Between the Poles

FERC Order 745 vacated: negawatt does not equal a megawatt

Demand response programs involve paying power consumers not to use power at certain times.  Reducing peak load can save consumers money by avoiding the use of or even construction of "peakers", generation facilities that are very expensive to run and that are only used at times of peak load.  If I remember correctly, something like 15% of US generation capacity is only used 5% of the time.  Demand response programs are very common in parts of Europe including Switzerland and Germany where they have been in wide use for at least ten years to reduce peak load and smooth out the diurnal load curve.

In March 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Order No. 745, ruled that demand response, paying for reducing power demand, must be compensated at the same rate as power generation, all other things being equal.  In other words, compensation for saving a megawatt-hr (negawatt) is the same as for generating a megawatt-hr.

In May 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. vacated FERC’s Order 745 stating that FERC overstepped its jurisdiction and that the decision about the compensation demand response providers  must receive should lie with the states.  This means that a negawatt does not necessarily equal a megawatt.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission probe ready for Mars orbit insertion

Late breaking: The engine burn was successful and ISRO reports that the Mars Orbiter spacecraft is now in orbit about Mars.

Wednesday Sep 24 India's Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission probe is scheduled to fire its main engine and small thrusters to slow itself down to insert the probe into an elliptical orbit about Mars. The probe was launched aboard a PSLV-C25 rocket from SDSC SHAR Sriharikota November 5, 2013.  There is a simulation video of the Mars Orbit Insertion maneuver.  A live webcast of the real event will be broadcast starting Wed 06:45 am IST, Tue 9:15 pm EDT.

The scientific objective of the mission is the remote sensing exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere using Indian-manufactured instruments.  One key goal is to try to detect methane in the Martian atmosphere, which could be an indicator of biological activity.

Guide to the Role of Standards in Geospatial Information Management

Geospatial information comes from many different sources and is managed by many different providers from mapping agencies to commercial data providers to volunteered geographic information.  To optimize usage of this data there is a need to easily discover and share this information. Standards are essential to enable the sharing of authoritative geospatial data and services and provide significant value to society and government inlcuding enabling global competitiveness of both industry and nations.

Guide to the Role of Standards in Geospatial Information Management

At the request of the United Nations Global Information Management (UNGGIM) Secretariat and Expert Committee, three organizations,  the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee 211 Geographic information/Geomatics, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) have collaborated to produce a guide that addresses the role of standards in geospatial information management.   It is is intended to be useful for a wide variety of readers, especially in government. These include policy makers, program managers, technical experts and other individuals involved in geospatial information management.  The Guide is comprised of two documents; an executive level guide that assists policy makers and program managers in understanding what capabilities are required to meet current and future needs and a companion document containing detailed technical information on the standards.

The guide is intended to:

• Articulate the critical role of standards in geospatial information management
• Inform policy makers and program managers of the value in using and investing in geospatial standardization
• Describe the benefits of using open geospatial standards to achieve standardization, data sharing, and interoperability goals.

Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) initiatives worldwide are implementing a common set of international standards for geospatial data. These standards encapsulate geospatial data development, production, management, discovery, access, sharing, visualization, and analysis. As organizations and jurisdictions develop and agree on a common set of open standards, the ability to share geospatial information is enhanced, reducing costs, improving service provision, and facilitating new economic opportunities.

SDI Standardization Maturity Model

Community initiatives to share and make geospatial in formation available are typically oriented around Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) initiatives. Standards are a critical element of SDI implementation.

The Guide defines an SDI Standardization Maturity Model that includes different stages or tiers corresponding to increasing levels of capability.

1. Tier 1 - Share maps over the Web
2. Tier 2 - Geospatial Information sharing partnerships - share, integrate and use geospatial data from different providers
3. Tier 3 - Spatially enabling the nation - large scale efforts to develop a comprehensive SDI that provides access to multiple themes of information, applications for using the shared information, and access via mobile, desktop, and other devices
4. The future - Spatially enabling the Web of data - delivering geospatial information into the Web of data, and bridging between SDI and a broader ecosystem of information systems.

