Test Drive, still in beta testing, uses smartphone GPS functions to monitor driving patterns. The app then feeds the data into a website, which analyzes factors such as routes, cost savings and range issues to suggest which EVs would be best suited to the driver

9. Links

Connectivity Week 2010 - Plug-In Electric Vehicles
BERR – UK Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - Investigation into the Scope for the Transport Sector to Switch to Electric Vehicles and Plugin Hybrid Vehicles October 2008
California's Cooperative PHEV Research Center - UC Davis is the new hub of collaboration and research on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in California. The university’s new Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Research Center, administered by ITS-Davis, is funded by a three-year, $3 million grant from the California Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program
Yang, Christopher and Ryan W. McCarthy (2009) Electricity Grid: Impacts of Plug-In Electric Vehicle Charging. Environmental Management 2009, 16 - 20
Plugin2010.com – San Jose (July 26-29, 2010)

Ancillary Services Markets

2011-11-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

How will frequency regulation and load management be monetized?

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Back to Markets & Pricing Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Success Criteria
7. Frequency Regulation Technologies
8. Companies/Organizations
9. Next Steps
10. Links

1.Background

Frequency regulation service is the injection or withdrawal of real power by facilities capable of responding appropriately to a transmission system operator’s automatic generator control (AGC) signal. When dispatched generation does not equal actual load plus losses on a moment-by-moment basis, the imbalance will cause the grid’s frequency to deviate from 60 Hertz, the standard in the U.S. While the system does deviate from 60 Hz in the normal operation of the grid, frequency deviations outside an acceptable range negatively affect energy consuming devices; major deviations caus generation and transmission equipment to disconnect from the grid, in the worst case leading to a cascading blackout. Frequency regulation service can help to prevent these adverse consequences by rapidly correcting deviations in the transmission system’s frequency to bring it within an acceptable range. The system operator calibrates the AGC signal sent to frequency regulation resources to respond to actual and anticipated frequency deviations or interchange power imbalance, both measured by area control error (ACE)
Today, frequency regulation is largely provided by generators (e.g., water, steam and combustion turbines) that are specially equipped for this purpose. Provision by other resources is emerging, as technologies develop and tariff and market rules adapt to accommodate new resources. For example, the Texas Interconnection and MISO currently use controllable demand response in addition to generators to provide frequency regulation service. Such “regulation capable” generation, storage devices, and demand response resources can respond automatically to signals sent by the RTO or ISO, through AGC, to increase or decrease real power injections or withdrawals and thereby correct actual or anticipated frequency deviations or interchange schedule imbalance, as measured by the ACE. The faster a resource can ramp up or down, the more accurately it can respond to the AGC signal and avoid overshooting. Alternatively, when a resource ramps too slowly, its ramping limitations may cause it to work against the needs of the system and force the system operator to commit additional regulation resources to compensate
The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) defines the ancillary services as: "those services necessary to support the transmission of electric power from seller to purchaser given the obligations of control areas and transmitting utilities within those control areas to maintain reliable operations of the interconnected transmission system." and identifies six different kinds of ancillary services:

scheduling and dispatch
Reactive power and voltage control
Loss compensation
Load following - slower-ramping resources that ramp with the load over a five minute period
System protection
Energy imbalance

In the RTO and ISO markets, compensation for frequency regulation service has been based on several components. Depending on the RTO or ISO, these payments include consideration for capacity set aside to provide the service as well as some of the following:
- the net energy that the resource injects into the system
- accurately following the RTO’s or ISO’s dispatch signal
- the absolute (rather than net) amount of energy injected or withdrawn.
These payments are intended to cover the range of costs incurred in providing frequency regulation service, e.g., operation and maintenance costs, and loss of potential revenue from foregone sales of electricity.
The payment for capacity is essentially an option payment to the resource to keep a certain amount of capacity out of the energy or other markets in order to provide frequency regulation service, typically based on a market clearing price per MW of capacity sold. ISO-NE, NYISO, MISO, California ISO, and PJM incorporate into this payment the opportunity cost of foregone energy sales incurred by a resource that provides frequency regulation service. However, ISO-NE and PJM do not apply the opportunity cost payment uniformly to all cleared resources, but rather make ex post resource-specific opportunity cost payments.
Compensation for frequency regulation service also includes payments or charges for the net energy the resource injects into or withdraws from the system. All RTOs and ISOs currently provide a payment for the net energy injected by a resource providing regulation service during the operating hour, calculated as the amount of energy injected less energy withdrawn multiplied by the real-time energy price.
Accuracy of performance can also be incorporated into payments for frequency regulation service. Currently, NYISO incorporates accuracy into its compensation for frequency regulation service through a penalty that reflects the accuracy with which the resource follows its dispatch instruction. This is done through a performance index that tracks how accurately a resource follows the dispatch signal.
On October 20, 2011, FERC issued a final rule establishing a two-part market-based rate compensation methodology for the provision of frequency regulation service in RTO and ISO markets. The cost of providing regulation service generally is borne by customers serving load in the balancing authority area where the relevant resources are located. At present, different markets have different methods for compensating providers of frequency response service. Order No. 755 reforms the approach used to compensate these suppliers.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

ACE – Area Control Error – Measures frequency deviations and interchange power imbalance. A measure of the quality of operation of the grid. ACE must be kept within grid operating requirements.
Ancillary Services - Balancing services used to balance generation and demand in tightly limited situations to maintain the alternating current (AC) system frequency of 60 Hz. Energy storage is perfectly suited to provide this service by absorbing electric energy (charging cycle) whenever there is too much generation for a given demand and by injecting electric energy into the power grid discharging cycle) when there is too little generation. Traditionally, these services have been performed by conventional gas or steam turbine technologies. But rather than varying the torque of large rotary turbo-machinery on a second-by-second basis, electrochemical EES is much better suited to quickly respond to the grid needs.
AGC - Automatic Generator Control - Frequency regulation service is the injection or withdrawal of real power by facilities capable of responding appropriately to a transmission system operator’s AGC signal.
Ancillary Services Demand Response

In the Ancillary Services DR market, end-use customers are allowed to bid load curtailments in ISO/RTO markets as operating reserves. Accepted bids are paid the market price for committing to be on standby. In order to participate in ancillary-service markets, end-use customers must be able to adjust load quickly during a DR event. The response requirement depends on the nature of the event and the type of reserve being supplied.
Loads typically have a very short response time, usually specified in minutes, rather than in hours. These short timeframes and program requirements limit the type of resources that can participate. End-use loads that qualify for participation as an ancillary services option could include large industrial processes that can be curtailed safely and quickly without harm to equipment. Examples of loads are air products or electric arc steel furnaces, large water pumping load, or remote automatic control of appliances such as air conditioners.
End-use customers participating in the ancillary services market receive a capacity payment for committing loads to be on standby. The capacity payment is based on the market clearing price for capacity (MCPC). If load curtailments are needed, and they are called by the ISO/RTO, participants are paid the spot-market energy price. There is typically a higher minimum size for reductions and customers are required to install advanced real-time telemetry because of the stringent program requirements.
End-use loads that qualify for participation in the ancillary service option require capability to respond to an event notification that is going to occur within 30 minutes of the notification.

Dispatchability - The ability of a given power source to increase and/or decrease output quickly on demand. This should be contrasted with certain types of base load generation capacity, such as nuclear power, which may have limited capability to maneuver or adjust their power output, or intermittent power sources such as wind power which cannot be controlled by operators. The time periods in which dispatchable generation plant may be turned on or off may vary, and be considered in time frames of minutes or hours.

In general, when a resource submits its frequency regulation bid to the RTO or ISO, the bid is typically required to include its ramp rate in MW/min, its cost per megawatt-hours (MWh) of ramping ability, and the total capacity it is offering for frequency regulation.

The resource’s total amount of capacity is based on and limited by its ability to ramp up or down. For example, a resource with a relatively large amount of capacity, but a relatively slow ramp rate would be limited in how much capacity it could offer as frequency regulation capacity. If the resource can ramp one MW per minute, it would only be able to offer five MW of regulation capacity (for a five minute dispatch) regardless of its total capacity. On the other hand, a smaller capacity, faster ramping resource might not face such a constraint. For instance, a storage device that can hold a 20 MW charge and ramp at 10 MW per minute, could offer its full 20 MW of capacity for five minutes.
Dispatchability - The ability to provide a DR-inducing signal within a limited timeframe. Some argue that dispatchability is a requirement of a DR option. Time-of-use (TOU) rates are sometimes considered a demand-response option. TOU rates are non-dispatchable and produce a consistent reduction in peak demand.
FERC Order 755 - Issued October 20, 2011 - Pursuant to section 206 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), ;the Commission is revising its regulations to remedy undue discrimination in the procurement of frequency regulation in the organized wholesale electric markets and ensure that providers of frequency regulation receive just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or ;preferential rates.

Order No. 755, generators or other entities providing this service will be compensated in a two-part structure.

Capacity Payment - Regulation service providers will receive a capacity payment reflecting the opportunity costs of the marginal resource providing frequency regulation service during the settlement period. This approach acknowledges that a frequency response resource must hold some of its capacity in reserve to provide frequency regulation service when such service is needed, and therefore the resource forgoes the revenue it could otherwise earn through energy market sales.

Order No. 755 also allows for the recovery of inter-temporal opportunity costs, such as costs incurred by an energy storage device that must provide frequency response service at a time of day when it would be more cost-effective for it to buy energy to recharge the storage device. Order No. 755 leaves the specific methods for calculating such opportunity costs to individual regional markets, explaining that the operators of the separate regional organized markets are "in the best position to perform accurate cross-product opportunity cost calculations." With regard to inter-temporal costs, Order No. 755 requires that such costs be verifiable, but it allows individual regional market operators to determine whether these costs should be determined by the ISO or RTO or by market participants.
Performance Based - The second component of regulation service compensation is "performance-based" and will reflect the amount of the up or down movement a resource provides in response to the system operator's dispatch signal and the resource's accuracy in responding to the dispatch signal. This approach accounts for the fact that a resource with faster ramping capability can provide a greater amount of capacity into the regulation market than can a slower-ramping resource.

Frequency Regulation - Electric frequency must be maintained very close to 60 hertz (Hz), or cycles per second (50 Hz in Europe and elsewhere). When the supply of electricity exactly matches the demand (or "load"), grid frequency is held at a stable level. Grid operators, therefore, seek to continuously balance electricity supply with load to maintain the proper frequency. They do this by directing about one percent of total generation capacity to increase or decrease its power output in response to frequency deviations.
ISO - Independent System Operator - In a deregulated marked, although utilities retain the ownership of transmission lines, they no longer control access to them. This responsibility has been transferred to a non-profit organization called an "Independent System Operator" which controls transmission of all electricity in the region.

An RTO or ISO is defined as an electric utility regulated by FERC, and most are non-profit. It is
funded by a grid management charge approved by FERC and paid by generators and load serving entities within the RTO/ISO’s balancing authority. It operates the electric transmission acilities under its authority in compliance with NERC approved mandatory reliability standards. In so doing, it provides nondiscriminatory access to transmission services for all qualified market participants.

Historically, some RTO/ISOs evolved from power pools, for example PJM, while others were created by state legislation which also mandated electric industry restructuring, for example CAISO, or through other voluntary associations, such as the Midwest ISO.

An RTO/ISO designs and administers within its balancing authority several types of auction markets, including day-ahead and real-time wholesale spot markets (including five minute dispatch) for electric energy and ancillary services, and forward markets for financial transmission rights; several also operate forward markets for capacity. These markets are characterized by transparent prices and have both ex ante and ex post rules that support workably competitive market outcomes.
Regulation -The continuous adjustment of AC electricity frequency (60 Hz)
Regulation Ancillary Service – The continuous matching of supply with demand in a control area. This would represent an economic opportunity for Vehicle to be available for short bursts of charge and discharge. Power plants provide regulation today, but they have slow response, low efficiency, energy and economic.
VAR Support - Reactive power support can be provided on either a unitary or small-system basis, or as a secondary overlay application for a full-scale 20 MW frequency regulation power plant. For industrial and commercial end users, potential benefits include lower fees from utilities resulting from improvement of power factor levels that would otherwise fall below specified minimums, as well as higher power quality for sensitive industrial and commercial applications. For grid operators or utilities, potential benefits include the ability to defer investments in transmission and/or distribution infrastructure.

3. Business Case

On October 20, 2011, pursuant to section 206 of the Federal Power Act, FERC revised its regulations to remedy undue discrimination in the procurement of frequency regulation in the organized wholesale electric markets and ensure that providers of frequency regulation receive just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential rates. Frequency regulation service is one of the tools regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) use to balance supply and demand on the transmission system, maintaining reliable operations. In doing so, RTOs and ISOs deploy a variety of resources to meet frequency regulation needs; these resources differ in both their ramping ability, which is their ability to increase or decrease their provision of frequency regulation service, and the accuracy with which they can respond to the system operator’s dispatch signal.
The Commission found that current frequency regulation compensation practices of RTOs and ISOs result in rates that are unjust, unreasonable, and unduly discriminatory or preferential. Specifically, current compensation methods for regulation service in RTO and ISO markets fail to acknowledge the inherently greater amount of frequency regulation service being provided by faster-ramping resources. In addition, certain practices of some RTOs and ISOs result in economically inefficient economic dispatch of frequency regulation resources.
For example, that CAISO, NYISO, MISO, and PJM pay a capacity payment to all resources that clear the frequency regulation market, and then net the amount of regulation up and regulation down provided by these resources in order to compensate for the energy costs they incur. A simplified example would be to consider two resources that clear with the same amount of capacity and are directed to provide regulation up and regulation down over the course of a five-minute interval. The fast-ramping resource might be directed to move around an initial output level up five MW, then down three MW, up one MW, down ten MW, and finally up nine MW. A netting approach to compensation would determine that the resource provided an additional two MW of energy to the system (+ 5 – 3 + 1 – 10 + 9 = +2) during that five minute interval. Meanwhile, a slower ramping resource may be directed to move up three MW and then down one MW for a net of two MW in relation to its initial output level. The operator is not able to direct more movement because the slower-ramping resource would not be able to respond in the requisite time frame. Both resources would receive identical compensation for their movement, despite the first resource providing more ACE correction
By remedying these issues, the Commission is removing unduly discriminatory and preferential practices from RTO and ISO tariffs and requiring the setting of just and reasonable rates. Specifically, this Final Rule requires RTOs and ISOs to compensate frequency regulation resources based on the actual service provided, including a capacity payment that includes the marginal unit’s opportunity costs and a payment for performance that reflects the quantity of frequency regulation service provided by a resource when the resource is accurately following the dispatch signal

4. Benefits
The primary economic benefit that some commenters expect to see is reduced costs of procuring frequency regulation capacity, with a secondary benefit of reduced energy costs. fFaster-ramping resources are able to provide more frequency regulation service from the same amount of frequency regulation capacity because faster-ramping resources can provide more ACE correction in real-time.

Control Frequency - Provides frequency regulation to maintain the balance between the network's load and power generated. Provides stability, VAR support, power quality and transfer-leveling, and reliability.
Faster Ramping Resources Cost Less - The final rule serves to remove barriers to the participation of faster-ramping and more accurate resources in the frequency regulation markets. The utilization of these more accurate resources will lead to reductions in the amount of regulation capacity that each balancing authority must procure – savings which can then be passed on to consumers. Furthermore, the rule will also allow the mostly thermal generation fleet that currently provides regulation to instead more efficiently operate in the energy markets at their optimum heat rates, where they can submit lower offers to supply energy and thus further lower costs to consumers. Because the energy market is much larger than the regulation market, this is where there may be greater savings.
Improved Reliability - The final rule should enhance reliability as it incents new resources to come online and provide system operators in the ISOs and RTOs with additional tools and flexibility to manage the grid. As I have repeatedly indicated, we are asking our aging grid infrastructure to do more and more as regional electricity markets expand and we seek to transmit power over long distances from location constrained resources. We need to make sure that the operators of the grid are prepared to deal with these challenges with tools like the enhanced regulation market design we are directing today.
Reduced Emissions - The final rule will result in an overall reduction in emissions from the generation fleet. Some of the new resource technologies that are faster and more accurate produce no emissions themselves. Further, the mostly thermal generation that traditionally has provided regulation will now be able to bid their capacity into the energy markets at their optimum heat rates. This will enable the thermal generators to maximize their efficiency, which in turn will reduce their emissions.

5. Risks/Issues

The two-part rate is likely to be administratively-determined. There is no straightforward way for both the mileage payment and the capacity payment to be established through competitive offers. Therefore, the subjective judgment of the Commission and the operators of RTOs and ISOs will replace market forces in determining the value of frequency regulation service.
Subjectivity = Controversy - Bbecause the rate will be administratively-determined, it will be controversial and subject
to litigation.
The performance payment will increase payments that must be recovered through uplift, complicating existing settlement procedures and efforts to reduce uplift.
Penalize Existing Technology A performance payment will unduly discriminate against existing technologies that could respond faster but for the presence of barriers that have not, to date, presented themselves as obstacles. These barriers include the use of static ramp rates that reflect typical performance under all conditions rather than peak performance under conditions that exist at a point in time.
Potential for Manipulation - Multi-part offers require complex rules to deter market manipulation because it is difficult to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate bidding behavior.

Regulatory Treatment of Storage & Asset Classification - Today's regulatory structure and utility processes disfavors energy storage. Storage is neither supply nor demand in a traditional sense and existing regulatory framework is not set up to manage it. It is a matter of debate whether the cost of energy storage technologies utilized to shift transmission utilization to match capacity should be a generation or a transmission asset because of its multifaceted implications for business models, sources of financing, and regulatory cost recovery.

Energy Storage is a transmission application because it is directly linked to the transmission system and its operation, without any bias towards its classification as such for regulatory or business model questions.
Storage can also be used for energy price arbitraging and production leveling, which are normally generation functions and which developers prefer to perform on a merchant basis so that they can access market prices. Also, the operator takes ownership of the energy in redelivering it which isn’t a transmission function.
We need appropriate regulatory, market, and incentive treatments to encourage storage in support of renewable energy. When Storage is used in a multi-purpose application (as at a substation), it is unclear how to allocate costs and benefits for cost recovery. Because these benefits address different functions (generation vs. transmission), it may be difficult to measure the different benefits and allow for full cost recovery based on these benefits.
FERC rules for energy storage asset class

Cost Competitiveness - High cost of energy storage technologies due to the small scale of production. The costs of energy storage options need to be compared to other options, including the construction of new transmission infrastructure.

Value Not Monetized - Failure of the current marketplace to monetize the true value of storage. Storage has over 30 different elements of value and, right now, very few of those elements of value are monetized in the marketplace.

Market Information - Information on energy balance, requirements for ancillary services and related market values may not be available. In the case of longer term storage (minutes to hours) for energy arbitrage, load following and ramping, market information on both the current value of energy and the expected future value will be required to effectively schedule changing and discharging. Since all storage systems will have both a capital and an operational cost component, its dispatch will depend primarily on capacity and on energy value. Also the capacity and energy limits of the storage systems will need to be communicated back to either a dispatcher or aggregator.

6. Success Criteria

Communications - In the case of short-term storage (seconds to minutes) for ancillary services, including frequency regulation, reactive supply and voltage support, requires fast and secure communications that allow for automatic control of the resource.

7. Frequency Regulation Technologies

Battery Storage (See my Blog Article - Battery Storage) - Utilities typically use batteries to provide an uninterruptible supply of electricity to power substation switchgear and to start backup power systems. However, there is an interest to go beyond these applications by performing load leveling and peak shaving with battery systems that can store and dispatch power over a period of many hours. Batteries also increase power quality and reliability for residential, commercial, and industrial customers by providing backup and ride-through during power outages.
EDLC - Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitors - (Also known as supercapacitor, supercondenser, pseudocapacitor, or ultracapacitor) (See my blog article - Supercacitors) Store energy directly as charge. An EDLC is an electrochemical capacitor with relatively high energy density. Compared to conventional electrolytic capacitors the energy density is typically on the order of hundreds of times greater. In comparison with conventional batteries or fuel cells, EDLCs also have a much higher power density.
Flywheel (See my Blog Article) – Flywheels are designed to smooth out transient fluctuations in load and supply, Changing power output causes greater wear and tear on equipment, and fossil generators that perform frequency regulation incur higher operating costs due to increased fuel consumption and maintenance costs. They also suffer a significant loss in "heat rate" efficiency and produce greater quantities of CO2 and other unwanted emissions when throttling up and down to perform frequency regulation services.
SMES - Superconducting magnetic energy storage systems (See my blog article SMES) store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a superconducting coil which has been cryogenically cooled to a temperature below its superconducting critical temperature. A typical SMES system includes three parts: superconducting coil, power conditioning system and cryogenically cooled refrigerator. Once the superconducting coil is charged, the current will not decay and the magnetic energy can be stored indefinitely. The stored energy can be released back to the network by discharging the coil. The power conditioning system uses an inverter/rectifier to transform alternating current (AC) power to direct current or convert DC back to AC power.

Supercapacitors are DC energy sources and must be interfaced to the electric grid with a static power conditioner, providing 60-Hz output. A supercapacitor provides power during short duration interruptions and voltage sags. By combining a supercapacitor with a battery-based uninterruptible power supply system, the life of the batteries can be extended. The batteries provide power only during the longer interruptions, reducing the cycling duty on the battery. Small supercapacitors are commercially available to extend battery life in electronic equipment, but large supercapacitors are still in development, but may soon become a viable component of the energy storage field.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) - (See my blog article V2G) - Describes a system in which power can be sold to the electrical power grid by an electric-drive motor of a hybrid vehicle that is connected to the grid when it is not in use for transportation. Alternatively, when the car batteries need to be fully charged, the flow can be reversed and electricity can be drawn from the electrical power grid to charge the battery

8. Companies/ Organizations

FERC - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - United States federal agency with jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing, and oil pipeline rates. FERC is also responsible for ensuring the reliability of the nation’s high-voltage interstate transmission system.

9. Next Steps

While Order No. 755 applies only to organized ISO and RTO markets, FERC may act to broaden its application. On June 11, 2011, FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry ("NOI") seeking comment on whether the cost-based compensation methods for frequency regulation in regions outside of organized markets should be adjusted to address the same issues addressed in Order No. 755. Third-Party Provision of Ancillary Services; Accounting and Financial Reporting for New Electric Storage Technologies, Notice of Inquiry, 135 FERC ¶ 61,240 (2011). In the NOI, FERC sought comments on different frameworks under which the speed and accuracy of frequency regulation resources might be appropriately valued in non-RTO and non-ISO markets. The matter is pending before FERC.

9. Links

FERC - Final Rule October 20, 2011 - Frequency Regulation Compensation in the Organized Wholesale Power Markets Docket Nos. RM11-7-000
CPUC - Demand Response Cost-Effectiveness Protocols - Final (MS-Word) - These protocols have been developed with the understanding that DR is in a transitional period. Historically, DR was largely employed for reliability purposes during system emergencies in the form of interruptible programs for large industrial customers, which could be triggered when an ISO would otherwise have to shed load during a system emergency or when a utility was faced with a serious distribution system emergency. However, the deployment of advanced metering technology and development of new energy markets is enabling greater use and flexibility of demand response by all types of customers. Increasingly, customers are able to manage their loads to provide different levels of load reduction in response to price signals or other incentives. These load reductions provide value to the grid not only during emergencies, but also during times of high energy prices or in the ancillary services market. As a result, the methods used to measure the costs and benefits of demand response must be flexible enough to capture these emerging benefits.

Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI)

2011-11-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

By 2012, every electricity consumer of the three big utilities in California will have smart meters which will give consumers detailed information about how they use energy and will enable new technologies automating customers’ responses.

California AMI Deployment Timetable

Navigate this Report
Back to Distribution Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Next Steps
7. Companies
8. Links

1.Background

People are often confused by the terms “Smart Grid” and “Smart Meters.” Metering is just one of dozens of possible applications that constitute the Smart Grid. The idea of two way communications from suppliers to consumers to of energy is not new, and systems for commercial and industrial customers have been implemented using analog technology for many years. In recent years digital communications have become cheap enough for wider deployment.
Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems are the primary means for utilities to interact with their meters at customer sites. In addition to basic meter reading, AMI systems provide two-way communications that can be used by many functions and, as authorized, by third parties to exchange information with customer devices and systems.
The number of smart electricity meters with two-way communications is increasing rapdily. A 2009 study by Research company Park Associates found that there are 8 million smart meters installed in the U.S, about 6 percent of all meters. The eMeter Smart Grid Watch blog tracks the progress of smart meter installations around the world. In May 2011, total U.S. smart meter installations passed the 20-million meter mark. There are commitments in place to install nearly 50 million smart meters by 2015.
Estimated advanced metering penetration increased to 8.7 percent in 2009 versus 4.7 percent in 2007, an 85 percent increase in penetration in two years. (FERC 2010). While it is difficult to assess precisely which functions these AMI deployments support, the penetration rates indicate that this enabling technology is being positioned to support greater participation by distributed energy resources to the benefit of operational resiliency
.
In 2009 the Department of Energy completed awards for 31 AMI grants worth $817 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Smart Grid Investment Grant
Program. (See my blog articled Smart Grid Stimulus)

The ARRA grants allow recipients to recover up to 50 percent of the eligible project costs and are designed to accelerate the commercial use and implementation of AMI technologies. The ARRA AMI grants support projects with a total value of $2 billion in 29 states. The projects are focused on providing AMI to retail consumers and, in some cases, information and pricing mechanisms that will allow consumers to reduce their energy use and costs, and improve the reliability of systems.
The DOE also awarded $2.1 billion of funding under the ARRA Integrated and/or Crosscutting Systems Grant Program to support 39 demonstration projects that focus on adding intelligence and integrating smart grid and AMI capabilities in specific utility transmission and distribution systems throughout the United States. These system-based projects are valued in excess of $4.9 billion and are located in 31 jurisdictions. The projects include activities such as installing open, interoperable, two-way communications networks, deploying smart meters for customers, developing demand response and price responsive demand programs, automating advanced distribution and transmission applications, developing "self-healing" and power restoring properties on the grid, developing improved pricing programs, and supporting the deployment of plug-in electric vehicles.
In addition, the DOE awarded grants supporting 16 regional demonstration projects that include smart meters in nine states. These large demonstration projects are designed to provide industry with business models, data to assess technical capabilities, and actual cost and benefit information associated with integrating these systems and components on a network level.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

Aclara's AMI Glossary

AMI – Automated Meter Infrastructure - Systems that measure collect and analyze energy usage, from advanced devices such as electricity meters, gas meters, and/or water meters, through various communication media on request or on a pre-defined schedule. This infrastructure includes hardware, software, communications, customer associated systems and meter data management software. First generation smart meters, which were only capable of meter readings, don't qualify as AMI systems
AMR - Automatic Meter Reading - The technology of automatically collecting consumption, diagnostic, and status data from water meter or energy metering devices (water, gas, electric) and transferring that data to a central database for billing, troubleshooting, and analyzing. AMR technologies include handheld, mobile and network technologies based on telephony platforms (wired and wireless), radio frequency (RF), or power line transmission. When metering residential customers, drive-by and walk-by meters (AMR) are considered a competing technology and currently are out-shipping AMI products. Other than the more-convenient data gathering over traditional meters, AMR meters offer very few to none of the benefits and functions necessary to enable residential customers to meaningfully participate in a smart grid
.
Four Quadrant Metering - The process of measuring reactive and either real or apparent
energy accounting for both forward and reverse flows.
- Quadrant I is defined as an area where both energies flow positively (both
  are delivered to the service)
- Quadrant II = reactive energy is positive and the other energy flows negatively.
- Quadrant III = reactive energy flows negatively as does the other energy (both energies are received from the service).
- Quadrant IV = reactive energy flows negatively, and the other energy flows positively
  .
MDMS – Meter Data Management System - Performs long term data storage and management for the vast quantities of data that are now being delivered by smart metering systems. This data consists primarily of usage data and events that are imported from the head end servers that manage the data collection. An MDM system will typically import the data, then validate, cleanse and process it before making it available for billing and analysis. The more flexible the MDM application, the better it is able to integrate to existing enterprise applications and help to streamline utility business processes. Benefits can be seen in billing, customer service, outage management and analysis of utility operations. Smart meters can collect customer readings as often as every 15 minutes, rather than every month, so utilities need new software to cope with all the extra data.
Smart Grid - A form of electricity network using digital technology. A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital communications to support energy consumption efficiency, real time management of power flows and to provide the bi-directional metering needed to compensate local producers of power. The "Smart Grid" is envisioned to overlay the ordinary electrical grid with an information network. Smart meters may be part of a smart grid, but alone do not constitute a smart grid. There is some debate as to whether smart meters are actually needed for smart grids.
Smart Meter - Usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart Meters provides higher granularity of meter interval data. Also, voltage levels, and power events can be tracked and logged across the entire customer base.

