A Smart Grid Safety Net? Putting Energy Equity on the To-Do List

By Tim Kostyk

.

Will the future vision of electrical energy – the Smart Grid – introduce issues of Energy Equity unseen in today’s utility-based society?

Tomorrow’s Smart Grid will have innovative features which are totally different from the centralized/federated infrastructure we know today. Instead of just connecting to the grid of a local energy provider, typically a utility company, homes and businesses will in some cases become distributed energy providers forming cooperative microgrids capable of producing and sharing power to each other or to other cooperative microgrids in a resilient adaptive fabric network.

As we look at this future view of electrical energy, it becomes apparent that the current view of equitable, readily available energy will be turned on its head. What was once a service-based environment will become an open marketplace that is commodity-based. How will energy traded by ordinary citizens or businesses drive fundamental changes of energy equity as we know it today? What was once a tightly controlled market of energy providers and consumers regulated by federal and local governments will become a vast marketplace of thousands or even millions of participants driven by market forces.

What are the potential equity considerations?

1)     What happens to the traditional role of government to regulate and provide a safety net to low income people and insure quality of service.

2)     How will we gain access to transmission and distribution?  Will we be able to purchase those services from competing providers, and how will those services be made equitably available to everyone including the poor?

3)     How will the average citizen gain fair and equitable trading rights as generators or consumers of energy? Will electrical energy market traders be regulated against fraud and market manipulation?

4)     Who will be responsible for taking on the social responsibilities of equitable price and supply?

The equity considerations of the Smart Grid are exciting, yet scary in their potential to impact the electrical energy supply of the average person.  Previous attempts in energy deregulation and marketization in various states across the United States, coupled with the Enron debacle in 2001, created huge spikes in energy cost and shortages in supply which impacted millions of people.

As we design and build the Smart Grid we should take the opportunity to make energy a true national treasure and a shared resource available to all by introducing equity factors in its design.

Tim Kostyk is a member of Arizona State University’s Human and Social Dimensions of Science & Technology PhD Program. He is a TOGAF 9 Certified Enterprise Architect and trainer and sits on the IEEE Power and Engineering Society Smart Grid Planning Committee as well as participates in the IEEE Smart Grid p2030 Standards Workgroup. He can be e-mailed at Timothy.Kostyk@asu.edu

You might also be interested in …

Smart Meter Paranoia: Could a Simple Toggle Switch or Software Fix Solve It?

Smart Grid Backlash: How to Put an End to Consumer Resistance

Related SGN channels …

Smart Grid Markets & Pricing

Smart Grid Policy & Regulation