First Day at GridWeek 2008

Utility AMI. GridWeek was off to a quick start early Monday morning with a briefing on the progress of the smart grid related activities of the Utility Communication Architecture International Users Group (UCAIug). More than 20 people came to hear about the activities of the users group and what it can do for them. The attendees were briefed on the UtilityAMI common requirements document – a set of 18 fundamental requirements for state-of-the-art metering systems that includes elements such as an integrated disconnect, net metering, two way communications, interval metering, and secure, remotely upgradable firmware. 

HAN Requirements. The assembled group also participated in a discussion on the recently released UtilityAMI 2008 Home Area Network System Requirements Specification (HAN SRS). Conrad Eustis from Portland General Electric initiated a discussion on where the utility to consumer HAN interface exists – in the meter or externally. It turns out that the HAN SRS focuses on describing functionality and associated requirements that are independent of any particular technology or the physical location of where those technologies are implemented.

International Summit. The afternoon of this first day was dedicated to a session on smart grid activities internationally, moderated by Erich Lightner, the DOE Smart Grid Director. I was particularly surprised to hear how big of a challenge India has to improve the efficiency of their energy utilization. Smart Grid News published a lengthy article about the Indian grid last year, but the numbers are still astounding – India loses around 50% of the energy they produce in technical and other losses with the energy actually delivered squandered further to power devices that are only 30% efficient on average. This results in the effective cost of energy around $0.40 per kilowatt-hour. The presentation from Smart Grid Australia was also enlightening. The speaker was very passionate in making the case that our industry better get off its duff and modernize the grid or government is simply going to tell us what to do. It is clear that Australia is under significant pressure from politicians and the populace to move forward quickly to reduce their environmental impact and use energy wisely through advanced technology. I just hope that in the US we keep any similar political pressures in check with common sense and most importantly sound, systems engineering practice that results in a long term, optimized approach to modernizing our grid and achieving these worthy goals.

    GridWeek 2008 web site

    A Smarter Grid for India -- Smart Grid News