3. Business Case

Smart meters establish a two-way data connection between the customer and the power company, by sending information over a communications network that may include power-line, radio or cellular-network connections. Once smart meters are installed, power companies can determine the location of outages more easily, and no longer need to send staff to read meters, or to turn the power on or off at a particular property.
Transforming today’s “dumb” electric meter into a smart consumer portal that allows price signals, decisions, communications and network intelligence to flow back and forth through the two-way energy/information portal is a key to achieving consumer control of electricity costs and consumption.
Advanced devices such as two-way communicating meters, communicating thermostats, and home automation devices such as programmable and communicating outlet controllers will assist energy customers in managing their demand for energy.
Vendors are building “last mile” AMI communications solutions around wired and wireless technologies. A wireless technology is needed to reach any device not receiving electric service. The major disadvantage of wired technologies for last mile communication is that they are often incompatible with water and gas meters due to their use of the electrical distribution wires as the transmission media. Five technologies are being used:

Wireless Star - Wireless star technologies are available in both licensed (200 MHz, 900MHz) and unlicensed spectra (900 MHz, 2.4GHz). Advantages of licensed technology include greater allowable transmission power (2 Watts vs. 1 Watt) and blocking of interference sources. The principal disadvantage is the need to obtain a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction license to operate. The desired frequency may also have been already allocated. Advantages of unlicensed technology are elimination of licensing requirements due to the use of the “free” spectra and more choices in which set of frequencies to use within the spectral bands. These two aspects often offset the potential interference and lower allowable transmission power.
Wireless Mesh – A communications network made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology. Wireless mesh networks often consist of mesh clients, mesh routers and gateways. A mesh network is reliable and offers redundancy. When one node can no longer operate, the rest of the nodes can still communicate with each other, directly or through one or more intermediate nodes.
PLC - Power Line Carrier - the principal hurdle is propagation of the signal across power system equipment such as transformers. Transformers act as natural filters to the radio frequency signal. Another difficulty is maximizing the bi-directional communication rate.
BPL - Broadband over Power Line - the communications rate is solved by choice of the frequency band; however, equipment often interferes with other wireless communication technologies (amateur radio). (See my blog article Broadband over Power Line)
Fiber Optics. It is often difficult to justify “fiber to the home” for a single purpose use, such as advanced metering. Smaller utilities, including municipalities, have successfully invested in fiber optics as they can then offer cable television, phone service, and internet service first with enough bandwidth available for their utility operations.

AMI Cost Assumptions
- Residential meter costs are based more on volume than other factors
- Commercial and Industrial meter costs are based more on features selected than other factors - Meter + communications $120-150/meter
- Installation costs
- Ongoing maintenance $3-11/year/endpoint

Source: EPRI

4. Benefits

Remote Meter Readings - AMR mainly saves utility providers the expense of sending out employees to take readings. This reduction in transportation requirements means less fuel consumption and less carbon emissions from the vehicle tailpipe. Advanced metering will also virtually eliminate meter reading errors
Remote Configuration - Diagnostics, software and firmware changes including: upgradeable WAN/HAN communications, leveraged open architecture principles in system design and future customer service offerings. In other words the thing will work like a Sky or TiVo set-top box, under the control of its master authority outside the home.
Improve Reliability – Remote diagnostics can detect a service outage. Today, a utility may not know about an outage until the customer calls to complain. Similarly, they may not know when service is restored.
Remote Cut Off - The ability for energy firms to cut off supplies remotely. Gas meters would probably include a remotely-operable shutoff valve for this purpose.
Enables Real Time Visibility - Home-network abilities, allowing an in-home meter display and possibly the ability to watch one's meter reading on other devices such as computers, TVs etc.
Requisite for Distributed Generation - Intelligent net metering , the ability to measure "exported" electricity, as when a house sells electricity back to the grid - perhaps from a plugged-in electric car or other storage system. Similarly the meter must be able to work with micro-generation equipment so as to let people sell electricity to the grid.
Enables Conservation through ADR (Auto Demand Response) - The "ability to remotely [i.e. from outside the premises] control electricity load for more sophisticated control of devices in the home". AMI can lower electricity costs to consumers from flatter load curves that result from smart meter applications and changes in consumer behavior in response to tariffs that provide incentive to use less electricity during peak hours, but more than just installing smart meters is required to achieve this benefit.
Improved Billing - Billing can be based on near real time consumption rather than on estimates based on previous or predicted consumption. This timely information coupled with analysis, can help both Utility providers and customers better control the use and production of electric energy, gas usage, or water consumption. AMI can change the maximum amount of electricity that a customer can demand at any time; and remotely change the meter's billing plan from credit to prepay as well as from flat-rate to multi-tariff.
Theft Prevention- Smart meters can detect the unauthorized use of electricity and help to curtail the theft of electricity.
Operational Efficiencies - Including; field communication links to distribution, revenue cycle improvements, situational data in near real-time, and wholesale - retail markets integration.

5. Risks/Issues

Consumer Backlash - In this video, from January 2011, members of West Marin Citizens Against Smart Meters literally block the road to the small town of Inverness to prevent contractors from installing smart meters in homes there. This 2010 KCBS video reports on how some homeowners in Oakland's Manzanita neighborhood are putting Pacific Gas & Electric on notice: "Keep those Smart Meters away." This anti-Smart Meter you tube video has already gained almost 300,000 views.

Inaccuracy - Bills suddenly doubling
RF Health Problems have not been scientifically substantiated, but many consumers are very worried. Smart meters pose a much lower danger than other RF sources in our environment such as cell phone towers. While many think fears of RF are silly, there have been other cases where a technology previously seen as safe turned out not to be.

Source: Environmental Defense Fund

Many consumers believe there are more problems than utilities have admitted to
Fears of Big Brother surveillance
AB 37 Huffman. Smart grid deployment: smart meters. As of May 2011, in committee in the California Assembly. This bill would require the CPUC, by January 1, 2012, to identify alternative options for customers of electrical corporations that decline the installation of wireless advanced metering infrastructure devices, commonly referred to as smart meters, as part of an approved smart grid deployment plan. The bill would also require the CPUC, when it has identified those alternative options, to require each electrical corporation to permit a customer to decline the installation of an advanced metering infrastructure device and make the alternative options available to that customer.

Relative RF Exposure Source: Texas PUC

Vendor Lock In - Although many communications systems talk Internet Protocol (IP), they do so over proprietary hardware. Utilities did not insist on plug-and-play compatibility at the hardware level. their failure to take a standardized approach has cost them dearly. And will continue to do so for many years.
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Overspending - In America, typical prices are $110 to $120 per meter and about $50 for the communications. . California’s investor-owned utilities alone are spending about $4.5 billion on deploying smart meters over the next few years. That implies that a nationwide implementation could cost around $50 billion. But PNNL estimates that $450 billion would have to be poured into conventional grid infrastructure to meet America’s expected growth over the next decade anyway. In contrast, the typical cost in Europe is $40 per meter (plus $15 for the communications by the way). To make the math easier, let's say American utilities will install 50 million smart meters over five years and they will spend $40 more than the Europeans., that comes out to $2 billion.

Municipal and co-op organizations such as APPA and NRECA often do joint research and sometimes joint buying. Federal agencies such as BPA and TVA have run a few buying programs over the years. For the most part, smart meter cost is passed through to the consumer and American utilities don't have a lot of incentives to cooperate and collaborate, even with $2 billion at stake. Despite a few early conversations, the big three California utilities couldn't successfully collaborate on a joint procurement strategy for the millions of smart meters they are installing
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Meter Upgradeability - Utilities need to ensure that technologies or solutions that are selected will be interoperable and comply with the yet-to-be-established national standards. Utilities also want to ensure that the system they select will allow for evolution and growth as Smart Grid standards evolve. It is essential to be able to upgrade firmware, such as meters, in the field without replacing the equipment or "rolling a truck" to manually upgrade the meter firmware
First Generation Functionality - Many of the "smart" meters on the market today are nothing more than electronic versions of the 100 year old electromechanical meter equipped with remote reading capability. A truly smart meter needs much more
- Information for the utility about service status and power quality
- Apps for the consumer to provide not only truly useful cost (not price) information
- Information about on=premises devices (e.g., PHEV, solar generation, majore appliances) along with automated EMS functions to act upon the information
All of them must eventually be eMeters with the ability to communicate via TCP/IP over any available public or private network. Utilities that put in yesterday's AMR/AMI technology today will be severely disadvantaged.
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Technological Complexity- Deployment of technologies still under development. Although most of the technologies necessary to build AMI already exist, products for cost-effectively applying some of them in the power system have only become available in the past few years. Utilities wishing to deploy AMI technologies right now often need to work in partnership with vendors to define requirements, provide design feedback and evaluate prototypes. After downsizing and deregulation, many utilities do not have the research and development resources available to make this happen
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Stranded Investment – If the wrong technologies are selected, the rate payer may have to pay for technology write-offs
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Gold Plating - You don’t necessarily need to have a Smart Meter with communications functionality built into it to be able to realize smart grid functionality and benefits. There are a lot of AMR meters out there that have one way communication what their usage information is, and there are other ways to communicate back to the utility or whoever that third party service provider may be
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Market Access - Degree of Utility Control in Home - A 2006 survey of utility executive by GF Energy showed that nearly 90% if the executive believe that it is the utility companies that will be introducing end user electricity controls rather than independent entrepreneurs.
Lack of market power for smaller utilities. Deploying advanced technology is easier for bigger utilities for two reasons: firstly, they simply have more internal resources to apply to the project; and secondly, they must deploy to a larger number of sites and therefore can offer bigger incentives to vendors to implement the features they need. Smaller utilities do not have economies of scale, cannot offer large incentives and therefore must often take off-the-shelf technology. This may mean their Smart Grid projects are “not as smart”, or must be deferred because they are not yet cost-effective
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Information Security - One deficiency common among many of the meters is the use of insecure programming functions, such as memcpy() and strcpy(), which are two of the most common sources of exploitable software bugs. In many cases, the devices use general purpose hardware and software that aren't designed for highly targeted or mission critical systems. Security firm IOActive, claimed in March 2009, it had proven that networks of smart meters, which allow two-way communications and controls between customers and utilities, could be hacked to boost or cut power to millions of homes at once. That could crash the grid, all with as little as $500 worth of equipment and the proper training, the firm said
Decoupled Alternatives – As an alternative to AMI system, market information such as prices and grid conditions can be decoupled from communication of energy consumption. Thus, the meter can be separate while pricing signals and the like can be transmitted via other public communication mechanisms such as phone, internet, cable, and wireless radio. A decoupled situation can make sense for commercial buildings and industrial uses where energy savings can be significant, while a more traditional bundled AMI package may be more desirable for residential consumers due to its “all-in-one” and “plug-and-play” aspects
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Regional Customization - AMI billing techniques and the machines themselves may require regional customization reducing potential economies of scale in production and deployment. Regional customization may be required because of differences in consumer preferences, aggressiveness of service providers, state and local regulations, and the speed with which smart grid structures and technology change over time. Not all regions are likely to respond identically and may have different needs.

6. Next Steps

More Smart Meters - IDC counts roughly 230 AMI projects underway or scheduled in North America. When they are all completed in 2015, they will account for 50% of the total addressable market. The other half of the market will be the beneficiaries of better standards, lower prices and lessons learned.
HAN Communication - Virtually all smart meters being installed in the US come with a second built-in radio — the Home Area Network interface — that can send information to one or more devices in the home. This is separate from the other radio in the meter that sends data back to the utility.

But in most places, including California, this HAN interface is not yet “live”. This means the meter is equipped to transmit or receive data to devices in the home, but it cannot do so until either:

The utility starts transmitting data to home devices via the HAN interface
A device in the home starts sending messages to the meter requesting data.

Plug & Play - Whichever company or partnership asserts a true plug-and-play standard has a gigantic opportunity. The Itron/Cisco partnership is currently best positioned to break the proprietary stranglehold.
Meter Upgradeability - In 2007, Congress declared in the Energy Independence Act (EISA) that modernizing the grid is national policy. EISA requires the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a consensus on the standards and protocols necessary to ensure Smart Grid functionality and interoperability (See My blog article Standards Development Process for details). In 2009, NIST created the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), a group of public and private organizations, to coordinate the development of consensus-based Smart Grid standards.

One of the high priority requiring immediate attention was the need for a meter upgradeability standard. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) led an effort to develop standards for smart meter firmware upgradeability and the standard was completed in less than 90 days, It will be titled NEMA Smart Grid Stanards Publication SG-AMI 1-2009 -Requiremnets for Smart Grid Upgradeablity
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In April 2011, the governing board of SGIP voted in favor of a new standard and a set of guidelines important for making the long-planned “smart” electricity grid a reality. The documents address the need for wireless communications among grid-connected devices as well as the ability to upgrade household electricity meters as the Smart Grid evolve.
The standards and guidelines resulting from PAP 0 (Meter Upgradability Standard) and PAP 2 (Wireless Communications for the Smart Grid) are crucial to ensuring that metering devices can be upgraded remotely and reliably, and that the sort of fast, efficient wireless communications typical today with cell phones becomes a part of the future electricity grid. Almost every house has an electricity meter, and the PAP 0 standard is designed to ensure that the new generation of smart electricity meters does not quickly become obsolete.

Developing Opt Out Policies - Whether or not consumer fears of RF radiation are based on science, utilities need to respond to their customers. For example, Pacific Gas & Electric will disable smart meters for customers concerned about health and safety hazards from meter radio wave emissions, but the utility's March 2011 proposal to the California PUC also included a kicker those customers probably won't like. The utility wants to charge an upfront fee plus an additional monthly charge or rate increase to cover the cost of turning off meter communications radios, manual meter readings and the additional cost to "strengthen" its SmartMeter network.

The CPUC told PG&E earlier in March that it had two weeks to provide an opt-out plan because of the continuing backlash and controversy over the new meters. While the commission at the time said it had seen no evidence that the meters' radio emissions were dangerous, it did want customers to have a choice, according to a news story in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith told the newspaper, "For customers who want it, we will turn off the communications radio and that removes them from the grid. The ongoing fees cover the costs, primarily the labor but also the cost to strengthen the SmartMeter network."

The fee plus monthly charge options offered by PG&E include either an upfront fee of $270 and a $14 monthly charge or rate increase or an upfront fee of $135 and a $20 monthly fee or rate increase.

7. Companies

All the smart meter and AMI vendors are faced with some daunting challenges. The U.S. AMI market is currently in full deployment mode, initiated by regulatory mandates in Texas, California, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, and fueled by $3.5 billion in stimulus funding. This party will subside in the not-too-distant future, as smart meters approach their terminal penetration rate of the overall electric meter installed base, which in itself is not growing much. Continued growth will require diversification in target markets (i.e. beyond electric AMI), products (software and services), and/or geography (i.e. Europe, Latin America, Asia).

Aclara, Hazelwood, MO - Part of the Utility Solutions Group of ESCO Technologies (NYSE: ESE), St. Louis- Provides device networking, data-value management, and customer communications to water, gas, and electric utilities globally. Over 500 utilities in nine countries rely on Aclara solutions to connect with their customers

Aclara has mesh RF for urban areas and can reach rural areas with its low-bandwidth powerline technology (the legacy TWACS system). It is finally beginning to merge the two systems. If it gets its unification act together, it could offer utilities a low-cost transitional system. Aclara could sell a combination of mesh and powerline for now, as long as it could promise a seamless transition to WiMAX or LTE or another high-bandwidth, long-distance technology at some point in the future.
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Echelon, San Jose, CA - (NASDAQ: ELON) - Develops, markets, and sells energy control networking solutions primarily in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific/Japan. Its solutions enable everyday devices, such as air conditioners, appliances, electricity meters, light switches, thermostats, and valves to be inter-connected. Its networked energy services (NES) system comprises smart meters and other smart devices; edge control node and data concentrators; the NES networking operating system software; and the infrastructure and support required to implement and deploy network solutions.

A heavyweight in Europe, Echelon has begun making inroads in the U.S. The company takes a different approach to the hardware than most others, designing more functionality into the meter’s “motherboard” instead of employing add-on modules. Its communications strategy draws on its European heritage. Rather than using RF or cellular to communicate with every smart meter, Echelon uses “distribution line carrier,” a more advanced form of old-school power line carrier. (See my blog article Broadband Powerline Communication) The power line relays information from each home to the transformer, which then uses any of the popular communications pipes to backhaul the data to the control center. They save the cost of putting a radio into every smart meter and the cost of troubleshooting meters that can’t communicate because of difficult reception.

According to Pike Research’s market share analysis, Elster was the sixth biggest smart meter manufacturer in 3rd Qtr 2010 holding a 3% share of the market.
Elster - Essen, Germany - (NYSE: ELT) - Elster Solutions, Raliegh, NC – Has delivered over 2 million smart metering devices worldwide with systems located in North America, Europe, Central America, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. Elster smart metering system solutions provide utilities with energy conservation capabilities via demand response programs, smart grid applications, and operational efficiencies resulting in significant value creation across the utility enterprise.

Elster sees itself as a solution provider, not a product company. Within the next five years they want to be working with utility partners on everything – from testing to going to regulatory commission meetings.

According to Pike Research’s market share analysis, Elster was the fifth biggest smart meter manufacturer in 3rd Qtr 2010 holding a 5% share of the market.
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GE Energy. Atlanta, GA - (NYSE: GE) - Provides a full line of single phase and poly-phase meters to meet utility requirements for form factors and functionality. Meters come equipped with various options for communications technology, home area network options, remote service switch, as well as a number of embedded features such as load profile, demand, and TOU tariff.

GE still has some integration work to do, but I they have the resources to be a force

According to Pike Research’s market share analysis, GE was the fourth biggest smart meter manufacturer in 3rd Qtr 2010 holding a 20% share of the market.
Itron, Liberty Lake WA - (NasdaqGS: ITRI ) Leading provider of solid-state meters—electricity, water, gas and heat—and data collection/communication systems, including automated meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) technology. Itron offers enterprise-wide software platforms, project management, installation and consulting services.

Itron was the clear leader in first-generation AMR initially based on propitiatory standards, and the early leader in next-generation AMI contract wins. Given that nearly 8,000 utilities around the world already rely on Itron technology, the company has a large installed base from which to draw.

Itron, leveraging its existing Automated Meter Reading (AMR) dominance, established an early AMI lead with its OpenWay system, but was especially hurt by the strength of Silver Spring Networks’ IP story. This was the catalyst for the Itron/Cisco partnership that may yet position Itron to ultimately “out IP” Silver Spring.

In September 2010, Itron and Cisco announced a strategic alliance that will advance the transformation of the world's energy infrastructure. Together, the two will deliver a definitive 21st century Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications platform to the smart grid market and help advance more consistent and reliable delivery of energy across the electric distribution system and into homes and businesses. Under terms of the agreement, Itron and Cisco will jointly develop the reference design that defines a standard for smart grid field area and smart metering network communications, utilizing the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IPv6). A key standard identified by the National Institute of Technology, IPv6 integrates network security into its framework; allows for simplified processing of data by routers and other network devices; and offers a wealth of extensibility options over the current and widely-used IPv4 implementation.

Noteworthy for having pioneered the radio mesh technology that has emerged as the preferred way for smart meters to "talk to" one another in neighborhood area networks – though Itron's "OpenWay" RF mesh system isn't part of every deployment (Silver Spring Networks has been the chosen vendor for that function for many projects). New York Times November 2009 Itron Article

According to Pike Research’s market share analysis, Itron was the second biggest smart meter manufacturer in 3rd Qtr 2010 holding a 24% share of the market.
Landis + Gyr, Zug, Switzerland - Although the metering company can trace its roots back to 1896 in Switzerland, it became a conglomerate of networking and metering companies consolidated by Australian private equity firm Bayard Capital in 2008. Worldwide leader in electricity metering with a preeminent position in advanced or “smart metering" systems. Privately held with US$1,364 million sales in 2008. Over 5,000 employees, 600 full-time professionals dedicated to R&D, and operations in 30 countries across five continents.

Landis+Gyr earned about $200 million on about $1.5 billion in annual revenues in 2010, Reuters’ anonymous sources report.

In May 2011, Landis+Gyr was reported to be on the auction block with big smart grid suitors bidding on the company. Reuters reported that General Electric was offering $2 billion for the Swiss-based smart metering giant, an offer that was followed by Toshiba’s 200 billion yen ($2.48 billion) counter-offer, and entry by strategic bidders including Honeywell and ABB. GE’s smart meter business relies on partners for communications and networking, while L+G has its own 900-megahertz communications system, as well as back-end software to manage it all. On May 19, Toshiba announced it was the successful bidder at $2.3 million

According to Pike Research’s market share analysis, Landis+Gyr is the market leader in terms of utility vendor selections, accounting for 26% of total endpoints as of the end of the third quarter 2010. During the past year, Landis+Gyr surpassed Itron as the number one smart meter supplier to utilities in the U.S., and Itron now holds a 24% share of the market
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Sentec, Cambridge, England - Develops tailored smart metering solutions in partnership with metering and utility companies. With more than five million smart meters worldwide incorporating its smart sensor technology, Sentec combines technical expertise with an in-depth understanding of grid and metering infrastructure to deliver upgradeable metrology solutions.

For years the company has been a behind-the-scenes partner to meter manufacturers such as Sensus. Now the company hopes to convince utilities to ignore those manufacturers and specify their own systems with Sentec as their consulting partner to spec the design and have it built via the company's network of contract manufacturers.

Sentec alleges utilities can have the superior meters at little or no extra cost. For one thing, Sentec claims to be expert in designing ultra low-power, low-cost solid-state meters. Second, it works with contract manufacturers and takes advantage of their economies of scale.

The Sentec formula is lots of flash memory, plus a more powerful processor, plus an operating system that would be the same from meter to meter. In theory, this means "apps" developed for one brand of meter would run on others, provided they used the Sentec operating system. Internally, Sentec calls its operating system for meters "Breeze," though it has not yet launched it formally to the outside world.

If the idea catches on, the meter will evolve from a relatively dumb measurement device into a smart, sophisticated, upgradable platform for multiple applications – more like a home gateway. It is certainly true that meters should ideally be field upgradable. And capable of posting new applications as we dream them up. That need is being addressed to a limited extent by many of today's vendors. The Sentec approach would be like the move from "feature phones" to "smart phones" in the cellular world.
Sensus, Raleigh, NC - Employs almost 4,000 people in 41 facilities on five coinents. A one hundred year old privately held company that issues publicly traded, SEC-registered bonds. Sensus is now running at more than $1 billion in annual sales, with more than 200 projects and 8 million smart meters in the field.

Sells meters under the iCon brand, along with a growing range of hardware and software for distribution automation. But it is with its FlexNet communications network that the company truly sets itself apart. FlexNet has also been used with meters from GE, Landis + Gyr and Elster.

Most Sensus competitors sell radio frequency (RF) mesh systems, typically running over a public spectrum (like the spectrums used for roam phones or for WiFi). A few years back, Sensus acquired point-to-point radio RF technology and the rights to private spectrum across most of the U.S. In theory, point-to-point private spectrum offers several advantages:
- Less interference from other devices (since you are not sharing the spectrum)
- Longer range
- Lower latency (great for time-sensitive grid applications)
- Better penetration inside buildings (for things such as apartment sub meters)
- Stronger security
- Lower operations and maintenance costs
In July 2011, Sensus announced that it will integrate encryption and key management technologies from IBM into its FlexNet™ advanced metering infrastructure, a step that Sensus says will not only enhance its existing security capabilities, but will also help advance data security as a critical element of the smart grid.

According to Pike Research’s market share analysis, Sensus was the third biggest smart meter manufacturer in 3rd Qtr 2010 holding a 21% share of the market
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Silver Spring Network - Redwood City CA - Makes the radio card and provides services to its customer utilities, but the meters themselves come from other manufacturers. SSN communications modules are compatible with most major meters, so utilities feel they are not locked in to any one meter manufacturer. But they are locked in to Silver Spring Networks. Sure, they can swap in a different meter. But they can't swap in a different communications module. Most of SSN's competitors use a similar strategy.

Silver Spring Networks’ undisputed lead in U.S. utility AMI was built by its strong commitment to the IP communications protocol at a time when competitor’s products were universally proprietary. This success drove a dramatic change in the industry, where virtually all AMI vendors have now adopted the IP protocol in one way or another. This has not yet approached the goal of multi-vendor interoperability for smart meters, as key parts of even the Silver Spring Networks implementation, such as the “meshing” protocols, are “pre-standard” (i.e. proprietary).

SSN has raised over $275 million from investors. Their rumored 2010 IPO did not take place and in July 2011 Silver Spring Networks filed an S-1 for its long anticipated IPO. Expected pricing for the IPO was not announced, but the $3 billion target valuation rumored at the beginning of 2010 would seem rich given the $2.3 billion price for the more diverse Landis+Gyr, and the current $1.8-2 billion valuations for Elster (who IPO’ed last fall) and for industry powerhouse Itron.

Provides the hardware, software and services that allow utilities to deploy and run applications, including Smart Metering, Demand Response, Distribution Automation and Distributed Generation, over a single, unified network. Silver Spring's Smart Energy Network is based on open, Internet Protocol (IP) standards, allowing continuous, two-way communication between the utility and every device on the grid. SSN has successful deployments with leading utilities in the US and abroad, including Florida Power & Light, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, Jemena and United Energy Distribution.

SSN is the clear leader in RF mesh, which is the clear favorite with large, investor-owned utilities in the U.S. But some analysts believe public cellular networks could catch on, especially when 4G arrives. Meanwhile, parts of Europe seem set on powerline carrier and parts of Australia are using WiMax. If other transports catch on, SSN will have to be quick about supporting them.

In home area networking, Silver Spring purchased Greenbox has a "technology alliance program" that includes many home energy-monitoring companies, including Tendril, Greenbox, Control4, Energate, Radio Thermostat and, most recently, Onzo.
Trilliant - Redwood City, CA - Provides intelligent network solutions and software to utilities for advanced metering, demand response, and Smart Grid management.

More than 20 years old, but reformed in 2004 to concentrate on the smart grid space. Trilliant has over 200 utility customers, including Hydro One in Ontario, Canada. Hydro One has deployed Trilliant smart communications to over 1.1 million customers in support of the largest operating time-of-use billing program in the world.

