Comments (0)
Email
The grid system of both Europe and the United States has served its purpose, and served it well. It is considered to be one of the most marvelous achievements of the twenty-first century. Over the years, the system has been able to provide millions of people with electricity directly to their homes utilizing advancements in transmission technology.
Today it seems that the grid system is becoming outdated. In
comparison to the past, today's standards for electricity demand are
much greater. The information age has made a great contribution to the
increased demand caused by computer technology and modern appliances,
which require massive amounts of electricity for operation. A study
performed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) shows United
States electricity demand has exceeded transmission capacity by more
than 15% for the past ten years. Keeping statistics like these in
mind, research concerning a new grid system has been undertaken by many
government and non-government organizations across Europe and the
United States.
Researchers are calling these grid systems of the future smart-grids, or intelligent-grids. The entire grid system envisioned by researchers will be more twenty-first century, meaning more computerized and will be able to "think" on its own with little human intervention. This idea is known as a "plug-and-play" application. With this type of smarter technology it is envisioned that active sources can be simply connected to the grid almost anywhere. The system as a whole will be able to balance out the electrical power delivered to the loads to prevent surges and allow greater reliability in energy. This idea is necessary for the improvement of power quality and reliability.
The future vision of the power grid is one that is less centralized; instead of a few large generation plants, there are many smaller ones. Cleaner generation technologies call for this because their way of generating power is variable. For example, wind and photo-voltaic power (solar power) can change from day to day, create an uneven balance in generation, and as a result, cause uneven distribution. By creating a smarter grid and integrating it with electrical storage devices, generation, storage, and distribution of the previously mentioned technologies becomes more plausible. Not only will it run on its own, it will use newer, cleaner technology to improve both generation and distribution (i.e., photo-voltaic, wind, and combined heat and power technologies). These technologies, if integrated into the grid system, will become useful for a safer generation of electricity and will be more beneficial to the environment.
Today, large generation plants emit CO2, which is harmful to the environment and is a major concern, especially relating to issues surrounding global warming. As a result, the reduction of CO2 emissions is imperative. Wind turbines and solar panels emit virtually no CO2 gas, which makes these generation technologies more environmentally friendly.
A major advantage of these generation technologies is that they can be placed closer to where they are delivering power. Today much of the power distributed to local consumers is generated great distances away. By transmitting power long distances, it is subject to power loss. However, generating power close to the loads creates greater efficiency of distribution, which means very little loss of power generated in proportion to the power that is used. These new technologies also give consumers more options on their power consumption and generation.
Benefits envisioned for future smart-grids include an increased interaction between the suppliers and consumers of energy, new marketing strategies, and money making possibilities. The smart-grid system will allow for a two-way flow of energy. In the current grid system, consumers have no choice on where they receive the power they use; it is a monopolized system. The new technologies of the future grid system will allow consumers to have a many options concerning their power intake and/or distribution. For instance, consumers will be able to place solar panels on their homes and in the event that the grid is in need of more power, the consumer will be able to sell their excess energy back to the grid. This provides a chance for the consumers to become part of the money making generators that supply the grid with power.
Not only will consumers be able to supply power to the grid, as stated previously, there will be options of power consumption, as well. This idea is similar to that of cell-phone service providers. A large industry that can not afford power interruptions, such as black outs or power surges, will be able to purchase power at a reasonable rate. Residential consumers will be given the option to purchase a not so reliable power service for a cheaper price, accepting the possibility of a few black outs a year. These new plans open many money making opportunities for new businesses and also help consumers save money on their electrical bills.
The European Union has set up many organizations to plan how they will go about converting the current grid system to the new smart-grid. Organizations, such as Leonardo Energy and The European Technology Platform Smart Grids have already devised plans to begin the transition. The main goals of the European smart-grid are to increase efficiency and reliability of transmission and distribution systems using distribution generation, to create an interactive grid for manufacturers and consumers, and to effectively integrate the technologies of renewable energy resources to decrease large scale generation. The European Union's central idea is to create cleaner energy in efforts to benefit the environment and decentralize the main grid by creating multiple micro-grids.
