A Smart Energy Future

NOVEMBER 2011SMART ENERGY EDITION

CAN INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTIONISE THE GRID?

Future PowerTechnology

Energy FutureA Smart

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

PROOF OF CONCEPT A groundbreaking trial shows that smart grids already work

CONNECT TO THE FUTURE

We look at data communication options for smart networks

DISTRIBUTING THE LOAD How distributed generation helps make future grids more flexible

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SUBSCRIPTION

Going digital opens up the energy infrastructure to new risks - we investigate the cyber threat

Keepingit Secure SIZING UP SMART GRIDSWill the benefits make up for

the high initial cost?

CONTENTSNovember 2011


SIZING UP SMART GRIDSWill the benefits make up for the high initial costs of smartening up the grid?

PROOF OF CONCEPTA groundbreaking experiment shows that smart grids can already work

TAKING CHARGE OF CYBERSECURITYGoing digital opens up the energy infrastructure to new risks and threats

DISTRIBUTING THE LOADWe find out how distributed generation can help to make future grids more flexible

SMART STORAGEHow battery technology is evolving to cater for the demands of smart grid storage

CONNECT TO THE FUTUREWe look at data communication options for smart energy networks

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

SMART GRIDSSIZING UP

THE POTENTIAL OF SMART GRIDS HAS BEEN TOUTED NEARLY EVERYWHERE AS A REALISTIC SOLUTION TO POWER GRID STRAIN, BUT ADOPTION BY UTILITIES HAS NOT BEEN AS WIDESPREAD AS ONE WOULD IMAGINE. MITCH BEEDIE EXAMINES WHETHER THE BENEFITS FIT THE COSTS

MANY ELECTRICITY UTILITIES are piloting smart grids, and suppliers are quick to stress the benefits - particularly lower running costs from automating meter reading and improved network control. Communications companies, meanwhile, say the technology is ready to implement.

The question is whether the benefits of smart grids will be enough to repay the substantial costs of rolling them out on a large scale.

Three reports focusing on the topic of smart grid implementation illustrate some of the conflicting opinions that currently prevail. The main issue, it seems, is the implementation of a reliable and pragmatic rollout schedule. Communications infrastructure is also described in one report as a major stumbling block, while another report takes a step back and asks whether the promised benefits will actually appear.

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A GROUNDBREAKING EXPERIMENT IN THE NETHERLANDS HAS PROVIDED STRONG EVIDENTIAL SUPPORT FOR THE SMART GRID CONCEPT APPLIED TO A NETWORK OFDOMESTIC CONSUMERS, AS MODERN POWER SYSTEMS EDITOR LEONARD SANFORD REPORTS

PROOFOF

CONCEPTSUSTAINABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS of the future will incorporate distributed and intermittent energy resources and new patterns of energy demand, for example the use of electric vehicles, heat pumps for heating and smart appliances that will run when renewable power peaks.

The supply chain will change completely, from a classical top-down oriented structure to a fully bi-directional system. Market roles will also change; consumers will become suppliers and new market parties will enter the supply chain.

Introducing smart technologies into the grid to connect and match the energy generators and consumers will require further advances in information and communications technology.

To test these concepts in practice, the Power-Matching City project was set up in Groningen, The Netherlands. The one-year trial involving 25 homes has demonstrated that it is possible to create a smart grid with a corresponding market model using existing technologies. This is the first time in Europe that the results of a live smart grid community are known at this technological scale.

THE POWERMATCHING CITY SET-UP

Energy consulting and testing/certification firm KEMA, together with the TNO institute, software company HUMIQ and utility Essent, created a living laboratory smart grid environment.

The trial smart grid community comprises 25 household connected to each other through a management system and equipped with micro combined heat and power (CHP) systems with high efficiency boilers, hybrid heat pumps, smart meters, PV solar panels, electric transport and smart household appliances. Additional power is produced by a wind farm and a gas turbine incorporated in the network.

The underlying coordinating mechanism is based on PowerMatcher, a software tool that balances energy demand with energy supply. Power-Matcher, developed by ECN, assigns a software agent to every component on the system. The agents then negotiate for the cheapest power, sell generated power at the best price and try to get the maximum benefit from each source of power consumption.

Data is collected on how much energy the trial participants use and on whether residents are willing to exchange comfort for flexibility based on financial incentives. It should also be possible to analyse the scalability of the PowerMatcher system in order to assess whether the technology is capable of matching demand and supply from numerous distributed resources in a large-scale adoption scenario.

PROVING THAT IT WORKS

The trial achieved its primary goal, demonstrating that it is possible to build a smart system using readily available technologies. The project also showed that it is technically feasible to allow demand to track supply rather than the other way around. Measurements indicated that the system responds quickly to fluctuating demand and maintains long-term comfort levels for the user.