Secured $40 million VC funding from MissionPoint Partners and Zouk Ventures in 2008 toward the development of intelligent networks powering smart grid related functions. In July 2010, closed financing totaling $106 million from a global syndicate of industry and financial leaders. The financing round was led by two highly-respected financial investors, Investor Growth Capital (the wholly-owned venture arm of Investor AB of Sweden) and VantagePoint Venture Partners and two leading global grid-related equipment companies, ABB and GE.

Trilliant acquired SkyPilot in 2009. It has effectively merged its NAN-oriented RF mesh network with SkyPilot’s WAN-oriented WiMAX, and done so with multipurpose boxes that can handle both technologies.

The company builds a "multi-tiered network" that uses a beefed-up version of the 802.15.4 wireless standard – which the ZigBee protocol uses for in-home equipment – as its primary home-to-utility concentrator point communications technology, according to Eric Miller, Trilliant's chief solutions officer. Using an altered version of the 802.15.4 wireless standard to allow meters to mesh with each other and with concentrator points. SecureMesh gives device vendors a standards-based way to rapidly deploy mesh technology in dense urban smart grid applications. Trilliant is one of the first AMI communications vendors to use a commodity IEEE 802.15.4 PHY and MAC layer for mesh purposes. Click here for Erich Gunther's analysis and scorecard of Trilliant's SecureMesh technology.

8. Links

An April 2011 report from IDC Energy Insights offers a detailed assessment and ranking for seven major vendors in the smart metering communication network market.
Leaders: Landis+Gyr
Major Players: Elster, Itron, Silver Spring Networks, Trilliant and Sensus
Contenders: Aclara
US Smart Meter Projct Status May 17, 2011 by Chris King, President, eMeter Strategic Consulting © eMeter Corporation
Electricity Smart Metering Business Drivers A 2009 PDF White Paper by Atos Origin. A good non-commercial assessment. Presents a dedicated method to assess the financial returns of particular smart metering projects
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Coincident has developed an interactive web application to help users discover and explore advanced metering projects occurring around the world. Presently in a free beta period with coverage maps for the United States and Canada
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CPUC 2009 Decision on PG&E’s Proposed Upgrade to the Smart Meter Program
CPUC 2008 Decision on SCE’s Proposed Smart Meter Program
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FERC - Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 2010 Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering Staff Report.

Energy Audit & Benchmarking

2011-11-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

Like Smart Grid Applications, Energy Efficiency Audits need innovative Information Technology Solutions to understand complex physical systems

Navigate this Report
Back to Smart Buildings Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Success Factors
7. Next Steps
8. Companies/Organizations
9. Links

There is a lot of new development in commercial building rating systems

Rating System	Sponsor	Type	Status
Energy Star Portfolio Manager	U.S. EPA	Operational	Active
California Commercial Building Rating System	California Energy Commission (CEC)	Operational	In Development
COMNET - Commercial Energy Services Network	Energy Foundation/ RESNET	Asset	In Development
ABEL - Advanced Building Energy Label	ASHRAE	Asset/ Operational	In Development
Commercial Building Initiative	US DOE EERE - Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy	Asset	In Development

1.Background

Four states have drafted bills that would require rating and disclosure of energy use in commercial buildings: Oregon, New Mexico, Maryland, and Vermont.
Phase I of the California HERS Program, which was adopted in 1999, established the basic operating framework of the program, including training and certification procedures for raters, quality assurance procedures, and data collecting and reporting requirements for raters who are performing field verification and diagnostic testing services for demonstrating compliance with Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards.
Phase II of the HERS Program extended the Phase I HERS Program to cover whole‐house home
energy ratings of existing (and newly constructed) homes.
In April 2010 the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted a protocol to count energy savings from behavior-based energy efficiency programs in a decision on Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) of energy efficiency programs for 2010 through 2012.

This will afford programs that provide home energy reports, designed to engage customers to make better choices about their energy consumption using neighbor comparisons and personalized, targeted energy-saving recommendations, to be rolled out in California on a larger scale than in the past. Because these programs aim to motivate behavioral change, as opposed to hard-wired efficiency, they have thus far been treated as non-resource programs, ineligible for energy savings credit. However, the experience through a number of pilots in California and other region shows that these programs can produce a very real capacity for significant and measurable energy savings.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

AB1103 - A California law that requires:

Starting in 2009, electric and gas utilities shall maintain records of the ;energy consumption data of all nonresidential buildings to which they provide service. This data shall be maintained, in a format compatible for uploading to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager, for at least the most recent 12 months.
Starting in 2009, upon the written authorization or secure electronic authorization of a nonresidential building owner or operator, an electric or gas utility shall upload all of the energy consumption data for the account specified for a building to the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager in a manner that preserves the confidentiality of the customer.
Starting in 2010, an owner or operator of a nonresidential building owner or operator shall disclose the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager benchmarking data and ratings, for the most recent 12-month period, to a prospective buyer, lessee of the entire building, or lender that would finance the entire building.

Cal-Arch - A building energy benchmarking database for California. This web-based tool for benchmarking whole building energy for California commercial buildings was built in a three-year project which commenced in July 2000. An additional 15 months of development was funded beginning August 2003. Currently Cal-Arch uses existing survey data from California’s Commercial End Use Survey (CEUS), a largely underutilized wealth of information collected by California’s major utilities.
Commercial Building Asset Rating Program - On August 8, 2011, the Department of Energy issued a "Request for Information" seeking input from stakeholders on a "Commercial Building Asset Rating Program" The goal of the program is to create an Energy Star-like system for commercial buildings. The program would establish common inputs for calculating energy efficiency, select a modeling tool to evaluate the inputs for individual buildings and output a rating with which to compare the energy efficiency of different buildings.

The goal of the new program is primarily to address the issue of valuing energy efficiency by providing a common metric for comparing the energy efficiency of commercial properties, and providing a reliable and common system for evaluating commercial building energy efficiency.
The devil is in the details, of course. The RFI proposes several different models for valuing energy, evaluating energy efficiency, and conveying the information. If the DOE program is created, the commerical real estate community could soon be using a 100 point scale, like LEED, or a star system like the Energy Guide labels on appliances. The robustness of the inputs and the energy model is critical to accurately evaluating building energy use, the simplicity of the input system will determine whether commercial building owners will use it to rate their facilities, and the representation of the "score" will determine whether users will actually understand and act on the information.
DSM - Demand Side Management - In states where utilities are required to offer DSM Programs, utilities should petition the regulators to allow for the creation of a rebate program to subsidize the cost of the pre-sale energy audit. Having had experience with DSM Program design, this program would have to pass certain cost effectiveness tests, but the key to new DSM Program would be in creating the educational piece that would be a result the audit.
E-Scale - EnergySmart Home Scale - Created in 2009 by the U.S. Department of Energy "based on" the HERS Index, apparently simply by subtracting the HERS Index from 100. In this new scale, higher values correspond again to better performance.
ECM - Energy Conservation Measure - Any type of project conducted or technology implemented to reduce the consumption on energy in a building. These can come in a variety of forms: water, electricity and gas being the main three for industrial and commercial enterprises. The aim of an ECM should be to achieve a saving, reducing the amount of energy used by a particular process, technology or facility. ECMs are often implemented these are usually conducted by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs).
EEM - Energy Efficiency Measure - A product or service designed to reduce energy consumption, use and/or increase the efficacy of said equipment when installed at the Customer’s Site.
EER - Energy Efficiency Rating - The EER for air conditioners, which is the ratio of BTUs cooling per watt of power input based on specified test conditions. The higher the EER number, the more efficient the associated equipment.
Energy Star -To earn the ENERGY STAR, a home must meet strict guidelines for energy efficiency set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These homes are at least 15% more energy efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC), and include additional energy-saving features that typically make them 20–30% more efficient than standard homes.
Energy Star Home Performance Rating- The U.S. EPA's Energy Star program has developed energy performance rating systems for several commercial and institutional building types and manufacturing facilities. These ratings, on a scale of 1 to 100, provide a means for benchmarking the energy efficiency of specific buildings and industrial plants against the energy performance of similar facilities. The ratings are used by building and energy managers to evaluate the energy performance of existing buildings and industrial plants. The rating systems are also used by EPA to determine if a building or plant can qualify to earn Energy Star recognition.

For many types of commercial buildings, you can enter energy information into EPA's free online tool, Portfolio Manager, and it will calculate a score for your building on a scale of 1-100. Buildings that score a 75 or greater may qualify for the ENERGY STAR. Portfolio Manager is an interactive energy management tool that allows you to track and assess energy and water consumption across your entire portfolio of buildings in a secure online environment. Whether you own, manage, or hold properties for investment, Portfolio Manager can help you set investment priorities, identify under-performing buildings, verify efficiency improvements, and receive EPA recognition for superior energy performance.
EPS - Energy Performance Score - Developed by Energy Trust of Oregon, provides a clear and quantitative way to compare a home's energy use and costs. The lower the score, the better—with zero being the best.
eQuest - Quick Energy Simulation Tool - A sophisticated, yet easy to use, freeware building energy use analysis tool that provides professional-level results with an affordable level of effort. eQUEST was designed to allow you to perform detailed comparative analysis of building designs and technologies by applying sophisticated building energy use simulation techniques but without requiring extensive experience in the "art" of building performance modeling. This is accomplished by combining schematic and design development building creation wizards, an energy efficiency measure (EEM) wizard and a graphical results display module with a complete up-to-date DOE-2 (version 2.2) building energy use simulation program.
EUI - Energy Use Intensity - A unit of measurement that describes a building’s energy use and represents the energy consumed by a building relative to its size. EUI values are often presented in kBtu/ft²

A building’s EUI is calculated by taking the total energy consumed in one year (measured in kBtu) and dividing it by the total floorspace of the building. For example, if a 50,000-square-foot school consumed 7,500,000 kBtu of energy last year, its EUI would be 150. A similarly sized school that consumed 9,000,000 kBtu of energy last year would have a higher EUI (180) to reflect its higher energy use. Generally, a low EUI signifies good energy performance.
DOE-2 - A widely used and accepted freeware building energy analysis program that can predict the energy use and cost for all types of buildings. DOE-2 uses a description of the building layout, constructions, operating schedules, conditioning systems (lighting, HVAC, etc.) and utility rates provided by the user, along with weather data, to perform an hourly simulation of the building and to estimate utility bills. The “plain” DOE-2 program is a “DOS box” or “batch” program which requires substantial experience to learn to use effectively while offering researchers and experts significant flexibility; eQUEST is a complete interactive Windows implementation of the DOE-2 program with added wizards and graphic displays to aid in the use of DOE-2.
HERS - Home Energy Rating Systems A process of administering diagnostic analysis to determine and produce data that provides a method of evaluation for a California State approved home energy efficiency ratings. This establishes a benchmark of a home's energy use and identifies necessary and/or best possible upgrades for homeowners.
HERS Index - Ratings provide a relative energy use index called the HERS Index – a HERS Index of 100 represents the energy use of the “American Standard Building” and an Index of 0 (zero) indicates that the Proposed Building uses no net purchased energy (a Zero Energy Building). The lower the value, the better. Each 1-point decrease in the HERS Index corresponds to a 1% reduction in energy consumption compared to the HERS Reference Home. The earlier "HERS Score", which ran in the opposite direction: The higher the value, the better.
IPMVP - International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol - Defines standard terms and suggests best practise for quantifying the results of energy efficiency investments and increase investment in energy and water efficiency, demand management and renewable energy projects. The IPMVP was developed by a coalition of international organizations (led by the United States Department of Energy) starting in 1994-1995. The Protocol has become the national measurement and verification standard in the United States and many other countries, and has been translated into 10 languages. IPMVP is published in three volumes, most widely downloaded and translated is IPMVP Volume 1 Concepts and Options for Determining Energy and Water Savings. A major driving force was the need for a common protocol to verify savings claimed by Energy Service Companies (ESCO's) implementing Energy Conservation Measures (ECM). The protocol is a framework to determine water and energy savings associated with ECMs.

IPMVP provides four Options for determining savings (A, B, C and D). The choice among the Options involves many considerations. The selection of an IPMVP Option is the decision of the designer of the M&V program for each project.
1. Option (A) - Retrofit Isolation: Key Parameter Measurement - Savings are determined by field measurement of the key performance parameter(s) which define the energy use of the ECM affected system(s) and/or the success of the project. Parameters not selected for field measurement are estimated. Estimates can be based on historical data, manufacturer’s specifications, or engineering judgment. Documentation of the source or justification of the estimated parameter is required. Typical applications may include a lighting retrofit, where the power drawn can be monitored and hours of operation can be estimated.
2. Option (B) Retrofit Isolation: All Parameter Measurement - Savings are determined by field measurement of all key performance parameters which define the energy use of the ECM-affected system. Typical applications my include a lighting retrofit where both power drawn and hours of operation are recorded.
3. Option (C) Whole Facility - Savings are determined by measuring energy use at the whole facility or sub-facility level. This approach is likely to require a regression analysis or similar to account for independent variables such as outdoor air temperature, for example. Typical examples may include measurement of a facility where several ECMs have been implemented, or where the ECM is expected to affect all equipment in a facility. Option C uses utility bills to determine energy savings. Bills may be corrected for weather.
4. Option (D) Calibrated Simulation - Savings are determined through simulation of the energy use of the whole facility, or of a sub-facility. Simulation routines are demonstrated to adequately model actual energy performance measured in the facility. This Option usually requires considerable skill in calibrated simulation. This option is rarely used, and is used primarily when thereis no pre-retrofit utility data available.
There are many situations where Option A or Option B (Metering and Calculating) is the best approach to measuring energy savings, however, some ESCOs insist upon only using Option A or Option B, when clearly Option C would be most appropriate. If the ESCO was a lighting contractor, then Option A should work in all cases. Spot measurements of fixtures before and after, agreed upon hours of operation, and simple calculations can be inserted into a spreadsheet that can calculate savings. The same spreadsheet can be used over and over. However, for ESCOs that offer a variety of different retrofits, it is necessary to be able to employ all options so that the best option can be selected for each individual job. Controls Retrofits, or retrofits to HVAC systems are typically excellent candidates for Option C .
M&V - Measurement and Verification - The term given to the process for quantifying savings delivered by an Energy Conservation Measure (ECM), as well as the sub-sector of the energy industry involved with this practice. M&V demonstrates how much energy the ECM has avoided using, rather than the total cost saved. The latter can be affected by many factors, such as energy prices. The M&V process enables the energy savings delivered by the ECM to be isolated and fairly evaluated. A key part of the process is the development of an ‘M&V Plan’, which defines how the savings analysis will be conducted before the ECM is implemented. This provides a degree of objectivity that is absent if the savings are simply evaluated after implementation.
Net Zero Energy Home - A home that has a net annual Time Dependent Valued (TDV)
Energy consumption of zero, accounting for both energy consumption and the use of on‐site
renewable energy production.
Performance Rating Types
1. Operational Rating
  • Example: U.S. EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager
  • Rating based on actual energy usage, adjusted for weather
  • No inherent requirement for ﬁeld veriﬁcation
  • Ratings typically adjusted based on levels of service
  • Good for use in existing building energy efﬁciency incentive programs
  • Good for managing building portfolios over time
2. Asset Rating
  • Examples: RESNET and CEC Home Energy Rating Systems
  • Rates the building, not the occupant
  • Focus is on the physical building assets, plus permanent energy systems
  • Differences in operational behavior are ignored
  • Rating is derived from a model-based estimate of energy usage, compared to a stock median or building code baseline
  • Field veriﬁcation is a requirement
  • Good for valuing building performance within a ﬁnancial transaction
  • Good for energy efﬁciency code compliance and beyond code new construction incentive program
TDV - Time Dependent Valued - Energy means the time varying energy used by the building to determine the home energy rating pursuant to these regulations. TDV Energy accounts for the energy used at the building site and consumed in producing and delivering energy to a site, including, but not limited to, power generation, and transmission and distribution losses.
White Tags - Certificates used by private investors for capitalizing a building’s energy performance in the mortgage loan, and used by the US government for verification of building energy performance for such programs as federal tax incentives, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program
.

3. Business Case

Mandatory building energy ratings– seeks to transform markets by requiring that meaningful information about building energy performance be disclosed to potential buyers, renters and the public. Though mandatory building energy rating disclosure policies involve a wide array of specific policy and design choices, they coalesce around a few key concepts:

Time of Sale Triggers - When selling a home or building, owners must disclose a valid energy rating to potential buyers. The rating indicates current performance and potential improvements, providing meaningful information to consumers and empowering them to consider energy performance in their decisionmaking. Armed with information, some consumers will give preference to more energy efficient homes, enabling markets to value energy performance, and providing a greater return on investment to projects aimed at improving building energy performance.
Time of Rental Triggers - The same process applies at the time of rental (this requirement may be phased in at a subsequent stage).
Scheduled Disclosure (Operations) - Commercial building owners must obtain a simplified, standardized rating, indicating their annual “operating” performance. This enables owners and building managers to measure their performance annually, to institute continuous improvement practices, to benchmark against other buildings (within or outside of their own fleet), and to establish performance targets in their annual plans and objectives. Policies can also require that ratings be displayed in prominent locations within the building or published in a publicly-available database.

First adopted over a decade ago in Australia and Denmark, mandatory building energy rating policies are now in place in more than 30 countries worldwide. They are also increasingly being considered, adopted or implemented in the U.S., in states like California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and New Mexico, and in cities like Austin, New York and Washington, D.C. Indeed, the past year has seen a flurry of activity around this policy opportunity in the U.S., including landmark legislation currently being debated in both houses of Congress.

4. Benefits

Education - The home buyer is more educated about what they are actually buying. The utility bill represents a substantial cost every month and this can very greatly from house to house depending on how "tight" the house is.
Buyer Cost Savings - If a new home buyer doesn't have an energy audit or any report about the current condition of the building they could be looking at $5-10K in renovations on top of the asking price. Realtors can recommend during inspection to have this done and the current owner either fixes the leaks or reduces the price.
Green Jobs - Auditing creates a new business sector - could be a good thing for those seeking employment. We will collect lots of data but after the audits are completed submitted what happens. Is there a plan to take action on the results and actually do something?

5. Risks/Issues

Bureaucracy - All it does is add another $1,000 or more to the cost of selling a house on top of all the other fees. It's just another piece of bureaucracy imposed by government.
Cost - The cost (HERS ratings are $500 - $1500, audits are a $200-$500), the burden, and the unregulated nature of the auditing market.
Lack of Standards - There is no standard to perform an energy audit. LEED, Green Globes, Energy Star, ..ect. have excellent criteria, but they are not standards such as entitlements or building codes.
Gaps in Energy Star coverage - Only 44% of California Commercial buildings can qualify for an Energy Star rating.
Split Incentive - Owners don’t make efficiency investments because it’s the renters who pay the energy bills. And renters don’t make investments in property they don’t own. The result is housing that wastes energy and costs more than it should.

One solution takes advantage of the lease or rental agreement: “green leases” enable owners to spend money on efficiency improvements and recoup their costs by raising rent by the same amount as the realized energy savings, minus a smaller agreed on amount which gets passed on to the renter. In other words, if an efficiency investment to the renter’s unit generates $100 of monthly energy savings, the rent might go up $80 per month. Although the rent increases, the tenant’s total housing bill goes down by $20. It’s a win for both parties. The tenant would start saving money right away, and over time the landlord would recoup his initial investment (and even make money), through the higher rents.
Floor Area - Floor area is a major source of error in EUI calculations and is frequently misreported 9Sharp, 1996). There are also many different ways of defining floor area and inconsistencies in how it is calculated. For example, parking garages are sometimes included in floor area calculations and sometimes not. In CBECS, floor area is rounded off for all buildings, producing errors in EUI estimates of 5-10 percent. Overall this is not seen to be a problem; however, the distribution tails are more affected, and for smaller buildings, the error can be
up to 14-25 percent (Sharp, 1998)
Unregulated Loads - Currently, no standard process exists to evaluate “unregulated loads” in buildings such as plug loads, commercial refrigeration and vertical transportation. In fact, energy models created for the purposes of code compliance often fail to account for such unregulated loads altogether, resulting in significant discrepancies between the predicted and actual energy use of a building.
Automatic Reference Building Generation - To rate the efficiency of an actual subject building, energy modelers frequently construct energy models of “reference buildings” -- hypothetical buildings identical in many respects to the subject buildings. The modeler then compares the energy consumption of the subject building to code-compliant baseline and often expresses the result for the subject building as “x% better or worse than code.” Currently most energy modeling software cannot automatically generate reference buildings. COMNET will help existing modeling software to add the ability to automatically generate multiple reference buildings corresponding to multiple efficiency standards.

6. Success Factors

New auditing software packages are coming online to reduce the cost, improve the modeling, and provide better information to the client.
The market is evolving and becoming more uniform due to the growth and focus on home energy efficiency.
Real-time integration and visibility of building management systems, metering subsystems, and asset management applications.
Automated, real-time analysis and reporting of key performance indicators associated with subsystem operations, energy use, and equipment maintenance management.
Recommendations for results-oriented energy usage and maintenance program refinements that will enable energy reduction targets to be met or exceeded.
On-going monitoring of subsystems to continually expand energy conservation efforts and maintenance management improvements for further cost reductions.
Independent verification of ESCO and other Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) programs.
Information must be credible, reliable, and replicable.
Information must be transparent and easy to understand.
Collecting information and generating a rating must be affordable.\
Opportunities identified must be relevant and practical.
Program must include effective quality assurance.
Rating must recognize building energy performance across the full range of building efficiency.

7. Next Steps

Seattle, which aims to reduce energy use 20% by 2020, opted for mandatory energy efficiency reporting. 860 buildings with more than 50,000 square feet must report by Oct 1, 2011 and another 8,000 buildings with more than 10,000 square feet by Apr 1, 2012.
Aug 1, 2011 was the deadline for 16,000 large buildings in New York City— representing half of its interior space — to report how much energy they used in the past year or face $500 quarterly fines. The city will post the data on a public website next year.
Energy Efficiency Reporting will be required in San Francisco starting in October 2011, Click here to see the ordinance.
In Washington DC, the new ENERGY STAR® benchmarking requirements of the Green Building Act for commercial buildings over 200,000 sf took effect July 1, 2011. However, because building owners will need the additional guidance and tools provided by District Dept of the Environment'S (DDOE's) forthcoming regulation, they will not be required to submit data until the rulemaking process is complete. For example, neither the final list of data points that must be entered into the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager tool or the on-line reporting template for submitting data to DDOE will be available until the rule is final.

DDOE continues to move the draft regulation through the approval process and anticipates publishing the draft regulations in early July for a 30-day public comment period. DDOE does not have a specific effective date for the final rule, but anticipates an effective date in October. This would include the 30-day comment period, time to make any necessary modifications, and the DC Council review period of up to 45 days.

7. Companies and Organizations

Energy Foundation - San Francisco - A partnership of major donors interested in solving the world's energy problems. It's mission is to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy — new technologies that are essential components of a clean energy future.
Energy Upgrade California - A one-stop-shop for home improvement projects that lower your energy use, conserve water and natural resources, and make your home healthier and more comfortable.
EVO - Efficiency Valuation Organization - The only non-profit organization in the world solely dedicated to creating measurement and verification (M&V) tools to allow efficiency to flourish. Their vision is a global market that properly values the efficiency resource, enabling and assisting the optimal investment in these opportunities. EVO created a set of guidelines for ESCOs to adhere to in evaluating the savings achieved by ECMs. These guidelines are called the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP)
CalCERTS - Folsom, CA - Approved by the California Energy Commission in 2003 to become a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Provider. CalCERTS, Inc. is a private organization that provides service, support, training and certification to HERS raters.

HERS raters are independent contractors who are either independently operated or who sub-contract to larger energy rating firms. Raters charge their customers for site ratings and pay a fee to CalCERTS, Inc. for processing the ratings and issuing certification.

CalCERTS, Inc. has developed and owns its own software which is approved by the California Energy Commission and is utilized by the HERS rater to enter rating data. CalCERTS, Inc. maintains the computer based registry of data as a repository of information that can be accessed by the HERS rater, building departments, contractors and government agencies.
CBPCA - California Building Performance Contractors Association -A non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the energy demands in California and developing industry leaders in the burgeoning field of building energy efficiency. CBPCA is one of three HERS Providers licensed by the California Energy Commission to train, test, manage and audit building energy efficiency professionals including:Field Verification and Diagnostic Testing Raters for alterations only.
CHEERS - California Home Energy Efficiency Rating System - In consultation with the California Energy Commission, CHEERS has decided to stop accepting new projects that are subject to the 2008 California Building Energy Efficiency Standards, effective at midnight, October 15, 2010. CHEERS is taking this action because it is not in compliance with the August 2009 Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Regulations for data registry requirements. It is working with new software developers on a fast track to improve both the CHEERS registry and database so that they are fully in compliance with the HERS regulations. The California Energy Commission will review and approve the registry and database before CHEERS will restart accepting new projects.
RESNET - Residential Energy Services Network - Founded in April 1995 by the National Association of State Energy Officials and Energy Rated Homes of America to develop a national market for home energy rating systems and energy efficient mortgages.

RESNET's standards are officially recognized by the federal government for verification of building energy performance for such programs as federal tax incentives, the Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR program and the U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Program. RESNET standards are also recognized by the U.S. mortgage industry for capitalizing a building's energy performance in the mortgage loan, and certification of "White Tags" for private financial investor.

7. Links

Home Energy Saver - Lawerence Berkeley Labs
Energy Auditor Talk - An energy auditing forum for weatherization professionals who want to stay up to date and take advantage of new green building practices.
scale.
NASCO - National Association of Energy Service Companies is a national trade association which has been promoting the benefits of the widespread use of energy efficiency for over 25 years.
Valuing Building Energy Efficiency Through Disclosure And Upgrade Policies Dunsky Energy Consulting– November 2009
California Energy Commission (CEC) Documents and meeting videos for AB 1103 Commercial Building Energy Use Disclosure Program
Development of a California Commercial Building Energy Benchmarking Database Satkartar Kinney and Mary Ann Piette, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Transmission Planning

2011-11-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Supplying renewable energy from wind in the High Plains and solar in the Dessert Southwest will require multi-billion-dollar investments in extra-high voltage transmission extending across state lines.