The Tiers represent a series of steps in an organization’s ability to offer increasing levels of geospatial information and associated services as part of an information community.

At the beginning of the process (Tier 1), an organization may want to provide access to geospatial information delivered as map images together with a description of them (metadata).

As the initiative matures, multiple organizations may wish to collaborate to provide a means to share, search for, access, integrate and cooperatively maintain a particular geospatial information layer (such as transportation) from multiple sources using web services (Tier 2). 

Larger scale initiatives have a goal of establishing a nation-wide coverage of foundation or framework data as part of their National SDI. Foundation data is an accurate set of key geospatial data layers needed most by different users (imagery, elevation, administrative boundaries, transportation, land use, and water features for example). Providing access to this geospatial Foundation Data for a range of application areas is the next level of maturity (Tier 3). 

Finally, to address emerging needs and leverage new technologies such as crowd-sourcing of geospatial information and big data analytics, a community would focus on delivering geospatial information from SDI environments into the Web of data (The Future).

Tier 1 Standards

Each Tier is associated with a set of SDI standards.  The separate Companion document details the specific standards associated with each Tier.

For example, recommended Tier 1 standards include standards for accessing and displaying geospatial information as images in any browser.

• OGC/ISO 19128 Web Map Service (WMS) – for access and display of geospatial information as a raster image.
• OGC Web Map Tile Service (WMTS) 1.0. For high speed access and rendering of geospatial information.

To encode, communicate and share visualization rules can be implemented using the following standards:

• OGC Styled Layer Descriptor 1.1 (SLD)
• OGC Web Map Context 1.1 (WMC)
• OGC KML 2.2 – Visualization of geospatial information in earth browser applications

ISO and OGC standards for catalogue and discovery are widely implemented in national, regional, and local SDIs.

• ISO 19115 - Geographic information metadata
• OGC Catalogue Service Implementation Specification (CSW) - specifies the interfaces and bindings for creating catalogue services.

Balancing electricity demand and intermittent renewable generation

Over the past decade,distributed generation, especially solar photovoltaic (PV),  consumer demand response programs, and other flexible distributed resources of electric power has grown dramatically.  Until now, with a few exceptions such as Germany and Hawaii, distributed intermittent resources have represented a relatively small proportion of total power generation.  However, as we face the prospect of scaling the use of flexible distributed energy resources including affordable energy storage batteries, attention is focussing in many jurisdictions not only on the economics of distributed energy, but also on the control system that will balance intermittent micro-generation resources and consumer demand and the rapid evolution of new consumer devices, aka the Internet of Things.

Renewable energy sources like solar and wind power are being used more and more worldwide, while the market share of conventional power stations is decreasing. Wind and solar are intermittent sources of power and balancing these power sources and consumer demand becomes a serious challenge when intermittent  represent more than about 20% of total demand.  For example, distributed generation with many small sources of power feeding energy at medium and low voltage levels can reverse the load flows from lower to higher voltage levels.

All of these changes affect the provision of system services which balance supply and demand. For example, conventional power stations not only provide most of the balancing energy required in the system, but the inertia of their generators also guarantees the provision of instantaneous reserves for immediate frequency support. Other important system services include voltage maintenance, operation management and re-establishment of power supply.

Germany's Energiewende

The decision to shutdown its nuclear power plants in favour of renewable energy (and increased use of coal) is fundamentally changing the supply of energy in Germany.  According to Fraunhofer ISE in the first half of 2014 solar and wind power plants together produced more than 45 TWh or approximately 17% of Germany's net electricity generation. All renewable energy sources including hydro and biomass produced a total of about 81 TWh and accounted for approximately 31% of German net electricity production.

For example, the Unterfränkische Überlandzentrale eG (ÜZ) in Lülsfeld is a medium sized utility company in Northern Bavaria. It operates a typical regional distribution network in Germany - a large area with many small towns and villages and plenty of space for renewable plants. In 2013 its total electricity demand was 497 million kWh of which renewables had a share of more than 285 million kWh which is more than 50% of electricity demand.