A micro-grid is a self-contained grid that exists in a larger grid. Micro-grids can serve many beneficial purposes. In the case of an interruption in the main grid, a micro-grid could disconnect itself and supply the loads it is connected to with energy that has been stored from the main grid or a renewable energy source (i.e., wind turbine, photo-voltaic, or combined heat and power). The micro-grid could also supply the main grid with power in the event that it has generated an excess of power, or when the grid does not have enough power to support other micro-grids. This idea creates multiple power grids working together to save energy, or to supply energy in the event of an emergency. The main idea for this concept is that all of these events could occur without consumers having any idea of problems in the grid. This becomes another advantage of the smart-grid because the grid is intelligent and will know when to take power, where to get it from, and where to distribute it, automatically.
When dealing with micro-grids many problems must be analyzed before they can be put to use. The main problems with micro-grids are stability and voltage regulation. Keeping constant frequencies, regulating voltage levels, and preventing losses of power are difficult tasks when dealing with multiple sources and a two-way flow of energy.
The European Union has set up the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), which focuses on getting every aspect of the future of the smart-grid headed in the right direction. The SRA has set organized government, non-government, and civilian attention focused on the benefits of the conversion to the smart-grid. One of the problems with the European Union is getting each member country to agree with the transformation. The European Union states it will invest over 750 billion euros over the course of the next thirty years in hopes to accomplish their goals by the year 2030. With research and testing, they are proposing more reliable, cleaner, and economic friendly way of energy production and consumption.
At the same time, the United States is also taking measures to modernize their electrical grid. Many organizations and universities are developing plans to get the process moving. For one, the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) is setting up goals to open the door to the future of grid technology. Their main focus consists of getting consumers more involved with the pricing of their power, meaning making it more obvious as to exactly how much power a household or industry is using at any given time. The two-way interaction between manufacturer and consumer, and security issue is also part of their plan. The United States' main goal is to protect its power grid system from any interruptions. Recent events such as the East Coast black out in August of 2003 raised concerns that the grid needs to be more secure and less susceptible to black outs.
It is estimated that the United States economy looses about 25 to 180 billion dollars a year due to power outages. America plans to set up an intelligent-grid that will be able to detect if there will be an outage before it even happens. For example, if a major power line shows signs of failure, a computer controlling that part of the grid will find the best way to reroute power from somewhere else and restore power to the affected area before any consumers even know something is wrong. To achieve this technique in high power transmission, the United States is developing technologies in high-temperature, superconducting cables. High-temperature superconducting cables show very little, if any, loss in energy transmission over large distances. Researchers are calling this the "Electrical Backbone" for the grid. For example, this is very useful in the event that if an outage were to occur in California, extra power from New York may be rerouted to help prevent the potential outage.
In order for the United States to begin this long range transmission, businesses must take over the market. New ways of selling power will be developed by selling different types of power. For example, in the event of a heat wave, many households will use their air conditioners and the demand for electricity will become very high. Consumers will now be able to make agreements for scenarios like this, that they will not use as much power so that industry that needs the power more at that time will get it efficiently. Agreements like this will give consumers more flexibility with their expenses on energy and end up being more economically sound in the long run. The Electric Delivery Technologies Roadmap is calling this Grid 2030. The United States' government, along with non-governmental agencies, is spending billions of dollars for research and development to get this project underway and bring the old grid system up to date with the evolving technological age.
The European Union and the United States are taking different steps in order to update their grid systems. Many of their ideas are similar because both want to achieve a more interactive grid between manufacturers and consumers, and be up to date with the new digital age. With the help of government and non-governmental organizations, a new job market and money making business can come out of the transition to the future grid system, bringing more revenue in energy sales. Both governments are taking steps to help decrease and even prevent power outages, each in a different way. The European Union is more focused on using micro-grids and renewable energy sources, while in comparison the United States is more focused on shifting power from further distances across the nation to prevent black outs. The European Union's main goal is to make the whole system more environmentally friendly, while the United States is making the grid more stable.
Each government agrees that the main problem in getting the new system to work is technological incapability. This is because it would be impossible to tear out the existing grid and start from scratch. The new smart-grid must be designed by engineers to adapt to existing grids that are already in place, which creates much difficulty. More testing must be done, and the technology must be perfected in order for the system to work as a whole.