California Wind Resource Map - New transmission is needed to bring wind energy from the deserts and mountains to the population centers

Navigate this Report
Back to Transmission Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Success Criteria
7. Next Steps
8. Projects
9. Links

1.Background

Currently, almost 300,000 MW of proposed wind projects, more than 10 times the current installed wind capacity in the U.S., are waiting in line to connect to the grid but are unable to proceed because of adequate grid capacity. (20percentwind.org) Renewable resources have the potential to generate a far higher percentage of the electricity in the US than they do today. The lack of adequate electric transmission capacity is a primary obstacle to achieving this goal because many of the best potential renewable energy resources are located in rural areas far from population centers.
Because of the long distances involved in bringing renewable wind and solar power to urban areas, transmission lines will often not benefit the local states they run through. Transmission Planning has historically been accomplished at the state level. Now there is a growing call to balance overall national needs and get FERC more involved in the planning process.
Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in California and other require substantial increases in the generation of electricity from renewable resources. Extensive improvements, however, are needed to California's electric transmission infrastructure to get the electricity generated by new renewable power facilities to consumers. California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) calls for 20% of electricity to come from renewables in 2010 and 33% by 2020. The 2010 target has not yet been met. According to a June 2009 study by the California PUC, four major new transmission lines were needed at a cost of $4 billion. To meet a 33% RPS by 2020 target, 11 new transmission lines will be needed at a projected cost of $16 billion. Three of these lines are currently under way, but CPUC predicts that even if implementation on all the other lines were to start today, it would take another 14 years to achieve the 33 percent renewable goal. The CPUC is continuing to work on this issue including this May 17, 2011 workshop on Transmission Needed to Meet State Renewable Policy Mandates and Goals
The deregulation of America’s utilities in the 1990s encouraged companies to transfer power over long distances. The regulatory regime shifted the operations of the electric utility industry, creating larger and more frequent bulk power transfers across a transmission system designed largely for local intrastate service. At the same time, regulatory uncertainty and increased competition led to reduced investment in new transmission lines. While the United States has hundreds of thousands miles of high-voltage transmission lines, only 668 additional miles of interstate transmission were built in the first decade of the 21st Century. As a result, some parts of the system have become increasingly congested.
The transmission siting process can be a difficult debate. A mixture of local, state and federal government agencies hold jurisdiction over who can build what, where they can build it, when they can build it and who pays for it. Cost allocation reform is one of the most difficult issues facing transmission service providers and regional market operators. A Dec 2010 FERC decision stating that all parties who benefit from new transmission in the Midwest must share in the cost of building will facilitate construction of new transmission lines. The decision is the culmination of a push over much of the last decade by renewables advocates in the Midwest to get utilities and transmission system planners and operators to think more about wind power but is expected to apply where new wires are built to accommodate other renewable energy resources.
There is an important distinction between building new wires and incorporating digital intelligence and communication capabilities into a wires network. They are potentially related, but different, and should be treated as such. The application of digital communication technology in the wires network falls disproportionately in the distribution network , not in the high-voltage transmission network. Transmission Planning is also different from some of the interesting approaches to transmission line control and sensing, including ideas for self-healing autonomous networks.
Load is growing at almost double the rate of growth in transmission capacity and most regions have very limited plans to expand generation and transmission facilities. Traditional planning and operations practices, the current delivery infrastructure is not capable of bringing renewable-energy generation online at a capacity that is consistent with the amount of construction needed.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

ACELA - American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009 - While this legislation did not pass in part due to the controversy around Cap and Trade, the bills provisions to link the Country with a Reliable Transmission Grid are still relevant. The bill would have
1. Established the policy that the transmission infrastructure should be guided by the following goals:
  - Support for development of renewable generation
  - Opportunities for reduced emissions
  - Cost savings resulting from reduced congestion, enhanced opportunities for trades, reduced line losses, generation sharing
  - Enhanced fuel diversity
  - Reliability benefits
  - Diversification of risk
  - Enhancement of competition and mitigation of market power
  - Ability to collocate facilities on existing rights-of-way
  - Competing land use priorities
  - The needs of load-serving entities; and
  - The contribution of demand response, energy efficiency and distributed generation.
2. Required FERC to coordinate development of an interconnection-wide plan that achieves the policy goals, from plans developed by current planning entities; FERC must promulgate a rule to embody the policy goals and develop a schedule to implement
  those policies within one year of enactment.
3. Transmission planning entities to develop regional plans and submit them to FERC within 24 months. The Commission will encourage joint submissions and submission of interconnection-wide plans. FERC may require modification of submitted plans to ensure conformance to planning principles and to reconcile inconsistencies.
4. FERC to periodically evaluate whether projects in the interconnection-wide plan are being developed, and if not take actions, in accordance with other provisions of law, to address identified obstacles.
5. Make recommendations to Congress for further actions or authority needed to ensure development of timely projects.
6. Update the plan every three years.
7. Allow States one year from time of filing of a proposal to site a high priority national transmission project.
8. Give FERC jurisdiction over siting when states have either been unable to site the facility or have denied the application. Jurisdiction is over facilities 345 kilovolts and above that are included in the transmission plan. FERC must establish, by rule, appropriate methodologies for allocation of costs of high priority national transmission projects.
9. Give the Department of the Interior lead agency status for development of records of decision on public lands.
Avoidance Areas - Areas within Candidate Study Areas and/or Renewable Energy Zones where development of renewable energy resources should not occur because of purpose, policy, or other restrictions related to environmental, land use or other issues.
Busbar Cost - The per megawatt-hour revenue that a project would have to earn in order to break even on all development and operating costs, other than network transmission. Busbar cost includes any collector lines bringing power from dispersed generators to a central interconnection point on the transmission system. The busbar is the point at which the aggregate output of multiple units is metered, and is the point at which the units become subject to power-control area dispatch instructions.
CSA - Candidate Study Area - An initial modification of National Renewable Energy Lab base resource maps including any criteria identified by the work groups for Zone Identification and Technical Analysis and Environment and Lands. The Candidate Study Areas incorporate filters to identify a minimum threshold of developable resources, as well as state/province specific criteria. Identifying CSAs is an interim step the WREZ work groups will take in the process of developing proposed Renewable Energy Zones.
Collector Line/System - A single or group of transmission lines that links one generator or a group of generators to the bulk power grid. Small generators will likely be dispersed throughout a REZ. The collector feeder lines from the generators will all converge at the centroid that connects to the bulk transmission grid.
CTPG - The California Transmission Planning Group - An industry lead forum for conducting joint transmission planning and coordination in transmission activities to meet the needs of California consistent with FERC Order 890. CTPG is developing a California state-wide transmission plan to meet the state's 33% by 2020 renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goal and is using the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) conceptual plan as a starting point. CTPG issued its Draft Final 2010 California Transmission Planning Group Statewide Transmission Plan in February 2011.
DRECP - Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan - Ordered by California Governor Executive Order in 2008 for the Mojave and Colorado deserts. When complete it will provide binding, long-term endangered species permit assurances and facilitate renewable energy project review and approval processes. To oversee the implementation of the DRECP, a Renewable Energy Action Team (REAT) was formed consisting of the California Natural Resources Agency, California Energy Commission, California Department of Fish and Game, Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed by the participating agencies. Others joining the team include the California Public Utilities Commission, California Independent System Operator, National Parks Service, and the Department of Defense.
Exclusion Areas - Areas within Candidate Study Areas and/or Renewable Energy Zones where development is already precluded by statute or regulation (federal, provincial, state or local).
Federal Lands Managers - Transmission facilities sometimes pass through federally owned lands; if they do, federal agencies, such as the Department of Interior or the Department of Defense, become involved in the siting process. These federal agencies play a significant role in the transmission siting process because they control such massive swathes of land in the country, particularly in the western United States. Yet, their main mission has little to do with transmission lines. A state siting authority cannot preempt a federal land manager.
FERC – Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - Regulates interstate electricity transmission. Section 216 of the Federal Power Act (FPA), which was added in 2005, gives FERC jurisdiction in certain circumstances to issue permits for the construction or modification of electric transmission facilities in areas designated as national interest corridors by the Secretary of Energy.
FERC Order 890 - Issued in 2007 among other things requires public utility transmission providers to participate in open transmission planning processes at the local and regional level. Each transmission provider must file a new Attachment K as part of its open access transmission tariff that describes its transmission planning process and how its process meets the following nine transmission planning principles: 1) Coordination 2) Openness 3) Transparency 4) Information Exchange 5) Comparability 6) Dispute Resolution 7) Regional Participation 8) Congestion Studies 9) Cost allocation
FERC Order 1000 - A Final Rule issued in July 2011 that reforms the Commission’s electric transmission planning and cost allocation requirements for public utility transmission providers. The rule builds on the reforms of Order No. 890 and corrects remaining deficiencies with respect to transmission planning processes and cost allocation methods. The bottom line is it will force larger-scale plans to be produced everywhere.

Simply put, FERC is proposing to include "public policy" into the list of criteria regulators can consider when allocating "just and reasonable" costs associated with new transmission. The rule also encourages a more regional approach. Who benefits has been the guiding standard for decades. A group of Senators opposed to the NOPR have submitted legislation that would essentially head off the new rules at the pass.
Load Center - Major cities or metropolitan areas with large concentrated populations. Load centers consume large amounts of electricity.
LSE - Load-Serving Entity - The broad term to describe entities that delivers electricity to end-users and wholesale customers, typically utility companies.
MVP - Multi Value Project - A Dec 2010 FERC decision defines MVPs as wires having a regional impact and wide-ranging public benefit.
National Electric Transmission Congestion Study - As required by EPACT05, DOE issued the first Study in August 2006. Additional studies are required every three years. The study identified two areas of critical congestion: Southern California and the eastern coastal area from metropolitan New York to Northern Virginia. This congestion study included detailed information on the transmission congestion in the western United States but did not provide comparable detail on congestion in the eastern United States. In determining whether to designate national interest electric transmission corridors, DOE is required to identify transmission congestion that adversely affects consumers. However, EPACT05 does not define “congestion that adversely affects consumers,” nor does it require empirical analysis of the specific adverse effects of transmission congestion.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy, National Electric Transmission Congestion Study (2006), p. 33.
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National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor - As a result of EPACT05, DOE designated two corridors on October 2, 2007: The Mid-Atlantic Area National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor and the Southwest Area National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor based on the 2006 congestion study. This designation allows FERC, under certain circumstances to authorize “the construction or modification of electric transmission facilities.” A permit holder would still need to obtain rights-of-way from property owners. If the permit holder is not able to successfully negotiate with each affected property owner, then FERC would entitle a permit holder to acquire the rights-of-way by exercising the right of eminent domain.

A National Corridor designation itself does not preempt State authority or any State actions, including action to approve or order the implementation of non-transmission solutions to congestion and constraint problems..
NEPA - National Environmental Policy Act
NREZ – National Renewable Energy Zones - Proscribed in pending S.539, each NREZ would have the potential to generate in excess of 1 gigawatt of electricity from renewable energy and have an insufficient level of electric transmission capacity to achieve this potential.
QRA - Qualified Resource Area - Those lands with the greatest energy density within a contiguous area for each respective state. A QRA excludes any lands with statutory or regulatory development limitations and limitations related to topography, ground cover, or urban settlement.
RETI - Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative - An initiative lead by the California Energy Commission to help identify the transmission projects needed to accommodate these renewable energy goals, support future energy policy, and facilitate transmission corridor designation and transmission and generation siting and permitting. Phases 1 and 2 of the RETI project resulted in the identification and refinement of Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZs) that hold the greatest potential for cost-effective and environmentally responsible renewable development. Due to time constraints, several modifications to the RETI analysis were not included in the final Phase 2A report. The final Phase 2B Report, issued in May 2010, documents key changes made in the economic model, technology assumptions, competitive renewable energy zones, and out of-state (OOS) resources. Click here for the RETI Reports page.
REZ - Renewable Energy Zone - Areas with high concentrations of developable renewable energy resources that can meet regional energy demand. Non-REZ resources serve sub-regional or in-state demand. They primarily serve load in the same locality, state or utility service area. They do not need to be concentrated in one place in order to be developed, as development is unambiguously within the regulatory purview of the state where the resource is located. Finally, the ability of any state to develop them is largely unaffected by policies in neighboring states.
Supply Curve - A representation of the amount of renewable energy capacity that is economically developable from an area, and the cost at which increments of the total can be developed. The curve depicts projects and potential projects in ascending order according to their busbar costs. A Renewable Energy Zone supply curve includes and identifies all economically developable renewable energy technology categories contained in the REZ.
TAC - Transmission Access Charge - Within RTO/ISO markets, most of which have multi-state footprints. The developer transmission owner (IOU or independent Transco) can choose whether or not to recover project costs through the ISO’s TAC. If the owner elects TAC recovery, then project costs are allocated among all load serving entities who are ISO market participants in proportion to the amount of load they serve.The financial transmission rights created by the specific project must be released and made available to all market participants through FERC-approved allocation and/or auction processes. If the owner elects not to recover project costs through TAC (“merchant transmission”), then the owner can obtain a long-term allocation of transmission rights from the ISO that reflects the incremental value of the capacity added by the project to the RTO/ISO controlled grid. This hybrid RTO/ISO cost recovery mechanism seems to be working in practice.
Transmission Segment - A transmission segment defines a discrete distance from two points along a transmission path. Transmission segments were identified in the WREZ project to calculate the distances from Renewable Energy Zones to load centers.
WECC - Western Electricity Coordinating Council - An organization that promotes and regulates electric reliability across the Western Interconnection. WECC also conducts transmission planning and supports Western power markets. In 2005, peak summer demand for electricity in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council area was 149,147 MW.
Western Interconnection - A synchronized electric grid that spans 1.8 million square miles from the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, to the northern part of Baja California, Mexico. In addition to the Western Interconnection, there are the Eastern Interconnection and the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in the United States.
WGWC - Western Governors’ Wildlife Council – Established by The Western Governors’ Association to coordinate and oversee implementation of the WGA Wildlife Corridors report endorsed by the Governors in June 2008. Each WGA member Governor appoints a representative to the WGWC. The mission of the WGWC is to identify key wildlife corridors and crucial habitats in the West and coordinate implementation of needed policy options and tools to conserve those landscapes.
WREZ - Western Renewable Energy Zones – An initiative launched by The Western Governors' Association and U.S. Department of Energy in May 2008. The WREZ seeks to identify those areas in the West with vast renewable resources to expedite the development and delivery of renewable energy to where it is needed. Renewable energy resources are being analyzed within 11 states, two Canadian provinces, and areas in Mexico that are part of the Western Interconnection.

3. Business Case

A truly national clean-energy smart grid must consist of two distinct components: an interstate sustainable transmission grid that will transport clean utility-scale renewable energy long distances to market, and a digital “smart distribution grid” to deliver this electricity efficiently to local consumers. The absence of a national grid that seamlessly integrates these two components is one of the biggest impediments to large-scale deployment of low-carbon electricity.
Federal and State Governments need to implement policies that enhance the quantity of electric transmission capacity available to take full advantage of the renewable energy resources available to generate electricity, and to more fully integrate renewable energy into the energy policies of the United States.
The question of transmission planning predominantly is still on the economic value of the construction of additional transmission infrastructure. There are two methodologies to fund this investment:

Socialization of the costs of transmission requires the utility, and by extension its ratepayers, pay for all the new lines and upgrades to the transmission system.
Participant Funding Process requires the developer to pay for all the upgrades in exchange for valuable transmission rights or credits for future transmission service

Failure to answer the question of who pays for what investment could stop new investment in transmission in its tracks. Ultimately, electricity customers pay for all the investments in transmission in some way.
The Federal Government is taking a more active role in transmission planning. Order No. 890 of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – Reforms FERC’s decade-old open-access transmission regulatory framework that will ensure transmission service is provided on a nondiscriminatory and just and reasonable basis, as well as provide for more effective regulation and transparency in the operation of the transmission grid. The final rule is designed to:

Strengthen the pro forma open-access transmission tariff, or OATT, to ensure that it achieves its original purpose of remedying undue discrimination
Provide greater specificity to reduce opportunities for undue discrimination and facilitate the Commission’s enforcement
Increase transparency in the rules applicable to planning and use of the transmission system.

FERC Order 1000 - A Final Rule issued in July 2011 reforms the Commission’s electric transmission planning and cost allocation requirements for public utility transmission providers. The rule builds on the reforms of Order No. 890 and corrects remaining deficiencies with respect to transmission planning processes and cost allocation methods. Simply put, FERC is proposing to include "public policy" into the list of criteria regulators can consider when allocating "just and reasonable" costs associated with new transmission. The rule also encourages a more regional approach. Who benefits has been the guiding standard for decades. The bottom line is it will force larger-scale plans to be produced everywhere. (FERC Order 1000 Explained - AOL Energy/FERC)

FERC Planning Regions - This map generally depicts the borders of regional transmission planning processes through which transmission providers have complied with Order No. 890. Those borders may not be depicted precisely for several reasons (e.g., not all transmission providers complying with Order No. 890 have a defined service territory). Additionally, transmission planning regions could alter because transmission providers may choose to change region

A group of Senators opposed to the NOPR have submitted legislation that would essentially head off the new rules at the pass. Hearings have also been requested before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but it is unlikely that panel will hold any until the final rule is released. The beneficiary is a major sticking point. Are they limited by proximity? If so, how far?

Planning Reforms - The rule establishes three requirements for transmission planning:

Each public utility transmission provider must participate in a regional transmission planning process that satisfies the transmission planning principles of Order No. 890 and produces a regional transmission plan.
Local and regional transmission planning processes must consider transmission needs driven by public policy requirements established by state or federal laws or regulations. Each public utility transmission provider must establish procedures to identify transmission needs driven by public policy requirements and evaluate proposed solutions to those transmission needs.
Public utility transmission providers in each pair of neighboring transmission planning regions must coordinate to determine if there are more efficient or cost-effective solutions to their mutual transmission needs.

Cost Allocation Reforms - The rule establishes three requirements for transmission cost allocation:

Each public utility transmission provider must participate in a regional transmission planning process that has a regional cost allocation method for new transmission facilities selected in the regional transmission plan for purposes of cost allocation. The method must satisfy six regional cost allocation principles.
Public utility transmission providers in neighboring transmission planning regions must have a common interregional cost allocation method for new interregional transmission facilities that the regions determine to be efficient or cost-effective. The method must satisfy six similar interregional cost allocation principles.
Participant-funding of new transmission facilities is permitted, but is not allowed as the regional or interregional cost allocation method.

Nonincumbent Developer Reforms - Public utility transmission providers must remove from Commission-approved tariffs and agreements a federal right of first refusal for a transmission facility selected in a regional transmission plan for purposes of cost allocation, subject to four limitations:

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chief of staff Howard Shafferman, now a lawyer at Ballard Spahr, says in this video interview that while he basic principles of regional transmission planning are widely understood, cost allocation issues will continue to be contentious.

In California, the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) identified the transmission projects needed to accommodate these renewable energy goals, support future energy policy, and facilitate transmission corridor designation and transmission and generation siting and permitting.

RETI assessed all competitive renewable energy zones in California and possibly also in neighboring states that can provide significant electricity to California consumers by the year 2020. RETI also will identify those zones that can be developed in the most cost effective and environmentally benign manner and will prepare detailed transmission plans for those zones identified for development. RETI work is organized into three phases

:

Phase 1: Identification and ranking of Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) in California and neighboring regions; Phase 1B Final Report Posted: January 5, 2009.
Phase 2: Development of a statewide conceptual transmission plan to access priority CREZ, based on more detailed analysis of CREZ The final Phase 2B Report, issued in May 2010, documents key changes made in the economic model, technology assumptions, competitive renewable energy zones, and out of-state (OOS) resources.
Phase 3: Development of detailed plans of service for priority components of the statewide transmission plan.
Click here for the RETI Reports page.

4. Benefits

Economic Efficiencies - More efficient use of existing transmission capacity, better integration of resources, and greater investments in distributed renewable generation and off-grid solutions may increase the availability of transmission and distribution capacity for adding renewable resources and help keep ratepayer costs low and provides substantial economic benefits, including job creation and technology development
GHG Reduction - Electricity produced from renewable resources helps to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants
National Security - enhances national energy security; conserves water and finite resources
Reduced Curtailments, - For example, wind farms in West Texas get curtailed routinely at night because there’s not enough transmission capacity. It leads to storage economics and other things, as well as the C/Res zones. If we can reduce the system costs associated with renewable energy, whether it’s transmission capacity, or additional controls, or operating measures then that’s good.

5. Risks/Issues

Transmission for Renewables is Relatively Expensive - Wind and Solar have capacity factors well on the low side of 40% meaning the lines are several times larger than the average power output demands so the cost per MWh-mile is a lot higher. In addition, these lines are a lot longer than would be required to be run from more conventional plants to load centers.
Cost Allocation - Cost allocation reform is one of the most difficult issues facing transmission service providers and regional market operators. FERC is proposing to include "public policy" into the list of criteria regulators can consider when allocating "just and reasonable" costs associated with new transmission. The rule also encourages a more regional approach. Who benefits has been the guiding standard for decades.

The controversy has spawned a contentious debate, with advocates of a narrower view of regulators' discretion would codify a more narrow definition of beneficiaries.
Environmental Impacts can result from large renewable generation facilities,

A permanent loss of habitat for protected wildlife species and special status plants would occur. The availability of adequate mitigation land to compensate is uncertain, especially for expansive solar projects.
Large projects would create blockage of wildlife corridors, potentially constraining or eliminating important linkages between sensitive population groups.
Birds and bats can collide with wind turbines if located in areas with notable or threatened avian populations.
A permanent change in the visual character of open spaces or agricultural areas would occur, inserting large expanses of industrial features to previously uninterrupted vistas. Desert views would also be affected by glare from the mirrors and towers used in some solar thermal technologies. Wind turbines would alter hilltop and ridgeline views.
Limited supplies of groundwater would be used for regular cleaning of thousands of mirrors and panels for solar installations.
Public lands in the desert would be converted from open space, available for multiple uses such as recreation, mining, and grazing, to a single exclusive purpose – power generation.
A cumulative loss of resources would occur as the impacts above are realized throughout California – especially in the desert, where over 100 projects are already proposed.

Fragmented Decision Making - Existing transmission planning processes are fragmented across many jurisdictions, which results in difficult coordination between jurisdictions, delays in implementation of plans, and complex negotiations on sharing of cost. The Federal Government has not adequately supported or implemented an integrated approach to accelerating the development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy technologies, renewable electricity generation, and transmission to bring renewable energy to market. The fact that power lines traverse federal and tribal lands also may complicate the process.
Fragmented Utility Industry Structure - Before deregulation, the power industry consisted mainly of companies that owned and operated power plants and power lines. There was no question about who would build new power lines to connect to new power plants; the same company built and operated all the lines and the power plants within its system. The new power industry consists of many power plants, built and owned by independent companies; power lines are owned by regulated companies. Generating companies must connect their power plants to the power grid. The challenge is to allocate those costs among the generators and the regulated transmission companies. The transmission company that builds the lines bears risks associated with recovering costs in the regulatory process. That company also must raise the money to make the investment.
Funding Models - The wind industry has been strongly pushing for state, regional, and federal policy solutions to more broadly distribute the costs of transmission investments, as FERC’s ruling does today. Unfortunately, other regions of the country are considering policies aimed in the opposite direction, moving back towards a model requiring the next wind plant waiting in line to connect to the grid to pay for all of the cost of upgrading the grid. According to AWEA, such a policy is akin to requiring the next car entering a congested highway to pay the full cost of adding a new lane.
States Rights - There has been push-back in the courts on FERC review of state transmission planning decisions. On Feb 18, 2009, in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, two state utilities commissions and two community interest organizations petitioned for review of several rulemaking decisions made by FERC . The Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy — an industry group made up of 10 big utilities including Southern Co., Consolidated Edison, Alliant, DTE Energy, PPL, Progress Energy and PSEG — says it will lobby to change proposed Senate legislation that it says could unfairly spread the costs of building big new transmission lines across multiple states. Or, to put it another way, “states and regions that get the benefits of new transmission should be the ones to pay for them.
NIMBY - Not In My Backyard - Most people probably would prefer that transmission companies build new transmission lines where no one can see them. Transmission owners often find it difficult to identify acceptable transmission routes because few property owners welcome the prospect of having new transmission lines constructed nearby.
Geography - Space for new transmission lines may be limited. Even in areas that have a preexisting right-of-way for a transmission line, new population growth may make it difficult to install new, larger towers and lines.
Gold Plating - More utility investment than is necessary to ensure reliability
Lack of Transmission Data - Data collections that the Federal Government relies on to monitor reliability have not kept pace with the ascendancy of transmission in a restructuring industry. The Government does not have the electrical models and data necessary to verify that existing and planned transmission capability is adequate to keep the lights on.
Lack of Retail Price Signals - Until we have meaningful, relevant retail price signals and retail choice for retail consumers, it is impossible for us to know the economic value of additional transmission infrastructure. That, combined with the high level of political lobbying from Boone Pickens and others, leads me to be extremely cautious in recommending large-scale transmission infrastructure construction. What if we spend lots of money (including taxpayer money) building this network, and it turns out we were wrong about its economic value? Then we’ve just created another set of stranded assets.
Uncertainties in Carbon Policy - We cannot know the economic value to retail consumers/taxpayers of additional transmission infrastructure connecting large-scale renewables until we have an economically meaningful carbon price, which implies that carbon policy uncertainty should be resolved before we start long-distance transmission planning.
Interference - Railroads are concerned about the potential for electromagnetic interference, if AC transmission lines are run along rail right of ways. HVDC lines don’t have these interference issues. Any agreements would probably have to be negotiated with individual U.S. railroads.

6. Success Criteria

Seamless Regulatory System - It is critical that both states and the federal government set clear rules about who will pay for what. Without clear rules, many transmission companies will hesitate to build new transmission capacity, and generators will hesitate to build new power plants, potentially threatening reliability. Establish clear and complete filing requirements for siting proceedings.
Single State Entity Responsible for Transmission Siting Approval - In a few states, several government entities have responsibility to approve transmission siting proposals.
Complete, Funded Studies - Establish a fee structure whereby applicants pay for the costs of the studies required in the siting process. Ensure that the siting authority’s analysis takes into account a “what if” analysis, considering other options to meet a perceived need. Demand for electricity is volatile, despite forecasters’ best efforts to predict it. Siting proceedings may work for the best results if they allow for sensitivities from demand forecasts. Integrate generation and transmission planning; add demand resources. Include transmission corridors in urban growth plans.
Inter-State Collaboration - Enable state siting authorities to collaborate with comparable agencies in other states to review projects that cross state lines. Some transmission lines cross state boundaries, yet most state siting authorities can review only the part of the line located in their state. Coordinate state permitting processes with federal processes.
Time Limit for Decision Making - Set a statutory limit for the time allowed to consider a transmission siting application.
Identify REZ - Identify important scenic, ecological, environmental and other resources. With this information, transmission companies can avoid these areas or mitigate the visual effects of their proposals if these areas cannot be avoided.
Transparency - Integrate the public into consideration of siting proposals. Define considerations that can be evaluated and discussed in a transmission line siting case
Retail Rates - Impose retail rates that reflect actual cost differences within a service territory to promote sound siting proposals. Examine the interactions between rate caps and rate freezes and investments in transmission.

7. Next Steps

The Stimulus Bill provided assistance for the development of interconnection-based transmission plans for the Eastern and Western Interconnections, and for ERCOT. The Stimulus Bill specifically provides: “That for the purpose of facilitating the development of regional transmission plans, the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability within the DOE is provided $80 million to conduct a resource assessment and an analysis of future demand and transmission requirements after consultation with FERC.
Under the 2009 Recovery Act, the DOE released a Funding Opportunity for Resource Assessment and Interconnection-Level Transmission Analysis and Planning $60 million is available to facilitate the development or strengthening of capabilities in each of the three interconnections serving the lower 48 states of the United States, to prepare analyses of transmission requirements under a broad range of alternative futures and develop long-term interconnection-wide transmission expansion plans. The interconnections are the Western Interconnection, the Eastern Interconnection, and the Texas Interconnection. There are two broad topics: Interconnection-Level Analysis and Planning and Cooperation Among States on Electric Resource Planning and Priorities. DOE intends to make 3 awards under each topic for each interconnection. To facilitate collaboration, DOE may make an award under the Cooperation topic to more than one state in the Eastern Interconnection. The funding period is 3-5 years.

8. Projects

Tres Amigas - Clovis New Mexico- Will unite the nation's electric grid. Utilizing the latest advances in power grid technology, Tres Amigas is focused on providing the first common interconnection of America's three power grids to help the country achieve its renewable energy goals and facilitate the smooth, reliable and efficient transfer of green power from region to region.

