Smart Power, May 25

Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities

Time: Wednesday, May 25
5:30 – 7:00

Place: Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp.
431 Charmany Drive
Madison, WI 53719

Event kicks-off with social from 5:30 - 6:00. Good food and drinks!

RSVP to Kristopher Steege-Reimann at reimannk@gmail.com

Cost:
15$ AESP / IES members
25$ Non-members
5$ Students

Check or cash payment paid at the event

Event summary
Dr. Peter Fox-Penner is principal and chairman emeritus for The Brattle Group, a Washington D.C. consulting firm and a Ph.D. Economist from the University of Chicago who specializes in economic and regulatory consulting to electrical utilities. His most recent book, Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities (Island Press: April, 2010), examines the impacts increased energy efficiency, the “Smart Grid,” and carbon constraints will have on the utility industry. He will also discuss the electric power grid, including how it’s current structure and regulation evolved, recent challenges, and an outlook for power generation and grid design. Dr. Fox-Penner is a frequent speaker on these topics and has delivered Smart Power presentations for the Institute for Electric Efficiency, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the U.S. Green Building Council (USGC), the Gridwise Alliance, and more than ten universities. Smart Power is also widely used as a resource for utilities during strategic and regulatory planning.

Sponsors:
Illuminating Engineering Society, Madison Section
Association of Energy Services Professionals

Will we create a grid smart enough for the 21st century?

As daylight fades, Manhattan continues to gorge on power. New York City is tied to fuels like natural gas, with less than one percent of its electricity coming from wind or solar.

From an article by Joel Achenbach in National Geographic, with photos by Joe McNally

Can we fix the infrastructure that powers our lives?

We are creatures of the grid. We are embedded in it and empowered by it. The sun used to govern our lives, but now, thanks to the grid, darkness falls at our con­venience. During the Depression, when power lines first electrified rural America, a farmer in Tennessee rose in church one Sunday and said—power companies love this story—"The greatest thing on earth is to have the love of God in your heart, and the next greatest thing is to have electricity in your house." He was talking about a few lightbulbs and maybe a radio. He had no idea.

Juice from the grid now penetrates every corner of our lives, and we pay no more attention to it than to the oxygen in the air. Until something goes wrong, that is, and we're suddenly in the dark, fumbling for flashlights and candles, worrying about the frozen food in what used to be called (in pre-grid days) the icebox. Or until the batteries run dry in our laptops or smart phones, and we find ourselves scouring the dusty corners of airports for an outlet, desperate for the magical power of electrons.

The grid is wondrous. And yet—in part because we've paid so little attention to it, engineers tell us—it's not the grid we need for the 21st century. It's too old. It's reliable but not reliable enough, especially in the United States, especially for our mushrooming population of finicky digital devices. Blackouts, brownouts, and other power outs cost Americans an estimated $80 billion a year. And at the same time that it needs to become more reliable, the grid needs dramatic upgrading to handle a different kind of power, a greener kind. That means, among other things, more transmission lines to carry wind power and solar power from remote places to big cities.

Most important, the grid must get smarter. . . .

Smart grid stimulus grant to benefit MGE customers

From a news release issued by MG&E:

Madison, Wis., June 9, 2010—Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) is receiving a $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. MGE will use the grant to install technologies to boost efficiency, enhance service and improve reliability for customers.

The stimulus grant will help fund the following projects, which will begin next month:

Advanced metering infrastructure
MGE will install meters capable of two-way communication for all large commercial and industrial customers. The equipment monitors and analyzes customers' energy consumption patterns on an hourly, daily and seasonal basis. The information will be used to educate customers about their energy use and how they can conserve energy and lower emissions. The meters also will be used for outage notification and tracking power quality.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles support
MGE will also install a network of up to 18 public and 25 residential charging stations for electric and electric hybrid vehicles in the Madison area. MGE will study the impacts of vehicle charging on the electric power grid and on home energy use and demand.

Distribution management
MGE will also install new distribution/management capabilities. During an outage, MGE system operators will be able to quickly identify the best options for restoring and rerouting power to reduce outage times.

