Melanie Miller, from Duke Energy, gave a holistic view of what smart grid means to an integrated utility, one which after merging with Progress Energy will be the largest US utility. Duke Energy is one of the most forward looking utilities in the US. I have blogged previously about Duke's Substation Design System which applies state of the art technology to improving the productivity of their substation engineers and designers. Duke's smart grid objectives are focussed on providing more customer products and services, improving reliability, energy efficiency, and enabling the integration of renewable energy sources.
Duke's vision
Duke's objectives translate into a smart grid vision that involves integrating more efficient generation and retiring older, coal-fired plants, modernizing the grid by replacing analog with digital technology, and putting energy efficiency on equal footing with traditional generation resources. (The last point is in line with the recent FERC rule designed to encourage demand response by putting negawatts on an equal footing with megawatts.)
Consumer empowerment
A digital meter enables bidirectional information flow between homes and the utility. Information about energy usage will be transmitted in near-real time and available to the consumer through a home computer, smart phone or technology such as a home energy manager.. Consumers won't have to wait for a monthly bill to check on usage. They'll be able to monitor previous day's usage and to modify usage to better control costs. More flexible billing and payment options will be available to many consumers. Duke says the new grid is intended to give consumers, not utility companies or the government, more power over energy choices.
Greater reliability
Duke intend to provide greater reliability throughout the entire power distribution network by both preventing problems and restoring power outages faster in case of events such as storms. This involves distribution automation, intelligent substations, and on the transmission side devices such as synchrophasars for monitoring electricity flow.
Energy efficiency
I have already blogged about Duke's distribution demand response (DSDR) program that is designed to reduce peak load and has obviated the need to build two additional gas combustion generation plants.
Smart Grid Pilot
Duke is developing a pilot, part of the Envision Energy program, which is as close as I have seen to a "soup to nuts" smart grid deployment. It includes a transmission line, substation, distribution network supporting three municipalities, and smart devices and software applications inside the consumers' homes.
Transmission
Solar power generation
Energy storage
Distributed energy resource management
Distribution level
Lise sensors
Solar power generation
Energy storage
Communications node
Distributed energy resource management
Customer site
Solar power generation
Home energy manager
PEV (electric vehicles)
Charging stations
Smart appliances
Thermostats
Switches
Distributed energy resource management
This is comprehensive in terms of the electrical components that it includes and enables Duke to pilot most of what we consider to be smart gird; consumer services, distribution automation, communications, intelligent substations, support for distributed generation involving renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, and demand response.
Melanie made the important point that communications, specifically the communication nodes in Duke Energy's architecture, are the platform for smart grid at Duke.
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