Practice also showed the necessity to design appliances, including household appliances, in such a way that they can decide for themselves whether to switch on or off, depending on the current electricity rate. Creating flexibility without adversely affecting the end users comfort or the systems energy efficiency turned out to be possible, in this case by temporarily storing the energy in a buffer tank in the form of heat.

The battery in an electric vehicle offers similar potential, but any such structure requires a smart optimisation algorithm, that is, a smart agent. Use of the smart agent shows a key result that end users buy their electricity at low rates and sell it at high rates, regardless of the type of appliance involved.

The principal organisers of the trial had three main objectives energy optimisation for the end user, reduction in the grid load for the network operator and a reduction in distribution imbalances for the utility. With all three objectives considered as being achieved, the trial is set to be expanded with a successor project.

SMART GRIDS HOLD THE POTENTIAL TO REVOLUTIONISE POWER DISTRIBUTION, BUT GOING DIGITAL OPENS THE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

UP TO NEW RISKS. CHRIS LO EXPLORES THE EMERGING CYBER FRONTIER OF ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE TO ASSESS THE THREAT

POSED BY HACKING AND OTHER CYBER ATTACKS

SMART GRIDS TRULY represent the next frontier of power distribution. Leveraging advances in digital communications, this burgeoning technology holds the potential to revolutionise electricity distribution, metering, efficiency and data monitoring at both local and national levels.

A number of pilot smart grid projects are already up and running around the world. Following the lead of the worlds first smart grid Telegestore, established by Enel in Italy, other new projects are now being set up in the US, Europe, South Korea and elsewhere.

But as the concept picks up momentum and seeps further into the public consciousness, a significant concern has emerged: If we digitise the electrical grid, are we not also exposing it to the dangers of hacking and cyber terrorism?

The Stuxnet attack on Iranian industrial control systems (ICS) in 2010 showed the world just how sophisticated cyber attacks have become, and the possibility of a similar assault on such critical infrastructure as the electrical grid has cast a dark shadow over modern smart grid development.

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DISTRIBUTINGTHE LOAD

LOCAL SMALL-SCALE POWER GENERATION, WHEN COMBINED WITH SMART TECHNOLOGY, COULD MAKE THE GRID MORE RELIABLE AND FLEXIBLE. ELISABETH FISCHER AND CHRIS LO LOOK AT SOME OF THE DISTRIBUTED GENERATION PROJECTS AIMING TO REDUCE THE DEPENDENCE ON CENTRALISEDPOWER SOURCES

THE CONCEPT OF distributed generation (DG), power generated from numerous small sources for local distribution or to be fed back into the main grid, certainly makes for an enticing picture. In theory, the implementation of DG can reduce communities reliance on centralised power sources, increase grid reliability and make small-scale renewable power generation more viable.

In practice, current grid infrastructure could struggle to keep up with the complex system of give-and-take required to make DG work. But the smart grid gradually inching closer from the technological horizon could prove to be a key facilitator for the integration of small-scale generation. The worlds smart grid enabled future is set to blur the lines between power generation and distribution, with bulk power transmission complemented by local generators in a complex web of supply and demand.

Global investment in DG projects is certainly on the rise, with Bloomberg New Energy Finance announcing in early 2011 that the money pouring into distributed generation had shot up by 91% to almost $60bn in 2010, with the dominant element being rooftop and other small-scale so-lar projects, notably in Germany but also in the US, the Czech Republic, Italy and elsewhere.

Smart grids and distributed generation look to be the ideal partners, as the development of each technology will advance the cause of the other. We round up some of the worlds most forward-thinking DG initiatives, from major pilot schemes in the US and Australia to the US Armys trial of microgrids for its bases in Afghanistan.

DISTRIBUTED GENERATION OPENS UP THE POSSIBILITY OF PRODUCING ELECTRICITY LOCALLY FROM SMALL-SCALE SOURCES AND SELLING THE SURPLUS TO THE GRID

SMARTSTORAGEBATTERIES ARE STILL THE ONLY REAL OPTION WHEN IT COMES TO STORING ENERGY PRODUCED BY SMART GRIDS. MITCH BEEDIE FINDS OUT WHICH DIRECTION BATTERY TECHNOLOGY NEEDS TO TAKE IN ORDER TO CATER FOR THE DEMANDS OF SMART GRID STORAGE AS MORE INTERMITTENT RENEWABLE SOURCES COME ON LINE

UTILITY-SCALE BATTERY use is looking at a near-exponential increase over the next five years as more intermittent renewable power sources come on line. When renewables supply above 15% of grid power, they need backup storage or the grid itself could become unstable.

