Utility Nightmares: Distributed Generation and Halving Electricity Consumption

While many utility executives attribute much of their predicted market challenges to the rise of photovoltaics and net metering, they actually have much more to worry about.

In a 2013 survey of global utility companies by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the results revealed that the utility industry leaders anticipate major changes to their business model in the near future. Ninety-four percent of international industry representatives surveyed predict that the power utility business model will be either completely transformed or significantly changed between today and 2030, while only 6 percent expect that the utility business model will stay "more or less the same."

In North America, 40 percent of respondents believed that utility companies' means of making a profit will see major changes over the next two decades. A strong majority — 82 percent — of North American respondents also said future energy needs will be met by a mix of traditional centralized generation and distributed generation, which feeds power from a mix of sources.

But while renewable on-site energy generation offers a major challenge to the electric utility business model, the lower capital cost energy efficiency approaches, will be the hardest hurdle. Not only because the initial capital costs are lower, the payback is faster, and the energy savings are huge. In fact just four effiency options can cut building electricity use by 50 percent, and there are many more options than what I cover here.

Smart Thermostats and Controls: 10 Percent Reduction

The city-owned electric utility, Austin Energy, (Austin, Texas), gave away 90,000 programmable thermostats over a dozen years, at $250 a piece, totaling $19 million, the largest thermostat giveaway in the U.S. Each thermostat unit had a radio controller that gave Austin Energy the ability to change the home's temperature., which wil help Austin Energy work toward a goal of shaving 800 megawatts off its peak load by 2020. A researcher at Lawrence Berkeley, said even the most perfectly managed thermostat can't reduce a typical home's energy usage by more than about 10 percent.

Since then, as David Ferris at EE News pointed out, the big boys have jumped into the market. Lowe's, a national home improvement chain, rolled out a $299 package that includes a front-door keypad, thermostat and door-opening sensors that can all be managed with an app. Comcast Corp. has a thermostat that it claims can lower a home's energy use even if the dweller never touches it. Home-security companies Vivint Inc. and Alarm.com are selling connected thermostats, as is ADT Corp., which thinks temperature control is key to its expansion into smart home networks. Most significantly, Google Inc. recently bought Nest for $3.2 billion, the second-largest acquisition by one of the world's largest tech companies. Ferris noted, “By comparison, Google paid only half as much for YouTube, the world's leading platform for online video. In the words of John Steinberg, a co-founder of EcoFactor, a Nest competitor, "Google wouldn't have paid $3.2 billion just to get a thermostat company."

Lighting: Minimum 10 Percent Reduction in Building Energy

But there’s more. A lighting technology revolution is underway with both LED lights, computerized lighting controls, and solar daylighting (the technology that uses lenses and reflectors to bring in full spectrum light without the heat gain).

EIA reports that early 40 percent of total U.S. energy consumption in 2012 was consumed in residential and commercial buildings, or about 40 quadrillion British thermal units, and over a third of that (34.6 percent) was for lighting in buildings.

EPA’s Energy Star states that LEDs use at least 75 percent less energy than incandescent lighting, saving on operating expenses and reducing maintenance costs becayse they last 35 to 50 times longer than incandescent lighting and about 2 to 5 times longer than fluorescent lighting — no bulb-replacements, no ladders, no ongoing disposal program. And for solar daylighting, the results are even greater.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goes even further, stating LED efficiency is as good as or better than fluorescent lighting. The DOE estimates that switching to LED lighting over the next two decades could save the country $250 billion in energy costs over that period, reduce the electricity consumption for lighting by nearly one half, and avoid 1,800 million metric tons of carbon emission with over 20 LED studies.

Solar Water Heating (And Others): Minimum 9 Percent Reduction in Building Energy

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) also reports that 17.7 percent of our energy is for heating water. And solar water heating should meet 50-80 percent of that water heating load, according to the DOE. Waste heat from geothermal heat pumps or cogeneration and CHP systems can reduce that even further, meaning even more cost-effective options for consumers.

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Distributed Solar May Grow to 2 Gigawatts in Northeast US by 2021

Earlier this week the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) released the Northeastern portion of the 6th annual Renewable Energy in the 50 States report. The report focuses on the state of the renewable energy industry across the U.S. and is released in four stages. The most recent release finds that some of fastest growing states for renewable energy are in the U.S. Northeast, led by New York and Pennsylvania. It also anticipated that by the end of 2021 the distributed solar power market (rooftops, small solar farms, commercial buildings, etc.) will grow to 2 gigawatts from 250 megawatts in 2012.