9. Links

FERC Order 1000 Explained - AOL Energy/FERC
WIRES (Working group for Investment in Reliable and Economic electric Systems) Washington, DC - A non-profit trade association of transmission providers, customers, and equipment and service companies formed to promote investment in electric transmission and progressive State and Federal policies that advance energy markets, economic efficiency, and consumer and environmental benefits through development of electric power infrastructure.
Coordinating Interstate Electric Transmission Siting: An Introduction to the Debate The National Council on Electricity Policy July 2008
AWEA – American Wind Energy Association
WECC - Western Electricity Coordinating Council
FERC - Transmission Investment
RETI - The Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative is a statewide initiative to help identify the transmission projects needed to accommodate these renewable energy goals, support future energy policy, and facilitate transmission corridor designation and transmission and generation siting and permitting
Western Renewable Energy Zones - Phase 1 Report:Mapping concentrated, high quality resources to meet demand in the Western Interconnection's distant markets Publication number DOE-1000-2009-011.
California Energy Commission - Joint Integrated Energy Policy Report and Siting Committee Workshop on Transmission Planning Information and Policy Actions May 4, 2009
Cities Struggle With Access to Green Energy Sources
In cities across the country, officials are faced with the task of getting renewable energy from the outskirts of town to the urban centers where demand is greatest. NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels reports from Los Angeles.

Battery Storage

2011-11-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Flow batteries can turn intermittent wind power from a utility manager's headache to a green and reliable energy source

NAS (Sodium Sulfur) Flow Battery

Navigate this Report
Back to Supply Shifting Index
1. Background
2. Types of Batteries [Added Zinc Air Batteries]
3. Acronyms/Definitions
4. Business Case
5. Benefits
6. Risks/Issues
7. Next Steps
8. Companies
9. Links

1.Background

Utilities typically use batteries to provide an uninterruptible supply of electricity to power substation switchgear and to start backup power systems. However, there is an interest to go beyond these applications by performing load leveling and peak shaving with battery systems that can store and dispatch power over a period of many hours. Batteries also increase power quality and reliability for residential, commercial, and industrial customers by providing backup and ride-through during power outages.
Wind energy is entering the grid at an ever-increasing pace. As penetration levels increase, utilities are adjusting to the variable nature of wind-generated energy. Substantial penetration of such intermittent generation can place considerable, localized stress on the electricity grid in the U.S. Any need to back up these variable generators with conventional fossil-fired generators limits their positive impact on emissions production.

2. Types of Batteries

Flow Batteries - A flow battery stores and releases energy by means of a reversible electrochemical reaction between two electrolyte solutions. Flow batteries differ from conventional rechargeable batteries mainly because the power and energy ratings of a flow battery are independent of each other. This is made possible by the separation of the electrolyte and the battery stack (or fuel cell stack). Flow batteries can be thought of as a hybrid of a fuel cell and a battery. They operate by flowing a charged electrolyte from one tank to another across a charge/discharge stack and that can operate for decades. Flow battery technology utilizes an active element in a liquid electrolyte that is pumped through a membrane similar to a fuel cell to produce an electrical current. The system’s power rating is determined by the size and number of membranes, and the runtime (hours) is based on the gallons of electrolyte pumped through the membranes. Pumping in one direction produces power from the battery, and reversing the flow charges the system. early prototypes are already in commercial operation, but they need further testing.

There are four leading flow battery technologies:

Polysulfide Bromide (PSB)
Vanadium Redox (VRB)
Zinc Bromine (ZnBr)
Hydrogen Bromine (H-Br) batteries

In this VRB Flow battery, pipes and pumps carry the vanadium solution to stacks of proton exchange membranes, which transfer electrical charge and create a current

Lead-Acid Batteries - The most common form of energy storage in use today. The rapid growth of data centers to support the Internet and communications centers. These facilities are sensitive to power supply disruptions, so large battery-powered protection systems have been and will continue to be deployed to achieve a high level of protection. Powering these types of loads currently accounts for over 1.5% of the total utility power consumption in the United States. In the past, use of lead-acid batteries for utility applications such as peak shaving was tested, but the economics and life cycle characteristics were not ideal for the daily cycling capabilities desired in utility applications. Total consumption in the United States of lead-acid batteries for commercial, industrial, and automotive use is $2.9 billion per year and increasing annually at 8 percent.

The largest lead-acid battery grid energy storage installation is a 10-MW/40-MWh ﬂooded lead-acid system that was built in 1988 in Chino, CA, which is used for load leveling at the Chino substation of Southern California Edison Company. The primary advantage of the lead-acid batteries is their low capital cost and easy availability. The battery demonstrated the value of stored energy in the grid, but its limited cycling capability, along with high maintenance, made its life-cycle cost unacceptable.
Lithium Ion Batteries - Lithium-ion battery use is growing rapidly. Potential use of lithium-ion batteries for high-power transportation applications has helped drive sales in the United States to $1 billion in 2007, with future growth rates projected at 50–60% per year. THowever, because of the limited use of batteries by utilities in the United States, there is a dearth of information about their costs and benefits for utility-scale applications. This situation will likely change soon as numerous utilities have received stimulus funding for grid-scale battery projects.
NaNiCl – Sodium Nickel Chloride Battery - A high-temperature batteries operate above 250ºC and utilize molten materials to serve as the positive and negative elements of the battery The NaNiCl battery systems are utilized in Europe primarily for electric bus applications.
Ni-Metal Batteries - Nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cad) and Nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries, common to power tools, have also found applications in backup electric power applications but are being surpassed by other technologies for cost and energy-density reasons in utility applications.

Ni-metal batteries were another early electrochemical energy storage technology that was demonstrated for stationary applications. These batteries all share the same cathode (nickel oxyhydroxide in the charged state) but a diﬀerent anode that can be cadmium, zinc, hydrogen, metal-hydride, or iron. A nickelcadmium system was commissioned in 2003 in Fairbanks, Alaska, to provide 27 MW ac power for a short period of time (up to 15 min) until back generation comes online. The Ni-metal batteries are susceptible to overcharge, and their direct current DC-to-DC round-trip eﬃciency is low (<70%, round-trip eﬃciency). For the Ni-cadmium in particular, cadmium is toxic and considered a serious environmental hazard that has to be handled with special disposal means. The use of high-cost metals makes it diﬃcult to meet the cost targets for the stationary market.
NaS - Sodium-Sulfur Battery - A type of battery constructed from sodium (Na) and sulfur (S). Utilities have been using sodium sulfur (NAS) batteries in over 200 large-scale projects around the world, with roughly 300 megawatts operating in Japan and 13 megawatts operating in the United States, for a total of approximately 2000 megawatt hours of energy.

This type of battery exhibits a high energy density, high efficiency of charge/discharge (89—92%), long cycle life, and is fabricated from inexpensive materials. . These chemistries produce battery systems with very high power densities that serve well for storing large amounts of energy.
Because of the operating temperatures of 300 to 350 °C and the highly corrosive nature of the sodium polysulfide, such cells are primarily suitable for large-scale non-mobile applications. A suggested application is grid energy storage. A 6 MW, 48 MWh system has been installed at Tsunashima, Japan. Several other utilities are considering and implementing such a system. The sodium sulfur battery is a technology widely used in Japanese utilities.
The NaS battery is currently being deployed in the United States by several large utilities in demonstration projects. One noteworthy leader in applying energy storage to T&D applications is American Electric Power (AEP). AEP is deploying a 5 megawatt NaS battery to solve a transmission issue in southern Texas. AEP has stated a commitment to add 1,000 MW of energy storage to their grid by 2020.
NaS battery is currently being deployed in the United States by several large utilities in demonstration projects. The NaNiCl battery systems are utilized in Europe primarily for electric bus applications.

Lithium Air - The technology that IBM has targeted for its first move into batteries, based on its previous expertise on membrane technologies. Some researchers believe that lithium-air batteries using ambient air could achieve energy densities equivalent to that of gasoline.

Lithium-air batteries might be considered a "generation after next" technology, given the steps that remain between theory and practical application. One big problem is that it's difficult to reverse the reaction that provides power, making recharging a challenge. Some key problems include finding the right catalysts to reverse the chemical reaction at low enough energy levels, as well as advances in nanotechnology to distribute that catalyst close enough to the metals.These more advanced batteries may also require three to four times as much lithium as current batteries, which adds cost.

In July 2011, MIT researchers announced they have found a way to improve the energy density of lithium-air batteries, producing a device that could potentially pack several times more energy per pound than the lithium-ion batteries that now dominate the market for rechargeable devices in everything from cellphones to cars.

The work is a continuation of a project that last year demonstrated improved efficiency in lithium-air batteries through the use of noble-metal-based catalysts. In principle, lithium-air batteries have the potential to pack even more punch for a given weight than lithium-ion batteries because they replace one of the heavy solid electrodes with a porous carbon electrode that stores energy by capturing oxygen from air flowing through the system, combining it with lithium ions to form lithium oxides.

The new work takes this advantage one step further, creating carbon-fiber-based electrodes that are substantially more porous than other carbon electrodes, and can therefore more efficiently store the solid oxidized lithium that fills the pores as the battery discharges.

IBM says we will see battery performance jump tenfold with a lithium air battery. Lithium-air batteries store energy by combining lithium with oxygen. On a theoretical basis, lithium air can store 3,400 watt-hours of energy per liter. Lithium cobalt can store 1,450 watt hours per liter.
ZEBRA Battery - Operates at 245 °C and utilizes molten sodium aluminumchloride (NaAlCl4), which has a melting point of 157 °C , as the electrolyte. The negative electrode is molten sodium. The positive electrode is nickel in the discharged state and nickel chloride in the charged state. Because nickel and nickel chloride are nearly insoluble in neutral and basic melts, intimate contact is allowed, providing little resistance to charge transfer. Since both NaAlCl4 and Na are liquid at the operating temperature, a sodium-conducting β-alumina ceramic is used to separate the liquid sodium from the molten NaAlCl4. This battery was invented in 1985 by the Zeolite Battery Research Africa Project (ZEBRA) group led by Dr. Johan Coetzer at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa, hence the name.
Zinc-Air Battery - Electro-chemical batteries powered by oxidizing zinc with oxygen from the air. These batteries have high energy densities and are relatively inexpensive to produce. Zinc-air batteries have higher capacity-to-volume (and weight) ratio than other types of battery because air from the atmosphere is one of the battery reactants. Unlike Lithium, Zinc is one of the world’s most plentiful and inexpensive metals, stable, non toxic, energy dense, and locally available (US, Canada and Australia are three of top five global zinc producers.) Sizes range from very small button cells for hearing aids, larger batteries used in film cameras that previously used mercury batteries, to very large batteries used for electric vehicle propulsion.

Large primary zinc-air cells such as the Thomas A. Edison Industries Carbonaire type were used for railway signaling, remote communication sites, and navigation buoys.These were long-duration, low-rate applications.

The term zinc-air fuel cell usually refers to a zinc-air battery in which zinc metal is added and zinc oxide is removed continuously. Zinc electrolyte paste or pellets are pushed into a chamber, and waste zinc oxide is pumped into a waste tank or bladder inside the fuel tank. Fresh zinc paste or pellets are taken from the fuel tank. The zinc oxide waste is pumped out at a refueling station for recycling. Alternatively, this term may refer to an electrochemical system in which zinc is a co-reactant assisting the reformation of hydrocarbons at the anode of a fuel cell.

Rechargeable zinc-air cells are a difficult design problem since zinc precipitation from the water-based electrolyte must be closely controlled. The problems are dendrite formation, non-uniform zinc dissolution and limited solubility in electrolytes. Electrically reversing the reaction at a bi-functional air cathode, to liberate oxygen from discharge reaction products, is difficult; membranes tested to date have low overall efficiency. Charging voltage is much higher than discharge voltage, producing cycle energy efficiency as low as 50%. Providing charge and discharge functions by separate uni-functional cathodes, increases cell size, weight, and complexity.

A satisfactory electrically recharged system potentially offers low material cost and high specific energy, but none has yet reached the market. Eos Energy Storage of New York has developed the Eos Aurora, a proprietary zinc-air battery that can be used to meet the energy storage needs of utilities, electric vehicles, the military, and major industrial and commercial enterprises. They have acheived the most cycles ever realized by metal-air battery >1000 battery cycles demonstrated to date with no physical degradation and are hoping for a commercial product release in 2013.

3. Acronyms/Definitions

Anode - the electropositive electrode from which electrons are generated to do external work. In a lithium cell, the anode contains lithium, commonly held within graphite in the well-known lithium-ion batteries.
Cathode - the electronegative electrode to which positive ions migrate inside the cell and electrons migrate through the external electrical circuit.
Electrode – Anode or Cathode
Electrolyte - Transfers ions/charge between electrodes during charge and discharge cycles. It allows the flow only of ions and not of electrons. The electrolyte is commonly a liquid solution containing a salt dissolved in a solvent. The electrolyte must be stable in the presence of both electrodes. An ideal electrolyte provides high conductivity over a broad temperature range, is chemically and electrochemically inert at the electrode, and is inherently safe. Too often the electrolyte is the weak link in the energy storage system, limiting both performance and reliability.
Current Collectors - Allow the transport of electrons to and from the electrodes. They are typically metals and must not react with the electrode materials. Typically, copper is used for the anode and aluminum for the cathode (the lighter weight aluminum reacts with lithium and therefore cannot be used for lithium-based nodes).

4. Business Case

A Smart Grid is a key enabler in integrating batteries with the goal of peak reduction.
Large-scale, efficient, electrical energy storage (EES) systems should be able to compensate for intermittent or variable generation and still ensure that electricity is reliably available 24 hours a day without the need for fossil-fueled generation backup.
Economics of Sodium Sulfur Batteries

Capital $420-550 per kW
Variable $350-400 per KWh
Hours 4
Total Cost $1850 - 2150 per kW
$kW + (Hours x $/kWh)

Grid Frequency Regulation Opportunities for Fast Storage Systems - Current method to balance constantly shifting load fluctuation is to vary the frequency and periodically adjust the generation in response to a signal from the ISO

5. Benefits

Load Shifting - Utility load shifting can reduce T&D congestion, improve asset utilization and defer system upgrades. Time shifting of wind generated energy to meet desired utility criteria.
Ramp Rate Control - Minimize need for and affect on fossil fueled backup generator operation
No Fuel Required - Like traditional batteries, but unlike fuel cells, flow batteries are an "electricity in, electricity out" system. There is no external fuel source, such as hydrogen, that is added regularly to recharge the system. Instead, electric energy is supplied to the system at one time, and the system stores that electric energy in electrochemical form until it is needed later. For grid applications, this simpler arrangement avoids the need to create new fuel or distribution systems.
Common Materials - In addition, unlike fuel cells, flow batteries are not based on rare or valuable materials. Fuel cells typically use platinum or other expensive catalysts to speed the oxidation of their energy carrier. Instead, the material at the heart of a flow battery cell is vanadium, a plentiful, nontoxic metal.

6. Risks/Issues

Cost - Too expensive - To cut costs, battery makers need new sources of raw materials. For example, the cobalt oxide used for cathodes in lithium-ion batteries is expensive and comes from politically unstable regions. Options being explored for cathode material include lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganese oxide spinel, titanium, and aluminum.

Sixty percent of the batteries cost comes from the raw materials and forty percent from the manufacturing process which can have up to sixty steps. If cheaper materials can be secured and the manufacturing process streamlined, real cost savings can be realized.
Charging - Take too long to charge
Low Energy Density - While a flow battery using an electrolyte solution doesn't have the same energy density as a fuel cell using hydrogen as an energy carrier, for most grid applications high energy density is not a key design factor. Because of this lower energy density, you won't see a flow battery powering a car on the street, but the price and performance do create the potential for significant grid applications.
Electric Vehicles vs. Grid Battery Requirements - The electric vehicle application drives most R&D for advanced materials today, but it is also the most demanding application and thus the one that justifies higher costs. In the long term, the best energy storage technologies for utility-scale applications may be different from those used for electric-drive vehicles.

7. Next Steps

Approximately $615 million in Recovery Act SmartGrid Demonstration’s FOA’s were released on June 25. Applications are sought in Battery Storage for Utility Load Shifting or for Wind Farm Diurnal Operations and Ramping Control. The system should demonstrate an 8-15 MW / 4-8 hour battery storage system placed in the grid for load shifting or reliability. The system may be centralized or consist of aggregated, distributed units. Applications are also sought for systems in the same power and duration regime, for storage systems operating directly in conjunction with an established wind farm. The storage demonstration facility may have a shorter storage period but correspondingly higher power output if it specifically addresses ramp control.

8. Companies

Altairnano (Nasdaq: ALTI)- Reno, NV - For the first quarter of 2011, Altairnano reported a 114 percent increase in revenues to $2.6 million, up $1.4 million from the first quarter of 2010. Customer caused delays in first quarter shipments of lithium titanate to Zhuhai YinTong Energy (YTE) and of battery modules to Proterra, our largest customer in the transportation market, negatively impacted revenues. The net loss was $5.9 million, or $0.22 per share, compared to a net loss of $6.1 million, or $0.24 per share, for the first quarter of 2010.
Amprius - From Stanford - A stealthy battery startup raised $25 million in a round led by Kleiner Perkins, with VantagePoint, IPV, Trident, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Stanford University. The firm is using a silicon nanostructure to replace a carbon anode system in batteries. The CEO, Kang Sun, claims that silicon has "an intrinsic energy density ten times higher than carbon." He called Amprius "late science stage, early engineering stage" and noted that the firm's technology is four times better than current technology. The company started in 2008 with a mission to make anodes and advanced materials that it would sell to established manufacturers.
Axion Power (AXPW.OB) - New Castle, PA - Developing advanced batteries and an energy storage product based on a patented lead carbon battery PbC Technology™. Conventional lead-acid batteries use negative electrodes made of sponge lead pasted onto a lead grid current collector. In comparison, their technology uses negative electrodes made of microporous activated carbon with very high surface area. The result is a battery-supercapacitor hybrid that uses less lead.
Cerametec - Salt Lake City, UT - the R&D arm of CoorsTek - Inside Ceramatec's wonder battery is a chunk of solid sodium metal mated to a sulphur compound by a paper-thin ceramic membrane. The membrane conducts ions -- electrically charged particles -- back and forth to generate a current. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C.

This may not startle you, but it should. The most energy-dense batteries available today are huge bottles of super-hot molten sodium, swirling around at 600 degrees or so. At that temperature the material is highly conductive of electricity but it's both toxic and corrosive. You wouldn't want your kids around one of these. The essence of Ceramatec's breakthrough is that high energy density can be achieved safely at normal temperatures and with solid components, not hot liquid.

Ceramatec says its new generation of battery would deliver a continuous flow of 5 kilowatts of electricity over four hours, with 3,650 daily discharge/recharge cycles over 10 years. With the batteries expected to sell in the neighborhood of $2,000, that translates to less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour over the battery's life. Conventional power from the grid typically costs in the neighborhood of 8 cents per kilowatt hour.

Five kilowatts over four hours -- how much is that? Imagine your trash compactor, food processor, vacuum cleaner, stereo, sewing machine, one surface unit of an electric range and thirty-three 60-watt light bulbs all running nonstop for four hours each day before the house battery runs out. With a projected 3,650 discharge/recharge cycles -- one per day for a decade -- you leave the next-best battery in the dust. Deep-cycling lead/acid batteries like the ones used in RVs are only good for a few hundred cycles, so they're ready for recycling in a year or so.
Deeya Energy - Fremont, CA - Developed a unique unitized electrode/cell design with significant manufacturing and assembly advantages. Deeya's patent-pending L-Cell technology is the heart of the ESP product family. This flow battery technology offers very large storage capacity, superfast charging and capability of operating in rugged outdoor environment with temperature ranges from -5C to 50C. Deeya is working on energy storage technology for three applications — replacing diesel generators, stockpiling renewable energy, and stabilizing the electric grid — closed a third round of financing in March 2010. The oversubscribed $30 million round brings Deeya’s total venture capital investment since its founding in 2004 to $53 million
EnerVault - Sunnyvale, CA - EnerVault is currently looking to raise its first round of funding to build a demonstration of the flow battery.
EOS Energy Storage, New York, NY - Developed the Eos Aurora, a proprietary zinc-air battery that can be used to meet the energy storage needs of utilities, electric vehicles, the military, and major industrial and commercial enterprises.

Low capital cost: $1000/kW, ($160/kWh which is one fifth the cost of a lithium ion battery system, according to Steve Hellman, president of the company.)
Low operating cost: no periodic replacement of components (e.g., membranes, cells). Lowest levelized cost/kWh for renewable integration and load shifting applications Cost competitive with incumbent technology: gas-fired turbines used for peaking capacity
30 year life, 10,000 full cycles
Safe, non-toxic, non-flammable electrolyte and materials
Easily transportable: Aurora 1000 | 6000 constructed in 40 foot ISO shipping container
Easy to locate: not site constrained like some other energy storage technologies
Stable and self healing battery operation
Available in 2013: Currently scaling up battery prototypes for initial manufacturing in 2012 and delivery of MW scale systems to first customers in 2013

Ionex Energy Storage Systems - Long Beach, CA - Founded in 2009 manufactures large scale energy storage systems designed to boost & support wind, solar and tidal generation, placing them then in par with spinning base load sources and 'firm power', using next generation large format prismatic lithium ion batteries

The Ionex Energy Storage System is a 1-megawatt-hour unit using large-format prismatic batteries based on lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) and capable of producing 1 megawatt or 2 megawatts of continuous AC power from a 40-foot shipping container weighing 35,000 kilograms. The container can be mounted on a concrete pad or on a wheeled trailer.
LMBC - From MIT - Liquid Metal Battery Corporation - Start up pursuing a breakthrough battery design, has attracted Bill Gates and oil company Total as seed investors. The inventor of the core technology is Don Sadoway, MIT Professor of Materials Chemistry, one of the school's most popular professors and most sought-after speakers.

Using seed money from within MIT, Sadoway and his team invented the liquid metal battery or, more academically, a process called Reversible Ambipolar Electrolysis.

The battery uses molten antimony and molten magnesium separated by an electrolyte. Sadoway claims that the all-liquid configuration is self-assembling and is expected to be scalable at low cost. Furthermore, this technology may have a shot at being cheaper than sodium sulfur (NaS) batteries. This battery is intended for large-scale electrical grid applications.
NGK Insulators - Nagoya, Japan - Their NAS Battery system reduces fluctuation by load leveling and peak shaving.We have jointly developed this "NAS battery" with the Tokyo Electrical Power Company. After extensive testing and demonstration, the prospect of commercial utilization has now been realized. Our NAS battery is expected to play an important role in reducing power demand fluctuations.

NGK, the maker of what has long been considered the most bankable electrochemical energy storage solution, sodium sulfur batteries, has had to revise its revenue forecasts due to a "fire incident." Excerpts from a statement by the firm follow:

On September 21, NGK-manufactured NAS batteries for storing electricity owned by The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) and installed at the Tsukuba Plant (Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture) of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) caught on fire.

At present, the fire authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

NGK began shipping NAS batteries in 2002 and since then they have been installed in a total of 174 locations in 6 countries around the world, storing 305,000 kilowatts of electricity.

NGK is putting the highest priority on identifying the cause of this incident and looking at measures to prevent a reoccurrence. At the same time, NGK has temporarily halted production of NAS batteries in the meantime. Furthermore, in order to make doubly sure of safety, NGK also asks customers who need to maintain a minimal level of functionality such as using the batteries as an emergency power source and so on, to consult with it on an individual basis about the method of operation.

NGK has requested that customers refrain from using the NGK batteries until the cause of the fire is discovered. NGK has halted production of the energy storage product and reduced its revenue forecasts for the year by about 20 percent.

.
Plurion Systems - Glenrothes, Fife, UK (Applied Intellectual Capital (AIC) Labs, Alameda,CA)- Plurion derives its technical advantage in flow batteries from parent company AIC’s pioneering work in the field of reduction-oxidation (redox) electrochemistry. AIC is a leader in this field and is developing products for a variety of markets using a range of redox chemistries.
Premium Power - North Reading, MA- Using Premium Power’s Zinc-Flow technology, the PowerBlock 150 is optimized to deliver 2-3 times more energy density than comparable UPS systems that employ lead-acid batteries. PowerBlock delivers 10X depth of discharge without degradation, 2X operable life and an order of magnitude improvement in cycling capability, making it ideal for use in peak-shaving applications to reduce utility demand charges and energy costs. It provides up to 100 kW of uninterrupted power and 150 kWh of energy storage capacity in a single turnkey enclosure that is 1/3 the size of a 20’ freight container.
Primus Power Hayward, CA - In November 2009 Primus Power was one of sixteen companies selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) to receive a Smart Grid Demonstration Program grant. Their $14M award is part of an overall $47M project to commercialize, deploy and monitor a 25 MW • 75 MWh energy storage system to a California utility where it will firm intermittent wind energy. Primus Power is building a farm of flow batteries that promise to offer 25 megawatts of power for up to three hours for the Modesto Irrigation District (Modesto, California's utility provider). This battery farm will serve as a full-scale demonstration system, and it will store the region's wind-generated energy and provide an alternative to fossil-fuel-fired generation.

In July 2010 they received an ARPA-E grant to develop an extremely low cost and long life electrode for their EnergyCells

In July 2011, Primus Power, has generated $11 million in follow-on funding for its grid-scale storage technology—five times more than ARPA-E's $2 million 2010 investment. As Secretary Chu has said about follow-on funding for ARPA-E projects, "This is precisely the innovation leverage that is needed to win the future."

Primus Power has developed a low-cost, distributed storage flow battery made of tanks filled with high energy density electrolytes that are pumped throughout the battery system. This flow battery can store renewable energy such as wind and solar power and then release that energy into the grid during peak load times. Since renewable energy is often variable, the ability to store this electricity to balance grid power is becoming significantly more important as renewables become more prevalent in the United States.
Prudent Energy - Beijing, China (Richmond, CN)- Aquired VRB Power Systems in January 2009, an electrochemical energy storage company that was commercializing the patented Vanadium Redox Battery Energy Storage System ("VRB-ESS") and itself acquired the intellectual property rights and assets to the Regenesys Energy Storage System. In May 2005, VRB Power had acquired a world-wide license to SEI's patents and technology (excluding Japan).
- The VRB Energy Storage System (VRB-ESS) is an electrical energy storage system based on the patented vanadium-based redox regenerative fuel cell that converts chemical energy into electrical energy. Energy is stored chemically in different ionic forms of vanadium in a dilute sulphuric acid electrolyte. The electrolyte is pumped from separate plastic storage tanks into flow cells across a proton exchange membrane (PEM) where one form of electrolyte is electrochemically oxidized and the other is electrochemically reduced.
SEEO, Berkeley, CA - Won a $6.2 million dollar Smart Grid Demonstration Project Grant from DOE in November 2009 for Solid State Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage. - SEEO will develop and deploy a 25kWh prototype battery system based on their proprietary nanostructured polymer electrolytes. This new class of advanced lithium-ion rechargeable battery will demonstrate the substantial improvements offered by solid state lithium-ion technologies for energy density, battery life, safety, and cost. These batteries would be targeted for utility-scale operations, particularly Community Energy Storage projects. Total project value is $12.4 million.

Seeo has now raised a total of more than $10.6 million for its solid-state battery, which is based on a solid polymer electrolyte that the founders developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. The material, which Seeo began licensing from the lab in 2007, allows for a more stable battery with higher energy density and none of the flammable liquid electrolytes that present a safety risk in conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Sumitomo Electric - (SEI) has been involved in the development of redox flow cells since 1985 in collaboration with Kansai Electric Power. They have successfully built demonstration scale units for grid load leveling applications and have been building and installing commercial scale units in Japan since 2001.