To address the challenge of balancing generation and demand with increasing intermittent energy sources distributed over larger areas, the Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena) - the German Energy Agency - commissioned a study to determine the scope of grid system services in the context of an increasing supply of intermittent energy.  The dena Distribution Grid Study is a detailed examination of the need for expansion and conversion in the German electricity distribution grids based on two alternative expansion scenarios for renewable energy sources. The results document a significant need for expansion by 2030. It also analyses technical options for reducing grid expansion requirements.  It found that the use of innovative grid operational resources, the adaptation of technical guidelines and down-regulation of generation peaks of decentralised generation systems could reduce the need for grid expansion.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District

In Sacramento, California, some neighborhoods already generate much more power than they use and send power back onto the grid. Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) engineers had thought this would cause problems in balancing load with generation and raise the risk of damaging equipment. But so far that hasn't happened.  SMUD has a working group on solar issues that is looking at system enhancements that might be necessary to handle more local solar on the system in the future. Estimates  of SMUD's solar potential are that it could potentially produce around 1,400 MW. SMUD experiences a minimum load of 800 to 900 MW and a peak load around 3,300 MW. SMUD engineers expect that there is an "optimal" amount of solar power to have on the system that is probably less than the maximum that is technically feasible.  In addition utilities have to make provision for what happens when the sun doesn't shine during peak load periods.  To provide backup power, building so-called gas-fired peaking plants are expensive because they typically are idle most of the time. 

Changing the utility price structure for rooftop solar PV power

One way of addressing the balancing issue is to change the price structure that a utility uses to pay for solar power generated by its customers.  The Salt River Project (SRP) has about about 9000 solar customers representing about 800 MW of rooftop solar PV capacity.   Mark Bonsall has pointed out that in the traditional utility model, comparing variable and fixed costs with fixed and variable revenue shows there is a mismatch, which translates into a revenue shortfall or unrecovered cost when comparing a non-solar customer's with a solar customer's annual bill.  From Mark Bonsall's perspective, the problem is not technology, it is the price structure, which he feels has to change.

A graph of the PV power output from 800 of SRP's solar customers shows that the peak output varied from 11 am for some customers to 4 pm for others.  SRP's demand peak is around 6 pm, when everyone goes home from work and turns on their air conditioners.  Mark Bonsall suggested that SRP's price structure should encourage solar customers whose PV output peaks closer to SRP's demand peak.  This means a price structure based on demand (kW) not just energy (kWh), which is a different business model from that used by utilities today.

Energy storage

The renewable + energy storage market is getting interesting and has been forecasted to grow to $2.8 billion in 2018.  Solar City offers a small scale residential and commercial solar+battery system which uses Tesla batteries and Tesla has just announced a $5 billion battery factory to be completed by 2017.

The development of combined solar PV and batteries from Tesla and others promises to make solar + storage accessible for increasing numbers of consumers.  With storage solar consumers could form their own microgrid, either by themselves or with their neighbours and disconnect from the grid.  Alternatively they could become a source of dispatchable power and become an energy provider.  Increasingly they could find that either of these options is economically advantageous.  This has serious implications for local utilities because if this trend develops it could seriously erode the traditional utility revenue base.   It could also lead to a completely decentralized grid comprised of many microgrids.  From an operations perspective it increases the complexity of managing the grid compared to the centralized model in use today.

Subsurface sensing technologies map a superhenge at Stonehenge

The objective of the remarkable four year Stonehenge project was to create a detailed archaeological map of Stonehenge and its surroundings based on a synthesis of remote sensing and subterrainean geophysical data. The  result is a digital model of the Stonehenge landscape that ties surface features together in a seamless map with underground features and structures that shows that Stonehenge proper is only a small piece of a much larger, more complex ancient structure.

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is led by the University of Birmingham in conjunction with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology and is a collaboration with the University of Bradford, the University of St Andrews, and the 'ORBit' Research Group of the Department of Soil Management at the University of Ghent, Belgium.