“For several years now the renewable energy sector has been growing at an increasingly impressive rate,” said ACORE’s Research and Program Manager and lead author of the report Lesley Hunter. “This has been especially true in the Northeast. These 11 states — plus the District of Columbia — rank second nationwide in both solar and biomass power capacity and may be on the precipice of a massive offshore wind build-out.” The 11 states covered in the report are: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

The report credited the strong growth of renewables in the Northeast to various policies and incentive programs. Among the policies and incentive programs mentioned were feed-in tariffs, renewable energy credits (RECs), green banks (as in New York’s $1 billion green bank), and rebates.

Another important, overarching policy in the region are renewable energy targets and renewable portfolio standards (RPSs). “Many Northeastern states have set targets for solar energy generation, which, coupled with financial incentives, are largely responsible for driving more solar power capacity in the Northeast than in the Midwest or the Southeast,” the report said. There’s also a cooperative effort, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is helping nine states in the region work toward curbing greenhouse gas emissions and while spurring energy efficiency.

“Various renewable energy technologies may also help to diversify the Northeast’s energy production portfolio beyond conventional energy sources,” Hunter explained. Several states such as New York, Massachusetts, and Maine are major producers of biomass and waste energy, using a number of available feedstocks like municipal solid waste, wood, and landfill gas.

Homeowners in the region also use a lot of wood, Hunter reported. “The availability of wood waste from the local forestry sector allows homes throughout the Northeast to use wood for space heating, water heating, and cooking at nearly twice the national rate, and growth in this sector is expected to steadily continue,” she said.

The information and views expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on this Web site and other publications. This blog was posted directly by the author and was not reviewed for accuracy, spelling or grammar.

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Distributed energy storage advantages on both sides of the counter

Solar and wind energy are excellent sources of clean, renewable energy, but a larger share of the generation fleet contribute, be their integration into increasingly sophisticated. The reason: solar and wind can not be sent in the same way as other energy sources, such as nuclear, hydroelectric and fossil fuels. Because the grid "just in time" with generation constantly relevant claim must act for stability, special accommodation required to efficiently integrate a significant contribution from the Sun or the wind. Intermittent production and tendency to produce peak power periods not always pretty close peak demand.

Battery storage is recognized as a way to integrate more solar and wind energy into the grid for a long time. The deployment of intelligent energy storage at the edge of the grid, where energy is consumed, emerges several compelling advantages on both sides of the counter. The advantages of such distributed energy storage (DES) derive from his ability to create and demand through consumption and electricity generation, or to decrease it. In the end this demand allows redistribution, as changing grid conditions include reduced or be increased. And by the demand for more redistribution, also is easier to integrate that higher levels of penetration it from solar and wind generation.

Customer wins

The image below shows to calculate time differences as a commercial customer demand by increasing the "demand" in the night, the batteries (in this case, preferably with wind energy), and then "generated" to reduce power peaks when necessary in the course of the day.

The benefits of the customer can be significant. The ability to time-shift-demand enables commercial and industrial (C & I) customers Cap demand charges during the day and take advantage of reduced time of use at night. Customers will be able to achieve a return on investment in a system in five to seven years are among the most fare structures, C & I. Shorter, the payback can be disturbing when solar energy is integrated, or by participating in the utility production program response, which the facilitated in a manner of less.

THE facilitated the in place solar generation to integrate, by space for regular spikes in demand and clouds with fewer interruptions to the customers and more stability for the grid. Depending on the capacity and skills of in place-solar and the can survive the customer to a power outage again with little or even no interruption of operation systems (possibly as part of a Microgrid).

The utility side of the counter

There are equal benefit from distributed energy storage on the other side of the counter for all the utilities that generate, transmit or distribute electricity. DES is beneficial for wind power, because those plants far away are usually the hub of a city, in sparsely populated rural settings where winds just the strongest blow. However, the transfer to distant population centers is required. But the real problem with the temperament of the wind, which often tends to evening peak at the energy requirements are relatively low.