SEI has 16 operational VRB systems in Japan, which include peak shaving, utility and renewable energy storage applications, and has developed a 42-kW cell stack. A 3 MW x 1.5 sec. plus a 1.5 MW x 1 hr system for Tottori Sanyo Electric has been operating since 2001 at a large liquid crystal manufacturing plant as a combination of UPS for voltage sag compensation and a peak shaver to reduce peak load.

Xtreme Power, Kyle TX - A privately held company and has raised in excess of $50 million since its founding. Partnering with the Castle & Cooke Hawaii solar farm on Lanai known as La Ola to create a battery system. The plan is for Xtreme Power, a battery storage technology company, to help smooth out the power feeding into Lanai’s electric grid. The battery will help boost the current output of the solar farm. It doesn’t have so much to do with storage, but to help with cloud coverage. It really helps smooth out the system.
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ZBB (AMEX -ZBB)- Menomonee Falls, WI - The ZBB Zinc Energy Storage System is a proprietary and patented regenerative fuel cell based on zinc/bromide technology. The ZESS technology is based on the reaction between two commonly available chemicals, zinc and bromide.

9. Links

Leonardo Energy - Wind farm with battery storage in Ireland
Mechanical Engineering - Flow batteries can turn intermittent wind power from a utility manager's headache to a green and reliable energy source
Seeking Alpha – Energy Storage on the Smart Grid
Seeking Alpha – John Peterson Blogs
Electrochemical Energy Storage for Green Grid Zhenguo Yang,* Jianlu Zhang, Michael C. W. Kintner-Meyer, Xiaochuan Lu, Daiwon Choi, John P. Lemmon,and Jun Liu Paciﬁc Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington. Sep 2010

Markets and Pricing

2011-10-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

If consumers are willing to accept more variability in price, they can get a discount from a flat base rate because the cost of delivering service goes down

A. Wholesale Electricity Markets

saturday, july 9, 2011

Once generated, electricity must be able to instantaneously find an end use. The precise balancing act between creating electricity and getting it to the end user requires the ultimate just-in-time market.

Regulatory market to create competition can also hamper smart grid development. The rules force separation of supply, wholesale transmission, and retail distribution functions. But all those areas need to coordinate to optimize smart grid planning and data usage.

B. Ancillary Services Markets

monday, October 31, 2011

How will frequency regulation and load management be monetized?

C. Retail Electricity Markets

MondaY, june 11, 2011

Experience in the introduction of retail competition has been mixed

D. Revenue Decoupling

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2011

By breaking the link between the utility's sales and profits, decoupling creates an incentive for utilities to sell less energy and focus on energy efficiency.

E. Dynamic Pricing

saturday, september 3, 2011

Smart meters don't offer much value to consumers unless coupled with dynamic pricing, and only voluntary programs with proper consumer education and tools are likely to meet regulatory approval and market success.

F. Feed In Tariffs (FIT)

friday, august 12, 2011

Obligates utilities to buy renewable electricity at above-market rates set by the government.

G. Community Choice Aggregation
Monday, June 6, 2011
Procures renewable sources of electricity and partners with a utility to distribute energy to local communities, You get all the advantages of cleaner, greener, healthier energy consumption AND all of the advantages of the established, experienced energy provider.

H. EE and RE Financing
wednesday, august 10, 2011
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy investments pay back steady returns over many years, but often it is difficult for businesses and households to pay the upfront costs.

Flywheel

2011-10-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

The most powerful flywheel energy storage systems currently for sale on the market can hold up to 133 kWh of energy

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Back to Supply Shifting Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Case Studies
7. Companies
8. Links

1.Background

Flywheels are based on mechanical inertia. A heavy rotating disc is accelerated by an electric motor, which acts as a generator on reversal, slowing down the disc and producing electricity. Electricity is stored as the kinetic energy of the disc. Friction must be kept to a minimum to prolong the storage time. This is often achieved by placing the flywheel in a vacuum and using magnetic bearings, tending to make the method expensive. Larger flywheel speeds allow greater storage capacity but require strong materials such as composite materials to resist the centrifugal forces.
The flywheel provides power during period between the loss of utility supplied power and either the return of utility power or the start of a sufficient back-up power system (i.e., diesel generator). Flywheels provide 30 seconds of ride-through time, and back-up generators are typically online within 5-20 seconds.
Traditional flywheel rotors are usually constructed of steel and are limited to a spin rate of a few thousand RPM. Advanced flywheels constructed from carbon fiber materials and magnetic bearings can spin in vacuum at speeds up to 40,000 to 60,000 RPM.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

Angular Instability - A low-frequency (usually less than 1 Hz) undamped power fluctuation traveling from one end of a power grid to the other end. This traveling wave cannot be easily damped and can take up significant capacity on transmission lines.
Energy Recycling - The ability to use braking power from one train to move another or capture energy generated in a shipyard crane’s lowering cycle to lift the next container.
Frequency Regulation - Electric frequency must be maintained very close to 60 hertz (Hz), or cycles per second (50 Hz in Europe and elsewhere). When the supply of electricity exactly matches the demand (or "load"), grid frequency is held at a stable level. Grid operators, therefore, seek to continuously balance electricity supply with load to maintain the proper frequency. They do this by directing about one percent of total generation capacity to increase or decrease its power output in response to frequency deviations.
RPM – Revolutions per Minute
UPS – Uninterruptible Power Supply

Beacon's Smart Energy 25flywheel's rotor assembly is sealed in a vacuum chamber and spins between 8,000 and 16,000 rpm. At 16,000 rpm, the surface speed of the rim would be approximately Mach 2 - or about 1500 mph - if it were operated in normal atmosphere so the rim must be enclosed in a high vacuum to reduce friction and energy losses. To reduce losses even further, the rotor is levitated with a combination of permanent magnets and an electromagnetic bearing. (Beacon filed for bankruptcy on October 30, 2011)

3. Business Case

Flywheel-based energy storage systems, unlike fossil-fuel power plants that are used on the grid for frequency regulation, are sustainable "green" technology solutions that consume no fossil fuel, nor produce CO2 or other emissions during operation.
Additional Regulation is required for 33% Renewable Portfolio Goals
Economics of 10MW Flywheel

Capital $3360 – 3920 per kW
Variable $1340 - 1570 per KWh
Hours 0.25
Total Cost $3695 - 4313 per kW
$kW + (Hours x $/kWh)

4. Benefits

Frequency Regulation – Flywheels are designed to smooth out transient fluctuations in load and supply, Changing power output causes greater wear and tear on equipment, and fossil generators that perform frequency regulation incur higher operating costs due to increased fuel consumption and maintenance costs. They also suffer a significant loss in "heat rate" efficiency and produce greater quantities of CO2 and other unwanted emissions when throttling up and down to perform frequency regulation services.
UPS Protection - Flywheel storage is also currently used to provide UPS systems (such as those in large datacenters) for ride-through power necessary during transfer - that is, the relatively brief amount of time between a loss of power to the mains and the warm-up of an alternate source, such as a diesel generator. As a replacement for battery-based UPS systems, flywheel technology has the advantage of being virtually maintenance-free compared to maintenance-intensive and less-reliable battery-based UPS.
Angular Instability Control - If the low-frequency oscillation could be damped, the transmission line capacity could be restored making it easier to relieve congested lines or reduce possible grid instability. In the past, this type of instability has been linked to wide-scale regional blackouts costing billions of dollars in lost productivity, goods and services. A flywheel energy storage system, combined with phasor measurements and an integrated communications and control network, has the potential to overcome this vulnerability and prevent such blackouts.
Railway Voltage Control – As the spacing between trains decreases, rail systems become more prone to voltage drops that impair performance and reliability. While substations can be upgraded to add power conditioning equipment, space constraints and the related difficulty of increasing local power distribution can make it very costly to upgrade some substations. Flywheels can boost voltage when necessary.
Very High Burst of Power - Applications that require very high bursts of power for very short durations use flywheel power. Examples include Tokamak and laser experiments where a motor generator is spun up to operating speed and may actually come to a stop in one revolution.
VAR Support - Reactive power support can be provided on either a unitary or small-system basis, or as a secondary overlay application for a full-scale 20 MW frequency regulation power plant. For industrial and commercial end users, potential benefits include lower fees from utilities resulting from improvement of power factor levels that would otherwise fall below specified minimums, as well as higher power quality for sensitive industrial and commercial applications. For grid operators or utilities, potential benefits include the ability to defer investments in transmission and/or distribution infrastructure.
Adaptabilty - Compared to sustainable energy storage solutions such as molten salt, flywheels may also be more portable and site-adaptable. They are also highly durable and they are already starting to pop up in some high stress environments.

5. Risks/Issues

Scale – A flywheel generally only provides 15-30 minutes of duration. The ranges of power and energy storage technically and economically achievable tend to make flywheels unsuitable for general power system application.
Cost - Price is a legitimate concern –but performance characteristics and emission benefits provide compelling motivations for particular applications.

6. Case Studies

Flywheel technology has been implemented by EDA in the Azores on the islands of Graciosa and Flores. This system uses a 18MWs flywheel to improve power quality and thus allow increased renewable energy usage.
Powercorp in Australia have been developing applications using wind turbines, flywheels and low load diesel (LLD) technology to maximize the wind input to small grids. A system installed in Coral Bay, Western Australia, uses wind turbines coupled with a flywheel based control system and LLDs to achieve better than 60% wind contribution to the town grid.

7. Companies

Active Power (NASDAQ: ACPW) Austin TX - Provides the most energy-efficient critical power solutions and UPS systems in the world. Their flywheel-based solutions ensure business continuity in the event of power disturbances.
Amber Kinetics, Fremont, CA - Won a $4 million Smart Grid Demonstration Project funding from DOE to develop and demonstrate an innovative flywheel technology for use in grid-connected, low-cost bulk energy storage applications. This demonstration effort, which partners with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will improve on traditional flywheel systems, resulting in higher efficiency and cost reductions that will be competitive with pumped hydro technologies. Total project value is $10 million.
Beacon Power (NASDAQ: BCON) Tyngsboro, MA - Spun off of SatCon Technology Corp in 1997 and went public in 2000. Makes 2 and 6 kilowatt-hour flywheel (kinetic-electric) energy storage units. Beacon started out applying their technology to the telecom market but soon moved into the frequency regulation sector of the utility energy market. Beacon estimates the frequency regulation market as well in excess of $500 million and about one percent of load. Although Beacon designs and manufactures the flywheel storage systems, the firm now utilizes its flywheels in its new role as an Independent regulation services provider (IRSP).

In 2009, Beacon Power received a $43 million DOE loan guarantee that was used to complete a 20 MW flywheel energy storage project in New York now in operation.

In August 2011, Beacon was awarded a $5-million state grant toward construction of a 20-megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. In addition to the $5 million state grant, the $53-million Hazle Township plant was also awarded a $24-million Smart Grid stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

On October 30, 2011, Beacon filed for bankruptcy just a year after the energy storage company received a $43 million loan guarantee from a controversial Department of Energy program.Beacon Power drew down $39 million of its government-guaranteed loan to fund a portion of a $69 million, 20-megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York.
There are several key differences between Beacon's loan and Solyndra's (See my blog article Solyndra Failure), an Energy Department spokesman said on Sunday, noting the Beacon plant continues to operate, unlike Solyndra, which shut down shortly before filing for bankruptcy.

The Energy Department also had agreed to restructure Solyndra's debt in a last-ditch effort to keep the company alive, a deal which put taxpayers behind $75 million in private investment. But for the Beacon project, the government loan is the first debt the company must pay, the spokesman said. The loan guarantee for the project included "many protections for the taxpayer," said DOE spokesman Damien LaVera, noting the department is not directly exposed to Beacon's liabilities, has the operating plant as collateral, as well as cash reserves held by the business.

It said in documents filed with Delaware's bankruptcy court that it had $72 million in assets and $47 million in debts. Beacon currently operates at a loss and its revenues are not enough to support its operations, it said in court documents. It blamed the bankruptcy on its inability to secure additional investments due to the financing terms mandated by the Department of Energy, its recent delisting by the Nasdaq stock market and the current "political climate."
Power-Thru - Livonia, MI - Designs, manufactures and markets advanced flywheel energy storage systems that provide ride-through power and voltage stabilization for power quality and power recycling applications. Pentadyne is the world's leading manufacturer of flywheel energy storage systems.
Vycon Yorba Linda CA - Serves the UPS industry. Vycon’s proprietary system consists of a steel hub with magnetic bearings, a dual motor/generator (the motor charges the system, the generator dispenses the energy), high tech system controls, and a converter that transforms the flywheel’s AC power into DC.

Vycon has created a flywheel application it calls "energy recycling" that captures the energy contained in cargo containers being lowered by cranes and feeds it back to the crane for the next hoist. In a similar vein, Vycon has also developed a flywheel system that can harvest and store the braking energy from commuter and freight trains.

In January 2010, Vycon closed a $13.7 million round of funding, which includes conversion of $6.5 million in existing convertible notes and $1.1 million of existing trade debt.

8. Links

"Flywheel Energy Calculator. Botlanta.org. 2004-01-07.
Flywheel Energy Storage - Google News

Supercapacitors

2011-10-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

Energy storage that operates even faster than batteries could be achieved by super-capacitors that store charge directly in novel nano-engineered materials.

Navigate this Report
Back to EV Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Next Steps\
7. Companies
8. Links

1.Background

Supercapacitors are electrochemical capacitors with unusually high-energy density — having typically been used to start locomotives, tanks and diesel trucks. Supercapacitors operates by means of static charge capture similar to an electrical charge built up on a carpet that gives you a jolt when you walk on it in dry weather conditions.
Supercapacitors hold less electricity than batteries but absorb and release it much more quickly, usually in a matter of seconds. The ability to absorb and release electricity quickly is crucial for time-sensitive electricity storage, including frequency regulation (the moment-to-moment fine-tuning of the power grid), quick vehicle acceleration, and capturing energy from vehicle braking.
New technology in development could potentially make supercapacitors with high enough energy density to be an attractive replacement for batteries in all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
While supercapacitors are related to batteries, they use a different energy storage mechanism. Batteries move charged chemical species (ions) from one electrode via an electrolyte to the second electrode, where they interact chemically. Thus batteries store chemical energy; EDLCs store electrical charge physically, without chemical reactions taking place. Because the charge is stored physically, with no chemical or phase changes taking place, the process is highly reversible and the discharge-charge cycle can be repeated virtually without limit.
Typically, an EDLC stores electrical charge in an electrical double layer in an electrode-electrolyte interface of high surface area. Because of the high surface area and the extremely low thickness of the double layer, these devices can have extraordinarily high specific and volumetric capacitances. A striking dissimilarity between batteries and ECs is the number of charge-discharge cycles each can undergo before failure. In contrast, no inherent physical or chemical changes occur in EC electrodes during cycling because the charge is stored electrostatically. As a result, ECs exhibit cycle lifetimes ranging from a few hundred thousand to over one million cycles. Most notably, however, ECs have the ability to deliver an order of magnitude more power than batteries. However, at present, their energy densities are generally lower than those of batteries.
As the energy densities of ECs have increased, applications using ECs as EES devices—from vehicles, cell phones, and photocopiers to larger industrial drive systems have increased and in some cases have displaced batteries.

Supercapacitors have a higher power density, but lower energy density than batteries.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

EDLC – Electrochemical Double Layer Capacitor (aka Supercapacitor)
Capacitor - A passive electronic component consisting of a pair of conductors separated by a dielectric. When a voltage potential difference exists between the conductors, an electric field is present in the dielectric. This field stores energy and produces a mechanical force between the plates. The effect is greatest between wide, flat, parallel, narrowly separated conductors

A capacitor consists of two conductors separated by a non-conductive region. The non-conductive substance is called the dielectric medium, although this may also mean a vacuum or a semiconductor depletion region chemically identical to the conductors. A capacitor is assumed to be self-contained and isolated, with no net electric charge and no influence from an external electric field. The conductors thus contain equal and opposite charges on their facing surfaces, and the dielectric contains an electric field.
Capacitance -The ability of a body to hold an electrical charge. Capacitance is also a measure of the amount of electric charge stored (or separated) for a given electric potential. A common form of charge storage device is a two-plate capacitor. Capacitance is directly proportional to the surface area of the conductor plates and inversely proportional to the separation distance between the plates
Supercap – aka Supercapacitor
Ultracapacitor – aka Supercapacitor

3. Business Case

Researchers are working to improve ultracapacitors in several ways:

Boost the amount of energy an ultracapacitor can store -its energy density
Boost the amount of power an ultracapacitor can deliver - its power density
Reduce costs, particularly of electrode materials
Increase ultracapacitor operating voltage

Because a supercapacitor can store and rapidly release large amounts of electrical power, it can serve as a buffer between the battery pack and an electric vehicle's motors — improving the vehicle's responsiveness while reducing the charge/discharge cycling that shortens battery life.

Supercapacitors may be deployed as buffers on a battery. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon's ChargeCar project calculate that an intelligent electric car controller could recapture 48 percent of the energy during braking. A supercapacitor could reduce 56 percent of the load on the batteries and reduce heating of the batteries — which shortens battery life — by 53 percent.

4. Benefits

Battery Savings - The number-one cost of electric vehicle ownership is the batteries. Smart power management will save money initially because it pairs a low-cost battery pack with a small supercapacitor. And it will continue to save money by increasing efficiency and extending battery life.
High Output Power - Some of the earliest uses were motor startup capacitors for large engines in tanks and submarines, and as the cost has fallen they have started to appear on diesel trucks and railroad locomotives.
Fast Charging - Ability to soak up energy quickly makes them particularly suitable for regenerative braking applications, whereas batteries have difficulty in this application due to slow charging rates. Supercapacitors will be able to recover the energy from many repetitive processes (e.g., braking in cars or descending elevators) that is currently being wasted.
Low Self-Discharge Rate - Reliability, on-the-shelf life time of the capacitors are much higher than of any battery type. Starting the engine after a long period of inactivity and under the most unfavorable conditions can be required at any time.
High Cycle Life - It has an essentially unlimited charge/discharge cycle life (millions or more compared to 200–1000 for most commercially available rechargeable batteries) This means there are no disposable parts during the whole operating life of the device, which makes the device environmentally friendly. During operation of a hybrid vehicle, energy storage elements are subject to as many as 700,000 stop/start cycles and more than 1 million regenerative storage events. Furthermore a system of this kind has to provide well over 200,000 cycles to support the on-board electrical system for power consumers. On-board electrical systems built to present-day technical and design standards are not able to cope with these kinds of loads over the lifetime of a vehicle.
Avoids Battery Disposal - Which is a huge environmental issue Though rechargeable batteries provide some relieve, but still, after 200...1000 (2000 at best) charge-discharge cycles they should be disposed.
High Efficiency - (up to 97-98%) due to extremely low internal resistance or ESR
Improved Safety - Supercaps are mostly immune to the short circuiting and high charge current, thus the charge cycle could be made very short: seconds vs. hours required for the batteries.
Wide Operating Temperatures. exhibit temperature stability. extremely low heating levels, Power is unaffected by cold temperatures.

5. Risks/Issues

Low Energy Density - Supercapacitors need to be much larger than batteries to hold the same charge. Existing commercial electric double-layer capacitors range around 0.5 to 30 Watt Hours/kilo (Wh/kg) Physical constraints on electrode surface area and spacing have limited supercapacitors to an energy storage capacity around 25 times less than a similarly sized lithium-ion battery. Comparisons:

Conventional lead-acid battery is typically 30 to 40 Wh/kg
Modern lithium-ion batteries are about 160 Wh/kg.
Gasoline has a net calorific value (NCV) of around 12,000 Wh/kg, which in automobile applications operates at 20% tank-to-wheel efficiency giving an effective energy density of 2,400 Wh/kg

Cost - Relatively expensive and only recently began being manufactured in sufficient quantities to become cost-competitive.

Images of different types of carbon nanotubes.
Carbon nanotubes are key to MIT researchers' efforts to improve on ultracapacitors.

6. Next Steps

While supercap energy storage density had more than tripled since 1998 to reach 6 kWh/kg today, new materials and chemical processes are needed to improve their charge storage capabilities by increasing both their energy and their power densities.
According to MIT Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES), Incremental changes in existing technologies will not produce the breakthroughs needed to realize these improvements. Rather, a fundamental understanding of the physical and chemical processes that take place in the EC—including the electrodes, the electrolytes, and especially their interfaces—is needed to design revolutionary concepts.
Recent research in electric double-layer capacitors has generally focused on improved materials that offer even higher usable surface areas. Experimental devices developed at MIT replace the charcoal with carbon nanotubes, which have similar charge storage capability as charcoal (which is almost pure carbon) but are mechanically arranged in a much more regular pattern that exposes a much greater suitable surface area. Other teams are experimenting with custom materials made of activated polypyrrole, and even nanotube-impregnated papers.
The LEES supercap uses vertically aligned, single-wall carbon nanotubes -- one thirty-thousandth the diameter of a human hair and 100,000 times as long as they are wide. Storage capacity in an supercap is proportional to the surface area of the electrodes. Today's supercaps use electrodes made of activated carbon, which is extremely porous and therefore has a very large surface area. However, the pores in the carbon are irregular in size and shape, which reduces efficiency. The vertically aligned nanotubes in the LEES supercap have a regular shape, and a size that is only several atomic diameters in width. The result is a significantly more effective surface area, which equates to significantly increased storage capacity.

7. Companies

ChargeCar Project - Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA - Exploring how electric vehicles can be customized to cost-effectively meet an individual's specific commuting needs — and how an electric vehicle's efficiency can be boosted and its battery life extended by using artificial intelligence to manage power.

Key to the project is a vehicle architecture called smart power management, which uses artificial intelligence to manage the flow of power between conventional electric car batteries and a supercapacitor. Based on a driver's route and habits, the smart power management system will decide whether to draw power for the electric motors from the batteries or the supercapacitor — and decide where to store electricity produced by the regenerative braking system as the car slows down or goes down a hill.
EEStor - Cedar Park, TX - Claimed to have developed a revolutionary new type of capacitor for electricity storage, which EEStor calls 'Electrical Energy Storage Units' (EESU). EEStor claims the EESU can store far more electrical energy than any other type of capacitor, and that it could be used to propel a small car for about 300 miles. This potential for making electric vehicles fully competitive with gasoline-powered vehicles has created much interest, although the company's claims have yet to be verified.

EEStor may be going out of business. The firm's website is no longer online and the usual fevered musings of the EEStor blogosphere have slowed

.
Ioxus – Oneonta, NY - An ultracapacitor and asymmetric hybrid ultracapacitor manufacturer – in April 2011 raised $21 million from investors including GE, ConocoPhillips, NRG Energy, Schneider Electric, and Braemer Energy Ventures, an impressive list of investors for a historically undifferentiated ultracapacitor company. For automakers and OEMs looking to buy energy storage devices, ultracapacitors are often seen as being in competition with batteries. But Ioxus has developed a sort of hybrid battery, ultracapacitor technology, and thinks the storage devices should be used in tandem. They say “Ultracapacitors are not looking to replace batteries in the acceleration or main storage of a car – they are merely there to enhance the battery, make it last longer, and reduce the warranty issues related to replacing large batteries.”

Ultracapacitors have become the power source of choice in wind turbine nacelles, where they power blade pitch control, the positioning of the blade in the wind. Ioxus supplies makers of “multiple megawatt turbines, 1.6 megawatts and up,” though confidentiality agreements prevented them from naming the manufacturers.

Though wind turbine blades are long and awkward to reposition, it is vital to be able to adjust them quickly to allow them to grab useful winds. It is even more vital to quickly get blades turned out of potentially damaging winds. Ultracaps are ideal for such quick bursts of work.

Manufacturers use Ioxus ultracapacitors in a variety of combinations. With iMOD arrays, the engineering needed to achieve whatever blade-moving power the turbine-maker wants will be more affordable because “they don’t have to become experts in cell balancing, one of our core competencies,”

“There is a significant amount of money involved for turbine makers in wiring ultracapacitor cells together,” McGough said. It requires expert design and engineering skills. “Instead of dealing with 60 cells and the power electronics, you have the ability to install six modules, each with four simple hold-down screws, and they terminate in a simple bus bar structure,” McGough said. “It’s snap-and-go.”
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Maxwell (NASDAQ: MXWL) San Diego CA - The far-and-away leader in supercap technology. With strong ties to the electric vehicle and
wind markets.
Nanotek Instruments, Dayton, Ohio - MIT’s Technology Review reports that Nanotek's researchers are developing graphene electrodes which may inspire ultracapacitors with more than five times the energy density of current commercial devices.

Ultracapacitors store charge electrostatically with ions from an electrolyte clinging to the electrodes within the capacitor. Through the utilization of graphene (described as atom thick sheets of carbon) Nanotek is able to significantly increase the surface area of the electrodes found within the ultracapacitors. Graphene is able to store a much larger charge as ions are able to layer across the carbon sheet enabling easier attachment and subsequent detachment. This allows for large-scale increases in storage capacity.

Nanotek’s tests show that the graphene electrodes could store 85.6 watts of energy per kilogram. Compare that to current ultracapacitors with an energy density of around five to ten watt-hours per kilogram

8. Links

Green Tech Media - Report on Ultracapacitors: Major Advances on Tap.
Railway Gazette - Regenerative Breaking - UltraCaps win out in energy storage
MIT's Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) - Ultracapacitor Research
Burke, Andrew F. (2009) Ultracapacitor Technologies and Application in Hybrid and Electric Vehicles. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-09-23 1312
Burke, Andrew F. and Marshall Miller (2009) Electrochemical Capacitors as Energy Storage in Hybrid-Electric Vehicles: Present Status and Future Prospects. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-09-07

Vehicle to Grid (V2G)

2011-10-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

“Plug-ins can earn money supporting the grid, so we call them cash-back cars” – Jon Wellinghoff, FERC Chairman

Plug-in hybrids may help balance out a smarter electricity grid capable of easily sending power back and forth between generators and consumers, much like we send and receive e-mails on the Internet today.

Navigate this Report
Back to EV Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Success Factors
7. Companies
8. Next Steps
9. Links

1.Background

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) describes a system in which power can be sold to the electrical power grid by an electric-drive motor of a hybrid vehicle that is connected to the grid when it is not in use for transportation. Alternatively, when the car batteries need to be fully charged, the flow can be reversed and electricity can be drawn from the electrical power grid to charge the battery.
There has been considerable discussion of the merits of using EVs and PHEVs as a distributed source connected to the grid. It is envisaged that this could provide help load leveling at times of high demand and provide storage of energy from renewable sources.
Electric Storage is a new and emerging technology that has been identified by FERC as a functionality of smart grid. Due to the infancy of this technology, few standards exist that capture how it should be utilized on the Smart Grid. For example, to-date there exist no guidance or standards to address large or small mobile storage such as PHEVs. Electric Storage is treated as a distributed energy resource in some standards, but there may be distinctions between electric storage and connected generation.
When the car is in the V2G setting, the battery’s charge goes up or down depending on the needs of the grid operator, which sometimes must store surplus power and other times requires extra power to respond to surges in usage. The ability of the V2G car’s battery to act like a sponge provides a solution for utilities, which pay millions to generating stations that help balance the grid.
Note: the conversion efficiency of the battery is 0.93 and 80% of its capacity is available.