The data collection technologies include surface remote sensing methods such as aerial photography, laser scanning and airborne imaging spectroscopy. The geophysical prospection methods used ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic induction, and magnetometry.  Under suitable ground conditions GPR surveys provide detailed three dimensional information about depth, shape and location of archaeological structures at a high spatial resolution. GPR can be used to detect stone structures, interfaces caused by pits and trenches, and cavities and differences in soil humidity. New multichannel GPR arrays permit considerably increased spatial coverage with greatly improved resolution and can generate detailed 3D images of subsurface structures. Magnetometery is most suitable for mapping archaeological structures causing anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field such as prehistoric pits, trenches, postholes, walls, fire places and kilns. Magnetometer surveys result in a 2D map without direct information about the depth of the buried structures. Electromagnetic induction measurements can be used to efficiently and non-invasively to map physical properties of the soil and buried objects.

The main platform for integrating the remote-sensed and the geophyical measurements is a GIS-based archaeological information system, with additional tools for dynamic visualization and spatial analysis. The huge amount of data generated by the remote sensing and geophysical prospection measurements require appropriate data processing, aanalytical and 3D visualization tools.

The remote sensing techniques and underground geophysical surveys have discovered hundreds of new features which now form part of the most detailed archaeological digital map of the Stonehenge landscape ever produced. The results of the survey include 17 previously unknown ritual monuments dating to the same time period as Stonehenge. A massive timber building, probably used for the ritual inhumation of the dead and which was finally covered by an earthen mound has been mapped. The immense Durrington Walls 'super henge', situated a short distance from Stonehenge was also mapped.  It was found to have a circumference of more than 1.5 kilometers.  The results will be featured in a new BBC Two series titled Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath.

Zero net energy building revenue projected to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2035

The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that by 2035 the world's energy demand will increase by a third, driven primarily by emerging economies, China, India and the Middle East.  According to the most likely scenario, China is the primary driver for increased demand through 2020, when India becomes the primary driver.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Two-thirds of global of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions come from the energy sector.   The IEA projects that energy-related CO₂ emissions will increase by 20% by 2035.

Energy efficiency

Energy efficiency is getting a lot of attention these days.  Measures aimed at improving the efficiency of buildings have been introduced in Europe, the U.S. and Japan .   But the IEA still projects that  two-thirds of the economic potential of energy efficiency will remain untapped.  Government action is required to break down barriers to investment in energy efficiency including phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies, which the IEA estimates globally to have reached $544 billion in 2012.

Zero energy buildings

Zero energy buildings (ZEB) are loosely defined as buildings that generate as much energy as they consume.  But there is as yet no single standards body defining what a ZEB is.  Different countries and even within the same country different bodies define zero energy buildings in different ways.

The IEA has announced the Building Energy Efficiency Policies (BEEP) database.  The BEEP database collects information on buildings energy codes including minimum energy performance requirements that focus on achieving zero energy buildings, buildings energy labels which increase awareness about energy consumption of buildings, and incentives schemes for capacity building, technical assistance and raising awareness.  The database includes information from all IEA member countries as well as China, India, Tunisia, South Africa and Russia.

According to a new report from Navigant Research, global ZEB revenue is expected to grow from $629.3 million in 2014 to $1.4 trillion by 2035.

Nearly zero energy buildings in the E.U.

The European Union (EU) has taken a leading role in improving the energy efficiency of buildings.  The EU has mandatory carbon emission reduction standards, referred to as the 20-20-20 standard, which among other things requires the EU to improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020.  Another important objective is reducing its dependence on imported energy, which currently accounts for half of EU energy usage.  In 2002 the European Commission promulgated the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) which requires all EU member states to upgrade their building regulations and to introduce energy certification schemes for buildings.  About a year ago the European Commission (EC) proposed a new Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) , also known as the EPBD recast, which imposes a legal obligation for all member states to establish energy saving schemes, with the public sector leading by example.

Energy efficiency is especially critical for Germany which not only needs to comply with the 20-20-20 standard, but also to find energy sources to replace its (non-emitting) nuclear power plants that are scheduled to be closed by 2022.  In Germany buildings currently account for 40 percent of power consumption and a third of CO2 emissions. The German 40 year master plan calls for aggressive energy efficiency policies including new insulation standards and for all buildings in Germany to be refurbished in line with the new insulation standards by 2050, reducing energy requirements for heating by 20 percent by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050, and providing tax relief on energy taxes to companies contributing to energy savings.

