Demand side management (DSM) and demand response (DR) programs are one way utilities manage peak energy consumption. DSM and DR are now the law of the land thanks to several pieces of landmark federal legislation. Because demand side changes are typically less expensive and less time consuming than building new power plants, this sector is seeing explosive growth. It’s a critical piece of the Smart Grid, as the resources below reveal.
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Earlier this year FERC approved a request by the PJM Interconnection to allow for small-scale assets down to 100 kW to participate in frequency regulation applications. The move opened the door for Viridity Energy and Enbala Power Networks to initiate demand-side regulation projects that could respond to grid signals on a second-by-second basis. What does it mean for traditional DR and energy storage? Brian Warshay of Lux Research offers a perspective.
The research is clear - better understanding will lead to a better, smarter electric grid. And now you can do your part to spread the word about why we need to modernize the grid and the benefits that will result for everyone. We've packaged up an awesome Smart Grid 101 package, including a free eBook, a great video and three more fun resources you can use to share the smart grid story.
The drama over Boulder's SmartGridCity gets the attention, but not far away in Fort Collins, partners in a DOE-funded Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration project are compiling results from their real-world research into load shedding and local energy generation. We talked with a project engineer about lessons learned - like how hard it is to go beyond a 25% reduction in peak load and how real-world constraints (such as the "noise pollution" of a diesel generator) can impact results.
Early this year, SGN readers voted Calico Energy Services one of the top 11 smart grid companies to watch for 2011. The company seems to have lived up to the billing with its just announced Unified Operations Center, which at least some observers say carves out a brand new playing field in the energy management software market. Click inside for a look under the hood.
Curtailing electricity demand in a society that can't buy all the latest electronic gizmos fast enough? In a world that needs to keep the wheels of industry churning out all of those gizmos - and providing jobs? A reader made the point the other day that we might be better off promoting energy innovation over curtailing demand. What do you think? It's this week's topic in our discussion forum. Please join in.
Brattle Group economists have given Smart Grid News readers a sneak peek at an upcoming white paper that draws intriguing conclusions about electric demand in the U.S. and predicts a fourth wave of energy efficiency on the horizon – integrated demand-side management. Click inside to see if you agree.
In this excerpt from an upcoming white paper on trends in electric demand in the coming decade, economists with The Brattle Group discuss a new wave of energy efficiency that is emerging – sometimes referred to as integrated demand-side management.
This summer's record heat sparked record demand for many utilities across the country. So how did you and your colleagues do? What grade would you give your utility's performance? That's this week's Tuesday Topic.
In this Smart Grid Insights report, Zpryme details how demand-side management, energy storage, distributed generation, and even customer-sited generation is effecting the deployment of the smart grid.
This McKinsey white paper suggests that demand side management - allowing customers to adjust their energy consumption in terms of when and how much electricity they use - could translate into $59 billion in societal benefit by 2019.
IBM is teaming with an EU-funded consortium to lower the energy consumption of electronic devices by an order of magnitude. Imagine what would happen to electricity demand if every device suddenly used 1/10 the power. It could turn current forecasts upside down. Would we even need a smart grid?
PJM Interconnection, a regional grid operator, has dropped back to take a second look at a proposed high-voltage transmission project after refiguring its forecast for future energy use. It's looking at when new lines would need to be built, if ever, and other options.
The Peak Load Management Alliance has published a study on the market potential for water heater demand management that suggests direct load control for water heaters has a lot of potential for reducing peak demand.
With a high saturation of electric water heating nationwide, direct load control for water heaters has high potential for reducing peak demand, especially to help offset summer peaking driven by electric air conditioning use. One objective of this study released by the Peak Load Management Alliance is to quantify the possible savings from water heater curtailments aimed at reducing summer peak demands.
The decision whether or not to include customer pricing may be the single largest determinant of how the Smart Grid evolves: A grid with customer pricing will look very different than one that lacks it. What are the implications of each approach? Experts Christopher Russo and Richard Tabors have the answers.
Until now, much of Smart Grid writing and education has overlooked the consumer. Yet consumer participation is vital to achieving the maximum load reduction from demand response technologies. In this first part of a series on consumers and the Smart Grid, Joe Miller explains what is needed to garner customer support.
This paper deals with the role of home (and small building) electronic systems and premises equipment in the evolution of the smart grid. It is there, at the end-point or delivery-point of the grid, where the actual use as well as potentially also generation and storage of electricity occurs.
This is a three-page summary of performed by Freeman, Sullivan consultants. It concerns 10,000 customers who signed up for PG&E's residential SmartRate critical peak pricing tariff in 2008. It compares the load impact estimates with estimates based on the demand models developed for California's Statewide Pricing Pilot (SPP). The demand models estimated from the SPP pilot allow load impact estimates to be made that adjust for the differences between different customers in different geographies. Differences in the two estimates were quite similar in each hour. These findings should provide confidence that load impact estimates based on pricing pilots will in fact be realized if similar tariffs are actually deployed.
A 32-page report that reviews past experiments and pilot projects to evaluate the effect of in-home displays (IHDs) on energy consumption. Concludes that consumers who actively use IHDs reduce consumption by seven percent on average. (Even more if the IHD is combined with a prepayment program. Does not, however, address the issue of consumer fatigue (getting tired of actively monitoring an IHD).
First in a GE Energy series of slide shows that provides an overview of the benefits and capabilities of a Smart Grid. It details benefits to consumers, utilities and society.
Distribution in the U.S. has not achieved the same level of communications and control technology found in transmission and generation. These technologies need to be expanded to the end-user level, and a variety of new challenges must be addressed.
Between now and 2025, Ontario must build almost a whole new electricity system. This includes replacing about 80% of its current generating facilities as they retire over time, and expanding the system to meet future growth. That’s why the provincial government directed all local distribution companies to install smart meters in every home and small business in the province by 2010. Smart meters, when teamed with time-of-use pricing, are a key part of building a culture of conservation across the province and achieving signifi cant reductions in peak demand through load shifting. This case study illustrates how Hydro One's intelligent communications infrastructure has laid the foundation for the Smart Grid of the future — a smart network that will integrate energy efficiency, demand response, automation, and distributed generation to enable the grid to operate more efficiently and reliably.
A five-page white paper from the University of Vermont College of Engineering that proposes an Internet-like, decentralized, bottom-up design for the Smart Grid. The authors view top-down architectures as excessively costly and dangerous to customer privacy. For a general audience.
We're getting mixed signals about the vitality of the smart grid market. On the one hand, the recent DistribuTECH conference was one of the most successful ever. On the other, a well-known Wall Street analyst recently told his clients that the smart metering sector is "facing several headwinds," including weak regulatory support in the U.S. and delays in European adoption. Taking the pulse of the smart grid industry is this week's Tuesday Topic.
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