Flow of electricity and communications in a Vehicle-to-Grid infrastructure.

Source: Kempton and Tomic 2005. Journal of Power Sources

2. Acronyms/Definitions

ACE – Area Control Error – A measure of the quality of operation of the grid. ACE includes a frequency regulation component. ACE must be kept within grid operating requirements.
Carbitrage - This is a fusion of 'car' and 'arbitrage'. When the electric utility would like to buy power from the V2G network, it holds an auction. The car owners are able to define the parameters under which they will sell energy from their battery pack. Many factors would be considered when setting minimum sale price including the cost of the secondary fuel in a PHEV and battery cycle wear. When this minimum price is satisfied, it is deemed as meeting carbitrage.
DSM - Demand-Side Management- In the context of plug-in vehicles is simply the interruption or reduction of recharging when required to ease grid imbalances, and the resumption and completion of recharging at a later time.
Dynamic Demand - A semi-passive technology for adjusting load demands on an electrical power grid. The concept is that by monitoring the frequency of the power grid, as well as their own control parameters, individual, intermittent loads would switch on or off at optimal moments to smoothen the overall system load, offsetting and reducing spikes in peak-load demand on the grid. As this switching would only advance or delay the appliance operating cycle by a few seconds, it would be unnoticeable to the end user.
GIEV – Grid Integrated Electric Vehicles
GVI - Grid Vehicle Integration - Term coined by Tom Gage, CEO of electric car tech maker AC Propulsion. Taken literally (flowing in one direction from the vehicle to the grid) V2G represents a misnomer for a comprehensive system for managing that spiky load to match supply and demand. He said "Maybe V2G isn’t the right term in the big picture. What we want to talk about is grid-vehicle integration, or GVI.” In otherwords a two-way flow."
Regulation -The continuous adjustment of AC electricity frequency (60 Hz)
Regulation Ancillary Service – The continuous matching of supply with demand in a control area. This would represent an economic opportunity for Vehicle to be available for short bursts of charge and discharge. Power plants provide regulation today, but they have slow response, low efficiency, energy and economic.
V1G – Grid to Vehicle One Way Communication - Utilizing Electric Vehicles in demand response include providing proportional charge rate signals
V2G –Vehicle to Grid - Letting the vehicle take and give power back to the grid. Electric utility may be willing to purchase energy from customer during periods of peak demand
V2G "Lite" - Drawing power from a battery could shorten the battery’s life and cause warranty tangles -- but simply reducing the level of car charging can accomplish many of the same tasks that V2G is targeting. Most plug-in cars don't require a full night’s worth of charging to refill their batteries. In fact, research from Idaho National Laboratory on Nissan Leaf owners’ charging habits shows that most spend about two hours out of their typical 10- to 11-hour overnight plug-in status not charging at all. While turning chargers completely off might not be a welcome use of that window of opportunity, slightly reducing the level of charging when it’s needed -- say, from full charge to 80 percent -- could help balance grid frequency fluctuations.

By taking a similar process, but in reverse, utilities could allow plug-ins to charge at 80 percent most of the time, then use that extra charging capacity to absorb temporary spikes in intermittent wind or solar power that would otherwise threaten to destabilize the grid.

Both these approaches could avoid the problems associated with the concept of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems that directly tap car batteries to serve the grid.
V2H - Vehicle to Home – Linking the car to house rather than the grid. This potentially provides three benefits: it obviates the issue of exporting energy back to the grid; can reduce demands on the grid as a supplementary supply to the house; and could also provide emergency backup in the event of power outages.
V2L - Vehicle to Load - Use of the PEV storage to provide power to a remote site or load that does not otherwise have electrical service. Examples include construction sites or camp sites.
V2V – Vehicle to Vehicle - Use of the PEV storage to transfer electrical energy to another PEV

Regulation vs. Economic Dispatch

3. Business Case

PHEVs can potentially be used to store electrical energy in their onboard batteries for peak-shaving or power-quality applications, offering potentially powerful synergies to complement the electric power grid. With parallel advances in smart vehicles and the Smart Grid, PHEVs may become an integral part of the distribution system itself, providing storage, emergency supply, and grid stability.
Aggregation to provide 1 MW of power in order to enter the frequency regulation market. Vehicles provide 19 kW of power at home and 16 kW in commercial locations—given a high-power plug connection—but, due to driving requirements, not every vehicle will be available for V2G at the same time so about 200 vehicles would be needed to provide 1 MW of frequency regulation on demand.
Smart metering would also need to encompass dynamic pricing to make export of electricity to the grid more attractive during periods when wholesale prices are high.
GIEVs will be aggregated together as one electric power resource so that grid operators don’t have to interact with thousands of vehicles. An aggregator will monitor different energy markets and bid into those markets according to their aggregated vehicles’ available capacity and market price. The Smart Grid is key to the aggregation of devices to provide regulatory services.
In the new world of plugs-ins, your car should be able to sell energy you don't need back to the grid during times of peak power demand, such as in late summer afternoons, when both office buildings and homes are running air conditioning. Today, that peak demand is served by older, usually dirtier and less-efficient "peaker" generators that utilities fire up when needed. A national fleet of a million or more EVs, most sitting idle roughly 90 percent of the time, could serve as a massive national storage device that can be tapped as needed to meet peak demand. But you, the driver, will call the shots, determining how much power, if any, you'd be willing to sell to the grid on a given day. (Of course, your electric utility could call the shots, too, telling you what time of day you can, and can't, recharge your vehicle, at least without paying premium rates.) All this affects battery architecture, smart metering systems, communications protocols, a standard user interface, and common (and simple) messaging terminology — "bi-direction power flow management," in the argot of utilities.
A way

4. Benefits

Peak Load Leveling - V2G vehicles to provide power to help balance loads by "valley filling" (charging at night when demand is low) and "peak shaving" (sending power back to the grid when demand is high).
Regulation Services - Keeping voltage and frequency stable. Since demand can be measured locally by a simple frequency measurement, dynamic load leveling can be provided as needed. Consumer Financial Benefits for Participating in Regulation

Plugged In 12 hours each day (6 pm–6 am) 365 days * 12 hours = 4380 hours/year
Average historic price paid for regulation = $35/MWh
Average Regulation price during valley load periods = $28/MWh
Per Vehicle: 4380 hrs * $28 * .015 MW = $1800 annually

Spinning Reserves - Meet sudden demands for power
Renewable Integration - Electric vehicles could buffer renewable power sources such as wind power, for example, by storing excess energy produced during windy periods and providing it back to the grid during high load periods, thus effectively stabilizing the intermittency of wind power. Some see this application of vehicle-to-grid technology as a renewable energy approach that can penetrate the baseline electric market.
Protection During Power Outage - V2G could also be used as a buffer during power outages. As the New York Times explains: “After a power outage, a Florida man plugged his Toyota Prius into the backup uninterruptible power supply unit in his house and soon the refrigerator was humming and the lights were back on. “It was running everything in the house except the central air-conditioning” ... As long as it has fuel, the Prius can produce at least three kilowatts of continuous power, which is adequate to maintain a home’s basic functions.”

5. Risks/Issues

Battery Life - Concerns exist that the increased cycling of the batteries in this application will adversely affect the life of the battery. Current Li-ion batteries have a cycle life of 1,000 cycles irrespective of whether they are used for transport or static needs. The following calculation illustrates the additional cost of using the vehicle’s battery as a storage device for V2G applications based on today’s costs.

Currently a Li-ion battery with 35kWh storage capacity costs around $35,000 to manufacture.
With its life being 1,000 cycles, that equates to a cost per cycle of $35.
Assuming the charging efficiency is 92% and the battery is charged from 80% depletion at an overnight tariff of $0.10/kWh, then the cost for a charge is $3.01
Add this to the cycle cost and the cost to the owner is $38.01.
Therefore the price that the electricity would need to be bought back from the consumer to break even is $38 / (35 x 80%) = $0.86

Equipment Life - Transformers are designed to have a load and then cool off. There may be an impact on life expectancy if they are run constantly.
Capital Cost - Vehicle based bi-directional power interfaces can be expensive and require adding an onboard inverter so that the vehicle can send power upstream since most vehicles were designed only to take power from the grid. Nuvve claims that there are 5 vehicles either on or coming to market that won’t require additional hardware, but neither the Nissan Leaf nor Chevrolet Volt are in this category.
Battery Exchange - Batteries can be readily changed in vehicles with a simple architecture, but vehicles with integrated power packs to improve vehicle dynamics will not be so amenable to a swap and this operation may prove to be very costly. The extent of this cost is not known and not easily estimated without a known architecture.
Modeling - The implication of integrating information from individual customers, widespread sensors, and large numbers of PEVs with the real time operation of the grid needs study and modeling.
Complexity - We need a system that reduces the cost of vehicle fuel without any user interaction.
Fragmented Market - Utilities would have to get comfortable with the idea of buying power from millions of car batteries that will be plugged in and out by individual drivers at random times. Traditional demand response is far simpler. Several megawatts' worth of car batteries would likely have to become available before a utility would be convinced that a statistically stable asset for storing (and drawing) electricity exists at any given time in cars, and even then an excess buffer would have to exist -- and that would likely require hundreds of thousands of cars at a minimum. Utilities might even require a power provider to aggregate the electricity from cars into some sort of central substation before delivering it to a utility, which could upend the economics for the power provider.
Limited Life of Cars - We think of cars as long lasting machines, but really, they only last a limited number of hours: 100,000 miles at an average of 40 miles an hour is only 2,500 running hours. So maybe you can rely on the new car to last 2,500 to 5000 hours. You know there’s over 8,000 hours in a year, and the reason we put up with such short lifetimes for cars is that they spend almost all of their time parked. A bathroom fan is 50,000 hours. A kitchen refrigerator is 100,000 hours. From an economic standpoint, it doesn’t make any sense because it wears out the most expensive and life-limited part of an already life-limited product very fast.
Power Electronics Cost - If you decide to make a car able to be both charged and to sell electricity back to the grid, it increases the cost of the power electronics in the car. Now the battery charger, which originally only had to take current from the wall socket and use it to charge the battery, now has to be a bi-directional device and therefore much more expensive, more than twice as expensive than if it was just the charger. So you end up adding additional cost to the electrical part of a car.

6. Success Criteria

The energy providers will need to be fully confident of the availability and consistent reliability of the V2G energy.
Vehicle users will want to be confident of having a fully charged battery when they need it.
A controller that allows the vehicle owner to limit the amount of battery discharge to ensure they can meet the range needed for their next driving event.

7. Companies

Magic Consortium Mid-Atlantic Grid Interactive Cars Consortium - Created to further develop, test, and demonstrate Vehicle-to-Grid technology. The Consortium includes core partners from academia and the electric, automotive, and communications industries.
Nuvve, El Cajon, CA - Vehicle to grid technology (V2G) is approaching the commercialization stage thanks in part to the work of Professor Willet Kempton of the University of Delaware, who is now the CTO at startup Nuvve. Nuvve recently found its first customer in Denmark, where 30 vehicles will be used to support the grid.
V2G Schematic - Source: Nuvve
V2G requires aggregating the power potential from hundreds to thousands of vehicles into a sizeable power market that would be useful to utilities and grid operators. That is Nuvve’s added value – a server that can track the availability of the vehicles and send signals and data back and forth with the grid.

The Nuvve solution has been tried in a field trial with PJM in USA for 2 years with 9 EVs participating in the trial. PJM is the largest RTO - Regional Transmission Organization - and serves 51 million people in the Eastern part of USA. They have a peak power demand of 144 GW and are a very large, advanced and experienced customer. During this trial it was determined that each car in average could "earn" $2,500 per year by participating in Nuvve's V2G solution. Assuming an 8 year lifetime of the EV (battery) and taking into account the cost of Nuvve’s operation, it corresponds to, discounted to today $ to around $10,000 per car over the lifetime of the car (battery) The actual amount the EV owner can expect earn will be determined in pilot trials about to start in 2011.

8. Next Steps

ABB, the Swiss energy conglomerate, and GM have teamed up to study how Volt batteries perform during power outages or times of peak energy demand. The first phase of the experiment is nearly complete as the lithium ion cells are readied for interconnection with a utility power grid. Three power companies are expected to sign agreements in the coming months to test the batteries, said Pablo Rosenfeld, manager of ABB's distributed energy storage program.

At N.C. State University's Centennial Campus, where ABB has its Corporate Research Center and North American headquarters for the Power Products and Power Systems Division, a Volt T-pack rests on a lab floor, wired to equipment and monitors. The battery is rapidly drained and charged, simulating how it would be called to duty in a neighborhood.

Ultimately the ABB-GM study will determine whether the benefits of reusing Volt batteries are worth the cost when compared to other available options. Those could include buying power on the wholesale market, building power plants, or paying customers incentives to participate in energy conservation programs.

ABB teamed up with GM in September and has spent several months creating a lab prototype of the battery pack to be tested in the field.

More than 1,000 individual cells will be reconfigured into a boxy cabinet that will contain the equivalent of five T-packs, holding enough power to keep a half-dozen homes running for at least several hours.

ABB is running final tests on the inverter and software that will link the batteries, which operate on direct current, to the power grid, which uses alternating current. The inverter will monitor the power supply and draw electricity as needed, functioning as a power management system.
ABB has yet to determine how the batteries will be cooled in the summer and warmed in the winter, said Sandeep Bala, an ABB engineer in Raleigh. Lithium ion cells are prone to overheating, controlled in the Volt with liquid coolant.
Charlotte-based Duke Energy also is doing a pilot study in Indiana with Itochu, a Japanese company with energy and technology interests. It remains to be seen whether used batteries are preferable to new batteries, said Mike Rowand, Duke's director for technology development.
"What is a given is energy storage," Rowand said. "Intuitively, a used battery is going to be cheaper than a new battery, but if 50 percent of the cost is taken up in repurposing it, then it may not be such a great deal."

9. Links

University of Delaware - Vehicle to Grid Technology
BERR – UK Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - Investigation into the Scope for the Transport Sector to Switch to Electric Vehicles and Plugin Hybrid Vehicles October 2008
V2G - Green Car Congress
Bucks for balancing: Can plug-in vehicles of the future extract cash – and carbon – from the power grid - a research collaboration between a team of engineers from Ricardo and National Grid, the operator of the high voltage electricity transmission system within Great Britain (GB).
Key findings:
- Using demand side management alone, the projected fleet of plug-in electric vehicles in 2020 would be able to provide an average of 6% of daily GB network balancing service requirements. This rises to a maximum of 10% in the evening and overnight.
- Demand side management would provide a modest annual financial return to the individual vehicle owner of approximately £50 (US$82) for zero investment (effectively the equivalent of an 18% saving on recharging costs).
- Vehicle-To-Grid (V2G) based grid balancing was shown to provide significantly greater revenue on an individual vehicle basis—ranging from approximately £600 (US$980) per year for a 3 kW system to in the region of £8,000 (US$13,000) per year for a 50 kW three phase installation. However, the very significant capital cost of a vehicle based bi-directional power interface and the balancing market size limitations that would restrict the value of the service if implemented fleet wide, would serve to render the fleet scale roll-out of the V2G balancing service uneconomic.
- V2G operation may however be attractive for owners of captive vehicle fleets such as industrial or local delivery vehicles, battery exchange depots or aggregated batches of life expired vehicle batteries, where interface costs might be shared across multiple vehicles or battery packs.
- With the increased requirement for grid balancing services arising from the changing dynamics of the generation mix, plug-in vehicles could be made to work in synergy with the electricity market to help balance supply and demand, so reducing the reliance on conventional generation for the provision of these services; hence this has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions.

Consumer Behavior Change

2011-10-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

Not all consumers will be willing to learn about Smart Meters, analyze utility bills, pay for the upgrades or even care. The story will be a particularly hard sell during tough economic times.

The Smart Grid will provide many pathways to engage the consumer

Navigate this Report
Back to Consumer Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Success Factors
7. Companies & Organizations
8. Links

1.Background

Developing a Smart Grid includes technical items like meters, technology, but the real goal is behavior change. My Dynamic Pricing article showed how financial motivation will be used to engage customers to change their energy use behavior. However, the behavior change issue is more deeply rooted.
It is very hard to drive behavior change and very few industries have done this. The technology industry usually lets people do what they were doing already in a new way. In addition, ow cost electricity at any time consumers want to use it is seen as a core right. Cheap anytime electricity is seen as an entitlement, the customer feels they own the electrons in their home. Changing these attitudes and competing for customers’ attention and how they use their time will require a concerted effort.
As an industry, we have kept the magic behind the "wall switch" to ourselves. Therefore in order to educate our customers on the value proposition of smart grid, do we first have to educate them on some of that “magic”? Will they care?
The average American knows very little about personal energy consumption and energy savings. According to a survey published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Americans overestimate the energy savings of actions like turning off lights, and riding public transportation, but underestimate the energy consumption of other things like using central air conditioning. A key to guiding people to make better decisions about their own energy usage, will be establishing the knowledge about how energy flows work at an earlier age.
The power industry has seen little innovation over the past century, which is why greentech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are so eager to build companies in this industry. But another result is that utility consumers are used to a routine, never-changing relationship with the utility, and aren’t used to any type of change, period.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

Curtailment - The right of a transmission provider to interrupt all or part of a transmission service due to constraints that reduce the capability of the transmission network to provide that service.
If customers are curtailed inconveniently, with a high frequency of occurrence, there will be tremendous push-back. Less inconvenient demand management facilitated by the smart grid is of critical importance
PCT – Programmable Communicating Thermostats - There was a large California citizens backlash over rumors of that PCT would be required in building codes and the utilities would control air conditioning use without the consumer’s knowledge. Even though these rumors weren’t true and the building code made economic sense, the building code change was defeated.

3. Business Case

In April 2010, the California PUC ruled that utilities can add gains from behavior change programs to their energy efficiency goals. These programs attempt to reduce power consumption by changing the behavior of consumers.
A Smart Grid is a key enabler in communicating peak prices to consumers; and integrating smart appliances, with the goal of changing consumer behavior. Seeing the consequences of actions – or not is critical to successful behavior change. Successful smart grid implementation requires that electricity customers—residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional—have the information and the tools needed to participate in the market. Clear and consistent information, e.g., when the grid experiences peak demand, and effective tools, e.g., switches and smart appliances, enables informed and active customer participation in the smart grid. Service providers and others need to be encouraged to develop interoperable devices, programs, and other services on a timely basis to enable customers to participate in smart grid programs.
A four step process leads to behavior change:

Awareness
The Smart Grid is competing for customer attention and follow-through. It needs to be free and simple. Consumers may have no idea what to do with too many confusing choices. They may think their impact is so small, it doesn’t matter what they do.
Familiarity and Education

Money can be a motivator, but only big energy costs motivate change. People may think of themselves as frugal, but utility bills are invisible – unless there’s a big spike. Still, savings can feel like a little reward – EnergyStar rebate feels good.
Customers need to see the “value proposition” for participating in the smart grid, and that their utility bills will be reduced. Levels of knowledge and quality of information will differ by region, utility, and delivery point on the grid; understanding these regional and local differences will impact the manner in which customers participate in smart grid decisions. Regulators, legislators, and others need to be educated on the opportunities provided by the smart grid, as well as the costs and benefits of smart grid investments.

Consideration
- Behavior change needs to be aligned to consumers live style priorities. It should make them feel good about what they are doing. Values are connected to emotion and behavior. Talk to people in terms of these values they will have more power. Values messages could include: don’t waste, be frugal, stay safe, political identity – no foreign oil. A direct “Green” messaging is not a strong source of value change.
- Influencers affect what people do. Family members and trusted media personalities trigger change. To instigate change, find the influencers that matter to people and influence them.
- Fit to life is critical. Optional behaviors must be easy and have minimal experiential and financial cost. I’m not going to “sacrifice,” be inconvenienced, or feel like I lost something. Target New behaviors that are easy to fit into life should be targeted first—follow lessons of recycling
Participation
Community is the best target for change. Seeing people from my reference community change encourages individual change. Apples to apples comparative information within a neighborhood or area results in energetic competition to reduce energy use. Change in groups feels like significant impact – and competition can motivate. Known communities support new behaviors and create communal experience. Find the Hub of change: People and influencers belong to communities.

Revealing the Values of the New Energy Consumer Accenture end-consumer observatory on electricity management 2011

Key finding #1: "While consumers regard their utilities as the primary provider for energy-related products and services, dynamic business models are emerging." Specifically, Guthridge told us, while utilities are still the default incumbent, "one quarter of customers (indicated they) would buy their simple electric service from someone other than their utility," if given the option. 73 percent of consumers surveyed indicated they would consider buying in-home products and services from non-traditional providers.
Key finding #2: "Price is the pivotal factor in the acceptance of electricity management programs, but price alone will not drive adoption." While 83 percent of the global population in the survey said the No. 1 impact for them was the cost the new service would add to their utility bills, 73 percent indicated that a utility loyalty program also ranked very high in perceived value. Last year's North American research clearly pointed to a focus on in-home displays as a high value-add, but Guthridge said this year the trend is moving to more set-it-and-forget-it convenience. There's a gender difference here, as well. "Men tend to focus on technology channels, while women are more focused on solutions that are intuitive and easy to use across the family."
Key finding #3: "A wide array of consumer preferences is driving the need for differentiated propositions and experiences." For utilities, this means "you can't have a single program or a single pricing structure that will appeal to the whole breadth and depth of residential customers, especially in the U.S.," Guthridge said. Additionally, "more than 60 percent of the customer base does not really want heavy, hands-on management of their energy savings...Tailoring the programs, products and channels to match the (customer) segments is most important."
Key finding #4: "Consumers will respond to programs that consider their full spectrum of values and preferences." They want programs that are easy to use, simple and convenient, and with some "uniqueness" or customization to fit their own personal needs.

A 2010 national survey by Market Strategies International shows that the U.S. Electric Industry faces an interesting challenge – more than three-quarters of Americans do not recognize or understand the industry’s best available technologies to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and curb global warming – the smart grid and smart meters.

Direct feedback on energy use can save up to 120 billion KWh by 2030

4. Benefits

Make smart choices based on better information alone results in 5% - 15% savings seen in studies. Average US electric bill is about $1200 per year so the savings are about $120 per household. With about 100 million US households this equates to $12 billion per year.
More Options for Consumers
Lower overall energy costs
More choices on how to meet individual consumer needs
Dynamic rates to better integrated needs of grid and consumer

5. Risks/Issues

Market Size - Green True Believers represent the smallest percentage of total consumer market. For example, only early adopters care about a Carbon Calculator. Mainstream people have little interest in any of this stuff. According to the 2009 Green Power Progress Survey released in August, $48 is the average price American will pay in a one-time fee for installation of hardware to facilitate the "benefits of smart grid technology" And out of the respondents that yielded that average, a quarter weren't willing to pay anything at all, another quarter weren't willing to pay more than $25, and only 7 percent would pay more than $100.

The survey found there is another category of "green elites," or people who said they are involved in sustainability or environmental efforts, willing to pay about $70 on average, with 14 percent of them willing to pay $100 or more.
Immateriality of Savings - The few dollars per month that consumers get for letting the utility control their lights, refrigrerator, AC, etc. are miniscule compared to my original justification for purchasing that appliance. They don't want the complexity added to my life. A 2011 Accenture study found the modest savings from active energy management in a home—doesn't necessarily motivate persistent behavior. But price incentives bundled with other offerings can motivate persistent behavioral changes, Accenture found. Rewards programs used in other industries, for example, may work for utilities. Convenience, loyalty points, a technology or some other variable must be combined with price to find the right combination to drive higher levels of adoption upfront and over time.
Short Term Cost vs. Longer Term Benefit - A recent consumer survey by Harris Interactive found There is little understanding of the longer-term benefits in energy cost savings, many of which can exceed the initial higher cost of the equipment investment in less than a year (which translates to an ROI greater than 100%.) The biggest obstacle to widespread consumer, industrial and commercial adoption of energy efficient technologies remains the up-front sticker shock.

34% of US respondents to the Harris survey said they would make more room in their budget for energy efficiency efforts. On the other hand, a significant two-thirds said they were willing to make behavioral changes like using their energy-intensive devices at different times to conserve energy.
Carry-Over Perceptions - Consumers remain unconvinced of the value of energy efficiency, in part due to skewed perceptions of its true cost. For example, the general public believes that an energy-efficient building has an upfront cost premium of nearly 20%, while the actual premium is a mere 0% to 3% on average. Consumers equate energy efficiency with sacrificing choice, function, comfort, convenience, and aesthetics. Efficiency still bears a stigma from flawed, first-generation versions of products like compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and electronic ballasts. Despite subsequent technology advances, many skeptics still associate saving energy with the reduced function and high initial cost of those early devices.
Entitlement - Smart grid, in order to return the benefits of the business case must overcome this societal concept that electricity is a right. To just assume that people will buy into the concept because it is "good for society" is naive and dangerous.
Big Brother - Auto correct can be annoying to some. A Prius Display provides real time feedback on gas mileage to help drivers modulate the way they. Some people like it, but others hate it because they don’t like to be hectored by car.
Cost – Consumers expect to pay $300 or less Consumers may be reluctant to add new devices and retrofit homes to save a few dollars a year
Privacy – Consumers don’t want an intrusive system.
Security – Concerns about compromising personal and home safety
Hassle– Competing for scarce consumer attention and time.. People will only do optional things if it is easy and fits with life There is a 40% churn rate on twitter, participation needs to be encouraged over time.
Ignorance - It is still unclear what percentage of the public is aware of the Smart Grid. It is clear that consumer awareness will be needed for adoption of the program and supporting the ultimate goal of energy conservation.
Chasm Model - Holds that there’s a big difference between what companies need to do to effectively sell technology products to early adopters and what they need to do to sell to the early and late majority of the technology adoption lifecycle (source: Joe M. Bohlen, George M. Beal and Everett M. Rogers)

Early adopters are technology enthusiasts looking for a radical shift, where the early majority simply seeks productivity improvement. Early adopters hope to get a jump on competition, lower their costs, get to market faster, have more complete customer service or get some other similar business advantage. Those in the majority of the market, however, want to minimize discontinuity. They want evolution, not revolution. They want technology to enhance, not overthrow, established ways of doing business. And they don’t want to debug someone’s product—they want it to work properly and to integrate with existing technology.

The chasm occurs because the majority of the market wants references from other customers like them, but all that pre-chasm vendors can offer are references to early adopters. Companies trying to cross the chasm run into trouble because they’re essentially operating without a reference base, trying to sell to a market that’s highly reference oriented.

Bridging this gulf is awkward, because if they’re to be successful, companies must adopt new strategies just at the time they’re becoming most comfortable with ones that seem to work.

The only reliable way to exit the chasm is to target a niche market on the other side made up of pragmatists united by a common problem for which there is no known solution. These pragmatists are motivated to help the new technology cross the chasm if it is packaged as a complete solution to their problem.

Why is this counter-intuitive and hard?
- Niche marketing feels like leaving sales on the table – Companies that are sales-driven and lured into selling to any market segment miss the opportunity to build momentum and authority in their strategically chosen segment
- Everyone wants to be a big fish, but not in a small pond – Being a market leader is every company’s objective. But no company wants to be known of as king of a small hill. Even though conquering successive small hills leads to mountains.
- Not all features and benefits may be required – For companies that have invested time and money developing a deep product, focusing on just one small niche and a subset of their features can feel insulting to engineering. Crossing the chasm means making decisions that are best for a narrowly defined customer, not for your product’s bragging rights.