Today there is a lack of power engineers being trained in this field, so each government is encouraging people to learn about the possibilities of future jobs in power distribution. One of the main problems is that people that are in the field now are used to the past ways of power generation and distribution and feel that is the only way to go. The whole transition will take lots of time and the realization that a better, more reliable smart-grid is coming along the way.
Researchers are calling these grid systems of the future smart-grids, or intelligent-grids. The entire grid system envisioned by researchers will be more twenty-first century, meaning more computerized and will be able to "think" on its own with little human intervention. This idea is known as a "plug-and-play" application. With this type of smarter technology it is envisioned that active sources can be simply connected to the grid almost anywhere. The system as a whole will be able to balance out the electrical power delivered to the loads to prevent surges and allow greater reliability in energy. This idea is necessary for the improvement of power quality and reliability.
The future vision of the power grid is one that is less centralized; instead of a few large generation plants, there are many smaller ones. Cleaner generation technologies call for this because their way of generating power is variable. For example, wind and photo-voltaic power (solar power) can change from day to day, create an uneven balance in generation, and as a result, cause uneven distribution. By creating a smarter grid and integrating it with electrical storage devices, generation, storage, and distribution of the previously mentioned technologies becomes more plausible. Not only will it run on its own, it will use newer, cleaner technology to improve both generation and distribution (i.e., photo-voltaic, wind, and combined heat and power technologies). These technologies, if integrated into the grid system, will become useful for a safer generation of electricity and will be more beneficial to the environment.
Today, large generation plants emit CO2, which is harmful to the environment and is a major concern, especially relating to issues surrounding global warming. As a result, the reduction of CO2 emissions is imperative. Wind turbines and solar panels emit virtually no CO2 gas, which makes these generation technologies more environmentally friendly.
A major advantage of these generation technologies is that they can be placed closer to where they are delivering power. Today much of the power distributed to local consumers is generated great distances away. By transmitting power long distances, it is subject to power loss. However, generating power close to the loads creates greater efficiency of distribution, which means very little loss of power generated in proportion to the power that is used. These new technologies also give consumers more options on their power consumption and generation.
Benefits envisioned for future smart-grids include an increased interaction between the suppliers and consumers of energy, new marketing strategies, and money making possibilities. The smart-grid system will allow for a two-way flow of energy. In the current grid system, consumers have no choice on where they receive the power they use; it is a monopolized system. The new technologies of the future grid system will allow consumers to have a many options concerning their power intake and/or distribution. For instance, consumers will be able to place solar panels on their homes and in the event that the grid is in need of more power, the consumer will be able to sell their excess energy back to the grid. This provides a chance for the consumers to become part of the money making generators that supply the grid with power.
Not only will consumers be able to supply power to the grid, as stated previously, there will be options of power consumption, as well. This idea is similar to that of cell-phone service providers. A large industry that can not afford power interruptions, such as black outs or power surges, will be able to purchase power at a reasonable rate. Residential consumers will be given the option to purchase a not so reliable power service for a cheaper price, accepting the possibility of a few black outs a year. These new plans open many money making opportunities for new businesses and also help consumers save money on their electrical bills.
The European Union has set up many organizations to plan how they will go about converting the current grid system to the new smart-grid. Organizations, such as Leonardo Energy and The European Technology Platform Smart Grids have already devised plans to begin the transition. The main goals of the European smart-grid are to increase efficiency and reliability of transmission and distribution systems using distribution generation, to create an interactive grid for manufacturers and consumers, and to effectively integrate the technologies of renewable energy resources to decrease large scale generation. The European Union's central idea is to create cleaner energy in efforts to benefit the environment and decentralize the main grid by creating multiple micro-grids.
A micro-grid is a self-contained grid that exists in a larger grid. Micro-grids can serve many beneficial purposes. In the case of an interruption in the main grid, a micro-grid could disconnect itself and supply the loads it is connected to with energy that has been stored from the main grid or a renewable energy source (i.e., wind turbine, photo-voltaic, or combined heat and power). The micro-grid could also supply the main grid with power in the event that it has generated an excess of power, or when the grid does not have enough power to support other micro-grids. This idea creates multiple power grids working together to save energy, or to supply energy in the event of an emergency. The main idea for this concept is that all of these events could occur without consumers having any idea of problems in the grid. This becomes another advantage of the smart-grid because the grid is intelligent and will know when to take power, where to get it from, and where to distribute it, automatically.