A major area of focus in the EU is “nearly zero energy” buildings.  A nearly zero energy building on average over a year generates as much energy from renewable energy sources as it consumes.  For new buildings, the EPBD recast fixes 2020/2021 as the deadline for all new buildings to be designed to be nearly zero energy.  For public buildings the deadline is even sooner, by 2018/2019.

Zero emissions buildings in Japan

Japan‘s announced mid-term emission reduction target is to cut Japan's GHG emissions by 25% by 2020 compared with 1990, subject to international negotiations.  But Japan has said that it plans to revise this target in light of the Fukushima accident and presumably in light of the recent decison to shut down its nuclear power plants by 2040.  According to an analysis by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the largest reduction will need to be realized in commercial sector, by about 27%. Residential/commercial-sector accounts for 30% or more of final energy consumption and has increased remarkably compared to the industrial and transportation sectors.  Energy saving measures for commercial buildings are urgently required, since the commercial sector including office buildings consumes more than half of total energy consumption in the residential/commercial sector. Moreover its growth has been more striking than that of the residential sector.

The Government of Japan put forward its "zero emissions buildings" target in April, 2009.  It defines a zero emissions building (ZEB) as one that has net zero CO2 emissions on an annual basis through energy efficiency and renewable energy generation on-site.  The announced objective ia that all new public buildings will be zero emissions by 2030.

Zero net energy buildings in the U.S.

The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) requires that by 2030 all new Federal facilities must be "zero net energy" (ZNE) buildings.  On October 19, 2007, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted aggressive targets for ZNE

• All new residential construction in California will be zero net energy by 2020
• All new commercial construction in California will be zero net energy by 2030
• 50% of existing commercial buildings will be retrofit to ZNE by 2030.

But mandating efficiency guidelines and regulations for commercial buildings by the Federal government has not made much progress.  In March of this year with bipartisan support the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2014 (HR 2126).  The bill includes several energy efficiency provisions to encourage commercial building tenants to save energy and to  encourage benchmarking and public disclosure of energy use in commercial buildings.  (I've blogged about six U.S. cities that have already mandated energy benchmarking for certain types of buildings.) Unfortunately the Senate's Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill, which includes these provisions among other efficiency measures, failed in the Senate.

According to the New Buildings Institute (NBI) in a report “2014 Getting to Zero Status Update,” there are 213 commercial buildings with an annual footprint of zero operational energy in the U.S. and Canada.  In this study ZNE includes ZNE Verified buildings, ZNE Emerging buildings and ZNE Districts.  ZNE Verified buildings (or districts) have been documented to have met, over the course of a year, all net energy use through onsite renewables. The energy use of all fuels (electric, natural gas, steam, etc.) is counted and offset by production from onsite renewables.  Within this group of 213 buildings with ultra-low net energy usage are 32 buildings in the U.S. and Canada that the NBI has verified to  have achieved zero net energy performance over a year.  

LEED Certification

LEED has proven to be a baseline for net-zero energy strategies.  Of the 32 buildings that the NBI has certified as zero net energy, 15 are LEED Gold- or Platinum-certified buildings.

LEED is a system guiding the design, construction, operations and maintenance of green buildings. Worldwide there are more than 59,000 commercial and institutional projects participating in representing 967 million gross square meters (GSM) of construction space.  The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released the ranking of the top 10 countries for LEED outside of the U.S. based on cumulative gross square meters of space certified to LEED in each nation as of April 2014.  Canada, China, and India each have more than 10 miilion gross square meters of  LEED-certified space.

Rank	Nation	GSM of LEED-certified space (millions)	Total GSM of LEED-certified and -registered space (millions)	Total number of LEED-certified and -registered projects
1	Canada	17.74	58.66	4,068
2	China	14.30	96.22	1,638
3	India	11.64	66.22	1,657
4	South Korea	3.84	16.61	242
5	Taiwan	2.98	6.97	114
6	Germany	2.90	7.32	365
7	Brazil	2.85	23.24	829
8	Singapore	2.16	3.86	91
9	United Arab Emirates	1.82	47.16	850
10	Finland	1.45	3.56	148