Sec. Chu announces $620 million for smart grid demonstration and energy storage projects

From a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Energy:

COLUMBUS, OHIO – At an event in Columbus, Ohio this afternoon [November 24], Secretary Chu announced that the Department of Energy is awarding $620 million for projects around the country to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid. These 32 demonstration projects, which include large-scale energy storage, smart meters, distribution and transmission system monitoring devices, and a range of other smart technologies, will act as models for deploying integrated Smart Grid systems on a broader scale. This funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be leveraged with $1 billion in funds from the private sector to support more than $1.6 billion in total Smart Grid projects nationally.

An Associated Press article posted on WKBT-TV (La Crosse):

Federal energy officials have handed Wisconsin $10 million to improve electrical grids.

The money is part of $620 million in stimulus money that will support 32 grid improvement projects across the country. Projects include large-scale energy storage, monitoring devices and other technological upgrades that will serve as models for the rest of the nation.

U.S. Department of Energy officials say Wisconsin's share of the stimulus money will go toward a $21 million effort by Waukesha Electric Systems to develop a smaller, more efficient utility substation transformer.

Utilities seek energy stimulus grants

From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Power companies in eastern Wisconsin are seeking up to $63.5 million through the federal stimulus package for "smart grid" projects that would add charging stations for plug-in hybrid vehicles and finance development of high-tech gadgets that would let consumers track their home energy use in real time.

Utilities including We Energies of Milwaukee are also looking to tap funding from the Department of Energy for projects like "self-healing" power grid technologies that would allow electric service to be restored more quickly after power outages.

Madison-based Wisconsin Power & Light Co., which seeks $10 million in smart grid grants, is rolling out a pilot program to study how customers will adjust their energy-consuming behavior if they have more detailed information in real time about how much energy their homes are consuming.

WP&L is considering setting up programmable thermostats that could be adjusted automatically up or down by the utility in certain cases, as well as Internet portals that let customers track their energy use, said company spokesman Steve Schultz.

"We believe this pilot program is going to really provide insight to the customer and let them really see what their real-time energy usage is and raise their awareness in terms of how their energy consumption behavior impacts their energy costs," he said.

Utilities are seeking taxpayer funding for up to 50% of the cost of projects to investigate emerging "smart-grid" technologies. Nationwide, more than $4 billion in funding has been made available for so-called "smart grid" projects. The Department of Energy is expected to announce which projects get funded by the end of the year. . . .

"Smart grid" grants that utilities are seeking from the Department of Energy:

$21.75 million for American Transmission Co., Pewaukee
$18 million for Wisconsin Public Service Corp., Green Bay
$10 million for Wisconsin Power & Light Co., Madison
$5.5 million for Madison Gas & Electric Co., Madison
$4.5 million for WPPI Energy, Sun Prairie
$3.5 million for We Energies, Milwaukee

Alliant Energy targets federal stimulus money to further Smart Grid efforts

From a news release issued by Alliant Energy:

MADISON, WI – August 5, 2009 – Alliant Energy Corporation’s (NYSE: LNT) Wisconsin Power and Light Company (Alliant Energy) subsidiary will file four American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant applications with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Smart Grid Investment Grant Program. The grants all involve projects connected to Alliant Energy’s implementation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology.

If awarded, the four grants could cover up to half of the projects’ $20 million estimated costs. The grants focus on leveraging and expanding our AMI technology deployment, the foundation for Smart Grid, throughout our service territory. Alliant Energy’s grant applications are for the following projects:

+ Demand Response Pilot: 1,200 residential customers would participate in four different programs evaluating energy-saving Smart Grid technologies such as programmable communicating thermostats and online real-time energy usage tools for customers.
+ Distribution Automation: An investment to make our existing infrastructure more efficient and reduce the need for equipment upgrades.
+ Response Automation: Improve our efficiency in responding to and restoring electric outages.
+ Complex Commercial & Industrial Customer AMI Implementation: Implement AMI technology for a select group of C&I customers currently delayed or out of scope for the AMI 2009 and 2010 rollout.