When dealing with micro-grids many problems must be analyzed before they can be put to use. The main problems with micro-grids are stability and voltage regulation. Keeping constant frequencies, regulating voltage levels, and preventing losses of power are difficult tasks when dealing with multiple sources and a two-way flow of energy.
The European Union has set up the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), which focuses on getting every aspect of the future of the smart-grid headed in the right direction. The SRA has set organized government, non-government, and civilian attention focused on the benefits of the conversion to the smart-grid. One of the problems with the European Union is getting each member country to agree with the transformation. The European Union states it will invest over 750 billion euros over the course of the next thirty years in hopes to accomplish their goals by the year 2030. With research and testing, they are proposing more reliable, cleaner, and economic friendly way of energy production and consumption.
At the same time, the United States is also taking measures to modernize their electrical grid. Many organizations and universities are developing plans to get the process moving. For one, the Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) is setting up goals to open the door to the future of grid technology. Their main focus consists of getting consumers more involved with the pricing of their power, meaning making it more obvious as to exactly how much power a household or industry is using at any given time. The two-way interaction between manufacturer and consumer, and security issue is also part of their plan. The United States' main goal is to protect its power grid system from any interruptions. Recent events such as the East Coast black out in August of 2003 raised concerns that the grid needs to be more secure and less susceptible to black outs.
It is estimated that the United States economy looses about 25 to 180 billion dollars a year due to power outages. America plans to set up an intelligent-grid that will be able to detect if there will be an outage before it even happens. For example, if a major power line shows signs of failure, a computer controlling that part of the grid will find the best way to reroute power from somewhere else and restore power to the affected area before any consumers even know something is wrong. To achieve this technique in high power transmission, the United States is developing technologies in high-temperature, superconducting cables. High-temperature superconducting cables show very little, if any, loss in energy transmission over large distances. Researchers are calling this the "Electrical Backbone" for the grid. For example, this is very useful in the event that if an outage were to occur in California, extra power from New York may be rerouted to help prevent the potential outage.
In order for the United States to begin this long range transmission, businesses must take over the market. New ways of selling power will be developed by selling different types of power. For example, in the event of a heat wave, many households will use their air conditioners and the demand for electricity will become very high. Consumers will now be able to make agreements for scenarios like this, that they will not use as much power so that industry that needs the power more at that time will get it efficiently. Agreements like this will give consumers more flexibility with their expenses on energy and end up being more economically sound in the long run. The Electric Delivery Technologies Roadmap is calling this Grid 2030. The United States' government, along with non-governmental agencies, is spending billions of dollars for research and development to get this project underway and bring the old grid system up to date with the evolving technological age.
The European Union and the United States are taking different steps in order to update their grid systems. Many of their ideas are similar because both want to achieve a more interactive grid between manufacturers and consumers, and be up to date with the new digital age. With the help of government and non-governmental organizations, a new job market and money making business can come out of the transition to the future grid system, bringing more revenue in energy sales. Both governments are taking steps to help decrease and even prevent power outages, each in a different way. The European Union is more focused on using micro-grids and renewable energy sources, while in comparison the United States is more focused on shifting power from further distances across the nation to prevent black outs. The European Union's main goal is to make the whole system more environmentally friendly, while the United States is making the grid more stable.
Each government agrees that the main problem in getting the new system to work is technological incapability. This is because it would be impossible to tear out the existing grid and start from scratch. The new smart-grid must be designed by engineers to adapt to existing grids that are already in place, which creates much difficulty. More testing must be done, and the technology must be perfected in order for the system to work as a whole.
Today there is a lack of power engineers being trained in this field, so each government is encouraging people to learn about the possibilities of future jobs in power distribution. One of the main problems is that people that are in the field now are used to the past ways of power generation and distribution and feel that is the only way to go. The whole transition will take lots of time and the realization that a better, more reliable smart-grid is coming along the way.
Leave a comment