Emerging Smart Grid Technologies

Last Wednesday, I attended a live webinar sponsored by the 2Degrees Network. It was moderated by Peter Fox-Penner,  a Principal and Chairman Emeritus at The Brattle Group. The panelists were each expert in their respective fields and contributed to the topic:

• Jesse Berst, Managing Director of GlobalSmartEnergy
  
• Karl Stahlkopf, Senior Vice President of Energy Solutions and Chief Technology Officer of HECO 
  
• Peter L. Corsell, Chief Executive Officer of GridPoint 
  
• Ahmad Faruqui, Principal with The Brattle Group
  

Overall, the uptake of SG technology will continue at the present, steady pace for some months and maybe years. The panelists generally agreed that SmartGrid pilots, while so far demonstrating promise, need to exhibit more scalability, especially in moving from 100+ residences to 1,000,000+ residences.

The power industry is undergoing a transformation that resembles telecomm's transformation from an industry providing commodity services (a dial tone, 120VAC at the receptacle) to value-based services.  The dialtone is not the product, it's the experience of using the end-user service.

Just by providing real-time feedback to consumers household demand can be lowered 6-10%. GridPoint calls it "a virtual power plant." However, providing an easy-to use web-based information display is not easy.

The meter is a "false water's edge" as customers gain usage control behind the meter. While significant effort currently is focused on smart meters and their integration, this will shift more to "behind the meter" applications for the consumer.

The financial justification of SmartGrid projects remains a challenge and should ease, once the hard benefits are better understood and quantified. Increased customer self services and remote provisioning, for instance, will reduce the number of incoming service calls and "truck rolls."

Legislators and public service commisioners need to be educated about the regulatory opportunities and challenges, e.g. demand-based pricing, opt-out rights for consumers.

There will be a clash over in-home control amongst local utilities, Microsoft, Google, others.

PHEVs (electric plug-in cars) have the potential to double the efficiency of the SmartGrid and represent a "killer app." They are the ideal nighttime load for utilties. GP is working with GM on smart charging solutions for the Chevy Volt; leverage on-board diagnostics and telematics. Automakers will sell their PHEVs "grid-aware", with options for the car buyer to enroll in the utility's smart charging program.