Batteries have much lower running costs and environmental impact than natural gas and diesel-fuelled reserves. With pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage only possible in a few geographically suitable regions, there is still no general alternative to batteries for storing tens of MW. They will particularly be needed as smart grids start to incorporate renewable supplies.

Deep-cycle batteries are already universal in off- grid residential and industrial renewable systems. Even industrial systems are still only relatively small scale, used for powering traffic signals, video security, telecoms, radio communications and pipeline monitoring or control. With serious upscaling for utility use, banks of batteries can now store power generated during low demand and pass it on up to eight hours later during high demand. This can give utilities better than five-year repayment times by reducing peak power construction, transmission and distribution costs.

Grid storage so far has mainly come from lead-acid batteries, but improvements in deep-cycling performance will be needed for large-scale renewable storage. There is increasing interest in sodium sulphur batteries and, more recently, flow batteries, but lead-carbon is the technology to watch as it promises to solve the major problems of lead-acid batteries.

FOR SMART GRIDS TO BECOME A REALITY, ROBUST DATASYSTEMS ARE NEEDED THAT CAN TRANSMIT INFORMATIONTWO WAYS IN REAL-TIME. EUGEN MAYER OF POWERPLUS COMMUNICATIONS LOOKS AT THE OPTIONSFOR SMART COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

THE SMART METER is a primary enabler of the smart grid model, transmitting and receiving data on energy usage. This two-way exchange of information means that consumers can play a more active role, taking greater control of their energy consumption, carbon emissions and energy costs. At the same time, distribution network operators take greater control of the distribution network and realise operational efficiencies with huge potential savings.

While the concept is simple, there are significant hurdles when it comes to implementation. The structure of the smart metering model is unclear, and there is a need to standardise on a robust communications network. Smart meters can only function intelligently if they are supported by an infrastructure delivering reliable bi-directional transmission of consumption and control data in real time. Broadband over powerlines (BPL) is one of the technologies to do exactly that.

CONNECT to theFUTURE

POWER-GEN INTERNATIONAL AND ITS CO-LOCATED EVEN NUCLEAR POWERINTERNATIONAL RETURN TO LAS VEGAS, TAKING PLACE 13-15 DECEMBER AT THE LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER. CHAIRMAN DAVID WAGMAN ROUNDSUP THE HIGHLIGHTS TO BE EXPECTED AT THIS YEARS EVENT

GEARING UP FOR

POWER-GENInternational

POWER-GEN International is the industry leader in providing comprehensive coverage of trends, technologies and issues facing the generation sector. More than 1,200 companies from all industry sectors exhibit each year and more than 19,000 attendees come together at POWER-GEN International for a look at the industry with key emphasis on new solutions and innovations.

New this year is the Financial Forum, which takes place December 14 and 15. Focusing on finance and development issues related to natural gas and renewable energy, this separately ticketed event held just off the main exhibition floor includes two days of panel discussions and seminars on the biggest trends in finance and strategies. A Financial Forum highlight will be the keynote luncheon address December 14 by Larry Kellerman, CEO of Quantum Utility Generation, who will address The New Project Debt: Equity in Sheeps Clothing.

New also this year is a rapid-fire, 45-minute interactive plenary session entitled State of the Economy in 45 Minutes, to be held on 15 December. Panel members include Deanne Short, regional chief economist with Caterpillar, Stephen Brown, director of the Center for Business and

Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Gordon B. Pickering, director of Energy at Navigant Consulting.

As in previous years, POWER-GEN International and NUCLEAR POWER International delegates will be able to attend the events annual Keynote Sessions, to be held from 9:30am 11:30am in the Barron Room at the Las Vegas Hilton adjacent to the convention centre. Keynote speakers include David M. Walsh, senior vice president of Service & Manufacturing at Mitsubishi Power Systems America, and Donald B. Karner, president and CEO of ECOtality North America.

Through special arrangement with the Bureau of Reclamation, attendees may choose from two tours of the iconic Hoover Dam, which is a short drive from the Las Vegas Strip on the Colorado River. This engineering marvel not only enabled the industrial development of the Pacific South-west, but it also forms Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the Western Hemisphere. The tour on Sunday, 11 December takes place from 1:00pm 5:00 pm. Another tour is set for Monday, 12 December from 8:00 am 12:00 pm. Space is limited and cut-off to register for both tours is 18 November.

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With the first large stationary gas engine to incorporate two-stage turbo-charging currently in trials, we find out if the technology is likely to become a common feature of large reciprocating engines in years to come.

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A Smart Energy Future

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