6. Success Factors

Education - Chances are consumers would be more accepting and possibly even demand updated power systems if they actually knew about the Smart Grid and how it will benefit them. Consumer benefits need to be defined and advocated by utilities and policymakers alike across all economic levels. Education should include a Call to Action; people need to know what they need to do. Feedback on the impact of customer participation in the smart grid will be necessary to allow and improve coordination between the utility and its customers, to minimize customer disruptions, and improve customer service.
Visibility - Put feedback “in my face” People need to see their impact at the point of use. There seems to be promise in putting easy-to-digest information "tidbits" based on their personal smart grid data in people's hands when we already have their attention, for example when they login to bill pay. This is where we find the masses instead of the excel-loving-green-early-adopters. There may be potential for simple messages that speak to the customers' bottom line -- for example when they login to pay their power bill, to see "You spent $25.00 more this month than last month, and you could save $x.00 by turning off your printer each night" seems to have potential to inform and to motivate behavior change.
Community - A program of telling homeowners how their electricity use compared with their neighbors' had the effect of cutting energy consumption by 2%, the same as the impact of an 11% to20% rate hike, says Hunt Allcott of MIT. The research shows that interventions not based on electricity prices can substantially and cheaply change consumer behavior,
Excitement - Make Home Control Fun To get beyond the early adopters—who are primarily concerned with functionality—offer a fun and easy user experience, from purchase through installation and use. Energy efficiency measures should provide enjoyment to those who implement them and for everyone who encounters them. Interactive websites, such as energy use dashboards for the home, can provide visual, real-time feedback to help users understand and make better choices about their energy consumption decisions.
Ease of Use - Minimize Behavioral Changes By their nature, many products and services within the family ecosystem are complex, requiring that users learn new behaviors. Consumers have difficulty evaluating the efficacy of investing time/effort in learning new routines. To militate against consumer inertia, companies should offer products that facilitate existing behaviors, helping consumers save time or effort. People don’t change default settings – default to conservation. When set appropriately, programmable thermostats provide a high degree of customization for region and season, save time and effort, and deliver a quick payback.
Rate Design - Participation hinges on the accurate design of electricity rates that reflect appropriate economic realities. This type of rate design is occurring in many areas across the country, and should continue.
Market Segmentation - Different Consumers want different things. A 2011 Accenture study identified six separate categories for residential customers. Energy efficiency solutions should fit with a customer’s location, situation, and socio-economic status. Each of these customer segments requires a completely different value proposition.
- Self-reliants: Prefer to manage electricity consumption on their own.
- Social independents: Enjoy testing new technologies.
- Cost-sensitives: Look above all for the best financial rewards.
- Service-centrics: Would like the best service for them and their family.
- Traditionalists: Prefer a familiar experience.
- Tech-savvys: Value convenience and efficiency.
K.I.S.S.: A study of successful pilot programs in Illinois confirms that utilities struggle to communicate about the smart grid in simple and clear language. Jargon and unnecessary acronyms are rampant, and these ultimately breed confusion, suspicion and mistrust among consumers. Ontario-based Hydro One, by way of positive example, has done a strong job in using digital animation and Internet-based graphics to clearly illustrate how the smart gird works and what its benefits are.
Leverage Power of Third Parties: According to the Accenture Study, consumers trust third parties more than utilities for information on optimizing electricity consumption. Often in this regard traditional adversaries can become cooperative partners. For example, the Natural Resources Council of Maine has supported smart meter installation in that state, lending a reasoned and credible voice to the debate over Central Maine Power’s smart meter roll-out. These kinds of groups should not be overlooked for collaborative educational outreach, if and when possible.
Separate the Forest from the Trees: When it comes to the smart grid, it is vital that customers understand the big picture – the larger context of and justification for smart meter deployments. This is especially important because most of the long-term economic benefit of the smart grid could come not from reduced utility bills but from mitigated rate increases due to the inevitable, long-term rise in the costs of generation.
Embracing New Media: Ultimately, endorsements from friends and peers are the most effective way to spur adaptation of the specter of technological change posed by the smart grid. Generally, utilities have been slow to employ the most powerful tool available today to achieve this: social media. Through a technology platform provided by Virginia-based OPower, utilities are engaging online communities of enthusiastic smart grid advocates through Facebook and Twitter ‒ who make up just five percent of their customer base ‒ to spur adaptation from the other 95 percent. Innovative utilities understand that social networks represent a powerful channel for in-depth engagement with residential users, and are embracing them.
Aesthetics. Energy-efficient products should please the eye. For example, LED lamps look sleek and stylish, and flat-panel computer screens look streamlined and modern, with the added benefit of using less desk space.
Emphasize Comfort, health, and safety. Energy-efficient solutions should address the well-being of consumers and their families. Daylight can reduce eyestrain, and greener buildings can offer better indoor air quality.
Empowerment. Energy efficiency solutions should provide an array of choices that allow anyone to do something positive for the environment according to their level of commitment. Rebates and tax credits provide incentives for low-cost actions like weather-stripping on up to big-ticket items such as efficient furnaces and central air conditioning units.
Productivity. Energy-efficient solutions should enhance working and academic environments. Efficient lighting and air conditioning can improve comfort and morale, leading to improved business output and sales, and better student performance.
Status. Energy-efficient products should have a cachet that enhances a customer’s self-image, rather than seeming like a sacrifice. As with solar panels and hybrid vehicles, LED lighting shows promise of becoming a status symbol and a highly visible display of environmental commitment.
Success Criteria Key NIST Customer Metrics for enabling participation in the smart grid include:

Percent of customers/premises capable of receiving information from the grid
Percent of customers opting to make decisions and/or delegate decision-making authority
Number of communication-enabled, customer-side of the meter devices sold
Number of customer-side of the meter devices sending or receiving grid related signals
Amount of load managed
Measurable energy savings by customers

7. Companies and Organizations

Efficiency 2.0 - New York - Provides custom software solutions that educate households on the impacts of their energy use; enable them to make smarter choices in a fun and personalized manner; connect them with their friends, neighbors, local community groups, and energy efficiency providers; and compete against one another to save money on energy bills, and reduce carbon dioxide.
OPOWER - Arlington, VA - #Opower (on twitter) - The most prominent company in the field of consumer energy behavior modification. Opower compares your power consumption with the power consumption of similarly situated neighbors. It then puts a paper note bearing the results of the analysis inside your next utility bill. Opower has found that consumers who use more power than their neighbors will reduce their power consumption to hew more closely to the status quo. Here's a great statistic from the company: in 2010 the firm provided the equivalent of one-third of the U.S. solar industry's output in energy savings -- simply by sending out an actionable set of data once a month to utility customers.

Opower Neighbor Comparison Insert
Opower’s business model has been successful because utilities send Opower’s detailed bills to its customers automatically (as an opt-out service), and the bills have a very high chance of being opened because the envelope looks like their standard utility bill.

The company now has utility clients in 25 states and is providing 10 million U.S. households with home energy information through its multi-channel platform, which includes paper-based reports, emails, text messages, and an interactive web portal. The company also recently acquired its first global client in the UK and has an ambitious plan to expand globally. Opower says its software and services will be able to help save one terawatt hour worth of energy collectively from U.S. homes by 2012. One terawatt hour (or 1 million megawatt hours) is equivalent to the energy consumed by 100,000 American homes over a year, and is worth a $100 million in consumer’s utility savings.

In November, 2010, OPower closed on their round C with $50 million led by two of Silicon Valley's premier VC firms -- Kleiner Perkins and Accel Partners, along with New Enterprise Associates. Revenues exceeded $35 million in 2010 according to sources at the firm. Although the firm has been "cash-flow break-even for the last few quarters," according to Dan Yates, the CEO, the additional funding will allow the firm to accelerate their hiring and devote more resources to R&D and new products.

Video interview with Opower's marketing and strategy VP Ogi Kavazovic. We think you'll be particularly interested in his comments on when in-home displays will catch on. (Hint: never.)
Smart Grid Consumer Coalition - A new nonprofit coalition of utilities, academics, smart grid companies and consumer advocates that is hoping to find out what the customer knows and wants when it comes to a 21st-century electrical grid, and how players can deliver their messages so consumers will listen and learn. Current members include Future of Privacy Forum, IBM, Control4, Silver Spring, GE, NREL and various utilities. The organization will share best practices amongst members as they are developed.

8. Links

EPA/DOE - Smart Grid Stakeholder Roundtable - "Perspectives for utilities and others implementing Smart Grid.".
Consumer Education is needed. GE’s flashy site, PlugIntoTheSmartGrid.com offers an educational, but somewhat simplified overview of the Grid
The Smart Grid: An Introduction” (PDF 4 MB) is a publication sponsored by DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. It is the first book of its kind to explore – in layman’s terms – the nature, challenges, opportunities and necessity of Smart Grid implementation. Give one to key staff, your colleague, your lawyer, your accountant or your spouse…and watch the lights go on

Smart Meter Data Management

2011-10-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

Once utilities have millions of smart meters in place collecting data in near-to-real-time, the question of how to manage terabytes and petabytes of information will need to be solved. The software killer apps for Smart Grid operations at both utility and regional grid levels will be found in data analytics solutions.

Navigate this Report
Back to Consumer Index
1. Background
2. Acronyms/Definitions
3. Business Case
4. Benefits
5. Risks/Issues
6. Success Factors
7. Companies/Organizations
8. Links

1.Background

In May 2011, total U.S. smart meter installations passed the 20-million meter mark. There are commitments in place to install nearly 50 million smart meters by 2015. Now that utilities have millions of smart meters in place collecting data in near-to-real-time, the next question is be how to manage all that information.
There are a number of devices in addition to smart meters being used in the energy and utilities industry to collect data, including line default detectors, sagometers which generate 12 readings per hour at 50 bytes per read and storage devices such as batteries that produce 100 byte reads per hour. A synchrophasor- a phasor measurement unit that tracks electrical waves across the power grid to monitor the health of the system (see my blog article Phase Synchronizer) - takes readings sixty times a second. This adds up to 494 megabytes a day, 176 gigabytes of data a year per synchrophaser. Together, these devices create an astronomical amount of data.
To meet that need, utilities have turned to a number of companies offering meter data management services – software that can integrate the new flood of data with utility systems for billing, customer account management and a host of new uses that are expected to emerge.
There will be Terabytes, (1024 GB) and Petabytes (1024 TB) of information to manage. Merely moving from monthly kilwatt-hour reads to hourly interval meter reads increases data handling requirements more than 730 times. There is also additional rich information available in smart meters including: amps, volts, watts, vars, total harmonic distortion, and momentary interruptions.
As an early example, in Austin Energy's Smart Grid 1.0 , phase one roll-out which included 500,000 meters, the data storage went from 20 TB to 200 TB, with disaster recovery redundancy. This is for 15 minute sampling, and first stage (home-oriented) integration. Ignoring shorter sampling frequencies (resulting in much higher data storage) necessary for some Smart Grid functionality, this presents a model of about 400 MB per meter per year. A lot of utilities don't have resources to manage the type of volume of smart meter information.
With Time of Use pricing and user charge recovery for power generated, a sizable subset of this data will no longer be simply transient and used in the aggregate. Individual elements will need to be captured and tagged for later retrieval over whatever period is chosen by regulators as appropriate for looking back.
Analysis may be done on an extremely large scale so algorithms must be automated.

Uploaded by smartgridnews on Jan 25, 2010

Utilities face a coming wave of data beyond anything they have ever experienced. This one-hour Webinar will bring in some of the worlds most experienced professionals to explain how to prepare for, and benefit from, the coming data surge. For more go to www.SmartGridNews.com.

2. Acronyms/Definitions

Access Control - The goal of access control is to prevent the unauthorized use of HAN resources. Access control includes resource control; for example, preventing logon to local HAN Devices. For the purposes of smart grid standards, access control is not concerned with denying physical access. Access control is applied to an entity based on an identity or an authorization. An identity may represent an actual user, a process with its own identity (e.g., a program making a remote access connection), or a number of users represented by single identity (e.g., role-based access control).
Accountability – A special type of non-repudiation, in that the accountability security service is basically holding each network entity responsible for its actions on that network.
Audit Functionality - A critical element of the layered defense strategy for a system. Audit contributes to user and device accountability by recording security critical user actions while using HAN services. Audit also contributes to domain boundary enforcement services by recording activities of HAN services related to proper operation of security critical functions. In addition to auditing users and system activities, audit must be able to monitor the status of audit data to ensure its integrity and accuracy.
Anonymity - A service which prevents disclosure of information which leads to the identification of the source or end-user of the information.
Confidentiality - The security services, which prevent unauthorized disclosure of data (both stored and communicated). Confidentiality services prevent disclosure of data in transit and data at rest. Confidentiality services also include anonymity. Because of its role in limiting authorized disclosure of information, confidentiality services are closely linked with access control services.
Data Logging – Compiling an hour-by-hour record of energy use.
Grid Metadata - Data about the data that provides context, such as network models and topology that show what is connected to what in what order) Grid metadata is famously inaccurate as much as 20% to 50% inaccurate. We can fix some of the metadata problems through technology. But much of the solution depends on people. The biggest metadata challenge is "built versus as operated." A substation might be built one way, then changed and operated another. With the smart grid bringing constant additions and upgrades to all parts of the system, the situation has become very fluid and dynamic. Not only that, but with dynamic feeder circuit switching, topology changes can occur quite quickly under either normal or stress conditions on the grid.
MDMS – Meter Data Management System - Performs long term data storage and management for the vast quantities of data that are now being delivered by smart metering systems. This data consists primarily of usage data and events that are imported from the head end servers that manage the data collection in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (see my AMI article) or Automatic meter reading (AMR) systems. An MDM system will typically import the data, then validate, cleanse and process it before making it available for billing and analysis.
MIU – Meter Interface Unit - Captures and stores usage data over a period of time
MRE - Meter Reading Export - A file that contains completed meter reading route information that is transmitted from the meter reading host processor back to the mainframe computer.
MRI - Meter Reading Import - A file that contains route information that is transmitted from the utility mainframe computer to the meter reading host processor. This file contains customer and meter input records for each account to be processed. When the MRI file is processed into routes, blank customer and meter output records are created for each account. As the meter reader collects meter reading information during the day, these output records are filled in, uploaded to the IHP, and the MRE file is created.
Registration - The registration and authenticating requirements are used in conjunction with most other security services. That is, the first step of most security services is to determine the identities of one or more of the parties participating in an action. A trusted identity must be used for access control decisions and to provide accountability evidence. Knowing the identity of an entity and the existence of a peer relationship is also fundamental to establishing communication with confidentiality and integrity. If the identity of the peer in a secure communications path is not properly established, it leaves open the possibility that an unauthorized principal (an adversary) could masquerade as an authorized principal, exposing the data to disclosure or manipulation
.
VEE - Validation, Editing, and Estimation of meter data.

3. Business Case

The need for higher speed enterprise communications and Smart Grid opens Pandora’s Box of data. Huge quantities of otherwise untapped data will be available. However, this data won’t be reach its full potential without the ability to collect, store and provide data independent analytics
.
Meter Data Management Features

Connections to meter systems
Built in out-of-the-box validations
Critical Validations
Usage Validations
Error Handling
Estimations
Custom Business Rules
Meter Data Access
Meter Inventory Management
Revenue Protection
Common Meter Data Repository
Supports Open Technologies
Auditing
Reporting

Application Areas
- Balance Analysis
- Profitability Analysis
- Product Development
- Flexible Portfolio Analysis
- Demand Side Management
- Energy Settlement
- Unbilled Revenue

4. Benefits

Interoperability - Collaboration between companies for energy delivery - The re-shaping of utilities’ organizational boundaries is a growing, global trend, and these new models require information systems with a higher degree of flexibility. A common platform integrates process and information flow between companies and supports the unique operations and information needs of each entity.
Comparative Context to Motivate People to Act - If all I know is my own energy consumption then I don’t know if that is good or bad. I reduced my usage by 10%, but still could be using more than average neighbor.
Improved Customer Service – Processing smart meter interval data as well as events such as new customer registrations, and communicating them in real‐time or as needed to market participants enables higher levels of customer service for fundamental operations such as customer service requests, connection/disconnection and billing.
Conservation - Encourages behavioral change among customers by helping them understand how their energy consumption levels impacts not only their wallets, but also the environment.
Asset Management - Ability to match asset parameters with observed readings and expected load patterns for effective asset utilization (increased reliability), perform condition-based and predictive maintenance (postpones expensive replacements), plan future enhancements and grid optimizations (enables decision making). Including real-time status/events and GIS data with this enables visualizations that provide additional insights for managing distributed grid assets.
Demand Response - Analyze customer load profiles, consumption patterns, demographic and weather information to match customers with the DR programs they are likely to participate in and to design new DR programs that are better aligned to customer demand patterns. Also determine the success of DR programs in load shedding and load shifting by analyzing customer behaviors and patterns during DR events. Being able to do this can help utilities manage and predict load better and reduce the need to purchase/generate costly ‘peak’ power.
Identify Revenue Leakage (Theft) - Ability to correlate reads, alarms and customer profile information to detect theft and revenue leakage. For example, use frequent power off/power on meter alarms with consecutive reading gaps and/or static reads from the premise to flag a potential theft event.
Target Education - Use consumer usage patterns and post DR event analysis to provide targeted education to customers on energy efficiency and conservation goals.
Dynamic pricing - Use customer consumption patterns, weather and demographic data to segment customers and offer dynamic pricing programs and tailored energy efficiency initiatives.
Distributed generation management - Ability to analyze the combined effect of existing generation resources and distributed energy resources (such as intermittent renewable power sources) to determine when/if peaking generation plants or virtual power plants need to be brought online. Using this information in near real-time provides the ability to switch between distributed generation sources based on demand so that utilities achieve the lowest cost of power while reducing the carbon footprint.

5. Risks/Issues

Data Storage - The massive amount of data generated by smart-grid technology could itself pose a practical problem. Right now, a utility with five million meters has about 30,000 devices for monitoring the grid. As the smart grid develops, that number could increase a thousandfold, with each device conveying a thousand times as much information as one of its counterparts does now, says Erik Udstuen, a general manager at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. Though so much data may be difficult to process, it could also create opportunities for entrepreneurs to develop new monitoring applications, especially if open standards are developed.
Missing Data - One of the triggers for the Bakersfield Smart Meter controversy was the story of when the power went out at Tim Vanderhorst's house in east Bakersfield for almost six hours on April 20. When the lights came back on, was his computer showing that his electricity usage had tripled during that time When a SmartMeter does not transmitting a signal as it should, the utility's computer system automatically filled in the blanks with data patterned after his past power usage, or that of customers like him. While this glitch did not affect billing, it undermined consumer confidence in the system. According to TURN, this does not instill confidence in a system designed to give customers accurate and timely information about their own power usage
Insecurity of Existing Meter Communication Standards - In C12.18 the password is sent unencrypted. This is not a problem for a point-to-point connection from a handheld device to an optical port on a meter, but when data is transmitted over the Internet, it’s a serious security problem. A hacker with a computer loaded with freely available packet sniffing software can look at the packet and see the password. C12.21 has an alternative authentication mechanism, which provides for encrypted authentication, but the encryption is only used for authentication and all subsequent data reads and writes are done unencrypted. With a point-to-point connection via dialup telephone lines, this is not a problem because intercepting such communications is very difficult, but if the data is transmitted over the Internet, we once again have a problem because hackers can easily intercept the data. In both of these cases, the problem created is that a hacker, having successfully monitored the login, can now freely interfere with the meter and the automated meter reading (AMR) system. C12.22 will enable data encryption without requiring it, so no additional communications resources are used until encryption is actually used.
Data Integration - Utility mergers, open energy markets, and the integration of alternative supply into the grid are driving many utilities to adopt new business models in the transition to Smart Grid. With the responsibility of managing operations that span companies, borders and regulatory bodies, utilities are often required to link multiple CIS, logistics and AMI systems, each with differing process flows and data models.
Data Retention - What Smart Grid data to keep, what to archive, how long to archive the data, which data should be used for analytics, and which data needs to be maintained to meet security, data privacy and legal requirements. Failure to meet data security, privacy and legal retention requirements can lead to costly fines. That said, keeping massive quantities of data for long periods of time also comes at a cost.
Physical Infrastructure - IT eqiupment that is put in the field needs to be hardened to protect it from the electro-magnetic environment in which it will operate.

6. Success Factors

Expand data storage capabilities - The types and volume of data associated with Smart Grid use will mean a new need to bring Internet-style data centers into the complex mesh of utility control systems.
Data Analysis - A rigorous understanding of the importance of each piece of data to Smart Grid business processes.
Creative use of Data Storage Technologies - including virtualization, data de-duplication, multi-tiered archiving, and data encryption.

7. Companies/Organizations

Aclara Software - Wellesley, MA - Aclara MDMS - Various deployments in North America, including In PPL Electric Utilities (interval data from 1.4 million smart meters).
Ecologic Analytics, Bloomington MN - PG&E Partner - Leading provider of meter data management systems (MDMS) for electric, natural gas and water utilities. We changed our company name in January, 2008 to bring closer alignment between the goal to produce and distribute energy more efficiently and the enabling technologies the company has delivered since 2001.

The Ecologic Analytics Meter Data Management System (MDMS) transforms volumes of AMI data for electric, natural gas, and water utilities into valuable information that can be used by the entire organization to make quality business decisions.
eMeter, San Mateo CA - Has emerged as one of the favorite stand-alone meter data management companies.

Energy IP product uses J2EE
It has over 24 million meters under contract today with contracts with utilities including CenterPoint Energy, Alliant Energy and Southern California Edison, which plans to install 5.3 million meters through 2012.
Their EnergyIP™ product processes smart meter interval data as well as events such as new customer registrations, and communicates them in real‐time or as needed to market participants
They recent launched Energy Engage™, a consumer engagement solution, designed to enable utilities to empower their consumers to take an active role in managing their energy usage and reduce peak demand. It encourages conservation by enabling users to understand the relationship between energy consumption, cost and carbon output.
Secured $12.5 million VC funding in 2008 to support development of advanced metering technologies. In July closed a $32 million private financing led by Sequoia Capital and joined by existing investor, Foundation Capital.

EnergyICT a subsidiary of Elster (NYSE: ELT) Customers include DTE Energy (2.8 million electric meters) and NSTAR (Netherlands).

The Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District (SRP) announced in May 2011 that the utility, which is the third-largest public power utility in the United States, will deploy EIServer® meter data management (MDM) solution to manage more than 900,000 planned advanced metering devices in Elster's EnergyAxis® system throughout the utility's service territory. The MDM deployment will provide SRP with a number of operational benefits, such as:
1. work-flow management to integrate processes and data,
2. improved sampling and expanded data options for load research,
3. more accurate forecasting to improve power buy and sell decisions,
4. real-time data processing, asset optimization and demand response.
The implementation of the EnergyICT MDM system is currently underway and expected to complete in July 2011 .
Ferranti Computer Systems - Antwerp, Belgium - Product:MECOMS Essent (Netherlands).
GridGlo - Palm Beach County, FL - a spin out from CUBRC, which has been operating in the "data fusion" space for decades on behalf of the Defense Department. They are masters of taking data from lots of different sources and mashing it together to create new insights. GridGlo will combine consumption data from smart meters with data about consumers pulled from many different sources – financial reports, DMV records, mobile phone usage, and more. (While consumer data can be very valuable, it should not be 'taken' by utility vendors. See my blog article Smart Grid Privacy)

GridGlo will launch with the underlying platform, plus four applications:

Energy forecasting - By using what it knows about consumers, their location and their behavior, GridGlo thinks it can produce more granular load forecasts – down to every half-hour instead of the single, day-ahead forecast used by many utilities.
Demand response event selection - GridGlo knows whether or not a consumer is likely to be home at a particular time, and whether or not that consumer is likely to participate in a demand response event. It can therefore identify which customers are the best targets for a particular event. In addition, it claims to have methods to validate success.
Energy footprint scoring mechanism -A "credit report" for energy usage that ranks consumers on a scale from 1 to 1000 based on consumption, efficiency, engagement, and predictability.
Financial risk management - A nice way of saying "predict who is not going to pay"

Hansen Technologies Product: MDM Western Power (Australia).
Itron - Liberty Lake, WA, (Nasdaq: ITRI ) - Itron Enterprise Edition (IEE) v7.0, is an integrated data management and analysis platform. IEE v7.0 includes features to support advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) business processes. IEE product uses .Net. Over 10 customers in the US, including Dominion (C&I customer base), Georgia Systems Operations Corp., Pepco Holdings, Seattle City Light, and Xcel Energy (over 5 million meters).
Junifer Systems London, England Product: MDM No customers yet, product launched in spring 2011.
NorthStar Utilities Solutions - Ottawa Ontario - Meter Sense Over 20 utilities in North America, including Peterborough Distribution (30,000 smart meters in Ontario, Canada), Tillsonburg Hydro (Ontario, Canada), and Groton Utilities (Connecticut).
Oracle – Redwood Shores, CA, (Nasdaq: ORCL ) - Oracle Utilities Meter Data Management is a commercial off-the-shelf application with built in out-of-the-box functionality to support the loading, validation, editing, and estimation (VEE) of meter data. It is designed for the highest levels of automation and scalability to meet the current and future needs of utilities. Bought utility meter data management software company Lodestar Corp. in 2007. and SPL WorldGroup which makes revenue and operations management software for utilities in 2006. Over 15 MDM deployments, including US multi-utility Modesto Irrigation District (100,000 smart meters), Lakeland Electric (US; 125,000 smart meters), Acea Distribuzione (Italy).
OSIsoft San Leandro, CA Product: PI - System Consumer Energy (AMI pilot), Xcel Energy (Boulder SmartGrid City pilot).
Positive Energy, Arlington VA - Provides web-based information to consumers, demand response services. Working to use AMI data to power customer facing applications that derive ever more accurate insights about customer energy usage from the available data.It also works with utilities to send consumers information on their power consumption inside their bills.
SAP will offer a new meter data management platform, SAP Smart Meter Analytics starting in September 2011. The latest application leverages SAP’s in-memory computing to take the mass of data coming in from meters, SCADA and other sources and process it in real time. To build the product, SAP put together a group of utilities, along with its partners, eMeter and Itron, to find a way to integrate all smart grid data into SAP systems.

Using in-memory computing allows for data to be processed in real time to provide a snapshot or to constantly be updating it. The advantage is speed. Operators can put in a simple query when they see a perceived energy variance and get an instant answer. The platform has been tested with a German utility with more than a million customers, and will be fully available starting in September.
SunTec - headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram and has sales/support offices in Bangalore, New Jersey, London, Bad Kreuznach, Sharjah, and Singapore. - Product: TBMS-U MDM Several pilots in Indian home market.
Telvent (NASDAQ: TLVT) - Madrid, Houston, Beijing, Calgary, Baltimore, Mexico City and others - A global IT solutions and business information services provider dedicated to helping improve efficiency, safety and security for the world’s leading companies. In 2011, Telvent was acquired by the Schneider Electric group. Telvent serves markets that are critical to the sustainability of the planet, including the energy, transportation, agricultural and environmental sectors. Product: Telvent Conductor MDMFortum (Norway)

8. Links

Big Data, the Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity - McKinsey Global Institute May 2011 - Looks at the vast amount of enterprise information that exists, and the challenges that organizations will face in trying to manage it. The report explores topics such as the state of digital data and how organizations can use large data sets to create value.
Electric Light and Power Magazine – Meter Data Management
Metering.com – Meter Data Management
Smart Grid Security Blog - By Andy Bochman, Energy Security Lead for IBM's Rational division, where the focus is on securing the software that runs the smart grid.