Renewable energy certificate (REC) market wind allows manufacturers of credits only for actually makes the grid bring to earn. From this producer there often needed to pay other energy sources (e.g., at night) to qualify production credit for the ramp or shut down at times of low demand reason. In the spring of 2010, for example, the costs for other resources went go offline always as high as 10 ? per kilowatt-hour.

The wind and solar energy requires the periodicity other sources of energy and support network stability with a decrease in wind speed or a lack of sunshine on a cloudy day. For small levels of penetration, such periodicity is easy to accommodate. Greater levels of integration is renewable but this is a problem. Integration of energy storage with distributed solar systems can the battery as a buffer, guaranteed to be a constant and redistributable power from the PV system. Traditional baseload and peaker plants benefit from the demand leveling effect of with a decline of startups and ramp prices, which contribute to reduced equipment, fuels and emissions.

Similar benefits adult transmission and utilities, based on more efficient utilization of existing transmission and distribution (t &:-d)-infrastructure. I2r losses are minimized with the possibility for the transmission and distribution of power in times of low demand. DES makes C & I customers more to participate in request-response programs, and reduce power consumption events even more DR. Changes, including growth in distributed generation and the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) are less threatening to grid stability. THE system can be operated also to improve grid stability by providing services such as frequency and voltage, and power factor correction.

By increasing the utilization of existing infrastructure in T & D, are utilities to move and possibly avoid a costly expansion or upgrade, as demand grows and increased renewable production. Finally, are North America (and the entire planet for that matter) benefit greater use of clean, renewable energy sources, which are integrated in a stable and reliable power supply. DES can even help, society, to achieve a more important goal: energy independence by greater use of EVS - charged, naturally clean with solar and wind energy.

Conclusion

As the contribution from solar and wind generation rises to 20 percent or more, since it will probably see renewable portfolio standard mandates the provision of distributed energy storage at the edge of the grid provides an opportunity this energy redistribution and firm make clean. In fact, through the provision of services on both sides of the counter, DES has the potential that generated way to transform, electricity, transferred, distributed and consumed. It is for this reason that utilities incentives for their C & I customers, which should provide for deploying intelligent distributed storage from renewable sources.

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Telvent select, implement distributed control for solar thermal power plant in Abu Dhabi

ROCKVILLE, MD, 27 May 2011 GLOBE NEWSWIRE)-Telvent (NASDAQ: TLVT), the leading real-time it solutions and information provider for a sustainable world, today announced that it has been selected to design, install and manage the distributed control system (DCS) for Shams power company Shams 1 solar thermal power plant in MadinatZayed75 km (120 km) southwest of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The joint venture of Masdar (60%), total (20%) and Abengoa (20%) Telvent's solution control and one of the world's largest concentrated solar energy projects and the first of its kind in the Middle East service chosen. Extending over an area of about 1.5 square miles (2.5 km2), the plant 100 megawatts generated output of 768 parabolic trough collectors.

With this solution Telvent have Shams power company operators the ability to control and monitor all solar system processes of in accordance with current technology, makes it possible, trough collectors manage the position of the solar energy to efficiently capture the energy of the Sun over the entire course of the day, Anticipation of weather conditions and improve the performance block issue.

According to Telvent's Chairman and CEO, Ignacio Gonzalez, helps "Telvent, through innovative technology and extensive know-how, solar systems optimum results in a safe and sustainable way to produce." "This project with Shams power company is one of the largest solar projects on the planet and continue our leadership in solar energy while further demonstrate our solutions for this sector."

Telvent was selected for the project, due to its reliability, flexibility and expertise in the field of solar energy. The company is a leader in the development and implementation of solutions for the provision of intelligent, to maximize solar energy production. This project marked the twelfth Abengoa owned power commercial station for Telvent has developed integrated control systems. Telvent has also installations with integrated solar systems in Spain, the United States, Morocco and Algeria.

About Telvent

Telvent (NASDAQ: TLVT) is a global IT solutions and business services information provider dedicated to help, improvement of the company for the world leading efficiency, safety and protection. Telvent serves markets that are for the sustainability of the planet, including energy, transport, agriculture and environment. (www.telvent.com)

The Telvent GIT S.A. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6852

Contact: Investor Relations contact Manuel Fernandez Maza Tel. + 1 301 354 5432 E-Mail: ir@telvent.com Tel. + 34 communication contact Patricia Malo de Molina 954 93 71 11 E-Mail: comunicacion@telvent.com

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